Animal Crackers

Undaunted by the post-Sep. 11 anti-terrorism climate, an Animal Liberation Front spokesperson yesterday released the first-ever "year-end report" on illegal actions committed in the name of animals and the environment, or so-called eco-terrorism. The report cites 137 such acts in 2001, including an act of arson at the University of Washington that resulted in $5.3 million in damage and a $1.5 million egg-farm fire elsewhere in Washington. Some people opposed to ALF's actions welcomed the report as proof of the destructiveness of the movement. The FBI classifies ALF and Earth Liberation Front activists as domestic terrorists, but has had minimal luck in finding and prosecuting them.