Domestic Eco-Terrorism, PETA, ALF & ELF
With President Bush’s “War on Global Terrorism” making front page news reports and filling the news waves on the evening news, the American Public might not realize that there is in fact a war of sorts going on behind the scenes in their own country. This is the war on home-grown terrorist organizations. Moreover, it is the war to fight against the ALF (Animal Liberation Front) and its environmental little brother spin-off the ELF or Environmental Liberation Front. The Domestic Terrorism Section Chief of the FBI James Jarboe states that, “the ELF and ALF have become ‘one of the most active extremist elements in the United States’” (Pierce). In another article, John Lewis from the FBI stated that, “The #1 Domestic Terrorism Threat is the eco-terrorism, and animal rights movement.” (Schuster) According to Senate Environmental Committee Chairmen James Inhofe, the damages from Eco-Terrorism have totaled more that $110 million dollars in the last decade. (Frieden) Just recently the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA have been suspected of giving monies to the ELF and ALF to fund their terrorist activities.
One might ask, who are these terrorist organizations and why do they do what they do? These organizations got there start during the 1960’s in the UK when traditional fox hunts were disrupted by “protesters”. After the successes in these activities, the protestors would become terrorists when they set a research institute ablaze, destroying everything, but not harming anyone, yet. (ADL.org) According to ADL.org, it is hard to tell when the ALF really first got its start, but it is assumed to be during the 1979 break in and release of 5 animals at the New York ...
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... the Animal Rights and Environmentalist Movements.” 5 Nov. 2005
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Pierce, Jason. “PETA Under Attack for Funding Alleged Eco-Terrorists.” 8 Mar. 2002. 5 Nov. 2005. .
Martosko, David. Testimony. United States Senate, Committee on the Environment and Public Works. 18 May 2005. 5 Nov. 2005.
Schuster, Henry. “Domestic Terror: Who’s most dangerous?” Cnn.com: Tracking Terror. 24 Aug. 2005. 5 Nov. 2005.
Cole, D., & Dempsey, J. X. (2006). Terrorism and the constitution: sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security. New York: New Press.
The modern fight for animal rights has been geared toward factory farms and the removal of animal testing and ag-gag laws. Protection for test animals and farm animals has become an important focus for many animal rights groups including ASPCA. The end of uncomfortable and inhumane treatment of animals is still a fight thousands are fighting
Leo, Roger. “Still Paying Price for Exxon Spill; Some Species Continue to Suffer.”Worcester Telegram & Gazette [Worester, MA.] 30 April 2000: D9
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---. “Environmentalist for the Twenty-first Century.” IPA Review 52.3 (September 2000): pages 3-8. 3 April 2006 .
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The most well known of these organizations is the ELF or the Earth Liberation Front. They are a reincarnation of an earlier organization that also used the acronym ELF but the earlier version was the Environmental Life Force and did not advocate the use of unlawful methods. It was the later group that published the field guide for monkeywrenching. They were later plagued by the same problems that follow extremist groups across the spectrum. Savoie noted in ‘If a tree falls’ that because they were so critical of outside people ...
Philip Sherwell. “Peta under fire over claim that it kills most animals left at its US headquarters.”
Zuckerman, J., Bucci, S., & Carafano, J. (2014). 60 Terrorist plots since 9/11: Continued lessons in domestic counterterrorism. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/07/60-terrorist-plots-since-911-continued-lessons-in-domestic-counterterrorism
PETA states that, since before the 1920’s there has been animal experimentation. Not until President Lyndon Johnson signed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (LAWA) in 1966, animals in the United States had no protection in laboratories, circuses, and zoos over breeding, transportation, housing, feeding, and veterinary care. The LAWA is now called the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). (Williams, and DeMello)
"Ecoterrorism: Extremism in the Animal Rights and Environmentalist Movements." ADL Archive. Anti- Defamation League, 2005. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
The activist’s anti-capitalists, green anarchists, deep ecologists and eco-feminists. Their objective is to make overturning social and ecological conditions, as part of and earth liberation movement. . Leader 2003. This group has a bit more of a detrimental effect then the KKK this group has the tenacity to effect the lively hoods of day to day Americans, by “torching sport utility vehicles, ski resorts, research labs.” Phillips 2014. This group has some good points to make evident to the public which are the fact animals are used for experiments and the ecological damage corporations do to gain substantial profits. Their means to create chaos have been drastic the most common have been sabotage towards capitalist corporations and other organizations who are destroying the natural environment. Their main objective is to bring to light the atrocities that are done every day to wildlife both land and sea. I found this group to be somewhat correct on fighting for the wildlife but the way they fight is not so friendly or
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than three million members and supporters. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for longest periods of time: on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry. They also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated
Roth, John, Greensburg, Douglas, and Wille, Serena (2004). National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States- Monograph on Terrorist Financing, National Commission of Terrorist Attacks, Retrieved from http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/911_TerrFin_Monograph.pdf.
Source: EVOLVE! Campaigns' Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fbrdr/274/101225828768/?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FEVOLVECampaigns Trust that injustice can't last forever. Our world is speciesist now, but that's slowly changing. Animal rights is a legitimate social justice issue. And, I'm confident that one day we'll look back and understand how wrong we were.