Tag Archives: Animal Liberation Front

ALF Sends Threatening Letters to Dozens of British Construction and Decorating Firms

Posted on by
Reply

In October, police in Great Britain reported that Animal Liberation Front extremists mailed anonymous letters to dozens of construction and decorating companies warning them of dire consequences if they participated in Oxford University’s planned construction of a new research facility.

The letter warned companies that they would participate in the construction and design of the building “at your own peril.”

Animal Liberation Front spokesman Robin Webb approved of the letters, telling The Telegraph,

If they are supplying Oxford University in any way and through that helping the progress of the proposed facility then they can be considered a target.

Police had a different view. A police spokesman told The Press Association,

It is believed the letters are part of a campaign by animal rights extremists who are trying to prevent work by Oxford University to build new laboratories. Although everyone is entitled to an opinion about this very emotive issue, it is just not acceptable to act in a way which intimidates other people and threatens their livelihood.

Sources:

Animal rights group threatens builders over new Oxford labs. Rosie Murray-West, Telegraph, October 12, 2005.

Threats posted to Oxford lab contractors. Press Association, October 11, 2005.

Animal Liberation Front Claims Responsibility for Attack on Home of GlaxoSmithKline Executive

Posted on by
Reply

In October, the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for Sept. 7 attack on the UK home of GlaxoSmithKline executive Paul Blackburn.

In an e-mail posted on animal rights extremists sites, the ALF claimed,

On the night of Weds 7th Sept we Brigade G of the Animal Liberation Front detonated a bomb on the doorstep of GlaxoSmithKline director Paul Blakburn, Beaconsfield, Bucks.

This contained 2 litres of fuel and 4 pounds of explosives. We did this because GSK is a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences and GSK we realise that this may not be enough to make you stop using HLS, but GSK this is just the beginning.

We have identified and tracked down many of your senior executives and also junior staff, as well as those from other HLS customers.

Drop HLS or you will face the consequences. For all the animals inside HLS, we will be back.

Members of Blackburn’s family were in the home when the extremists ignited the incendiary device — so much for all that nonsense about ALF taking extreme care not to risk human lives.

The ALF also claimed responsibility for a September 23 attempted arson at a sports facility in Oxford.

Source:

Firebomb in Beaconsfield. Bucks Free Press, October 4, 2005.

Activists Steal Dogs Used for Genetic Disease Research

Posted on by
Reply

In August, the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for stealing a dog and her five puppies from Jennersmead Research Farm at Massey University in New Zealand.

What makes the dogs in this case so special is that they are carriers of mucopolysaccharidosis, a degenerative genetic disease that in human beings typically leads to death before the age of 10. In dogs, the disease typically results in death by the second year of life.

The owner of the dog, who carries a copy of the defective gene but does not suffer from the disease, had apparently loaned her to the university for breeding purposes.

Grant Guilford, head of Massey’s Veterinary School, told The Dominion Post,

It [the genetic disease] causes wasting of the nervous system till by the end the dogs — and humans can only stagger about. We were given the dogs by a farmer who is very upset that they have been stolen. We were working with the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital on gene therapy to find a cure for this disease . . . Rehoming these dogs will put the families who take them at risk of serious trauma when the well-loved dog dies down the track.

Not that Guilford had to worry for very long. The dog and five puppies turned up at an animal shelter after being turned in a few days later by people who said that they had found the animals “dumped by the river” near the animal shelter. The shelter recognized the dogs as the stolen animals and returned them to the university.

Massey University is now in the process of reevaluating its security arrangements at its animal facilities. Guilford told the New Zealand Press Association,

The bigger problem [beyond this theft] is that the animal rightists are generalising their attacks beyond this one farm and now are doing their best to defile everything that Massey does, and so we’ve now got issues to consider whether the veterinary school itself is safe. That’s a problem, there’s 800 students and staff a day in the building.

Sources:

Bitch and puppies stolen from lab handed in. Michael Daly, New Zealand Press Association, August 29, 2005.

Activists ‘liberate’ diseases lab dogs. Don Kavanagh, The Dominion Post (New Zealand), August 27, 2005.

Rodney Coronado On His Recent Legal Troubles

Posted on by
Reply

In 2004, convicted animal rights arsonist Rodney Coronado, 38, was arrested after he and fellow Earth First activist Matthew Crozier, 32, along with Esquire writer John Richardson, allegedly entered Sabino Canyon, Arizona, and destroyed a mountain lion trap. Coronado faces up to seven years in jail.

