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116-540: The Animal Liberation Front ( ALF ) is an international, leaderless , decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy . It operates without a formal leadership structure and engages in direct actions aimed at opposing animal cruelty. These actions include removing animals from laboratories and farms, damaging facilities, providing veterinary care, and establishing sanctuaries for

232-424: A positive feedback loop : by publishing declarations of a movement's role model, this instills motivation, ideas, and assumed sympathy in the minds of potential agitators who in turn lend further authority to the figurehead. While this may loosely resemble a vertical command structure, it is notably unidirectional: a titular leader makes pronouncements, and activists may respond, but there is no formal contact between

348-704: A 1988 raid in the UK led by ALF activist Barry Horne as an example of positive ALF direct action. Horne and four other activists decided to free Rocky, a dolphin who had lived in a small concrete pool in Marineland in Morecambe for 20 years, by moving him 180 metres (590 ft) from his pool to the sea. The police spotted them carrying a homemade dolphin stretcher, and they were convicted of conspiracy to steal, but they continued to campaign for Rocky's release. Marineland eventually agreed to sell him for £120,000, money that

464-570: A bomb using a mercury-tilt device exploded next to the fuel tank. During the attack on Headley—which New Scientist writes involved the use of plastic explosives—a 13-month-old baby in a push-chair suffered flash burns, shrapnel wounds, and a partially severed finger. A wave of letter bombs followed in 1993, one of which was opened by the head of the Hereford site of GlaxoSmithKline , causing burns to his hands and face. Eleven similar devices were intercepted in postal sorting offices. The nature of

580-498: A coherent insurgency or guerrilla movement, as with the Yugoslav partisans of World War II . Leaderless resistance often involves resistance by violent means, but it is not limited to them. Non-violent groups can use the same structure to author, print, and distribute samizdat literature, to create self-propagating boycotts against political opponents via the internet, to maintain an alternative electronic currency outside of

696-514: A dozen activists known as the Band of Mercy. This group began targeting hunters' vehicles by slashing tires and breaking windows, aiming to prevent hunts from starting rather than disrupting them once underway. In 1973, the Band of Mercy became aware that Hoechst Pharmaceuticals was constructing a research laboratory in Milton Keynes . On 10 November 1973, two members of the group set fire to

812-614: 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. In 1999, ALF activists became involved in

928-658: A half later this form of guerrilla warfare resurfaced using the same acronym . In 1980 Earth First! was founded by Dave Foreman and others to confront environmental destruction, primarily of the American West. Inspired by the Edward Abbey novel The Monkey Wrench Gang , Earth First! made use of such techniques as treesitting and treespiking to stop logging companies, as well as other activities targeted towards mining , road construction, suburban development, and energy companies . The organization

1044-474: A just cause if it is non-violent, and that the ALF is at its most effective when uncovering evidence of animal abuse that other tactics could not expose. He cites 1984's " Unnecessary Fuss " campaign, when ALF raided the University of Pennsylvania 's head-injury research clinic and removed footage showing researchers laughing at the brain damage of conscious baboons, as an example. The university responded that

1160-473: A leaderless cell. The concept of leaderless resistance remains important to far-right thinking in the United States, as a proposed response to perceived federal government over-reach at the expense of individual rights. Simson Garfinkel , however, found in his research that for the most part the far right seldom used this tactic. Timothy McVeigh is one example in the United States. McVeigh worked in

1276-559: A leading activist in the National Revolutionary Faction and a pioneer of National-Anarchism . James Mason a former American Nazi Party member and neo-Nazi was a proponent of the idea of "leaderless resistance" as detailed in SIEGE a collection of writings from the defunct National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF) which advocated violence against political opponents, Jews and non-whites of which he deemed to be

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1392-479: A marked decrease in the amount of vivisection going on. And I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, two million, 10 million non-human animals." Best coined the term "extensional self-defence" to describe actions carried out in defense of animals by human beings acting as proxies. He argues that activists have the moral right to engage in acts of sabotage or even violence because animals are unable to fight back themselves. Best argues that

1508-400: A noticeable shift in the non-violent position, and not one approved by everyone in the movement. Some activists began to make personal threats against individuals, followed by letter bombs and threats to contaminate food, the latter representing yet another shift to threatening the general public, rather than specific targets. In 1982, letter bombs were sent to all four major party leaders in

1624-481: A realignment wherein its various businesses were transferred to independent companies, including Nutrinova and Clariant . 1999 (December 7) — Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc settle Federal Trade Commission charges that merger would violate U.S. antitrust laws; 1999 — Aventis was formed when Hoechst AG merged with Rhône-Poulenc S.A. The merged company was headquartered in Strasbourg , Eastern France . As part of

1740-557: A reprint of an article entitled "Leaderless Resistance" from a publication called The Seditionist. Leaderless resistance social networks are potentially vulnerable to social network analysis and its derivative, link analysis . Link analysis of social networks is the fundamental reason for the ongoing legislative push in the U.S. and the European Union for mandatory retention of telecommunication traffic data and for limiting access to anonymous prepaid cellphones , as

