Upping the Ante in Ecoterrorism

by Celeste Bilby at May 27, 2003 5:13 PM

I wonder how much longer it will take before people start to take whack-job ecoterrorist groups like the ELF and the ALF as a serious threat? People didn't seem to mind so much when the ELF was burning down ski resorts and car dealerships, but now they've upped the ante. The ELF has started targeting peoples' homes.

The radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front is claiming responsibility for fires that destroyed two houses near Ann Arbor in March.

The slogan "ELF, no sprawl" was spray painted on the garage door of a house next to one of those burned March 21 in the Mystic Forest subdivision. On its Web site, the group claims responsibility for the fires, which it says caused $400,000 in damage.

The group also takes responsibility for burning luxury homes being built near Philadelphia late last year. A picture of a burning home is featured on the Web site, along with instructions on how to start fires.

Think you're still safe, because you don't live in a suburb? Think harder.
Continued...

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) is also changing their tactics, and other activist groups are watching to see how effective their new methods are.

At 3 a.m. one recent morning, animal rights activists enraged by a company that tests products on animals gathered outside the home of an executive.

They bellowed through bullhorns, made sirens pierce through the night and papered the Los Angeles neighborhood in leaflets denouncing Huntingdon Life Sciences officials as, among other things, "puppy killers."

"We'll be back," the group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, later warned the executive on its Web site. "We know where you live, we know where you work, and we'll make your life hell until you pull out of HLS."

What made the noisy protest unusual was that its target wasn't an executive with Huntingdon Life Sciences: It was a manager of a Los Angeles company that just sells software to Huntingdon.

Whatever your take on this scum - that they're irrational fanatics who will do whatever it takes to force you to submit to their world-view, or that they're spoiled children desperately in need of a vigorous session behind the wood-shed - they represent a real danger to our way of life. We are facing tyranny by a violent and radical minority that insists on attacking and destroying whatever they feel conflicts with their ideology - and that includes a good steak, a new car, a home in the suburbs, a vacation spot, and a solid business.

Update:Eugene Volokh has commentary on 'direct action' by animal rights supporters as well, and he's far less strident than I am.

All rights reserved. This article can be found on the Internet at:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/upping_the_ante_in_ecoterrorism.php

Persons wishing to contact the author of this article for reprints etc. should put a request in the Comments section, or send an email to "joe", over here @windsofchange.net.