Animal Liberation Front

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a name used internationally by those who, through the means of direct action, oppose the use of animals as property or resources through capitalizing on the destruction and experimentation of animals. This includes stealing animals from laboratories or fur farms, and destroying facilities involved in animal testing and other animal-based industries. According to ALF statements, any direct action that furthers the cause of animal liberation, where all reasonable precautions are taken not to endanger life, may be claimed as an ALF action.

The ALF is not a group with a membership, but an example of a leaderless resistance, which sees itself as the modern-day equivalent of the Underground Railroad, with activists removing animals from laboratories and farms, finding safe veterinary care for them, arranging safe houses, and operating sanctuaries where the animals live out the rest of their lives. Covert cells, currently active in around 35 countries, operate clandestinely and independently of one other, with activists working on a need-to-know basis. A cell might consist of just one person. Robin Webb, who runs the Animal Liberation Press Office in the UK, has said of this model of activism: "That is why the ALF cannot be smashed, it cannot be effectively infiltrated, it cannot be stopped. You, each and every one of you: you are the ALF."

The activists who speak on behalf of the ALF say that the movement is non-violent. The basis for this comment can be seen in Behind the Mask, a 2006 documentary about the ALF. Leading activist Rod Coronado said: "One thing that I know that separates us from the people we are constantly accused of being &mdash; that is, terrorists, violent criminals &mdash; is the fact that we have harmed no one." There has nevertheless been widespread criticism that ALF spokespersons have failed to condemn acts of violence. Groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors U.S. domestic extremism, have noted the involvement of ALF activists in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign, which SPLC identifies as using "frankly terroristic tactics similar to those of anti-abortion extremists." The ALF has been described as a domestic terrorist threat in the UK, and in January 2005, it was named as a terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Structure and aims
The ALF's stated aims are:

Activists interviewed by animal rights lawyer Shannon Keith for her documentary Behind the Mask, a film about the animal liberation movement, say that, for animals, the ALF is the "modern-day equivalent of the Underground Railroad," the network of clandestine routes and safe houses used by slaves in the U.S. to escape to free states or to Canada. Ingrid Newkirk of PETA told Keith: "That means they must not take any credit for their rescues. They must remain anonymous."

Founded in the UK in 1976, ALF cells are now active in around 35 countries, including in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Israel, Iceland, and most European countries. The movement is entirely decentralized, with no formal membership or hierarchy, which acts as a firebreak when it comes to determining legal responsibility. "There is no office, there is no structure," said one activist on Behind the Mask. "That's why the FBI is so frustrated, because they can't get their hands on it." Any vegan or vegetarian who wants to take action in the name of the ALF may do so, so long as it is consistent with ALF principles. Robin Webb writes that ALF activists are "from all walks of life and social background, of all ages, of all beliefs and none."

Steven Best, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso and a press officer with the Animal Liberation Press Office, describes ALF activism:

Activists claim actions on behalf of the ALF anonymously by contacting one of the animal liberation press offices or Bite Back, the direct-action magazine, or by leaving a communication at the location of the action. The press offices are run by Robin Webb in the UK and by trauma surgeon Jerry Vlasak in North America.

Although the ALF itself has no formal existence, a sister organization called the Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group exists to support activists who are jailed for actions performed in the name of the ALF. Some leading ALF activists also run an Animal Liberation Front website.

United Kingdom


The ALF's roots can be traced to 19th century England, and a small group of activists called the Bands of Mercy, which was set up in 1824 to thwart fox hunters. In 1965, the group was re-created, this time called the Hunt Saboteurs Association; it laid false scents, blew hunting horns to send the hounds in the wrong direction, set off smoke bombs, and members lay down between the hunters and the fox.

In 1972, activists Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman revived the 19th century name and set up the Band of Mercy, a more militant group, which attacked hunters' vehicles by slashing tires and breaking windows. They progressed to attacking pharmaceutical laboratories and seal-hunting boats. On November 10, 1973, they set fire to a building in Milton Keynes, as part of a strategy to make insurance prohibitive for what they saw as exploitative industries, and thus began a campaign of arson that continues to this day.