1856-403: A researcher who had been experimenting on them was arrested for alleged violations of cruelty legislation. When the court ruled that the monkeys be returned to the researcher, they mysteriously disappeared, only to reappear five days later when PETA learned that legal action against the researcher could not proceed without the monkeys as evidence. Ingrid Newkirk , the president of PETA, writes that

1972-474: A resistance movement against government, because of the ease of disclosing the chain of command . A less dangerous approach would be to convince like-minded individuals to form independent cells without close communication between each other but generally operating in the same direction. More contemporary examples of social movements such as the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) in France, Extinction Rebellion , or

2088-556: A result of an ELF or ALF action, and both groups forbid harming human or non-human life. In 2005 the FBI announced that the ELF was America's greatest domestic terrorist threat, responsible for over 1,200 "criminal incidents" amounting to tens of millions of dollars in damage to property. The United States Department of Homeland Security confirmed this with regards to both the ALF and ELF. Plane Stupid launched in 2005, an attempt to combat

2204-529: A revolutionary movement. Seeking a name that would instill fear in those who exploited animals, Lee founded the Animal Liberation Front. The Animal Liberation Front operates with both underground and above-ground components and is entirely decentralized with no formal hierarchy. This decentralized nature helps limit legal responsibility. Volunteers are expected to adhere to the ALF's stated objectives: Several above-ground organizations support

2320-517: A small cell which based its attack on motivations widespread among far-right anti-government groups and the militia movement . Leaderless resistance has been advocated by white supremacist groups such as White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and the British neo-Nazi Combat 18 (C18). The modern Ku Klux Klan is also credited with having developed a leaderless resistance model. Troy Southgate also advocated forms of leaderless resistance during his time as

2436-557: A sociologist at University College, Dublin, and Dave McColl, a director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society , became members of the BUAV's executive committee, and used their position to radicalize the organization. Stallwood writes that the new executive believed all political action to be a waste of time and wanted the BUAV to devote its resources exclusively to direct action. Whereas the earliest activists had been committed to rescuing animals and destroyed property only where it contributed to

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2552-399: A study into blindness . The raid, which was taped by the ALF, caused eight of the laboratory's seventeen active research projects to be shut down, and the university said years of medical research were lost. The raid prompted National Institutes of Health director James Wyngaarden to argue that the raids should be regarded as acts of terrorism. Monaghan writes that, around 1982, there was

2668-501: A subsidiary of the resulting Sanofi-Aventis pharmaceuticals group. The company was founded in 1863 as "Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co." in Höchst , near Frankfurt and changed its name some years later to "Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius & Brüning". In 1880, it became a stock company "Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Brüning AG". For the international market the name was simplified to "Farbwerke Hoechst AG". Until 1925,

2784-729: A technical cooperation contract with Handok Pharmaceuticals In South Korea 1964 — Handok Pharmaceuticals Joint Venture Partner In South Korea 1969 — Hoechst acquired Cassella . 1970 — Hoechst AG took over Berger, Jenson and Nicholson Ltd . 1987 — Hoechst acquired the American chemical company Celanese and formed a new Hoechst subsidiary in the US, Hoechst Celanese. 1988 — Hoechst AG sold Berger, Jenson and Nicholson Ltd to Williams Holdings . 1995 — Hoechst merges with Marion Merrell Dow of Kansas City , Missouri forming U.S. subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR). 1997 — Hoechst underwent

2900-413: A warning not to tell the police. In June 2006, members of the ALF claimed responsibility for a firebomb attack on UCLA researcher Lynn Fairbanks, after a firebomb was placed on the doorstep of a house occupied by her 70-year-old tenant; according to the FBI, it was powerful enough to have killed the occupants, but failed to ignite. The attack was credited by the acting chancellor of UCLA as helping to shape

3016-545: A year later on the south coast of Dorset , the Lobster Liberation Front (LLF) was founded . Within a few years of the victories claimed by the SHAC, other campaigns against animal testing laboratories emerged. At the same time, SPEAK Campaigns and the more radical ALF militants, Oxford Arson Squad began their campaigns towards the same goal: to end Oxford University 's animal research. In April 2009,

3132-412: Is a US-based website that also reports on ALF actions. ALF activists argue that animals should not be viewed as property and that scientists and industry have no right to assume ownership of living beings who are the " subjects-of-a-life ," in the words of philosopher Tom Regan . In the view of the ALF, failing to recognize this is an example of speciesism —the ascription of different values to beings on

3248-427: Is also often well-suited to terrorist objectives. The Islamist organization Al-Qaeda uses a typical figurehead/leaderless cell structure. The organization itself may be pyramidal, but sympathizers who act on its pronouncements often do so spontaneously and independently. Given the small, clandestine character of terrorist cells, it is easy to assume they necessarily constitute leaderless resistance models. When there

3364-608: Is bidirectional communication with external leadership, however, the label is inappropriate. The men who executed the bombings of the London Underground on July 7, 2005 constituted a leaderless resistance cell in that they purportedly acted out of sympathy for Islamic fundamentalism but under their own auspices. The hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks , by contrast, allegedly received training, direction, and funding from Al-Qaeda, and are not properly designated