All three were charged with federal misdemeanor trespassing on national forest land, interfering with a forest officer and violation of a special closure order (the canyon had been closed by officials due to the threat from aggressive mountain lions). Coronado and Crozier were also charged with federal felony conspiracy to impede or injure an officer. The state of Arizona also charged Coronado and Crozier with misdemeanor charges related to their removal of the trap and a sensor set up near the trap.

On the federal charges, which are clearly the most serious, Coronado could spend six and a half years in prison. And Coronado does not even bother to pretend he might be not guilty — in fact, he’s downright proud of what he did.

In an essay published in animal rights extremist magazine No Compromise, Coronado writes (emphasis added),

. . . While 2004 marked my fifth year out of prison, it was also the year that finally saw my re-arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Something those bastards have been trying to do since 1999, when I walked out the gates of the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson. My arrest wasn’t unexpected. As with many a practitioner of nonviolent civil disobedience, my actions were taken with a full understanding of the consequences I faced should I be arrested for opposing and interfering with this occupying government’s efforts to kill mountain lions last March.

Thank you, bastards at the FBI!

Coronado goes on to erase any doubt that he is guilty of the crimes of which he is accused (emphasis added),

When it came down to the lions versus the combined guns, snares, ground sensors, helicopters, hounds and 4×4 trucks of taxpayer-supported professional hunters, I found out who were the lionsÂ’ real friends and who really believed in animal liberation and deep ecology. Like many a direct action I have participated in, the people I patrolled that canyon with are some of the bravest and most beautiful people I know. ItÂ’s for these reasons my friends and I are now being threatened with seven years in federal prison. Because a few of us were not willing to sit back and watch as our public lands and wildlife were destroyed to once again assuage human fears of the uncontrollable wild in a never-ending invasion.

And I was, still am and always will be proud to be able to take such a stance against overwhelming odds when the people and places I love are being threatened or destroyed. It is with such honor, that I snuck into Sabino Canyon night after night, past federal officers patrolling for native wildlife whose only offense was not enough fear of humans and continuing to hunt in their occupied homelands. When we choose to be warriors of the Earth and her Animal Nations we accept that it might be our own lives and freedom that are one day threatened or taken away. That is the way for every generation of warrior and protector whose duty it is to protect home and family.

This gives us a nice insight into just how nutty Coronado was. When he referred to the “occupying government” above, I originally assumed he was making about related to his Native American activism. But no, as he makes clear, it is the lions themselves whose “homeland” is occupied by the government — although Coronado apparently is unconcerned about the sanctity “homelands” of the prey that the mountain lion hunts! Some “Animal Nations” are apparently more equal than others.

Coronado then complains that his fellow activists aren’t emulating his illegal ways sufficiently (emphasis added),

As IÂ’ve said before, IÂ’m proud to be an enemy of the United States. The enemy of a global invader that allows terrorism to happen on a daily basis. A regime that routinely allows not only the torture of animals in its licensed and regulated laboratories, but people in its military concentration camps as well. IÂ’m not surprised by any of this behavior, its what you come to expect from people who since their arrival have always used violence and terror to achieve their objectives.

The only thing that surprises me about it all is that there are not more of the many people I have met over the last twenty years of this struggle fighting here beside me. While a couple of those dear comrades sit in prison or are under federal indictment, many more hide amongst the society responsible for the violence we oppose, enjoying the privileges won with the very kind of terror they supposedly oppose.

So this is my question to you. How bad do things have to get before you are willing to fight back? And IÂ’m not talking about anything you do in front of a computer or that involves music bands, pamphlets, puppets or patches, IÂ’m talking about fighting back as if it was your own life under attack. Its not about who else is doing it among movements, groups or friends, when will you be ready to be the first? To do what the law says is wrong, but what you know in your heart is right. That has been and always will be the way peoplesÂ’ voices are heard, not through doing what is popular and polite, but a stand that however unpopular, allows you to exist as a part of a solution to it all, a life free from the liberal first world guilt felt by the aware but apathetic within different movements for social change. A stand that says to one and all, that you as one human being will not allow injustice to go unchallenged, despite the threatened consequences by those perpetuating it.

I couldn’t agree more. What we need are more animal rights extremists in jail and under federal indictment rather than enjoying the privileges of our society. Come on, guys and gals — step up to the plate and really stick it to the animal oppressors by going to prison. That’ll show ‘em.

