Timeline of Animal Liberation Front actions, 2000-2004

This is a time line of the Animal Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...

(ALF) actions from 2000 to 2004.

Background

ALF formed

Two years after Ronnie Lee

Ronnie Lee

Ronnie Lee is a British animal rights activist. He is known primarily for having founded the Animal Liberation Front in 1976. He also founded the magazine Arkangel in 1989.-Founding the ALF:...

and Cliff Goodman had been charged for the raid on the Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester

Bicester

Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...

, UK, in 1974, as part of the Band of Mercy, the "Bicester Two" as they were known, emerged even more militant than before. There had been daily demonstrations at the court during their trial, including Lee's local Labour Party member of parliament, Ivor Clemitson

Ivor Clemitson

Ivor Malcolm Clemitson was a British Labour politician.At the February 1974 general election, Clemitson was elected as Member of Parliament for Luton East. He held his seat at the October 1974 election, but at the 1979 general election, when he lost by 847 votes to the Conservative Graham...

. With the remaining activists from the Band of Mercy and another two dozen new willing activists, (30 in all), Lee formed the Animal Liberation Front upon his release in 1976.
It was reported that in the first year alone, the ALF targeted; slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...

s, fur

Fur

Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...

riers, butcher

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

s shops, circuses, breeders and fast-food restaurants, causing damage in the UK that totaled £250,000. The first raid occurred in the same year, with 1,000 foxes being released from Dalchonzie fur farm in Scotland.
1980s and 1990s

The ALF was then founded throughout Europe and further abroad in the 1980s, with notable raids including the removal of Silver Spring

Silver Spring monkeys

The Silver Spring monkeys were 17 wild-born macaque monkeys from the Philippines who lived inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland...

and Britches

Britches (monkey)

Britches was a stump-tailed macaque monkey born into a breeding colony at the University of California, Riverside . He was removed from his mother at birth, had his eyelids sewn shut, and had an electronic sonar device attached to his head — a Trisensor Aid, an experimental version of a blind...

monkeys. Unnecessary Fuss
Unnecessary Fuss
Unnecessary Fuss is a film produced by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , showing footage shot inside the University of Pennsylvania's Head Injury Clinic in Philadelphia....

, a film by PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...

with footage that the ALF stole, was also released which showed primate researchers laughing and joking at a baboon

Baboon

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...

, as they inflict brain damage as part of a research project into head injuries caused by accidents.

The ALF continued into the 1990s, causing even more damage, with notable actions such as the jointly claimed ALF and Earth Liberation Front

Earth Liberation Front

The Earth Liberation Front , also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the environment".The ELF was founded...

(ELF) arson at the US Forest Service Oakridge Ranger Station, which caused $5.3 million worth of damage. A series of raids also followed, which frequently targeted fur farms and animal laboratories and their breeding facilities, including the Harlan

Harlan (company)

Harlan Sprague Dawley Inc. is one of the world's leading suppliers of animals and other services to laboratories for the purpose of animal testing...

Interfauna raid in Cambridge, by Barry Horne

Barry Horne

Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it...

and Keith Mann

Keith Mann

Keith Mann is a British animal rights campaigner and writer, alleged by police in 2005 to be at the top of the Animal Liberation Front pyramid. He is the author of From Dusk 'til Dawn: An Insider's View of the Growth of the Animal Liberation Movement...

2000–2004

2000

January

On the 3rd, the ALF claimed that the arson at the Rancho Veal's meatpacking plant, California, which had its building set on fire, as well as trucks, caused $250,000 worth of damage.
Petaluma Farms, a chicken farm in California, had five incendiary devices placed in its office and trucks. With two trucks destroyed, the ALF claimed that the farm "enslaves chickens for their eggs".
The next day, the ALF claimed responsibility for the attempted arson at 'Primate Products' in California.

July 2
A Rose Acre Farm chicken feed truck in Indiana was torched, with the ALF spray-painting "Polluter, animal exploiter, your turn to pay," at the scene. The ALF claim credit for the arson that caused $100,000 worth of damage.

