Timeline of Animal Liberation Front actions, 2000-2004



This is a list of acts claimed by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) from 2000 to 2004.

Background

 * ALF formed

Two 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 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. 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; slaughterhouses, furriers, butchers shops, circuses, breeders and fast-food restaurants, causing damage that totaled £250,000. The first fur farm raid was then heard of in the same year, with 1,000 foxes released from Dalchonzie fur farm in Scotland.
 * 1980s and 1990s

The ALF was then founded throughout Europe and further broad in the 1980s, with notable raids including those removing the Silver Spring monkeys and Britches. Unnecessary Fuss, a film by PETA with footage that the ALF stole, was also released which showed primate researchers laughing and joking at a baboon, as they inflict brain damage as part of a research project into head injuries caused by accidents.

The ALF then continued into the 1990s, causing even more damage, with notable actions such as the jointly claimed ALF and ELF arson at the U.S. Forest Service Oakridge Ranger Station, causing $5.3 million. A series of raids also followed, which frequently targeted fur farms and animal laboratories and their breeding facilities, including the Harlan Interfauna raid in Cambridge, by Barry Horne and Keith Mann.

2000
A Rose Acre Farm chicken feed truck in Indiana is torched, with the ALF spray-painting "Polluter, animal exploiter, your turn to pay," at the scence. The ALF claim credit for the arson that causes $100,000 worth of damage.
 * January
 * On the 3rd, the ALF claim the arson at the Rancho Veal's meatpacking plant, California, which has its building set on fire, as well as trucks, causing $250,000 in damages.
 * Petaluma Farms, a chicken farm in California, has five incendiary devices placed in its office and trucks. With two trucks destroyed, the ALF claim the farm "enslaves chickens for their eggs".
 * The next day, the ALF take credit for the attempted arson at the Primate Products in California.
 * July 2nd

2001
A National Food Corp. egg farm in Washington is set on fire by the ALF, causing an estimated $1.5 million in damages. The Center for Urban Horticulture, at the University of Washington, is set on fire causing $5.6 million worth of damage. It is the ALF's most expensive arson to date, destroying years worth of research on genetically altered poplar trees, as well as other projects. A McDonalds is set on fire, causing $500,000 in damages. The ALF and the ELF jointly claim the attack noting that the attack was "as a warning to corporations worldwide". In New Mexico, the Coulston Foundation's White Sands Research Center is set on fire, causing $1 million, with the ALF claiming responsibility. Over thirty windows are smashed at the Bank of America 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!". Sierra Biomedical, an animal research laboratory in California, is trashed by the ALF causing $50,000 worth of damage.
 * April 5th
 * May 21st
 * September 8th
 * September 20th
 * October 24th
 * November 1st

2002
The ELF and ALF use sand and mortar mix at a construction site to destroy equipment at a new biotech plant being built for Jackson Laboratory, an animal testing business, in Maine. In an unknown location, a billboard advertising chicken is subvertised by the ALF. A Sims Poultry truck is destroyed in Indiana by the ALF using arson.
 * January 29th
 * Spring
 * May 3rd
 * November
 * Activists break into a fur farm in Bure, eastern France and release 1,000 of the 17,000 mink from their cages on November 11th, the damage is estimated at $30,000.
 * The next day, animal rights activists were again blamed for an arson at Tyneside factory, a beef plant near Newcastle, described as an attack against the meat industry. Detectives are claiming a link between the £30,000 fire and series of fires started across the region at the 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 with forty fire fighters putting out the blaze.
 * On the 24th, police say 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" were left on the walls of the building.