3480-631: Is known to have conducted operations under both the ALF and ARM banners, but overlap is assumed. Terrorism expert Paul Wilkinson has written that the ALF, the Justice Department, and the ARM are essentially the same thing, and Robert Garner of the University of Leicester writes that it would be pointless to argue otherwise, given the nature of the movement as a leaderless resistance. Robin Webb of

3596-473: Is legally and technically possible to ascertain who accessed what, it is often practically impossible to discern in a reasonable time frame who is a real threat and who is just curious, a journalist, or a web crawler . Despite these advantages, leaderless resistance is often unstable. If the actions are not frequent enough or not successful, the stream of publicity, which serves as the recruiting, motivation, and coordination drives for other cells, diminishes. On

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3712-453: Is no explicit communication between cells that are acting toward shared goals. Members of one cell usually have little or no information about who else is agitating on behalf of their cause. Leaderless movements may have a symbolic figurehead. This can be a public figure, a multiple-use name , or an inspirational author, who picks generic targets and objectives, but does not actually manage or execute plans. Media , in this case, often create

3828-430: The #MeToo movement seem to have spontaneously arisen as leaderless movements, perhaps due to the prevalence of social media that bring together individuals with common grievances even in the absence of organized leadership. The first recorded direct action for animal liberation which progressed (after a considerable delay) into a movement of leaderless resistance was by the original "Band of Mercy" in 1824 whose goal

3944-502: The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act . Animal liberation press officer Jerry Vlasak said of the attack: "force is a poor second choice, but if that's the only thing that will work ... there's certainly moral justification for that." As of 2008, activists were increasingly taking protests to the homes of researchers, staging "home demonstrations", which can involve making noise during the night, writing slogans on

4060-674: The Animal Rights Militia (ARM), although the initial statement in November 1984 by David Mellor , then a Home Office minister, stated that it was the Animal Liberation Front who had claimed responsibility. This is an early example of the shifting of responsibility from one banner to another depending on the nature of the act, with the ARM and another nom de guerre , the Justice Department —the latter first used in 1993—emerging as names for direct action that violated

4176-822: The Earth Liberation Army (ELA), a similar movement who use ecotage and monkeywrenching as a tool. A series of actions earned ELF the label of eco-terrorists , including the burning of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado in 1998, and the burning of an SUV dealership in Oregon in 1999. In the same year the ELA made headlines by setting fire to the Vail Resorts in Washington, D.C. , causing $ 12 million in damages. The defendants in that case were later charged in

4292-708: The FBI stated that: "The eco-terrorist movement has given rise and notoriety to groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). These groups exist to commit serious acts of vandalism, and to harass and intimidate owners and employees of the business sector." In hearings held on 18 May 2005, before a Senate panel, officials of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) stated that "violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of

4408-538: The FBI 's " Operation Backfire " with other crimes; this was later named by environmentalists as the Green Scare , alluding to the Red Scare periods of fear over communist infiltration of U.S. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks several laws were passed increasing the penalty for ecoterrorism, and the U.S. Congress held hearings on the activity of groups such as the ELF. To date no one has been killed as

4524-648: The London Metropolitan Police apologised for the activities of one of their undercover agents who had infiltrated the group. A police officer using the name "Christine Green" had been involved in the illegal release of a large number of mink from a farm in Ringwood in 1998. The mission had been approved by senior officers in the police. Property destruction began to increase substantially after several high-profile campaigns closed down facilities perceived to be abusive to animals. Consort Kennels ,

4640-626: The Militant Forces Against Huntingdon Life Sciences (MFAH) became active. With the ALF, they began targeting HLS customer and financial Directors, as well as company property. Since then, groups have reported over a dozen actions in Europe, including painting homes, burning cars, and grave desecration. Militants , however, oppose ALF ideology , instead believing in any necessary action to prevent suffering at HLS's laboratories. Leaderless resistance

4756-691: The Nuremberg trials — in the IG Farben trial for their role in the exploitation of enslaved laborers and for testing drugs on concentration camp prisoners. 1951 — Hoechst AG was re-founded on December 7 in Frankfurt when IG Farben was split into its founder companies. The original capitalization of the company was 100,000 Deutsche Mark . By 1953, Hoechst had acquired parts of Knapsack-Griesheim, Kalle AG  [ de ] , Behring Werke, Wacker Chemie and Ruhr Chemie, among others. 1957 — Signed

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4872-619: The animal rights movement regarding the use of violence and has attracted increased attention from law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In 2002, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that monitors extremism in the United States, highlighted ALF's involvement in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign, which the SPLC identified as employing terrorist tactics, although

4988-418: The 1970s. Freeman Wicklund and Kim Stallwood say that the first ALF action in the U.S. was on 29 May 1977, when researchers Ken LeVasseur and Steve Sipman released two dolphins, Puka and Kea, into the ocean from 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 in

5104-511: The ALF as a leaderless resistance means support for Vlasak and Best is hard to measure. An anonymous volunteer interviewed in 2005 for CBS 's 60 Minutes said of Vlasak: "[H]e doesn't operate with our endorsement or our support or our appreciation, the support of the ALF. We have a strict code of non-violence ... I don't know who put Dr. Vlasak in the position he's in. It wasn't us, the ALF." Philosopher Peter Singer of Princeton University has argued that ALF direct action can only be regarded as