2001

January

On the 10th January, the ALF are suspected of planting an incendiary device that ignited under a car belonging to a prominent member of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt
Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt
The Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt is a United Kingdom fox hunt, with hunting country covering around 42 miles East to West and 30 miles North to South, within the counties of Surrey, Sussex and Kent.-History:...

. No one was hurt at the fire at Oxted
Oxted
Oxted is a commuter town in Surrey, England at the foot of the North Downs, north of East Grinstead and south-east of Croydon.- History :The town lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Tandridge hundred....

, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, with ALF Press Office claiming "As it was an incendiary device I'm confident it was the work of the ALF. If it was an explosive or bomb I would suspect a more extreme group.", also citing ALF's policy of non-violence. The hunt has been a target of protests, with a saboteur
Hunt saboteur
Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights or animal welfare activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into those who believe in direct intervention and those who watch the hunt to monitor for cruelty and report violations of animal...

the year before run over by a four wheel drive vehicle, suffering broken ribs, a crushed pelvis, a damaged lung and severe internal bleeding.
Prior to the Hunting Act being implemented, the ALF in protest steals a pack of hunting dogs from Wye College
Wye College
The College of St. Gregory and St. Martin at Wye, more commonly known as Wye College, was an educational institution in Kent, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1447 by John Kempe, the Archbishop of York, as a college for the training of priests. It is located in the small village of Wye, Kent, 60...

, near Ashford
Ashford
Ashford is a relatively common English placename: it goes back to Old English æscet, indicating a ford near a clump of ash trees. It may refer to:-Places:In Australia:*Ashford, New South Wales*Ashford, South Australia...

, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. The hunt secretary criticised the action saying it was cruel to the dogs and a sport enjoyed by many.

April 5
A National Food Corp. egg farm in Washington was set on fire by the ALF, causing damage estimated at $1.5 million.
May 21
The Center for Urban Horticulture, at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, was set on fire causing $5.6 million worth of damage. It was the ALF's most expensive arson to date, destroying years worth of research on genetically altered

Genetically modified organism

A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...

poplar trees, as well as other projects.
September 8
A McDonalds restaurant was set on fire, causing $500,000 worth of damage. The ALF and the ELF jointly claimed responsibility for the attack, noting that it, (the attack), was "a warning to corporations worldwide".
September 20
In New Mexico, the Coulston Foundation's White Sands Research Center was set on fire, causing damage worth $1 million, with the ALF claiming responsibility.
October 24
Over thirty windows were smashed at the Bank of America

Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

offices in New York by a specific ALF cell called; "Special Operations: Huntingdon Life Sciences". The group sarcastically remark that they had "joined the United States in their [sic] noble War Against Terrorism!".
November

Sierra Biomedical, an animal research laboratory in California, was trashed by the ALF on the 1st November causing $50,000 worth of damage.
On the 5th November, Barry Horne
Barry Horne
Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it...

, Britina's most notorious animal rights militiant, ALF and ARM activist, dies of hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

s during his 18-year prison sentence for his campaign of arson. Animal Aid
Animal Aid
Animal Aid, founded in 1977, is a British animal rights organisation. The group campaigns peacefully against all forms of animal abuse and promotes a cruelty-free lifestyle. It also investigates and exposes animal cruelty....

Director Andrew Tyler
Andrew Tyler
Andrew Tyler is the director of Animal Aid, the UK's second largest animal rights organization . Tyler has been an animal rights campaigner and journalist for 30 years.-Works:*Big Pig *with Peter Webbon. , The Guardian, May 4, 2006....

regarded Horne as a "dedicated anti-vivisectionist".

2002

January 29
The ELF and ALF used a sand and mortar mix at a construction site to destroy equipment at a new biotech plant being built for Jackson Laboratory

Jackson Laboratory

The Jackson Laboratory was founded in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1929 by former University of Maine and University of Michigan president C. C. Little under the name Roscoe B...

