ELF was one of the first radical environmentalist group. According to ADL, the origins of ELF are stated as such: In 1980, Dave Foreman evolved the organization Earth First! into ELF (Earth Liberation Front), an Environmentalist group. ELF protested by tree sitting and tree spiking. ELF did this to create justice in the environment. In 1989, Foreman and other members of Earth First! were arrested by the FBI for conspiracy to sabotage nuclear facilities. This shows how ELF escalated their activity and became more radicalized in their methods of protesting. Deshpande illustrates this in a chart showing the four types of criminal action Eco Terrorists take. The higher the number the type of criminal action is, the more severe. As these get higher, it differentiates the environmentalist and criminals.
Arson attack by ELF (Vail, Colorado Ski Resort)
ELF is known as Eco Terrorist, because of its numerous attacks in the United States. ADL recalls ELF’s first attack was in 1997 to Bureau of Land Management horse corral in Oregon. A year later ELF set fire to a ski resort in Vail, Colorado. This event caused twelve million dollars in damage. The most damage occurred by ELF was on August 1, 2003 in San Diego. The arsonists burned down a five story building and a hundred feet high crane causing 50 million dollars in damage. The significance of these actions show that ELF is one of the major Eco Terrorist groups in the U.S.A and cause millions of dollars of damage.
BackGround of ALf (Animal LIBERATION FRONT)
While ELF primarily focuses on helping the environment, Animal Liberation Front (ALF) focuses on helping animals. ALF is a group developed from Hunt Saboteurs association, known for interrupting fox hunting in the 1960s (Gale Books). According to ADL, some members of the Hunt Saboteurs association believed that more action should be taken to protect animals. The group with these ideas formed the Band of Mercy and in 1976 The Band of Mercy became ALF. Nilson and Burke take from ALF’s manifesto, “save animals from suffering here and now ... to inflict economic loss on people who exploit animals, resulting in less profit for them to plough back into their animal exploitation business ... and to escalate events to a point where all of these industries are under threat and cannot operate.” Although ALF believes that companies that cause harm to animals should not operate, ALF believes their members should not harm animals including humans. ALF has been most active in
Animal Liberation Front's logo
the United Kingdom and in the U.S.A. In 1987, ALF was established as a Eco Terrorist organization by the FBI. In 1995 ALF had eighty violent protests per month in the UK and 313 violent protest throughout several years in the United States (Nilson and Burke). ADL notes that during those several years, Rod Coronado a member of ALF, committed a bombing to the research lab at Michigan State University causing 3.5 million dollars in damage. Rod Coronado was sentence for three and a half years in prison. Once out of prison Coronado continued to work with ALF and was known as a hard-core activist within ALF’s organization. ALF is known as a Eco Terrorist organization because of the wide spread damage it causes. The methodology of ALF clearly shows that they want a just environment, but the destruction they cause is irrational.