ALF frees rabbits in South Carolina
 

FOUNTAIN INN, SOUTH CAROLINA – Members of the Animal Liberation Front claim to have freed 20 rabbits slated for slaughter, on February 18.

          The ALF members issued an anonymous communiqué on February 20 claiming to have rescued 20 rabbits from Blue Chip Farms at 268 Hill Top Drive in Fountain Inn and threatening to return for more rescue operations if Blue Chip’s owners refuse to stop killing the animals.  

Dean and Arlene Goforth own Blue Chip and have slaughtered rabbits there to sell for meat since 1980.   The Goforths specialize in Ardeng rabbit meat and cite passages from Genesis on their Website, http://www.ardengrabbit.com, justifying the killing of animals for food and proclaim that they are “dedicated to becom(ing) the world’s largest and best rabbit producer.”  In addition, the Website includes a “Rabbit Farming Manual” with instructions for others interested in entering the rabbit meat business.  The Goforths typically kill the rabbits when they are seven or eight weeks old.

“The ALF struck the Blue Chip Farm Inc. in Fountain Inn, SC, after giving warning of impending action due to failure to cease and desist the slaughter of rabbits for food and fur,” the communiqué read.  “Twenty rabbits were freed, with four rabbits taken to be placed in homes.  The ALF regrets not being able to save them all but still sees last night as a victory.”

The ALF is a leaderless underground organization consisting of covert cells, whose members usually wear ski masks and engage in sabotaging animal research laboratories and farms as well as rescuing animals.   The U.S. Department of Homeland Security lists the ALF as a terrorist group; its action at Blue Chip Farms and its other direct action initiatives appear to violate the Animal Rights Terrorism Act of 1992, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992, and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006, the last of which allows for the death penalty in cases in which an animal liberationist causes the loss of human life during a direct action.  Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, was the only House member who voted against the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.  He was not in office when the two earlier bills were enacted.

Although the ALF is underground, some of its activists maintain a Website, http://www.animalliberationfront.com.   In addition, legal, aboveground Animal Liberation Supporters Groups operate in the UK, the US, and Canada.  The Animal Liberation Press Office UK and the North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO) publish communiqués and produce press releases and other resources for journalists and lay readers.

Press officer Linda Greene of the NAALPO was quoted in a February 22 press release as saying, “It looks like some people will kill anything for a profit.  Thousands of rabbits are suffering and killed needlessly at the hands of callous people like the Goforths simply so they can line their pockets.  Anyway, the last thing Americans, known for their obesity and high levels of heart disease and stroke, need is more animal flesh high in fat and cholesterol.”

Strikingly, while Homeland Security lists the ALF and other radical animal rights organizations, as well as additional left-wing groups, as “terrorist” organizations, along with such foreign-based groups as Al Qaeda, it omits home-grown rightist groups, including white supremacist organizations.