Environmentalist & Animal Rights Groups

A predominantly environmentalist group dedicated to bringing an end to the burning of fossil fuels, industrial logging, industrial agriculture, and “dismantling racial capitalism,” “neocolonialism,” and “ecofascist” movements, Troublemakers has been an organizing force behind the Tesla Takedown Movement. 

A sophisticated climate activist organization credited with drafting the Green New Deal, the Sunrise Movement facilitates extremist action that routinely interrupt political and fossil-fuel events with physical violence in the name of censoring speech they consider dangerous. They heckled numerous presidential candidates in Iowa during the 2024 Republican presidential primaries using the dangerous label of “climate criminals” to brand those with whom they disagree.

Known for employing militant environmentalist and animal liberation tactics, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is engages in life-threatening actions to stop lawful whaling, fishing, and hunting activities. The Society’s violent actions have included “ramming ships, fouling props, firing illegal high-powered laser devices, and firing projectiles containing butyric acid” at people populating whaling ships. In 2009 the group was designated as “eco-terrorists” by the Japanese government.

Under the guise of being a “global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems,” Greenpeace has garnered attention for its actions disturbing industrial operations, such as storming an oil rig in 2013 in an act Russia determined was a terrorist act. In 2006, a Greenpeace boat was alleged to have deliberately rammed into a Japanese research vessel.

Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is a collection of autonomous cells and individuals known for using terroristic tactics for environmentalist ends. Members of the group have taken responsibility for various criminal activities, including setting fire to the Cavel West Meat packing plant in Redmond, Oregon, and the Center for Comparative Medicine facility at the University of California, Davis. They have also engaged in vandalism of construction vehicles, destruction of hunting lodges, and numerous other violent acts. The ELF has been linked to more than 1,100 terrorist incidents across the United States, beginning with their initial attack in Sandy, Utah, where they destroyed four trucks using pipe bombs and fire bombs and leveled the offices of the Agricultural Fur Breeders Co-Op.

A radical environmentalist group, Earth First! is known for using violence and property destruction to further their activism. Their founding ethos is that “humankind is no greater than any other form of life and has no legitimate claim to dominate earth” and that “all human decisions should consider earth first and humankind second.” The group has been linked to numerous attacks, including sabotaging machines, blocking roads with barricades, cutting power and gas lines, tree sitting, and other radical activities. Recently in December 2020, a gas pipeline in Aspen, Colorado, was sabotaged, bearing the mark “Earth First!” that resulted in the disruption of heating services for 3,500 residents. Since April 2021, Earth First! activists have been engaging in tree-sitting protests within the Jackson Demonstration Forest in California, effectively delaying logging operations.

The Animal Rights Militia is a “direct-action” organization that carries out terrorist actions according to Philosopher Steven Best in “self-defense ” of animals in Europe and North America. The organization has claimed credit for arson against San Jose Valley Veal & Beef in Santa Clara, California in 1987. In 2006, the group claimed they poisoned POM juice drinks sold at stores popular on the east coast of the United States. Almost 500 bottles of POM Wonderful juices were found to have been tampered with at various stores along the eastern seaboard, including Wild Oats, D’Agostino’s, and Food Emporiums.

Animal Liberation Front is a leaderless, autonomous movement that has been linked to acts of arson, conspiracy, and terrorism. Founded in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, the group claims to support “direct action” in the form of burning research facilities and restaurants they deem to hold animal products. In 2003, individuals and groups closely affiliated with or members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) carried out significant acts of sabotage within the United States. They detonated improvised explosive devices at the facilities of two northern California companies targeted due to their connections with the UK-based firm Huntingdon Life Sciences. Additionally, they set fire to a large condominium complex under construction near La Jolla, California, resulting in an estimated $50 million in damages. ALF supporters also vandalized two newly constructed homes near Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 2003. They are accused of damaging approximately 120 SUVs in West Covina, California, during the same year.

A prominent and radical animal-activist organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is known for its close association with and funding for animal rights terrorist groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and individuals linked to criminal protests such as arsonist Rodney Coronado. PETA workers have been known to publish the personal information of researchers and government officials (“doxxing”) with the intention of intimidating them and encouraging harassment at their private homes. In 2017 PETA targeted a young researcher at Yale University by protesting outside her place of work, threatening her online using social media, and even went as far as publishing her image and home address to the public. PETA is a pioneer on the legal frontier of animal rights radicalism, filing lawsuits to establish personhood for animals, claiming they are “enslaved.”