Can anyone help me learn the difference between ALF and NAALPO?

[Humane Animal Resources]

i have been trying to uncover what their differences are - as i hear they are quite distinct from one another, but so far my investigations yield only that which confuses me further. :P

***i'm particularly interested in what their respective takes are on violence (toward humans) and direct action.***

muy thanks in advance for your help.

-seraphime
xox

[red dog]

I haven't spent much time at the NAALPO site in years, but AFAIK their role is to explain to the public why ALF activists (and possibly ARM and other groups, I'm not sure) do what they do. I hope that's not illegal yet, but someone is probably trying to make it illegal.

[Humane Animal Resources]

red dog, thank you for your response. it's been very helpful. let's see if i got it right: NAALPO is above ground, meaning all its activities are legal. and NAALPO *is* a direct action organization also?

both NAALPO and ALF are direct action, but NAALPO only does legal direct action whereas ALF may participate in illegal direct action?

thank you so much for the info and the links. will be checking out.

>^.^< >:o)

[red dog]

What I mean is that what appears to be an ALF action might not be ... a farmer might have damaged his/her own property to make a false insurance claim, or someone with a personal grudge might have done it for reasons totally unrelated to animal rights/liberation. When the media report that "the ALF torched a slaughterhouse last night," they're being irresponsible because they can't possibly know that for a fact. It's also irresponsible to claim that someone is "linked to the ALF" or has "ties to the ALF" or is a "member of the ALF" on the basis of involvement in an above-ground group such as NAALPO ... or just because they've said they support direct action in principle or won't issue a blanket condemnation of it.

I was seriously harassed on a (non-animal-related) message board because I'd made some pro-ALF statements there. The harasser tried to turn my words around and intimidate me out of attending a fundraiser for a local animal rescue group. I had to attend the fundraiser *just* to prove I wasn't afraid of this person, but it's still very difficult for me to go into some areas of the city where I might run into him or his friends.

[red dog]

Here's a link to the NAALPO site. It's run by above-ground people who are not involved in any illegal activity and have no direct contact with ALF activists. The ALF activists are anonymous individuals, and you can learn about their philosophy and actions (to some extent) through the NAALPO site as well as many other pro-direct action sites. There's no central authority figure who tells ALF activists what to do, and we can only speculate about who they are and what they believe unless they get caught and issue a statement from prison. Information about supposed ALF actions is inherently unreliable for that reason, so it's always best to qualify statements and not attempt to write as if you know all the facts of a case (especially an unsolved case).