During 1997 and '98 there has been an upswing of activities against animal abuse in Sweden. Large raids on vivisection breeders, arson attacks, mink liberations and smashing up fur shops is happening all the time. Not only has direct action seen an upswing but there is also a new movement being born, an animal liberation movement consisting of grassroots activists determined to achieve the liberation of animals. In late 1997, a new group made themselves known. They call themselves Animal Rights Militia and they seem to have picked out vivisection as their main target.

In November, they broke into a vivisection rabbit breeder in Enkoping and found 40 rabbits. They liberated 13 of them and destroyed the breeding cards for the others. They continued their excellent work in December when they carried out a raid in solidarity with English animal rights activist Barry Horne, who was recently given an 18 year sentence. They raided another breeder of rats and mice for labs owned by the Eklund Brothers. ARM liberated 48 rats and 9 mice from that hellhole and placed them all in loving and caring homes.

In '98 the successful work of ARM continued when they raided another animal breeder, BioJet Services, outside Uppsala. They went into the premises through open doors and their intention was to liberate 50 guinea-pigs but when they only found 92 guinea pigs in there, they emptied the place. According to media, the owner is thinking about closing it down. And to mark World Day for Animals in Labs, ARM raided the Eklund brothers a second time and managed to liberate 121 rats from their breeding units on April 23rd.

Also in April, a new group called the real "Djurens Befrielse Front" (ALF) (see commentary) made themselves known when they liberated a beagle named Angel from the veterinary school in Uppsala.

The new DBF carried out their second raid when they raided a battery unit in Kil and liberated 28 battery hens on May 2nd. Battery hens had been rescued before in March 1998, when 23 hens were liberated from their cages by a group calling themselves "Commando Astrid Lindgren." (Astrid Lindgren is a famous author opposed to battery hens) and the new group claimed that their acts would continue until all animal abuse was gone.

Also, in February, 2 mice decided to move from a vivisection lab in Stockholm to a new friendly person that would never harm them.

There have also been lots of fur farm raids in 1997/98. Since the beginning of 1998, a total of 35 raids have been carried out against fur farms and thousands of mink and foxes have been released, empty farms burned or trashed, breeding cards stolen and machines destroyed.

Most of those actions have been carried out by a group calling themselves "The Wild Minks" which has really had an impact on the Swedish fur industry. No one can deny that!

Unfortunately, 3 people were arrested at a fur farm in March (see separate article and interview) for raiding 2 mink farms but their arrest did not scare people - it made them even more determined to destroy the fur trade. In 3 days, a support demo with 40 people was held at the court and at the fur farm where the three were arrested and solidarity raids were carried out all over Sweden; in Ostersund, 70 foxes were freed by the ALF from a fur farm; in Forsheda, 300 minks were freed and in Stockholm, 11 fur shops lost their windows and had their locks glued... all in one night!

In April, the first national weekend for animal liberation was organised in Stockholm. It was called "April 24-26, 3 Days of Actions Against Vivisection." About 250 people from all over Sweden met up in Stockholm and had several civil disobedience actions and several large demonstrations against vivisection laboratories where windows were smashed and fences torn down.

Grassroots activists are carrying out civil disobedience actions against local fur shops all the time and more and more people in Sweden are turning vegans. There are two main groups for local activists. There is "Animal Rights Alliance," that works on all issues and there is "Eliminate the Fur Industry," a group helping local activists fighting the fur trade by assisting and giving them leaflets. "Eliminate the Fur Industry" is an organisation that will be remembered in the history for being the first group in Sweden to openly support direct actions for the animals.

The words "Animal liberation" have a new meaning. They are not just empty words anymore, it is happening... all the time, for hundreds and hundreds of animals... for them, animal liberation comes overnight in Sweden.