2003
An animal feeds company, supplying to the Puckeridge Hunt in Herefordshire, was completely burnt to the ground with "Fox killers" painted over a nearby church. The fire caused £250,000 worth of damage, soaring through the 1828 Grade 2 listed barn from, before spreading to the adjacent building, the Stocking Pelham Hall. The fire destroyed everything from the business, as fire fighters tried to save the building, with the owner remarked that the heat was extraordinary, and that the building was ablaze from both ends.
 * January 3
 * February
 * On the 4th, activists calling themselves "Groundhog Crew", because of the action coinciding with Groudhog day, cut forty-eight brakes and refrigeration system lines of trucks belonging to 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 "near catastrophic effect", although nobody was hurt in the incident.
 * In the very first fur farm raid in Ireland, the ALF claim the release of 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 the 19th February, allowing the mink to escape into the Grand Canal. In a report to Bite Back, the group explained why they carried out the action:

Our motivation was that of putting compassion over greed, of pity over barbarity and freedom over exploitation. Fur farm farming has no place in any “progressive” society. Mink, who naturally roam up to 6 kilometres a day and spend 60% of their active time hunting and playing in water are confined to bar cages no longer than one’s arm. They are known to defend their territory with a radius of 6 kilometres, but on fur farms are forced to withstand the presence of up to 45,00 other mink in close proximity.

A suspicious package, with a label attached saying "a gift from the Animal Liberation Front", is 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 their parent company Asahi Glass, who supply Huntingdon Life Sciences. Employees were evacuated whilst police searched the building and the Royal Air Force Bomb Disposal Unit blew up the package. Fencing surrounding a fur farm in Seattle, Washington, is removed and open the cages to containing 10,000 mink, of the 22,000 mink, with 9,000 of the animals 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 annonymous communique cited the Mink Rehabilitation Project, which they claim proves that mink can survice in wild.
 * 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 in Chicargo. The explosive deivces, that failed to go off, were two jugs filled with flammable liquid, which subsequently shut down the building for two hours with police and federal investigators handling the situation, with reporters also crowding at the scene. They were eventually dismantled by the Butte County Sheriff's Office's bomb experts, after an employee had discovered the 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 report that Rancho Veal plant in California is targeted again by arsonists, returning after the $250,000 arson in 2003. The time the fire only caused $10,000 in damage in comparison, with "stop the killing" left on the back of the building with paint. The owner of the business said that "It gets old, it gets real tiresome".
 * June 17th
 * August 25th
 * 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 authorities also reporting that the raid had been the 60th on fur farms in Finland since 1995.
 * Two days later, the ALF break into the Louisiana State University Inhalation Toxicology Research Facility, destroying research equipment, chambers and computers, totaling $300,000 in damage. The ALF annonymously claim in a report to Bite Back; "...these gas chambers of suffering subject animals to daily doses of cigarette smoke and industrail pollutants causing pain, suffering, and death.".

Together with another ALF activist who remains unidentified, Keith Mann raided the Wickham research laboratory and removed 695 mice that were being used to test botulinum toxin, sold commercially as Botox and Dysport. In a communique to Bite Back, along with pictures and a video, he reported:
 * December 13th

This is not an isolated incident, this is part of the a much wider war for total animal liberation. Until every animal is free we will continue to fight, whether it be Wickham, HLS, Cambridge University or anywhere else. This is a warning to you all!

He then 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, which is banned in Britain. The Southern Animal Rights Coalition 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 report that they have broken into W.B. Saul High School in Roxborough, Philadelphia on 19 April and removed 47 animals; twenty-six gerbils, nine rats, four beagles, three hamsters, two chinchillas, two mice and a ferret. In the anonymous communique to Bite Back, the ALF said:

It is disgusting that high school students are being indoctrinated into an industry as cruel and destructive as the vivisection industry. To teach students that it’s okay to torture animals - be they gerbils, puppies, or any other - for our own benefit or "education" is repulsive. While the school may claim that the students love the animals - which they may - they are training the students for careers in an industry which commits horrific cruelties against animals.


 * Two years later, referring to the criminalization of eco-terrorism in the state due to the increasing property destruction directed towards those involved in pharmaceutical and other animal research organizations the Governor noted that:

This public high school has been targeted by militant animal rights activists who have not stopped at peaceful protest, but who have vandalized the school, stealing animals and destroying property.
 * June
 * The ALF attack a RMC site in Bournemouth, destroying tractors, bullldozers and a crane, using axes, bolt croppers and crowbars. The company then announce shortly after that they have pulled out of the construction of the Oxford University's animal laboratory after the actions.
 * August
 * The 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