Animal Liberation Front

Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a decentralized, non-membership based animal-rights activist group. Its self described "credo" is to carry "out direct action against animal abuse in the form of rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property." ALF activists have been been connected to a number of cases of vandalism, arson and other forms of property destruction.

Overview & philosophy

Behind the Mask: The Animal Liberation Front

According to its website, AlF's "short-term aim" is to:

"save as many animals as possible and directly disrupt the practice of animal abuse. Their long term aim is to end all animal suffering by forcing animal abuse companies out of business."

While endorsing property destruction, the ALF "is a nonviolent campaign":

"Activists taking all precautions not to harm any animal (human or otherwise). Because ALF actions may be against the law, activists work anonymously, either in small groups or individually, and do not have any centralized organization or coordination." It also argues that the property destruction should be directed at "property used to abuse and torture animals." "

On its website, ALF defends the inclusion of material setting out how to make bombs on the grounds that:

"there are only a few pages out of thousands that show the techniques used by anarchist groups. The webmasters didn't create these pages, they are part of the history of the ALF, decades old and obsolete. (The pages) have disclaimers stating that the information is for entertainment only."

According to ALF's "very clearly stated rules", they take "all necessary precautions against hurting any animal, human and non-human. ...Any action involving (physical) violence is by its definition not an ALF action and any person involved is not an ALF member":

"One of the fundamental guidelines of the extreme activists is that great care must be taken not to inflict harm in carrying out the acts. This has been borne out in practice. On the very rare occasions when harm has occurred, the mainstream AR groups have condemned the acts. In some cases, the authors of the acts have been suspected to be those allied against the AR movement; their motives would not require deep thought to decipher."

Credo & guidelines

The ALF credo

Rescue of 'Britches' and hundreds of other animals from U-California-Riverside. - 1985

"The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property.

The ALF's short-term aim is to save as many animals as possible and directly disrupt the practice of animal abuse. Their long term aim is to end all animal suffering by forcing animal abuse companies out of business.

It is a nonviolent campaign, activists taking all precautions not to harm any animal (human or otherwise).

Because ALF actions may be against the law, activists work anonymously, either in small groups or individually, and do not have any centralized organization or coordination.

The Animal Liberation Front consists of small autonomous groups of people all over the world who carry out direct action according to the ALF guidelines. Any group of people who are vegetarians or vegans and who carry out actions according to ALF guidelines have the right to regard themselves as part of the ALF."

The ALF guidelines

The ALF guidelines are:

"1. TO liberate animals from places of abuse, i.e. laboratories, factory farms, fur farms, etc, and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives, free from suffering.

2. TO inflict economic damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals.

3. TO reveal the horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, by performing non-violent direct actions and liberations.

4. TO take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.

5. To analyze the ramifications of all proposed actions, and never apply generalizations when specific information is available."

See also Mission Statement.

Green baiting

Lobbyists have taken out full page, anonymous ads in the New York Times and the Washington Post, labeling animal rights activists as "terrorists" for being a little too successful and knocking Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) from the New York Stock Exchange. HLS is a contract research facility (CRO) with a long history of gross animal welfare violations. See also Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Even children's movies are subject to relentless green baiting and guilt by association. For example, the best selling book and popular movie "Hoot", was labeled "soft-core eco-terrorism" because teenage protagonists tried to save an endangered owl from developers. According to the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), the movie remake of Charlotte’s Web also promoted "animal rights extremism".

The only attempted murder in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement was coordinated by corporate provocateurs.

Between 1977 and January 2007, there were over 13,000 incidents targeting abortion clinics and doctors, including 7 murders. There have been over 2,100 acts of union violence between 1991 and 2001, including bombings, shootings and near fatal injuries. In 2004 alone, there were over 4,500 racially motivated incidents in the U.S. There were 1,480 incidents based on religious bias and another 1,460 based on sexual orientation. Animal and environmental groups have committed far fewer acts, yet are labeled "terrorists", while those who shoot abortion doctors or burn down synagogues are perceived only as felons. See also Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, section 7.

Animal activists who have been injured or killed

However, there have been a number of incidents involving victimized animal activists who have been injured or killed.

ALF prisoners

See also ALF prisoners.

Earth Liberation Front

ELF is a is a decentralized, non-membership based environmental activist group. ELF has used methods such as arson, vandalism and other forms of property destruction. It was inspired by ALF. See also Earth Liberation Front.

Contact

North American Animal Liberation Press Office
6320 Canoga Avenue #1500
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Phone: (818) 227-5022

Fax: (818) 227-5099

Web address: http://www.animalliberationfront.com

Articles & resources

SourceWatch articles

• Animal activists who have been injured or killed
• Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
• Animal testing
• Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Criminalising civil disobedience
• Humane Movement
• Huntingdon Life Sciences
• NABR & the Animal Welfare Act
• Richard Berman cares about animals: clients exposed
• Ten Worst Laboratories
• University of California, Los Angeles
• U.S. animal rights legislation
• U.S. Government's War on Animals
• War on Animals

External articles

• David Jentsch Refuses NPR Offer to Debate Animal Experimentation, LA Animal Watch, April 2009
• Jason Miller Presence of Malice: UK Activists v. Lee Hall, World Wide Sawdust, March 2009
• UCLA Vivisector Gets Return Visit from ALF, Indymedia, UK, February 2008
• Anthony J. Nocella "Unmasking the Animal Liberation Front Using Critical Pedagogy: Seeing the ALF for Who They Really Are", Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume V, Issue 1, 2007.
• Curt Johnson Curt Johnson Questions Ann Berlin of the ALF website for his upcoming film on the animal rights movement, Animal Liberation Front, January 2006
• Dr. Jerry Vlasik Testimony of Jerry Vlasik, M.D.: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (“SHAC”) Eco-terrorism, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, October 2005
• "Eco-Violence: The Record", Intelligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center, Fall 2002.

External resources

• Ingrid Newkirk Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front, Lantern Books, October 2000, ISBN 978-1930051225
• The North American Animal Liberation Front Press Office, accessed January 2010