Animal Liberation Front


The Animal Liberation Front is an anarchist 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 and exploitation.
These actions include removing animals from laboratories and farms, damaging facilities, providing veterinary care, and establishing sanctuaries for those animals. Participants describe their efforts as non-violent and compare their activities to a 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 individuals. This decentralized and covert structure makes it challenging for authorities to monitor or infiltrate 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 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 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, 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 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 threat. In the United Kingdom, ALF activities are classified as examples of domestic extremism and were monitored by the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, which was established in 2004 to oversee illegal animal rights activity.

Origins

Band of Mercy

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 the hunting and killing of a pregnant deer, an experience that prompted him to form the Hunt Saboteurs Association 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 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 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 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 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 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 the Band's approach.

ALF formed

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 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 a revolutionary movement. Seeking a name that would instill fear in those who exploited animals, Lee founded the Animal Liberation Front.

Structure and aims

Links to the broader anarchist movement

The ALF is ideologically part of the Animal Liberation Movement, an ideological movement derived from the anarchist movement in the sense that it believes it is necessary to wage an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle and that the State is a fundamentally oppressive organism, incapable of carrying out reforms that would truly improve the situation of animals and of life, given that its very existence would significantly support animal exploitation.
The methods used by the ALF and the ideology it develops are thus part of the broader trajectory of the anarchist movement between the later half of the 20th and the first half of the 21st century. The professor of philosophy and ALF sympathizer, Steven Best, thus believes that the ALF can be fully described as an anarchist organization, both with respect to the methods used, the autonomous and leaderless organizational form chosen, the ideology defended but also by the symbols and legacy retaken by the ALF. Like other anarchists, they are also criminalized as terrorists, in their case as eco-terrorists.

Underground and above-ground

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:

  • To inflict economic damage on those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals.
  • 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.
  • To reveal the horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, by performing nonviolent direct actions and liberations
  • To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.
  • 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.
Several above-ground organizations support the movement's covert activities. The Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group 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 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 is a US-based website that also reports on ALF actions.