Ecoterrorism

The use or threatened use of violence, sabotage or property destruction, motivated by an environmental or animal-rights ideology, against a target such as a logging operation, an animal testing facility, a fur farm or a development project, a term used primarily by law enforcement agencies and by industries targeted by such acts rather than universally accepted by the activists or groups it is applied to, some of whom reject the label as a mischaracterization of direct action aimed at property rather than people. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation designated the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front, both loosely organized, leaderless movements rather than formal hierarchical organizations, as a top domestic terrorism concern during the 2000s, attributing to their adherents a documented series of arsons and sabotage incidents targeting sport utility vehicle dealerships, ski resort construction and university animal research facilities in the United States. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006 created an enhanced federal offense specifically targeting a person who damages or interferes with an animal enterprise, a law that civil liberties organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union have criticized as potentially sweeping in lawful protest activity alongside genuine property destruction.