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Justice Department (animal rights)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Justice Department is a militant animal-rights organization, founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 and also active in the United States. It has claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks in the UK, which The Independent has called "the most sustained and sophisticated bombing campaign in mainland Britain since the IRA was at its height."[1]
The Independent writes that the Justice Department is regarded as the "terrorist wing" of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Some ALF activists reject the association, telling the newspaper: "You cannot be in favour of animal rights and at the same time attack people because at the end of the day people are animals, too."[1]
The existence of activists calling themselves the Justice Department or Animal Rights Militia, another group that is willing to use violence, reflects a struggle within the Animal Liberation Front and the animal rights movement in general, between those who believe violence is justified, and those who insist the movement should reject it in favor of non-violent resistance.[2]
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The Justice Department's manifesto is posted on the ALF website. It says:
"The Animal Liberation Front achieved what other methods have not while adhering to nonviolence. A separate idea was established that decided animal abusers had been warned long enough. ... [T]he time has come for abusers to have but a taste of the fear and anguish their victims suffer on a daily basis."[3]
The organization uses the same leaderless-resistance model as the Animal Liberation Front, which consists of small, autonomous, covert cells acting independently. A cell may consist of just one person.
Activists working as the Justice Department have sent out letter bombs and envelopes rigged with poisoned razor blades.[4] In 1994, a rat trap equipped with razor blades was sent to Prince Charles after he took his sons on their first foxhunt. Tom King, a former defence secretary, was sent an incendiary device, which failed to explode, after he defending foxhunting during a debate in parliament. Michael Howard, at the time Home Secretary, also received one.
In January 1996, the group claimed responsibility for sending envelopes with blades soaked in rat poison to 80 researchers, hunting guides, and others in the United States, and in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. A note inside the envelopes read: "Dear animal killing scum! Hope we sliced your finger wide open and that you now die from the rat poison we smeared on the razor blade."[3] David Barbarash, a Vancouver-based activist who became North American spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, was charged in connection with the attacks, but the case against him was dropped.
- ^ a b "Noctural creatures of violence", The Independent, Nov 1, 1995.
- ^ Lee, Ronnie. "Controversial Actions", No Compromise, issue #23.
- ^ a b "From push to shove", Southern Poverty Law Group Intelligence Report, Fall 2002, p.3.
- ^ "Animal rights, terror tactics", BBC News, 30 August, 2000.
- Animal Liberation Front website
- Arkangel magazine, a magazine dedicated to animal liberation
- FBI testimony on the ALF, James F. Jarboe before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, February 12, 2002.