Animal Rights Extremism in Los Angeles

Here is an article in the LA Weekly about Alf, Elf and other assorted groups.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, which closely watches extremist groups of all kinds throughout the world, Los Angeles has become the capital of a more aggressive brand of animal-rights extremism in the United States — with UCLA as ground zero. “Los Angeles, for now, is the epicenter of this movement,” says Oren Segal, co-director of ADL’s Center on Extremism in New York City. “We’ve seen a lot of humans targeted overseas, and now it’s happening here.”

In the past, Segal notes, ragtag groups in the U.S. calling themselves such names as the Animal Liberation Front and the mostly fabled Earth Liberation Front freed animals from university research labs and firebombed empty buildings. The Animal Liberation Front, in fact, claimed to only target inanimate objects for its violent actions. But now, underground groups — perhaps just one or two enraged people, or perhaps organized networks — have no problem making bombs for killing or maiming their human marks. One of those is the Animal Liberation Front, which took responsibility for last year’s attempted Fairbanks bombing. “They have been very violent over the years,” says Segal, “so going after humans has been inevitable.”