5220-429: The ALF exposes its name to the risk of being used by activists who reject its non-violence platform, or by opponents conducting so-called " false-flag " operations, designed to make the ALF appear violent. That same uncertainty provides genuine ALF activists with plausible deniability should an operation go wrong, by denying that the act was "authentically ALF". Several of the incidents in 1989 and 1990 were described by

5336-513: The ALF has demonstrated remarkable restraint in their war of liberation." Best and trauma surgeon Jerry Vlasak , both of whom have volunteered for the North American press office, were banned from entering the UK in 2004 and 2005 after making statements that appeared to support violence against people. Vlasak told an animal rights conferences in 2003: "I don't think you'd have to kill—assassinate—too many vivisectors before you would see

5452-470: The ALF members reject violence against people, many activists support property crime , comparing the destruction of animal laboratories and other facilities to resistance fighters blowing up gas chambers in Nazi Germany. Their argument for sabotage is that the removal of animals from a laboratory simply means they will be quickly replaced, but if the laboratory itself is destroyed, it not only slows down

5568-477: The ALF's "no harm to living beings" principle. Ronnie Lee, who had earlier insisted on the importance of the ALF's non-violence policy, seemed to support the idea. An article signed by RL—presumed to be Ronnie Lee—in the October 1984 ALF Supporters Group newsletter, suggested that activists set up "fresh groups ... under new names whose policies do not preclude the use of violence toward animal abusers". No activist

5684-511: The ALF, including acts of vandalism that may cause economic damage. In 2006, American activist Rod Coronado stated, "One thing that I know that separates us from the people we are constantly accused of being—that is, terrorists, violent criminals—is the fact that we have harmed no one." There has nevertheless been widespread criticism for its alleged involvement in acts of violence and for the failure of some spokespersons and activists to condemn such actions. This criticism has led to dissent within

5800-471: The ALF. According to animal rights writer Noel Molland, one of the groups within the HSA was established in 1971 by Ronnie Lee, a law student from Luton. In 1972, Lee, along with fellow activist Cliff Goodman, concluded that more militant tactics were necessary to further their cause. They decided to revive the name of a 19th-century RSPCA youth group, The Bands of Mercy , and formed a small group of about half

5916-611: The ARM said it had placed devices under the cars of four employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences , timed to explode an hour apart from each other. A further device was placed under the car of Andor Sebesteny, a researcher for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, which he spotted before it exploded. The next major attacks on individual researchers took place in 1990, when the cars of two veterinary researchers were destroyed by sophisticated explosive devices in two separate explosions. In February 1989, an explosion damaged

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6032-654: The Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in the 1980s, writes that the public's response to early ALF raids that removed animals was very positive, in large measure because of the non-violence policy. When Mike Huskisson removed three beagles from a tobacco study at ICI in June 1975, the media portrayed him as a hero. Robin Webb writes that ALF volunteers were viewed as the " Robin Hoods of the animal welfare world". Stallwood writes that they saw ALF activism as part of their opposition to

6148-599: The Band's approach. In August 1974, Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman were arrested for their involvement in a raid on the Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester , a case that earned them the moniker "Bicester Two". During their trial, daily demonstrations took place outside the court, with supporters including Lee's local Labour MP, Ivor Clemitson . Both Lee and Goodman were sentenced to three years in prison. While incarcerated, Lee initiated

6264-583: The British Animal Liberation Press Office has acknowledged that the activists may be the same people: "If someone wishes to act as the Animal Rights Militia or the Justice Department, simply put, the ... policy of the Animal Liberation Front, to take all reasonable precautions not to endanger life, no longer applies." From 1983 onwards, a series of fire bombs exploded in department stores that sold fur, with

6380-626: The High Court in London ruled in 2006 that its press officer in the UK, Robin Webb, was a pivotal figure in the ALF. There are three publications associated with the ALF. Arkangel was a British bi-annual magazine founded by Ronnie Lee. Bite Back is a website where activists leave claims of responsibility; it published a "Direct Action Report" in 2005 stating that, in 2004 alone, ALF activists had removed 17,262 animals from facilities and had claimed 554 acts of vandalism and arson. No Compromise

6496-573: The Hoechst AG was independent. In 1916, the Hoechst AG was one of the co-founders of IG Farben , an advocacy group of Germany's chemicals industry to gain industrial power during and after World War I. In 1925, IG Farben turned from an advocacy group into the well-known conglomerate. Various Hoechst facilities were bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II . Its managers in charge were prosecuted along with other IG Farben managers — during

6612-421: The SPLC later noted that the ALF had not caused any fatalities. In 2005, the ALF was listed in a United States Department of Homeland Security planning document as a domestic terrorist threat, prompting the allocation of resources to monitor the group. That same year, FBI deputy assistant director John Lewis described "ecoterrorism" and the "animal rights movement" as the number one domestic terrorism threats. In

6728-553: The Senate House bar in Bristol University, an attack claimed by the unknown "Animal Abused Society". In June 1990, two days apart, bombs exploded in the cars of Margaret Baskerville, a veterinary surgeon working at Porton Down , a chemical research defence establishment, and Patrick Max Headley, a physiologist at Bristol University. Baskerville escaped without injury by jumping through the window of her mini-jeep when