With any luck, Coronado can set a shining example in a federal prison for the next several years.

Sources:

Fighting Back: Crimes of Resistance. Rodney Coronado, No Compromise, March 3, 2005.

2 mountain lion activists face new counts of theft. Patty Machelor, Arizona Daily Star, March 29, 2005.

Scared of lions? So move, activist says. Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star, March 27, 2004.

Helen Woodson Will Say Anything to Excuse Her Violence

Posted on by
2

Someone on AR-News recently pointed to an article by convicted environmental/anti-globalist activist Helen Woodson that was originally published in the Earth First! Journal.

The person who re-posted Woodson’s article on the Guerilla News Network web site provides this bit of introductory comment,

Some interesting insights about current efforts to associate EF!, ELF, and ALF with the popular notion of “terrorism” and also with more ‘mainstream’ and pacifist collectives espousing ‘direct action’. From the Plowshares, anti-nuke, activist Helen Woodson, who was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 18 years in prison for a non-violent protest at a nuclear missile silo. Also, current contact information to support Helen; since she was recently re-arrested and is now facing several more years of confinement.

Its fascinating how extremists like this just outright lie. If you didn’t know anything about Helen Woodson, you’d think she is some sort of pacifist.

For some reason, the GNN poster didn’t think it was relevant to point out that in addition to her sentence for using a jackhammer on a Minuteman II missile silo, Woodson is also currently in jail after being convicted of armed robbery and for threatening communication. In typical non-violent, pacifist style Woodson mailed threatening letters accompanied by .38 bullets to Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, and a number of other government officials. Also, it is worth noting that she only served 7 years in the silo case — she’s spent far more time in jail for her violent crimes than she did for the Minute Man case.

Like other violent extremists, Woodson doesn’t consider anything she did to have been violent. As she writes,

The real terrorism is the destruction wreaked by US government, military, corporate and economic power. It is what the writer Arundhati Roy calls “the arrogance of the human race toward other living things, which will probably be the ultimate undoing of the human species.”

What’s a little death threat or armed robbery,after all?

Anyway, Woodson’s article is as confused as she is. On the one hand, she complains that the government has unfairly linked her actions with the Animal/Earth Liberation Front and Earth First!, but then says that she’s happy to be linked to such groups and likely won’t dispute the government’s claims,

Recently, I received my Presentence Investigation Report (PSI). A section of the PSI devoted to my “group and associate affiliations” says that I am considered an “imprisoned terrorist.” Three of my alleged affiliations are grouped together—Earth First!, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)—all believed to be dangerous. The ELF is singled out as “one of the nation’s most prolific domestic terrorist organizations.”

Until recently, both state and federal courts could use such information as an “aggravating factor” warranting “upward departure” in sentencing. However, in June, the US Supreme Court ruled in Blakely v. Washington (124 S. Ct. 2531) that only factors proved in court can be considered. Allegations of “terrorist group affiliation” or “federal crime of terrorism” will have to be made in the indictment or plea agreement, as will the many other factors previously introduced at the last minute in a variety of cases.

. . .

I am expected to appeal the PSI “terrorist group affiliation.” If it goes unchallenged, I am considered to have acceded to it, and it could be used against me in the future. Even more, I am expected to want it off of my record because my actions have a religious foundation, and this association could “tarnish my image.” I suggest that the best response is to do just the opposite, not with a meaningless display of unanimity, but with a respectful acknowledgement and acceptance of differences in orientation and approach.

. . .

It is those opposing that arrogant power who are acting responsibly and with integrity. It is a richly varied community of conscience, and for my part, affiliation with EF!, the ALF and the ELF is one that I am happy to embrace, clearly and publicly.

With any luck, Woodson will have the rest of her life in prison to contemplate such issues.

Sources:

Terrorism, the Law and Guilt by Association. Helen Woodson, Earth First! Journal, March 2005.

FBI Releases Sketches of Woman Wanted for Questioning in University of Iowa Break-In

Posted on by
Reply

In March, the FBI released a sketch of a woman in her late teens to early twenties who is wanted for questioning in the November 14 raid by the Animal Liberation Front on University of Iowa’s Spence Lab.