In August 1974, Lee and Goodman were arrested for allegedly taking part in a raid on Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester, which earned them the name the "Bicester Two." They were sentenced to three years in prison, but released after serving one.

After his release, Goodman allegedly became the first-ever police informer on the animal liberation movement, whereas Lee emerged from prison more militant than before. He organized 30 activists to set up a new liberation campaign, and in 1976, in order to show that the new campaign was prepared to intimidate but was also compassionate, he named it the Animal Liberation Front.

United States
There are conflicting accounts of when the ALF first emerged in the United States. The FBI writes that ALF activists have a history of committing "low-level criminal activity" in the U.S. dating back to the 1970s. Freeman Wicklund and Kim Stallwood say the first ALF action there was on May 29, 1977, when researchers Ken LeVasseur and Steve Sipman released two dolphins, Puka and Kea, into the ocean at Yokohama Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, from captivity in the University of Hawaii's Marine Mammal Laboratory.

The North American Animal Liberation Press Office attributes the dolphin release to a group called Undersea Railroad, and says the first ALF action was in fact a raid on the New York University Medical Center on March 14, 1979, when activists removed one cat, two dogs, and two guinea pigs. Ingrid Newkirk, the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says that the first ALF cell in the U.S. was set up in late 1982, with the first raid taking place on December 24 that year on Howard University, when 24 cats were removed, some of whose back legs had been crippled in an experiment.

Two early ALF raids led to the closure of two university laboratories. A raid on May 28, 1984 on the University of Pennsylvania's head injury clinic caused $60,000 worth of damage and saw the removal of 60 hours of research tapes. The tapes showed researchers laughing and joking as they used a hydraulic device to cause brain damage to baboons. The tapes were turned over to PETA, who edited the content and added voiceover commentary to produce a 26-minute video called Unnecessary Fuss. The ensuing publicity led to the closure of the head injury clinic.

On April 20, 1985, the ALF raided a University of California, Riverside laboratory and removed hundreds of animals, including Britches, a five-week old macaque monkey who had been separated from his mother at birth, and left alone in a wire cage with his eyes sewn shut as part of a study into blindness. As a result of the raid, which was recorded by the ALF (video), eight of the 17 research projects active at the laboratory at the time of the raid were shut down.

United Kingdom
Robin Webb has written that, during the 1970s and early 1980s, the media portrayed animal rights activists in a positive light, as animal lovers who were merely eccentric and taking things a little too far: the "Robin Hoods of the animal welfare world." Ronnie Lee, the ALF's founder, wrote in Peace News in 1974 that direct action should be "limited only by reverence for life and hatred of violence," and in 1979 that the ALF "is not violent in that much care is taken to prevent injury to people and many raids have been called off because of possible confrontation." Lee later said that he regrets the decision to create the ALF as non-violent, and that he now believes "there would have been a place for limited violence against animal abusers."

By the mid-80s, activists realized that economic sabotage was more effective than demonstrations and handing out leaflets. Activists moved on to smashing butchers' shop windows and setting fire to department stores that sold fur coats. British activist Keith Mann has said: "[W]e all desperately want to fight animal abuse legally. It just doesn't work like that. The people who run this country, they have shares, they have investments in pharmaceutical companies, for example, who are experimenting on animals, so to think that you can write to these people, and say 'we don't like what you're doing, we want you to change,' and expect them to do so, it's not going to happen."

In 1985, the Animal Rights Militia emerged, claiming responsibility for sending letter bombs to those involved in animal testing, and setting fire to stores on the Isle of Wight in 1994, causing £3 million worth of damages. Barry Horne, who was a close friend of Webb's, was subsequently jailed for 18 years for the attacks, later dying in jail during a hunger strike; Webb himself was almost charged with conspiracy in connection with the attacks.