, an animal testing

Animal testing

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...

business, in Maine.

Spring
In an unknown location, a billboard advertising chicken was subvertised

Subvertising

Subvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner...

by the ALF.
May 3
A Sims Poultry truck was destroyed in Indiana by the ALF using arson.
November

Activists broke into a fur farm in Bure, eastern France and release 1,000 of 17,000 mink from their cages on November 11, damage was estimated at $30,000.
The next day, animal rights activists were again blamed for an arson attack at a Tyneside factory. The beef plant, near Newcastle, UK, was described as an attack against the meat industry. Detectives claimed a link between the £30,000 fire and a series of fires started across the region at a cost of £17 million, reporting that two individuals burnt a refrigerator trailer which contained meat at around 8 pm. The fire then spread to the next trailer and burnt for around two hours until some forty fire fighters contained the blaze.
On the 24th, police said that 118 puppies and 10 adult dogs were taken from a farm west of Bologna, in Italy, that bred dogs for animal research. "Murderers" and "ALF will free all" was daubed on the walls of the building.

2003

January 3
An animal feed company, supplying the Puckeridge Hunt in Hertfordshire, was completely burnt to the ground with "Fox killers" painted over a nearby church. The fire caused £250,000 worth of damage, roaring through the 1828 Grade 2 listed barn before spreading to the adjacent building, Stocking Pelham Hall. As fire fighters tried to save the hall, the owner remarked that the heat was extraordinary, and that the building was ablaze from end to end.
February

On the 4th, activists calling themselves the "Groundhog Crew", because of the action coinciding with Groundhog day, cut forty-eight brake and refrigeration system lines of trucks belonging to the Supreme Lobster and Seafood Company in Chicago. "ALF—No Brakes" was left on the door of the building, which was considered to mean the Animal Liberation Front. The communique claimed that the largest lobster distributor in the Midwest had killed over a billion sea creatures in the last quarter century. The FBI claimed that the action caused a "near catastrophic effect", although nobody was hurt in the incident.

In the very first fur farm raid in Ireland, the ALF released 1,000 mink from a farm in Co Laois, by removing the fencing that surrounded the mink enclosure. The activists said they had opened the cages on February 19, allowing the mink to escape into the Grand Canal. In a statement, the ALF explained:

March

The News & Review publish an article on the 6th after receiving a note regarding a pair of incendiary devices left at a McDonald's restaurant in Chicago. The explosive devices, that failed to go off, were two jugs filled with flammable liquid, which subsequently shut down the building for two hours while police and federal investigators handling the situation, with reporters also crowding the scene. The devices were eventually dismantled by the Butte County Sheriff's Office's bomb experts, after an employee had discovered one device in the morning. The ALF claimed responsibility by leaving a typed note at a payphone nearby, and said they carried out the action because the companies' connection to the factory farming industry, that was based on specieism
On the 25th, authorities reported that the Rancho Veal plant in California was targeted again by arsonists, returning after the $250,000 arson in 2003. This time the fire only caused $10,000 worth of damage, with "stop the killing" painted on the back of the building. The owner of the business said that "It gets old, it gets real tiresome".

April
Wallops Wood Farm at Droxford

Droxford

Droxford is a village in Hampshire, England, lying in the Meon valley, and lies around 3¾ miles east of Bishop's Waltham within the new South Downs National Park. The A32 passes through the village between Gosport and Alton...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, is raided by 16 members of the ALF and 1,000 chickens are "liberated", with activists claiming damage to cages, eggs, conveyor belts, feed apparatus, equipment, food stores, staff toilets, canteen, rearing shed and a delivery truck. The raid came after an injunction against ALF, SHAC and other groups restricting campaigners for their annual Easther march, banning "abusive communications with the Huntingdon Life Sciences

Huntingdon Life Sciences

Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...

