Oxford Arson Squad

Last updated

Oxford Arson Squad (or Oxford Arson Group) is a militant animal rights organization, which emerged in the United Kingdom in 2005 after claiming the firebombing of the Corpus Christi College Sports Pavilion at Oxford University. The University denounced these acts of direct action stating that "the intimidating nature of this message is totally unacceptable". [1]

Contents

Mission statement

The Oxford Arson Squad first established itself when an anonymous message was sent to Bite Back claiming the failed arson at Corpus Christi College on 23 September 2005, stating: [2]

Philosophy

The initials of the Animal Liberation Front with an anarchist circle-A incorporated into the design ALF logo.svg
The initials of the Animal Liberation Front with an anarchist circle-A incorporated into the design

The activists use the same leaderless-resistance model as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which consists of small, autonomous, covert cells acting independently. A cell may consist of just one person. [3]

Their cause seems to be to inflict property damage, presumably arson, but not injure individuals, and is a reason why they have been accused of being members or supporters of the ALF. [4]

The targets have been businesses based in Oxford, and the surrounding areas, using incendiary devices to firebomb businesses they assume have financial ties with Oxford University. [5] [6]

Direct action

Longbridges boathouse fire

View of the devastation from the fire that caused PS500,000 damage to Londbridges boathouse, Oxfordshire on 4 July 2005. Longbridges Fire.jpg
View of the devastation from the fire that caused £500,000 damage to Londbridges boathouse, Oxfordshire on 4 July 2005.

The group became known after the first arson in Oxford which caused an estimated £500,000 worth of damage on 4 July 2005. [1] In response to this attack, with the insurance premiums set to rise for the business, Longbridge's boathouse were given corporate sponsorship and donations. [7]

The fire caused 26 boats in total to become unusable which were part of St Hilda’s, St Catherine’s, Hertford, Mansfield and St Benet’s Hall boats and boat clubs. [8] Upon investigation the cause of the fire was attributed to incendiary devices which had been placed in the Eight's bays. The group stated that they targeted the boathouse because of their apparent ties to Oxford University that use primates in experiments. The group in a posting to Bite Back said, [8] [9]

"From here on nothing you own, rent or have dealings with is off limits until the project is scrapped, To warn builders and suppliers that they are going to get some, even if their involvement comes to light years later we will not let you off the hook!"

Ed Mayne, spokesman for Oxford University replied, [8]

"We are appalled by the contents of a statement concerning the fire in an Oxford College boathouse. The intimidating nature of this message is totally unacceptable."

Failed attempts

Two arsons were unsuccessful with an incendiary device found deactivated at Christ Church College's Sport Pavilion, despite the group claiming they had targeted Corpus Christi College in July 2005. The second device at Oxford’s Templeton College in February 2007 was found also deactivated. Again the group claimed to have carried out an arson attack, [4] [10] saying again in an anonymous communique to Bite Back: [11]

"This latest action is part of an ongoing campaign against the University of Oxford and its continued usage of animal testing."

Other arsons

In November 2006, there was an arson at Queen's College, this was again claimed to be because of the financial relationship with Oxford University. The Animal Liberation Front consists of small autonomous groups of people all over the world who carry out direct action according to the ALF guidelines. Any group of people who are vegetarians or vegans and who carry out actions according to ALF guidelines have the right to regard themselves as part of the ALF. [12] [13] A message was sent to the Bite Back website stating, [14]

ALF volunteers gained access to the roof of the building and after removing a section of roof tiling placed an incendiary device containing 12 litres of fuel inside. Attacks will escalate in the face of an institution and government which have sought to destroy legal protest and continue to sanction violence to animals

Similar attacks occurred nearly a year later in November 2007, when the ALF alleged vehicles belonging to a researcher of the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University were firebombed as well as a director of Acorn Integrated systems sports car, who the group accused of aiding the construction of the laboratory. The group said in a message to Bite Back: "There will be more. For Barry and Felix.". [15] [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade (RCALB), known simply as Animal Liberation Brigade (ALB), is a name used by animal liberationists who advocate the use of freedom and a diversity of tactics within the animal liberation movement, whether non-violent or not. As part of a praxis, the intention is to destroy oppressive institutions, describing an endgame for animal abusers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Coronado</span> American animal rights and environmental activist

Rodney Adam Coronado is an American animal rights and environmental activist known for his militant direct actions in the late 1980s and 1990s. As part of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, he sank two whaling ships and destroyed Iceland's sole whale-processing facility in 1986. He led the Animal Liberation Front's Operation Bite Back campaign against the fur industry and its supporting institutions in the early 1990s, which was involved in multiple firebombings. Following an attack on a Michigan State University mink research center in early 1992, Coronado was jailed for nearly five years. He later admitted to being the sole perpetrator. The 1992 federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act was created in response to his actions. The operation continued with a focus on liberating animals rather than property destruction. Coronado also worked with Earth First.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates. It has been the subject of several major leaks or undercover investigations by activists and reporters since 1989.

Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it came to power in 1997. The hunger strike took place while Horne was serving an 18-year sentence for planting incendiary devices in stores that sold fur coats and leather products, the longest sentence handed down to any animal rights activist by a British court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Vlasak</span> American animal rights activist

Jerry Vlasak is an American animal rights activist and former trauma surgeon. He is a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, a former director of the Animal Defense League of Los Angeles, and a former advisor to SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals.

Keith Mann is a British animal rights campaigner and direct action activist who acted as a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and was alleged by police in 2005 to be a ringleader for the ALF. He was imprisoned twice, and is the author of From Dusk 'til Dawn: An Insider's View of the Growth of the Animal Liberation Movement (2007).

Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups, or individuals, challenge an established institution such as a law, economic system, social order, or government. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent protest and civil disobedience to vandalism, terrorism, and other violent activity.

The Animal Rights Militia (ARM) is a banner used by animal rights activists who engage in direct action utilizing a diversity of tactics that ignores the Animal Liberation Front's policy of taking all necessary precautions to avoid harm to human life.

The Justice Department (JD) was founded in the United Kingdom by animal rights activists who declared they were willing to use a diversity of tactics up to and including violence against their opponents. Initially calling for "abusers to have but a taste of the fear and anguish their victims suffer on a daily basis", activists established a separate idea from adhering to the Animal Liberation Front's (ALF) guidelines of non-violent resistance, similar to that of the Animal Rights Militia (ARM).

SPEAK is a British animal rights group working to end animal testing in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bite Back</span> Malaysian-registered website and magazine

Bite Back is a Malaysian-registered website and magazine that promotes the cause of the animal liberation movement, and specifically the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). According to The Sunday Times, the name is inspired by an arson campaign targeting the American fur industry throughout the 1990s.

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) has taken a variety of criminal actions since 1992. Actions were rarely publicised prior to 1996 and are therefore difficult to find.

Operation Backfire is a multi-agency criminal investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), into destructive acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes in the United States described as eco-terrorism by the FBI. The operation resulted in convictions and imprisonment of a number of people, many of whom were members of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.

Darren Todd Thurston is a Canadian former animal rights activist.

This timeline of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) actions describes the history, consequences and theory of direct action on behalf of animals by animal liberation activists using, or associated with the ALF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal Liberation Front</span> Animal rights direct action organization

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that advocates and engages in what it calls non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in the 1970s from the Bands of Mercy. Participants state it is a modern-day Underground Railroad, removing animals from laboratories and farms, destroying facilities, arranging safe houses, veterinary care and operating sanctuaries where the animals subsequently live. Critics have labelled them as eco-terrorists.

Mel Brown is a British landscape gardener and animal rights activist who rose to public prominence due to a planned bombing campaign aimed at preventing the construction of a new research laboratory at Oxford University. He was the co-founder in 2004, with Robert Cogswell, of SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, a campaign to stop animal testing in Britain, which is focused on opposition to a new animal laboratory at Oxford University.

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the environment".

The University of Washington firebombing incident was an arson which took place in the early morning hours of May 21, 2001 when a firebomb was set off at Merrill Hall, a part of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, causing an estimated $1.5 to $4.1 million in damages. By 2012 four of five accused conspirators behind the attack admitted their guilt in plea bargains. A fifth committed suicide in federal detention while awaiting trial.

The campaign against Highgate Rabbit Farm, also known as the Close Highgate Farm campaign, is a series of direct actions by anti-vivisection activists. Highgate Rabbit Farm in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire in England is licensed by the Home Office to breed rabbits and ferrets for animal-testing facilities, including Huntingdon Life Sciences. Actions have included a raid by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and an arson claimed by the Militant Forces Against HLS. The ALF raid in 2008 saw 129 rabbits removed and £100,000-worth of damage to property. The campaign has been linked to activists involved in Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).

References

  1. 1 2 Anti-vivisectionists claim responsibility for Oxford attack, The Guardian , 28 September 2005.
  2. ↑ Arson Attack on Oxford University Property, Bite Back , 25 September 2005.
  3. ↑ Elliott, By Mark Henderson and Valerie. "Animal activists turn fury on Oxford". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  4. 1 2 "MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base". 18 October 2007. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Animal rights activist admits firebombing attempts". The Guardian. 17 August 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Animal rights fire-bomber jailed". 13 February 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  7. ↑ "Animal militants set fire to Oxford boathouse". The Guardian. 21 July 2005. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 Animal rights group targets colleges in arson attacks Archived 13 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine , Cherwell24, 5 October 2004.
  9. ↑ Arson Attack on Oxford University, Bite Back , 6 July 2005.
  10. ↑ A protest to far Archived 28 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Oxford Student , 5 October 2005.
  11. ↑ Arson Attack Targets Oxford University, Bite Back , 24 February 2007.
  12. ↑ Animal Liberation Front renews its threat to Oxford [ dead link ], The Telegraph , 27 December 2007. [ dead link ]
  13. ↑ Arson attack at University sports pavilion, Oxford Mail , 20 November 2006.
  14. ↑ Arson Attack at Oxford - For Barry, Bite Back
  15. ↑ Arson Attacks Target Oxford Uni., Bite Back magazine, 8 November 2007.
  16. ↑ "Animal rights activist 'planned bombing campaign' against Oxford University". The Guardian. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.