6844-689: The U.S. was, in fact, a raid on the New York University Medical Center on 14 March 1979, when activists removed one cat, two dogs, and two guinea pigs. Kathy Snow Guillermo writes in Monkey Business that the first U.S. ALF action was the removal, on 22 September 1981, of the Silver Spring monkeys , 17 lab monkeys in the legal custody of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), after

6960-511: The UK, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . The first major food scare happened in November 1984, with the ALF claiming to the media that it had contaminated Mars Bars as part of a campaign to force the Mars company to stop conducting tooth decay tests on monkeys. On 17 November, the Sunday Mirror received a call from the ALF saying it had injected Mars Bars in stores throughout

7076-412: The UK. Rachel Monaghan of the University of Ulster writes that, in their first year of operation alone, ALF actions accounted for £250,000 worth of damage, targeting butcher shops, furriers, circuses, slaughterhouses, breeders, and fast-food restaurants. She writes that the ALF philosophy was that violence can only take place against sentient life forms, and therefore focusing on property destruction and

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7192-584: The United Kingdom, ALF activities are classified as examples of domestic extremism and are monitored by the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit , which was established in 2004 to oversee illegal animal rights activity. The origins of the ALF can be traced back to December 1963 when British journalist John Prestige attended a Devon and Somerset Staghounds event. During the event, Prestige witnessed

7308-656: The United Kingdom." In 1993, ALF was listed as an organization that has "claimed to have perpetrated acts of extremism in the United States" in the Report to Congress on the Extent and Effects of Domestic and International Terrorism on Animal Enterprises. It was named as a terrorist threat by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in January 2005. In March 2005, a speech from the Counterterrorism Division of

7424-410: The University of Pennsylvania's head injury clinic caused $ 60,000 worth of damage and saw the removal of 60 hours of tapes, which showed the researchers laughing as they used a hydraulic device to cause brain damage to baboons. The tapes were turned over to PETA, who produced a 26-minute video called Unnecessary Fuss . The head injury clinic was closed, the university's chief veterinarian was fired, and

7540-480: 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 centre, in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California and Colorado between 1996 and 2001. Leaderless resistance Leaderless cells lack vertical command links and so operate without hierarchical command, but they have a common goal that links them to

7656-474: The animals' interests?" In 1984, the BUAV board reluctantly voted to expel the ALF SG from its premises and withdraw its political support, after which, Stallwood writes, the ALF became increasingly isolated. There are conflicting accounts of when the ALF first emerged in the United States. The FBI writes that animal rights activists had a history of committing low-level criminal activity in the U.S. dating back to

7772-430: The asymmetrical character of leaderless resistance, and the fact that it is often strategically adopted in the face of a power imbalance, it has much in common with guerrilla warfare . The latter strategy, however, usually retains some form of organized, bidirectional leadership and is often more broad-based than the individualized actions of leaderless cells. In some cases, a largely leaderless movement may evolve into

7888-401: The auction block ... Sometimes when you just take animals and do nothing else, perhaps that is not as strong a message." The provision against violence in the ALF code has triggered divisions within the movement and allegations of hypocrisy from the ALF's critics. In 1998, terrorism expert Paul Wilkinson called the ALF and its splinter groups "the most serious domestic terrorist threat within

8004-914: The basis of their species membership alone, which they argue is as ethically flawed as racism or sexism . They reject the animal welfare position that more humane treatment is needed for animals; they say their aim is empty cages, not bigger ones. Activists argue that the animals they remove from laboratories or farms are "liberated", not "stolen", because they were never rightfully owned in the first place. "Labs raided, locks glued, products spiked, depots ransacked, windows smashed, construction halted, mink set free, fences torn down, cabs burnt out, offices in flames, car tyres es slashed, cages emptied, phone lines severed, slogans daubed, muck spread, damage done, electrics cut, site flooded, hunt dogs stolen, fur coats slashed, buildings destroyed, foxes freed, kennels attacked, businesses burgled, uproar, anger, outrage, balaclava clad thugs. It's an ALF thing!" — Keith Mann Although

8120-516: The bombings, the unknown "British Animal Rights Society" claimed responsibility for attaching a nail bomb to a Huntsman's Land Rover in Somerset. Forensic evidence led police to arrest the owner of the vehicle, who admitted he had bombed his own car to discredit the animal rights movement and asked for two similar offences to be taken into consideration. He was jailed for nine months. The Baskerville and Headley bombers were never apprehended. In 2018

8236-403: The building, resulting in £26,000 worth of damage. The activists returned six days later to ignite the remains of the structure. This incident marked the first known act of arson within the animal liberation movement. In June 1974, two members of the Band set fire to boats involved in the annual seal cull off the coast of Norfolk; according to Molland, this incident contributed to the cessation of

8352-524: The business out of concern for further incidents. The use of property damage as a tactic created a rift within the emerging animal rights movement. In July 1974, the Hunt Saboteurs Association publicly distanced itself from the Band of Mercy, offering a £250 reward for information leading to the identification of its members. The Association stated, "We approve of their ideals but are opposed to their methods," signaling disapproval of