In response to the emergence of this more violent strain of protest in the UK, the British police set up the Animal Rights National Index (ARNI) in or around 1985, which was intended to act as a liaison between the police and MI5, the internal security service, which had started to monitor activists.

Violence against property began to increase substantially after several high-profile campaigns managed to close down a number of facilities perceived to be abusive to animals — Consort Kennels, a facility breeding beagles for animal testing; Hillgrove Farm, which bred cats, and Newchurch Farm, which bred guinea pigs, were all closed after being targeted by animal rights campaigns that appeared to involve the ALF. In the UK, the financial year 1991-1992 saw around 100 refrigerated meat trucks destroyed by incendiary devices at a cost of around £5 million. Butchers' locks were superglued, shrink-wrapped meats were pierced in supermarkets, slaughterhouses and refrigerated meat trucks were set on fire.

United States
According to the FBI, the ALF came to its attention in the late 1980s, after an arson attack in April 1985 on the veterinary medicine research building at the University of California, Davis, which caused US$3.5 million damage. In August 1992, ALF activists raided Michigan State University, setting fire to an office and destroying 32 years worth of toxicology and nutrition research. In July 1997, an arson attack at a horse rendering plant in Redmond, Oregon, caused over $1 million in damage. In May 1998, the ALF claimed responsibility for an attack on a processing plant owned by Florida Veal Processors, Inc., in Wimauma, Florida, causing $500,000 worth of damage.

Evidence of hardening attitude
There is evidence that the ALF's attitude toward violence is hardening. In 1999, ALF activists became involved in Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign that aims to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, Europe's largest animal-testing laboratory. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors U.S. domestic extremism, has described SHAC's modus operandi as "frankly terroristic tactics similar to those of anti-abortion extremists."

ALF activist Donald Currie was jailed for 12 years and placed on probation for life in December 2006 after being found guilty of planting homemade bombs on the doorsteps of businessmen with links to Huntingdon Life Sciences. When ALF activist David Blenkinsop and two others assaulted Huntingdon Life Sciences director Brian Cass with pick-axe handles in February 2001 &mdash; an attack so serious that Detective Chief Inspector Tom Hobbs of Cambridgeshire police remarked: "It's only by sheer luck that we are not beginning a murder inquiry" &mdash; Ronnie Lee said: "He has got off lightly. I have no sympathy for him."

The ALF has made no secret of its commitment to SHAC. In May 2005, it issued a warning that direct action on behalf of the campaign:

In June 2006, the ALF claimed responsibility for a firebomb attack on UCLA researcher Lynn Fairbanks. The Animal Liberation Press Office issued a statement saying that Fairbanks was conducting "painful addiction experiments" on monkeys, although Fairbanks herself said she studies primate behavior and does not do invasive research. A firebomb was placed on the doorstep of a house occupied by Fairbanks' 70 year-old neighbor and a tenant; according to the FBI, the device was lit, and was powerful enough to have killed the occupants, but it failed to ignite. The attack was credited by the acting chancellor of UCLA as helping to shape the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a bill before the U.S. Congress to give law enforcement officials more power when dealing with animal rights activism. ALF spokesman Jerry Vlasak said of the attack on Fairbanks: "force is a poor second choice, but if that's the only thing that will work ... there's certainly moral justification for that."

Extensional self-defense
Steven Best recently coined the term "extensional self-defense" to describe actions carried out in defense of animals by human beings acting as "proxy agents."

He argues that, in carrying out acts of extensional self-defense, activists have the moral right to engage in acts of sabotage or even violence. Extensional self-defense is justified, he writes, because animals are "so vulnerable and oppressed they cannot fight back to attack or kill their oppressors." Best argues that the principle of extensional self defense mirrors the penal code statues known as the "necessity defense," which can be invoked when a defendant believes that the illegal act was necessary to avoid imminent and great harm. In testimony to the Senate in 2005, Jerry Vlasak stated that he regarded violence against Huntingdon Life Sciences as an example of extensional self-defense.

