Animal Liberation Front

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an underground group of animal rights activists comprised of small, autonomous cells throughout the world, primarily in North America and England. Since its creation in 1976, the ALF has become one of the most active radical animal rights group and is now considered a domestic terrorist organization by both the FBI and Scotland Yard.

The ALF was founded in England by animal rights activist Ronnie Lee. Frustrated with traditional forms of protest, Lee created the ALF with the intent to end animal exploitation by inflicting economic hardship on the businesses and persons involved in animal industries, usually through the damage and destruction of property. The ALF guidelines, which include “taking precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human,” instruct members to liberate animals, inflict economic damage, and reveal atrocities against animals. The group uses a range of tactics: civil disobedience, arson, and burglary among them. Vandalism is the most common action, with members spray-painting slogans on targeted businesses, such as “McMurder” inside McDonald's.

By the mid-1980s, the initial 30 ALF members had grown to more than 1,500. ALF cells now operate in more than a dozen counties, including France, New Zealand, Poland, Italy, and Slovakia. Because the ALF has no central authority, and because any individual who follows ALF guidelines may be considered part of the organization, determining current ALF membership is difficult. In Great Britain, animal rights activities have been consistently more frequent and more violent than elsewhere; in 1991 alone, activists engaged in 1,718 actions. British ALF groups have also been more likely to use crude incendiary devices, including mail bombs and car bombs, as well as the scare tactic of claiming to have contaminated food, which forces producers to recall these food items, at considerable expense.

ALF activities in North America, which began in 1979, include major attacks on universities, federal research centers, medical labs, fur farms, and meat-packers, causing millions of dollars of damage and lost or compromised data, as well as smaller attacks on fast-food restaurants, pet stores, banks, and corporations. Members use stolen footage from labs to create publicity materials and films; in 1986, after seeing an ALF film, Breaking Barriers, renowned primatologist Jane Goodall used her influence to change conditions for primates at the SEMA research center in Maryland.

In 1987, the American ALF committed a multi-million-dollar arson at a University of California, Davis, laboratory; in consequence, the FBI placed ALF on its domestic terrorist list. In the 1990s, Operation Bite Back and Operation Bite Back II, multistate campaigns against the U.S. fur industry, included the freeing of more than 10,000 mink from the Arritola Mink Farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon—the largest liberation of animals to that time.

ALF actions have closed businesses, stopped or altered inhumane research, and hobbled some animal-industry economies, but many pro-animal rights groups and individuals consider ALF's actions to be ineffective. “Liberated” animals are often recaptured. Break-ins have led to the installation of stronger security systems and more stringent security controls. ALF actions have led to legislation, including the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (1992), which made causing more than $10,000 in damages at commercial and academic institutions that utilize animals a federal crime. Consequently, American ALF performs fewer actions each year, managing just 35 actions in 2001.