8468-479: The country with rat poison . The call was followed by a letter containing a Mars Bar, presumed to be contaminated, and the claim that these were on sale in London, Leeds, York, Southampton, and Coventry. Millions of bars were removed from shelves and Mars halted production, at a cost to the company of $ 4.5 million. The ALF admitted the claims had been a hoax. Similar contamination claims were later made against L'Oréal and Lucozade . The letter bombs were claimed by

8584-471: The cull. Between June and August 1974, the Band carried out eight raids targeting animal-testing laboratories , as well as other actions against chicken breeders and gun shops, causing damage to buildings and vehicles. The group's first recorded act of "animal liberation" occurred during this period when activists removed half a dozen guinea pigs from a guinea pig farm in Wiltshire, leading the owner to close

8700-484: The damage is done to the network by removing them. Traditional organizations leave behind much evidence of their activities, such as money trails, and training and recruitment material. Leaderless resistances, supported more by ideologies than organizations, generally lack such traces. The effects of their operations, as reported by the mass media , act as a sort of messaging and recruitment advertising. Paul Joosse argues that leaderless resistance movements can avoid

8816-456: The doorsteps of businessmen with links to HLS. HLS director Brian Cass was attacked by men wielding pick-axe handles in February 2001. David Blenkinsop was one of those convicted of the attack, someone who in the past had conducted actions in the name of the ALF. Also in 1999, a freelance reporter, Graham Hall, said he had been attacked after producing a documentary critical of the ALF, which

8932-560: The environmental movement in 1976 when John Hanna and others as the Environmental Life Force (ELF) (also known now as the original ELF ) used explosive and incendiary devices . The group conducted armed actions in northern California and Oregon , later disbanding in 1978 following Hanna's arrest for placing incendiary devices on seven crop-dusters at the Salinas, California airport on May Day , 1977. A decade and

9048-558: The first ALF cell was set up in late 1982, after a police officer she calls "Valerie" responded to the publicity triggered by the Silver Spring monkeys case, and flew to England to be trained by the ALF. Posing as a reporter, Valerie was put in touch with Ronnie Lee by Kim Stallwood, who at the time was working for the BUAV. Lee directed her to a training camp, where she was taught how to break into laboratories. Newkirk writes that Valerie returned to Maryland and set up an ALF cell, with

9164-416: The first raid taking place on 24 December 1982 against Howard University , where 24 cats were removed, some of whose back legs had been crippled. Jo Shoesmith, an American attorney and animal rights activist, says Newkirk's account of "Valerie" is not only fictionalized, as Newkirk acknowledges, but totally fictitious. Two early ALF raids led to the closure of several university studies. A 28 May 1984 raid on

9280-440: The former, by the mid-1980s, Stallwood believed the ALF had lost its ethical foundation, and had become an opportunity "for misfits and misanthropes to seek personal revenge for some perceived social injustice". He writes: "Where was the intelligent debate about tactics and strategies that went beyond the mindless rhetoric and emotional elitism pervading much of the self-produced direct action literature? In short, what had happened to

9396-594: The growing airport expansions in the UK by using direct action . A year later the first Camp for Climate Action was held, with 600 people attending a protest called Reclaim Power and then converging on Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire in an attempt to shut it down. There were thirty-eight arrests, with four breaching the fence and the railway line being blocked. Anti-abortion militants The Army of God use leaderless resistance as their organizing principle. As of 2009, The Army of God's webpage hosts

9512-493: The hunting and killing of a pregnant deer, an experience that prompted him to form the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) in protest. The HSA initially consisted of volunteers who were trained to disrupt hunts by blowing horns and laying false scents to mislead the hounds. This early activism laid the groundwork for the development of more radical animal rights movements, eventually leading to the formation of

9628-415: The ideological disputes and infighting that plague radical groups. They do this by limiting interaction to the virtual realm . The internet provides counter-insurgents with further challenges. Individual cells (and even a single person can be a cell) can communicate over the internet, anonymously or semi-anonymously sharing information online, to be found by others through well-known websites. Even when it

9744-542: The intention of triggering the sprinkler systems in order to cause damage, although several stores were partly or completely destroyed. In September 1985, incendiary devices were placed under the cars of Sharat Gangoli and Stuart Walker, both animal researchers with the British Industrial Biological Research Association (BIBRA), wrecking both vehicles but with no injuries, and the ARM claimed responsibility. In January 1986,

9860-559: The international Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), 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

9976-752: The leaderless resistance strategy was employed by animal liberation organisations like Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which was formed from the Consort beagles campaign and Save the Hill Grove Cats to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). Despite claiming successes leaderless animal liberation and environmental movements generally lack the broad popular support that often occurs in strictly political or military conflicts. The Revolutionary Cells--Animal Liberation Brigade (RCALB) appeared in 2003 and sent pipe bombs to Chiron Corporation and used incendiary devices against other targets , whilst