Other groups
Activists who have engaged in direct action that could endanger life have acted using the names Animal Rights Militia (ARM) and the Justice Department, which first appeared in the UK in 1985 and 1993 respectively, and the Revolutionary Cells--Animal Liberation Brigade (RCALB), which appeared in the US in 2003. Actions claimed under these names tend to be more violent or extreme than standard ALF direct action. Whether there is any meaningful distinction between the ALF, ARM, RCALB and the Justice Department, in terms of the groups of people involved, is not known.

The Justice Department manifesto, posted on the ALF website, says: "The Animal Liberation Front achieved what other methods have not while adhering to nonviolence. A separate idea was established that decided animal abusers had been warned long enough ... [T]he time has come for abusers to have but a taste of the fear and anguish their victims suffer on a daily basis."

Robin Webb has said: "[If] someone wishes to act as the Animal Rights Militia or the Justice Department ... the third policy of the ALF [opposition to violence] no longer applies." He has said elsewhere that the "only difference between ALF and the more radical ones is that ALF basically takes every precaution not to endanger life at any time. The Animal Rights Militia are prepared to twist the arm of animal abusers".

Oren Segal, co-director of Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, believes the ALF and RCALB consist of the same few "lone wolves", telling LA Weekly, "the names are interchangeable...they’re going to rename themselves depending on what actions they’re doing." Professor Paul Wilkinson, former director of the University of St Andrews Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, has written that the ALF, the Justice Department and the Animal Rights Militia are essentially the same. In a report on terrorism discussed in the House of Commons, Wilkinson argues that "a cluster of small groups such as the so-called Justice Department of the Animal Liberation Front, and the Animal Rights Militia, have crossed the threshold from extra-parliamentary protest and demonstrations to what can only be described as acts of terrorism; incendiary attacks on shops and other premises and letter and parcel bombs."

Wilkinson cites as examples two attacks on scientists in 1990 &mdash; one in Bristol, which led to no injuries, and one in Porton Down, in which a researcher's 13-month-old child was hurt by shrapnel &mdash; as well as firebomb attacks in 1994 against shops in Newport, Isle of Wight, York, and Harrogate, one of which ALF activist Barry Horne was convicted.

Listing as a terrorist threat
The ALF was named as a terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security in January 2005. In hearings held on May 18, 2005 before a Senate panel, officials of the FBI and ATF stated that "violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation," adding that "of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)."

The Southern Poverty Law Center has criticized the Department of Homeland Security for concentrating on the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts rather than on white supremacists, writing that "for all the property damage they have wreaked, eco-radicals have killed no one &mdash; something that cannot be said of the white supremacists and others who people the American radical right." Senator James Jeffords said that the "ELF and ALF may threaten dozens of people each year, but an incident at a chemical, nuclear or wastewater facility would threaten tens of thousands."

In 1998, Professor Paul Wilkinson, former director of the University of St Andrews Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said that the ALF and its splinter groups were the "most serious domestic terrorist threat within the United Kingdom." He told Channel 4's Dispatches that the ALF is "very close" to killing someone, adding: "Keith Mann, who was sentenced to 11 years for his extremist violence, said in a message to ALF activists that sooner or later someone would die. He didn’t express any remorse about this or any regret. Now that does show to me a level of fanaticism which is very dangerous indeed." The Daily Telegraph has called the ALF "the most active terrorist organisation in Britain."

Operation Backfire
On January 20, 2006, as part of Operation Backfire, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against nine American and two Canadian activists calling themselves the "Family," who are alleged to have engaged in direct action in the name of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. The Department of Justice called the acts examples of "domestic terrorism."

The incidents included arson attacks against meat-processing plants, lumber companies, a high-tension power line, and a ski center, in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California, and Colorado between 1996 and 2001.