You don't know where they are. You don't know who the perpetrators are. Prisoners of War To those who believe that illegal acts in defense of nature are justified, the effort amounts to war. Claims of responsibility and other messages from the ALF and the ELF have been coming through an umbrella group in Portland, Ore., known as the Liberation Collective. Spokesman Craig Rosebraugh says he agrees with the aims of the underground groups but claims not to know the identities of those whose messages he passes along.
Critics reject the claims of nonviolence by such groups.
Whether or not such radical activism is organized in any structural way, it has certainly become international in scope, and its tactics appear to be similar around the world. Within the past nine months, for example, there have been at least 30 such attacks in Poland. These include instances of vandalism at butcher shops, circus facilities, and stores selling furs, as well as more-serious property damage. Last month, more than 700 red and polar foxes at a farm in northern Poland were sprayed with a harmless dye that made their pelts unmarketable. In the United States, the nature of some ecocrimes makes them federal offenses.