According to the FBI, the woman is 5’2″ to 5’6″,

The suspect was last seen wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, light brown khaki pants, white tennis shoes, and a light blue plastic wrist watch. The suspect was also carrying a brown crocheted fabric purse with rope handles and a black nylon wallet with a picture of the animated character Tinker Bell on the side.

Animal rights extremists who broke into the lab stole hundreds of animals and did damage that is currently estimated at $450,000 and could go higher according to University of Iowa officials.

University of Iowa Psychology Department chair Gregg Ogden told the Associated Press that the loss of data on research projects was “much less than we had feared,” however.

The damages are mostly due to equipment destruction, cleanup costs, and the costs of additional security immediately after the break-in.

Sources:

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING. FBI, March 2005.

FBI releases UI suspect sketch. Steve Nicoles, KCRG-TV9, March 17, 2005.

U of Iowa research lab damage tops $450,000. Associated Press, March 18, 2005.

Sunday Times Claims Wealthy UK Developer Is Linked to Animal Rights Extremists

Posted on by
Reply

The Sunday Times filed a story on March 13 claiming that one James Gorman, 57, is linked to extremist animal rights activists in the United Kingdom.

According to the Times, Gorman made his fortune as a property developer and now spends his time giving lectures on the benefits of vegan diets. The Times quotes Gorman as saying he has committed “direct action” attacks in the past and carried out surveillance for other activists planning such attacks.

The Times quotes Gorman as saying,

I’ve rescued animals — no problem at all . . . I have been involved with surveillance, undercover work. . . . The ALF are freedom fighters fighting the terrorists who are terrorizing the animals.

According to the Times, Gorman is a “nutritional adviser” to the UK’s Vegan Prisoners Support Group whose mission is “to fight for the daily rights of vegan animal rights prisoners whilst being detained in prison establishments.”

The Times claims that Gorman is in regular contact with UK animal rights extremists Keith Mann, Greg Avery, and Natasha Avery.

Gorman tells The Times that he plans to leave about 1 million pounds to animal rights groups when he dies, but that he won’t be donating it to groups like Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty out of concerns that the government will seize any such donations.

Its worth noting that The Times uses an extremely deceptive headline for its story, which reads (emphasis added), “Vegan bodybuilder funds animal extremists.” But there is not a single sentence in the story which backs up this claim. The only mention of Gorman’s providing funds to the movement is related to his will, with Gorman telling The Times that, “My money is left in my will, and I’ve left over Pounds 1 million” to animal rights groups. The article contains nothing about whether or not Gorman is currently funding animal rights groups in the UK. Perhaps The Times should require that its editors actually read its articles before writing the headlines.

Source:

Vegan bodybuilder funds animal extremists. Nick Fielding and Gareth Walsh, The Sunday Times, March 13, 2005.

Australian Minister Accuses PETA of Involvement with Terrorist Groups

Posted on by
1

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently threatened to sue Australia’s Agricultural Minister Warren Truss after Truss accused the animal rights group of providing aid and comfort to animal and environmental terrorists.

Truss apparently cited testimony by the Center for Consumer Freedom about PETA’s alleged involvement with the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. CCF reprinted part of Truss speech which said,

But even more concerning, it has been alleged in a US Senate hearing by the same organization that PETA has provided aid and comfort to people associated with two groups considered domestic terrorist threats by the FBI — the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

According to the FBI, the two groups have been responsible for more than 600 crimes since 1996, causing more than $43 million in damage. The ALF even brags on its website that the two groups committed “100 illegal direct actions” — like blowing up four-wheel-drives, destroying the brakes on seafood delivery trucks, and planting firebombs in restaurants — in 2002 alone.

PETA lawyer Jeff Kerr threatened to sue Truss calling the claims part of a smear campaign by a “discredited group.”

If the statements are untrue and part of a smear campaign, then why hasn’t PETA sued the Center for Consumer Freedom for making the same statements for several years now? Perhaps PETA doesn’t think it would help to go into court only to have CCF show PETA’s own 2001 tax return showing a $15,000 donation to the Earth Liberation Front. Or maybe it doesn’t want to be reminded of Ingrid Newkirk’s odd behavior in the Rodney Coronado case which was cited in the government’s sentencing memo (emphasis added),

Forensic evidence discovered during the investigation confirmed that Coronado played an important role in planning and executing the ALF’s campaign of terrorism. Investigators learned that immediately before and after the MSU arson, a Federal Express package had been sent to a Bethesda, Maryland address from an individual identifying himself as “Leonard Robideau”. The first package went to Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s founder.