10092-601: The loss of life, explains how Benjamin Nathaniel Smith's 1999 killing spree was compelled by circumstances. The World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) gave a mixed message, calling Smith "a selfless man who gave his life in the resistance to Jewish/mud tyranny," but noting "the Church does not condone his acts." Examples of modern-day leaderless resistance/lone-wolf terrorism include: Leaderless resistance emerged in

10208-410: The merger, the company demerged many of its industrial businesses into Celanese, which became an independent company again (e.g. the engineering polymers business Ticona ). 2005 — The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis (now called Sanofi ). Wilhelm Meister (1827–1895) founded the chemical company Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co. which eventually became Hoechst AG. He

10324-503: The most serious terrorism threats to the nation." The use of the terrorist label has been criticized, however; the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks U.S. domestic extremism, writes that "for all the property damage they have wreaked, eco-radicals have killed no one." Philosopher and animal rights activist Steven Best writes that "given the enormity and magnitude of animal suffering ... one should notice that

10440-405: The most significant cases in the ethics of using animals in research. Singer argues that if the ALF would focus on this kind of direct action , instead of sabotage, it would appeal to the minds of reasonable people. Against this, Steven Best writes that industries and governments have too much institutional and financial bias for reason to prevail. Peter Hughes of the University of Sunderland cites

10556-424: The movement as false flag operations. No known entity claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were condemned within the animal rights movement and by ALF activists. Keith Mann writes that it did not seem plausible that activists known for making simple incendiary devices from household components would suddenly switch to mercury-tilt switches and plastic explosives, then never be heard from again. A few days after

10672-558: The movement's covert activities. The Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group (ALF SG) provides support to activists in prison, who are recognized as prisoners of conscience , and allows membership through a monthly fee. The Vegan Prisoners Support Group , established in 1994, works with UK prison authorities to ensure that ALD prisoners have access to vegan supplies. The Animal Liberation Press Office collects and disseminates anonymous communiqués from volunteers; it operates as an ostensibly independent group funded by public donations, though

10788-457: The movement's first hunger strike to secure access to vegan food and clothing. After serving 12 months, Lee was released on parole in the spring of 1976, emerging more militant than ever. He regrouped with the remaining Band of Mercy activists and recruited around two dozen new members, forming a group of approximately 30 individuals. According to Molland, Lee felt that the name "Band of Mercy" no longer accurately reflected what he envisioned as

10904-475: The name of the movement to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1976 and adopted a leaderless resistance model focusing broadly on animal liberation. Earth First! and the environmental movement in the 1980s also adopted the leaderless resistance model. An animal liberation movement advocating violence emerged with the name Animal Rights Militia (ARM) in 1982. Letter bombs were sent to

11020-634: The organization. According to Robin Webb of the Animal Liberation Press Office , this structure is a key reason for the ALF's resistance, stating "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." Activists associated with the ALF describe the movement as non-violent. According to the ALF's guidelines, actions that promote animal liberation and take all reasonable precautions to avoid harm to both human and nonhuman life can be attributed to

11136-453: The other hand, if the actions are too successful, support groups and other social structures will form that are vulnerable to network analysis. Hoechst AG Hoechst AG ( German pronunciation: [ˈhøːçst] ) was a German chemicals , later life sciences, company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo , it became

11252-544: The principle of extensional self-defense mirrors the penal code statues known as the necessity defense , which can be invoked when a defendant believes the illegal act was necessary to avoid imminent and great harm. Best argues that "extensional self defense" is not just a theory, but put into practice in some African countries, where hired armed soldiers occasionally use lethal force against poachers who would kill rhinos, elephants and other endangered animals for their body parts to be sold in international markets. The nature of

11368-493: The reach of taxing governments and transaction-logging banks, and so forth. The concept of leaderless resistance was developed by Col. Ulius Louis Amoss , a former U.S. intelligence officer, in the early 1950s. An anti-communist , Amoss saw leaderless resistance as a way to prevent the penetration and destruction of CIA-supported resistance cells in Eastern European countries under Soviet control. The concept

11484-469: The removal of animals from laboratories and farms was consistent with a philosophy of non-violence, despite the damage they were causing. In 1974, Ronnie Lee insisted that direct action be "limited only by reverence of life and hatred of violence", and in 1979, he wrote that many ALF raids had been called off because of the risk to life. Kim Stallwood, a national organiser for the British Union for

11600-488: The rescued animals. Participants describe their efforts as non-violent and compare their activities to the modern-day Underground Railroad . However, the ALF has also been criticized and labeled as an eco-terrorist organization by some groups and individuals. Active in over 40 countries, the ALF operates through clandestine cells, often consisting of small groups or individual. This decentralized and covert structure makes it challenging for authorities to monitor or infiltrate

11716-462: The researchers' property, smashing windows and spreading rumours to neighbours. On 20 January 2006, as part of Operation Backfire , the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against nine Americans and two Canadian activists calling themselves the "family". At least 9 of the 11 pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson for their parts in a string of 20 arsons from 1996 through 2001, damage totalled $ 40 million. The Department of Justice called

11832-417: The restocking process but increases costs, possibly to the point of making animal research prohibitively expensive; this, they argue, will encourage the search for alternatives. An ALF activist involved in an arson attack on the University of Arizona told No Compromise in 1996: "[I]t is much the same thing as the abolitionists who fought against slavery going in and burning down the quarters or tearing down

