THE THREAT OF ANIMAL ACTIVISM

Activist Violence

Although animal activists portray themselves as kind and compassionate, the animal rights movement sponsors and perpetrates illegal and violent activity – and these criminal acts are escalating in frequency and destructiveness. In recent years, activists have stalked and assaulted members of the research community, harassed and threatened their families, broken into and destroyed labs, homes and vehicles – all in the name of “animal rights.”

On February 12, 2002, James Jarboe, the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, testified before a Congressional committee that the Animal Liberation Front "is considered a terrorist group" and "has become one of the most active extremist elements in the United States." The FBI estimates that the Animal Liberation Front, and their sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front, have committed more than 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of $43 million. (Read Mr. Jarboe's testimony here.)

Illegal Incidents Report
A 25 Year History of Illegal Activities by Eco and Animal Extremists
The Foundation for Biomedical Research maintains a record of all known criminal activities committed since 1981 in the name of "animal rights."
Click here to read the Illegal Incidents Report.

News Reports of Illegal Activities
The following news reports detail recent illegal and violent acts committed by activists.

DVM Magazine
February 2005 - A not-so-quiet war has been waged on unsuspecting researchers and doctors around the world. Though Europe largely has been affected the most severely, biomedical research companies and laboratories in the United States have endured their share of vigilante activism for decades.
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Wanted by the FBI
Daniel Andreas San Diego is wanted for his alleged involvement in the bombings of two corporate offices in California. On August 28, 2003, the Chiron Corporation, located in Emeryville, was bombed twice. Then, on September 26, 2003, the Shaklee Corporation, located in Pleasanton, was bombed once. A federal arrest warrant was issued in the Northern District of California on October 5, 2003, charging San Diego with maliciously damaging and destroying, and attempting to destroy and damage, by means of explosives, buildings and other property. Learn more

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
August 26, 2003 – An animal-rights group has claimed responsibility for releasing about 10,000 mink from a fur farm near Seattle. The fur commission estimated the damage at $500,000, based on the cost of similar incidents at other farms. Activists claiming to be part of the Animal Liberation Front, a radical animal rights group, took credit for the release in an e-mail sent to Seattle newspapers. ALF has struck mink farms and related businesses in the area before. Nationwide, the group has conducted more than 600 attacks since 1996, according to the FBI. Read more

San Diego Union Tribune
August 18, 2003 – The Earth Liberation Front [sister organization to the Animal Liberation Front] suggested that a $50 million fire that destroyed an apartment complex under construction in San Diego two weeks ago was targeting "rampant urban development." The Aug. 3 arson on San Diego's fast-growing northern edge was said to be the costliest action ever by the ELF, an underground group that since 1996 has claimed responsibility for arson attacks against commercial entities that members say threaten or damage the environment. Read more

San Francisco Chronicle
August 19, 2003 – A top San Francisco chef has become the target of radical animal-rights activists in a series of attacks that police are calling domestic terrorism. Aqua chef Laurent Manrique has been the victim of vandals who spray-painted his home and splashed his car with acid, and he has received threatening letters and videotapes. It's part of what police say may be a national campaign aimed at those who produce a signature ingredient of French haute cuisine -- foie gras -- and the chefs who use it. Read more

Christian Science Monitor
September 26, 2002– A war on terrorism is escalating in the United States, but it's one that has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. This form of violence – which the FBI says is the most serious type of domestic terrorism in the country today – involves radical environmentalists and animal-rights activists, some of whom now vow that they "will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice...." Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, a quarterly publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors political extremism and domestic terrorism, said, "The evidence is indisputable that they're turning more and more to violence. When you start burning buildings it just seems to me obvious that, at some point, some night watchman is going to get burned up." Read more

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
July 10, 2002 – In what authorities labeled an act of domestic terrorism by animal-rights activists, two downtown Seattle buildings were targeted with smoke bombs Wednesday morning, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people and jamming traffic with road closures at both sites. The two nearly simultaneous incidents forced police officers and firefighters to stretch resources to respond. "They have put significant numbers of this community at risk by doing this," Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said of the people behind the smoke bombs.
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The Times of London
June 18, 2002 – An animal welfare activist is facing a jail sentence for e-mailing a series of threats to kill the backers of a research company and for possessing child pornography. The investigating officer, Detective Constable Tim Duffin of the Serious Crime Public Order Unit, said outside the court: “Some of these e-mails were quite terrifying. They contained almost all the profanities you could think of and threats of sexual assault. [The activist] sent them saying he was representing SHAC, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. The threats were very time specific and would say things along the line of ‘you will die this week’.” Read more

British Broadcasting Company
May 8, 2002 – Dutch prosecutors have charged an environmental campaigner with the murder of populist anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn. The suspect, a 32-year-old Dutchman identified as Volkert van der Graaf, appeared at a closed hearing before an Amsterdam judge. He refused to make a statement. The suspect, from the town of Harderwijk, 50 kilometers east of Amsterdam, is reported to be an animal activist with the group Environmental Offensive and was possibly angered by Fortuyn's calls to lift a ban on fur farming. Read more

New York Times
February 4, 2002 – The general calm that had permeated the weekend's protests against the World Economic Forum ended abruptly yesterday afternoon, when chanting and sometimes raucous demonstrators took over stretches of the East Village and the Upper East Side. Hundreds of people left an "earth and animal liberation" rally to roam the Upper East Side. Red paint was spilled, a door and windows of a high-rise apartment building were smashed, and about 70 more people were arrested.
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San Francisco Chronicle
February 3, 2002 – When a pair of activists known to compatriots as The Santa Cruz Two were sentenced to prison in federal court in San Jose last week, it marked a rare victory in the hunt for the underground Animal Liberation Front. Identified by the FBI as a terrorist group, the ALF and its sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front, claim their members committed 137 illegal eco-terror actions last year that caused $17.3 million in damage. But "few individuals associated with the ALF and ELF have been apprehended," the FBI acknowledged in its most recent report on domestic terrorism. Read more

New York Times
January 22, 2002 – Ever since masked protesters attacked him on the doorstep of his home with a blinding spray and left him writhing in front of his wife and 3-year-old daughter, Andrew Gay has been particularly aware that his work in the drug-testing business carries unusual risks. In the last 13 months, both Mr. Gay and Brian Cass, Huntingdon's managing director, have been physically assaulted. Others among the company's 750 employees here say they have received death threats and warnings about the safety of their children.
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
June 18, 2001 – Seattle animal-rights activist Josh Harper sees "a spark of hope in every broken window, every torched police car and every mink running free as their hearts desire." For the 26-year-old anarchist, those acts are necessary to achieve his ultimate goal: "The complete collapse of industrial civilization."
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British Broadcasting Company
August 30, 2000 – Animal rights extremists launched more than 1,200 attacks last year – terrorising their victims and causing £2.6m of damage to property. A clampdown has now been promised to thwart such activities. "Animal liberation is a fierce struggle that demands total commitment. There will be injuries and possibly deaths on both sides. That is sad but certain." So wrote Ronnie Lee, founder of the Animal Liberation Front.
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British Broadcasting Company
December 4, 1998 – An animal rights groups is threatening to kill medical researchers if a jailed animal welfare campaigner, now on the 59th day of a hunger strike, should die. The Animal Rights Militia has threatened to assassinate 10 leading scientists in the event of the death of 46-year-old Barry Horne, who is serving 18 years for a two-year firebombing campaign.
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