Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor politicians are raising campaign cash alongside animal rights advocates with documented ties to anti-hunting campaigns, efforts to restrict traditional hunting ammunition and, potentially, a former leader of a radical animal rights organization whose members were convicted in federal court.
The Oct. 15 “Animal Welfare Fundraiser” for the DFL House and Senate caucuses features Minnesota House DFL Leader state Rep. Zack Stephenson and state Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy. The invitation also lists more than a dozen co-hosts and suggests contributions from $100 to $1,000 to attend.
Several names on that co-host list carry histories in animal rights organizations whose advocacy have reached directly into hunting and ammunition policy. That overlap is especially notable because Rep. Stephenson represents Anoka, home to Federal Ammunition, leads a DFL caucus that has pursued sweeping firearm restrictions and has said those proposals will return in 2027.
Anti-Hunting Activism
Among the listed co-hosts is Chad Zenk-Tills, a board member of the Minneapolis-based Animal Rights Coalition. ARC’s own biography says Zenk-Tills first became involved with the organization by volunteering at a rodeo protest.
ARC has, unsurprisingly, repeatedly organized protests at the Minnesota Safari Club International World Hunting Expo. In 2024, ARC promoted a protest under the headline “Killing is NOT Conservation,” characterized hunting trips auctioned at the event as opportunities to “slaughter animals” and urged activists to demonstrate against the event.
Chelsea Youngquist, another co-host, has a documented history with ARC. The organization credits Youngquist with the layout of its own history, “From 1980 Until Every Cage is Empty,” documenting more than four decades of animal rights activism.
Aaron Zellhoefer brings an even more direct policy connection. Zellhoefer serves as Minnesota state director for Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Humane World has advocated against hunting and for “wildlife protection” nationally and recently put its organization behind a Minnesota debate that directly impacts hunters and ammunition manufacturers.
On March 5, the Minnesota Senate Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee held an informational hearing on prohibiting lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle. The committee’s official record includes a “Humane World for Animals Supporting Statement” among the materials submitted in favor of the proposal, tying an organization represented among the fundraiser’s co-hosts directly to a Minnesota policy debate over what ammunition hunters may use.
A More Radical History
But there is one name that stands out more than others.
A Kevin Kjonaas listed on the fundraiser invitation shares the name and Minnesota background of the former president of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA, a militant animal rights organization that targeted Huntingdon Life Sciences and businesses associated with it.
Kjonaas became involved in animal rights while studying political science at the University of Minnesota and briefly served as an Animal Liberation Front spokesman following a 1999 raid in which activists removed 166 animals from university laboratories and caused approximately $700,000 in damage. The report says Kjonaas later established SHAC’s U.S. headquarters.
Federal prosecutors later convicted Kjonaas and other SHAC members in connection with a campaign targeting Huntingdon Life Sciences and companies doing business with it. The U.S. Department of Justice said SHAC “employed tactics that included intimidation, harassment and stalking.” Kjonaas, identified by prosecutors as SHAC’s former president, received a 72-month federal prison sentence.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit subsequently affirmed the convictions.
Today, PFund Foundation lists a Kevin Kjonaas as its director of advancement and says he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota — the same distinctive educational background documented for the former SHAC leader. PFund is based in Minneapolis.
Gun Control Agenda Hits Home
The fundraiser takes on additional significance because Rep. Stephenson’s district includes Anoka, home to one of America’s best-known ammunition manufacturers. Federal Ammunition has manufactured ammunition in Anoka for more than a century, supporting hunters, recreational shooters, military, law enforcement and conservation programs.
Rep. Stephenson’s gun control record, meanwhile, is well established.
During the 2026 legislative session, Minnesota DFL lawmakers pursued a package of firearm restrictions that included HF 3434 and HF 3433, proposals targeting commonly owned semiautomatic firearms. The package also included HF 3402, which sought to restrict commonly owned standard-capacity magazines. The proposals stalled in the evenly divided Minnesota House.
When the session ended, Rep. Stephenson made clear the issue was not going away. He said DFL politicians would take gun control “on the campaign trail this summer and fall,” win the majority and “pass those bills into law in 2027.”
The gun control proposals and the radical animal rights positions of fundraiser co-hosts are all related and the Oct. 15 event documents a political fundraising relationship between DFL legislative leadership and activists whose organizations have actively sought to punish hunters and impact ammunition policy.
Follow the Policy, Not the Paw Prints
America’s hunters and the firearm and ammunition industry have long played a central role in funding wildlife conservation.
Under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, federal excise taxes paid by manufacturers of firearms, ammunition and archery equipment fund wildlife restoration, habitat management, hunter education, public access and construction of and improvements on public shooting ranges.
For fiscal year 2026, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced more than $1.2 billion in combined Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration apportionments generated from federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, archery and angling equipment and related sources. Of that, $804 million were directly tied to firearm and ammunition production. So far, that fund has totaled over $31 billion since 1937 when adjusted for inflation.
That conservation record speaks for itself when lawmakers consider proposals affecting hunting access, ammunition or wildlife management.
An “Animal Welfare Fundraiser” might sound like little more than another political reception. The co-host list provides considerably more information. It includes a sitting board member of an organization actively protesting hunting events, a former participant in that organization’s work, the Minnesota director of a national group that submitted support for a Minnesota proposal to prohibit traditional lead hunting ammunition and Kjonaas, whose identifying details closely match those of the former president of SHAC USA.
The money raised at the Oct. 15 event will not go to wildlife conservation. It will be divided equally between the Minnesota DFL House and Senate caucuses.
What ultimately matters for Minnesota hunters, firearm owners and the firearm industry is which bills are introduced, which proposals receive hearings and votes and whether the policy priorities advanced by organizations represented at the fundraiser become priorities at the state Capitol.
Those actions will provide the clearest measure of how the relationships on display at the fundraiser translate into public policy.
Jenn Jacques is Public Affairs Manager at the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
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