(HLS), following the long-standing campaign against the company.
June 17
A suspicious package, with a label attached saying "a gift from the Animal Liberation Front", was left in a dustbin wrapped up in a box at Act Tech UK Ltd in Northhampton. The finance director of the company said they had been affected by animal rights groups because of their parent company Asahi Glass, who supply Huntingdon Life Sciences. Employees were evacuated whilst police searched the building and the RAF Bomb Disposal Unit blew up the package.
August 25
Fencing surrounding a fur farm in Seattle, Washington, was removed and the cages containing 10,000 mink opened, of the 22,000 mink, 9,000 of the animals were recovered by 8pm the following evening. The police were called shortly after the break-in at around 4 pm, when someone saw hundreds of mink running from the farm. The owner claimed that the act was "..a great example of animal cruelty,", whilst the ALF, in an anonymous communique, cited the Mink Rehabilitation Project, which they claim proves that mink can survive in the wild.
September

On the 22nd, and described by Leif Finne, head of a fur farmer association, as "..by far the biggest attack on a fur farm in this country," all of the cages were opened on a fur farm in Kokkola, Finland; releasing 8,000 mink. "ALF" was painted on a wall at the farm, with the authorities also reporting that the raid had been the 60th on fur farms in Finland since 1995.
Two days later, the ALF broke into the Louisiana State University Inhalation Toxicology Research Facility, destroying research equipment, chambers and computers, totaling $300,000.

December 13

Together with another ALF activist who remains unidentified, Keith Mann

Keith Mann

raided the Wickham research laboratory and removed 695 mice that were being used to test botulinum toxin

Botulinum toxin

Botulinum toxin is a protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and is considered the most powerful neurotoxin ever discovered. Botulinum toxin causes Botulism poisoning, a serious and life-threatening illness in humans and animals...

, sold commercially as Botox and Dysport. He was later arrested by detectives at his home whilst cleaning his car and the mice were returned to the laboratory. He argued that the tests were illegal because the product was being tested for cosmetic purposes

Testing cosmetics on animals

Testing cosmetics on animals is a form of animal testing, intended to ensure the safety and hypoallergenic properties of the products for use by humans...

, which is banned in Britain. The Southern Animal Rights Coalition

Southern Animal Rights Coalition

The Southern Animal Rights Coalition is an umbrella organisation for groups campaigning against animal abuse in southern England. SARC campaign on a variety of issues, one being focusing on pets. They also campaign against animal testing, furs, wild boar farms and more recently foie gras and...

also received paperwork which they say demonstrates cosmetic Botox was being tested on animals. However, in April 2005, a court rejected the claims, ruling that the tests were in compliance with UK regulations because Botox is used for therapeutic purposes to prevent muscle spasms and Mann was found guilty of burglary.

2004

April

The ALF broke into W.B. Saul High School in Roxborough, Philadelphia on April 19 and removed 47 animals; twenty-six gerbils, nine rats, four beagles, three hamsters, two chinchillas, two mice and a ferret. Two years later, referring to the criminalization of eco-terrorism
Eco-terrorism
Eco-terrorism usually refers to acts of violence or sabotage committed in support of ecological, environmental, or animal rights causes against persons or their property....

in the state due to the increasing property destruction directed towards those involved in pharmaceutical and other animal research organizations, the Governor noted that:

June

The ALF attack a RMC site in Bournemouth, UK, destroying tractors, bulldozers and a crane; using axes, bolt croppers and crowbars. The company announce shortly afterward that they have pulled out of the construction of Oxford University's animal laboratory.

August

The Times Picayune reports that the cockfighting arena in Hickory, Louisiana, has been burned to the ground, with "A.L.F." spray painted on the building.

For continued article, see Timeline of Animal Liberation Front actions, 2005-Present
Timeline of Animal Liberation Front actions, 2005-Present
This is a time line of Animal Liberation Front actions since 2005.-Background:ALF formedTwo years after Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman had been charged for the raid on the Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester in 1974, as part of the Band of Mercy, the "Bicester Two" as they were known; Lee...

External links

Diary of Actions Bite Back
North American Animal Liberation Press Office
Animal Liberation Front
Barry Horne

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.