11948-400: The social movement from which their ideology was learned. Leaderless resistance has been employed by animal rights , radical environmentalist , anti-abortion , insurgent , anarchist , anti-colonial , and terrorist movements. It is a strategy used by hate groups as well. A covert cell may be a lone individual or a small group. The basic characteristic of the structure is that there

12064-525: The state, rather than as an end-in-itself, and did not want to adhere to non-violence. In the early 1980s, the BUAV, an anti-vivisection group founded by Frances Power Cobbe in 1898, was among the ALF's supporters. Stallwood writes that it donated part of its office space rent-free to the ALF Supporters Group, and gave ALF actions uncritical support in its newspaper, The Liberator . In 1982, a group of ALF activists, including Roger Yates , now

12180-466: The stored data contain important network analysis clues. Network analysis was successfully used by French Colonel Yves Godard to break the Algerian resistance between 1955 and 1957 and force them to cease their bombing campaigns. The Algerian conflict may be better described as guerrilla in nature rather than leaderless resistance (see Modern Warfare by Col. Roger Trinquier), and this illustrates

12296-536: The supposedly Jewish controlled entity he referred to as "The System" which has since been embraced by the terrorist group Atomwaffen Division (AWD) in the modern day. Stormfront , Aryan Nations , and Hammerskin Nation (HSN) link to Beam's Leaderless Resistance . These groups promote lone wolf actions. While nominally decrying violence, the sites praise the man who "practices what he preaches, and who backs up his words with his deeds." Stormfront, while regretting

12412-512: The then British Prime Minister , Margaret Thatcher . Two years later the name Hunt Retribution Squad (HRS) was also used. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) formed in 1992, breaking from Earth First! when that organization decided to focus on public direct action, instead of the ecotage that the ELF participated in. A violent group called the Justice Department was established in 1993, and in 1994 sent razor blades to hunters such as Prince Charles and to animal researchers . In 1999

12528-522: The treatment of the animals conformed to National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines, but as a result of the publicity, the lab was closed down, the chief veterinarian fired, and the university placed on probation. Barbara Orlans, a former animal researcher with the NIH, now with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, writes that the case stunned the biomedical community, and is today considered one of

12644-414: The two levels of organization. As a result, leaderless resistance cells are resistant to informants and traitors . As there is neither a center that may be destroyed, nor links between the cells that may be infiltrated, it is more difficult for established authorities to arrest the development of a leaderless resistance movement than it is with movements that adopt more conventional hierarchies. Given

12760-399: The university was put on probation. On 20 April 1985, acting on a tip-off from a student, the ALF raided a laboratory in the University of California, Riverside, causing $ 700,000 in damages and removing 468 animals. These included Britches , a five-week-old macaque, who had been separated from his mother at birth and left alone with his eyes sewn shut and a sonar device on his head as part of

12876-465: The weakness of cell-structured insurgents when compared to leaderless ones. The mapping data were obtained by the use of informants and torture and were used to obtain the identities of important individuals in the resistance; these individuals were then assassinated , which disrupted the Algerian resistance networks. The more irreplaceable the individual is in the adversary's network, the greater

12992-455: Was aired on Channel 4. The documentary showed ALF press officer Robin Webb appearing to give Hall—who was filming undercover while purporting to be an activist—advice about how to make an improvised explosive device , though Webb said his comments had been used out of context. Hall said that, as a result of the documentary, he was abducted, tied to a chair, and had the letters "ALF" branded on his back, before being released 12 hours later with

13108-508: Was committed to nonviolent ecotage techniques from the group's inception. Others split from the movement in the 1990s, including the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) in 1992, which named itself after the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) which had formed in the 1970s. Three years later in Canada , inspired by the ELF in Europe , the first Earth Liberation direct action occurred, but this time as

13224-577: Was raised with the help of the Born Free Foundation and the Mail on Sunday , and in 1991 Rocky was transferred to an 80-acre (320,000 m) lagoon reserve in the Turks and Caicos Islands , then released. Hughes writes that the ALF action helped to create a paradigm shift in the UK toward seeing dolphins as "individual actors", as a result of which, he writes, there are now no captive dolphins in

13340-633: Was revived and popularized in an essay published by the anti-government Ku Klux Klan member Louis Beam in 1983, again in 1992, and was read as a keynote message at the 1992 gathering Rocky Mountain Rendezvous of right-wing extremists . Beam advocated leaderless resistance as a technique for white nationalists to continue the struggle against the U.S. government , despite an overwhelming imbalance in power and resources. Beam argued that conventional hierarchical pyramidal organizations are extremely dangerous for their participants, when employed in

13456-536: Was to thwart fox hunters . Inspired by this group and after seeing a pregnant deer driven into the village by fox hunters to be killed, John Prestige decided to actively oppose this sport and formed the Hunt Saboteurs Association in 1964. Within a year, a leaderless model of hunt-sabotage groups was formed across the United Kingdom. A new Band of Mercy was then formed in 1972. It used direct action to liberate animals and cause economic sabotage against those thought to be abusing animals. Ronnie Lee and others changed

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