Animal Liberation Front (ALF) - USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Animal Liberation Front (ALF) - USA - Essay Example According to media and other researchers, the group could not stand against criminal like activities that were being conducted in the name of animal liberation under the flag or ALF or any other name. During 2002 the department that is responsible for monitoring and controlling extremist like activities reported that ALF has used violent terrorist like activities for their operations and have cost billions by destroying property but have ensured that no human being is harmed 2. 1. Don Liddick,. Eco-terrorism: radical environmental and animal liberation movements. Westport, (Conn.: Praeger, 2006) 127. 2. Yonah Alexander and Michael Kraft (eds.). Evolution of U.S. counterterrorism policy. Westport, (Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2008) 241 - 250. During the period of 2005, homeland security department of US compiled a list of groups that may be a serious terrorist threat to US and within that list, ALF was even considered as a plausible terrorist threat and the US decided to us e its resources against their activities 2. The history of this group can be dated back to the end of 1963 when John Prestige, a British news reporter, gained the duty of viewing an event where hunters had to hunt a deer who was pregnant 3. He stood against this activity and formed HAS (Hunt Saboteurs Association); the aim of this association was to make sure that huntsmen fail in their act of hunting 3. Later, one of the group members named Ronnie Lee made his own group to help animals, this group comprised of young individuals who were against the act of animal brutality, and the group was recognized as the Band of Mercy 4. ALF came into existence and made its appearance when the founder of HAS was taken into defense officials custody for conducting a raid on the Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies. People revolted against their arrest and later the founder was assigned imprisonment for three years from where he continued to pursue animal liberation by going on a hunger strike and d emanding for vegetarian food in jails 5. Later he was released on parole basis for 12 months; as soon as he gained freedom, he started his activities and to make the group look fiercer to others, he changed the name of the group from Band of Mercy to Animal Liberation Front 6. 3. Norm Phelps. The longest struggle: animal advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. (New York: Lantern Books, 2007) 201 4. Margaret Pasewicz,. Cultural encyclopedia of vegetarianism. Santa Barbara, (CA: Greenwood, 2010) 27 5. Harvey Kushner, W. Encyclopedia of terrorism. Thousand Oaks,( Calif.: Sage Publications, 2003)10 6. Gus Martin,. The Sage encyclopedia of terrorism. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, (Calif.: SAGE Publications, 2011) 45 The group was not only active behind the walls, they even conducted their activities outside the wall, the group had no leader and group members had to follow the stated guidelines of the movement at all times. According to the movements guidelines, to increase economic cost of those who make revenues by manipulating animals, to provide freedom to animals from places where they were treated very badly, to publicize the harsh treatment animals had to go through, to ensure that no animal was being harmed and those individuals who were living in accordance to the constitution created by the movement were entitled as members of ALF even if they had not