. . .

Significantly, Newkirk had arranged to have the package delivered to her days before the MSU arson occurred.

Not to mention quotes from everyone from Bruce Freidrich to Dan Mathews to Newkirk herself expressing approval for actual acts of violence and destruction and anticipation that more such acts might be forthcoming.

I suspect that this lawsuit will have the same sort of longevity as PETA’s lawsuit against New Jersey over another PETA attorney’s violent altercation with a deer.

Source:

PETA may sue over Truss’ terror comments. Australian Associated Press, March 3, 2005.

Not A G’Day For PETA Down Under. Press Release, Center for Consumer Freedom, March 4, 2005.

Sarah Gisborne Receives 6 1/2 Years for UK Animal Rights Attacks

Posted on by
Reply

Animal rights extremist Sarah Gisborne was sentenced in February to six-and-a-half years in jail after pleading guilty to causing criminal damage.

Gisborne caused an estimated Pound 40,000 in damages in five attacks on the automobiles and homes of individuals associated in one way or another with Huntingdon Life Sciences in the July 2004.

Gisborne was caught after one of her attacks was captured on a security camera which police used to identify the rental car she used.

This is not Gisborne’s first arrest or time spent in jail. She has been arrested 9 times for animal rights-related offenses, and spent time in jail twice, including for an attack on the home of Huntingdon Life Sciences’ director Brian Cass.

At least one of the homes was spray painted with “ALF,” but Grisborne has been very active in another group — Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. As Brian Cass noted in commenting on the verdict, this is yet more evidence that SHAC engages in violent extremism. Cass told The Hunts Post,

I’m delighted that the court treated this offence with the seriousness which it deserves and I hope that this will serve as a lesson to other people who are similarly conspiring to harm the medical research community. Sarah Gisborne has been a very close associate to the leaders of SHAC for many years – they surely now cannot expect anyone to believe that they have nothing to do with criminal damage.

Along with the jail time, Gisborne is banned from coming within 500 meters of Huntingdon Life Sciences or Yamanouchi or contacting any of its staff for two years after her release, and is also banned from driving for three years after her arrest.

Source:

Animal protester jailed for attacks. February 26, 2005.

HLS activist gets six years. Amanda Breen, The Hunts Post, March 2, 2005.

Man Arrested In Connection With McDonald's Arson in 2003

Posted on by
Reply

New Jersey resident Chris McIntosh, 22, was arrested this month and charged with setting a fire Jan. 20, 2003 that caused about $5,000 in damage to a Seattle-area McDonald’s.

Shortly after the McDonald’s arson, someone called a crime tip line claiming the arson in the name of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. The caller said,

There was an E-L-F-A-L-F hit at McDonald’s across from the Space Needle. There will be more. The fire was set on the ‘M.’ Four gallons of gas. There was a broken lock, not cut. Broken. There will be more. As long as Mother Earth is pillaged, raped, destroyed. As long as McDonald’s keeps hurting our furry brothers, there will be more.

Prosecutors say that fingerprints and DNA evidence found on a can of spray paint and sunglasses left at the scene of the crime match McIntosh’s. McIntosh had been arrested numerous times before in several states including Oregon, California, Wisconsin and Illinois, and his name turned up quickly after the FBI ran his prints through their criminal database.

McIntosh’s former girlfriend, Maria Gardner, told police that McIntosh set that fire and that she acted as a lookout during the fire. Another woman he dated, but who is unnamed in the affidavit against him, told the FBI that McIntosh bragged about the McDonald’s fire to her in February 2005.

Additionally, McIntosh apparently used his brother David’s name as an alias, and a Seattle-area youth centers’ records show a “David McIntosh” stayed at the center in January 2003, including the period during which the fire was set (McIntosh, in fact, was using “David McIntosh” as an alias when he was arrested).

McIntosh was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after police there received a tip that he may have been in the area. He will be brought to Seattle by federal authorities, and if he is ultimately convicted, he could face up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

The full text of the affidavit filed against McIntosh can be read here.

Sources:

McDonald’s blaze suspect held. Christine Frey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 2005.

New Jersey Man Arrested In 2003 Arson At Seattle Mcdonald’s Restaurant. Press Release, United States Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington, February 16, 2005.

Man charged with arson in 2003 fire. Danielle Camilli, Burlington County Times, February 18, 2005