By Shadow Activist

This column is produced independently of No Compromise and is intended purely for entertainment, educational and other legal purposes. It is in no way meant to encourage illegal and unethical action. No Compromise, its steering committee, volunteer staff and other contributors assume no liability for any such actions.

Activists Working the Late Shift… At the Animal-Abuser’s Home

Determining where battles are fought in a war is crucial in gaining the edge on ultimate victory. When we, as activists, wage war at the homes of animal abusers, the playing field levels off in our favor. It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain effective street campaigns against massive and faceless corporations, especially when the opposition is holed up in high-rise buildings and secured complexes. When access to public protest is cut off, bringing the message home isn’t only an alternative; it’s an effective necessity. Attacking the home, making it personal, attaches a face to those responsible for inflicting pain on animals.

This Isn’t Avon Calling…

When we strike at home, the abusers no longer have the comfort of working behind the security blanket of company-subsidized protection. The animal abuser is no longer able to keep work separate from his personal life, creating a host of financial and psychological problems that demonstrate the efficacy of targeting the opposition at home. After all, isn’t it true that “home is where the heart is”?

Everyone has to eat and sleep. Historically, these basic human needs have provided a valuable angle of attack in many successful wars or sieges. Companies will explore alternatives when animal exploitation loses profitability. Animal-abusers will consider another line of work when they can’t sleep without fear of reprisals from activists. The only barrier to effectively targeting our adversaries is our own lack of creativity.

The Work of an Activist Begins “Off the Clock”

It is absolutely imperative that one’s homework is thorough and 100% correct before taking action. Don’t simply rely on an Internet search or a telephone call to confirm your suspicions. Make absolutely sure that the face matches the name and the target is still “in the business.” Make sure that the individual to be targeted currently resides at the location through your own physical confirmation. For example, make sure that John Doe still works at Company Filth and that Mr. Doe’s address and/or phone number is current. DO NOT simply rely on a telephone call confirming that John Doe lives at 666 Mockingbird Lane. Confirm that your John Doe who lives at 666 Mockingbird Lane IS ALSO the very same John Doe who works at Company Filth.

There are many ways of locating and confirming the home addresses, gyms, churches, clubs, and associations of your target. But the responsibility of discovering and implementing those methods lies with the individual activist. If there is a will, the underground movement has certainly proven that there is a way to achieve our objectives. Be creative, think outside the box and don’t give up at the first block wall in your search. The methods of locating and confirming the personal information of our adversaries are best kept in some degree of mystery, to be realized by the cells that will immediately use such information. To publish those methods here is to make them available to our adversaries and effectively compromise those techniques from ever being used by activists.

Sleep With One Eye Open

After confirmation, go all out in your efforts. After the first hit, the odds of a second successful second hit are often decreased. Assume that the first shot is the last shot, so make it count. John Doe will sleep many restless nights, waiting to catch you on a return visit; so don’t play into his hands. Nervous anticipation and suspense are almost as effective as the action itself, so making him sweat is key to effectively striking at home. The physical invasion of privacy can be remedied through insurance and security, but the mental invasion and psychological sabotage are long-lasting and incredibly effective. While economic sabotage is key, psychological warfare is an invaluable tool to stopping animal exploitation. Hit hard and make ’em sweat.

While listing the methods of destruction in a communiqué is important for not only informing the public and educating other activists as to how they can carry on the actions in their own community, the opportunity for screwing with the abuser’s mental state is at hand. One might want to consider mentioning the night activists looked on as John Doe and his wife watched television reruns on the sofa, unaware of the activists just outside their window. Activists might want to suggest that John Doe run his sprinklers at night rather than during the day or to inform him that motion detector lights are a waste of money. Use that previous reconnaissance time as another avenue of publicly invading the private sphere of the animal-abuser, but be mindful to omit details that would jeopardize your cell or your methods of operation that you plan to use in the future.

The more personal, the better. Let him think that nothing is off limits. And don’t forget to make the address public in your communiqué so others can feel free to pay him a future visit. People cherish their privacy, especially animal-abusing scum. Publishing his address takes away yet another sense of security. Make him feel exposed and vulnerable; keep him up waiting for the other shoe to drop and rub his face in it. Destroy his property, strip him of his security, and leave him unnerved and vulnerable, feeling like the worthless chump that he is.

Some basic but effective ways of hammering the message home are to:
» Glue the door locks
» Smash out the windows with rocks
» Repaint the house exterior by tossing on gallons of a most obnoxious color
» Tell his neighbors that an “Animal-Killer lives here” by spray-painting his garage door
» Pour bleach all over the front lawn
» Tear up the front lawn
» Padlock the garage door shut (Many garage doors have a latch on the sides of the door that are fitted for padlocks. Automatic garage doors aren’t cheap to repair and if he can’t get to work in the morning, he can’t make money.)
» Pour paint thinner or a new coat of paint on the car
» Slash the car tires
» Pour corn syrup or sugar into the car’s gas tank
» Cut the phone lines to the house (this is especially aggravating when he wakes up to a trashed house and can’t even call the police to report it)
» Repaint the house interior… Fill glass bottles with paint (or paint thinner) and pitch them through the front windows (they’ll shatter in the living room, creating a big mess)
» Take a sledgehammer and smash up the exterior stucco or wood siding
» Just flip the car over and smash it up
» Turn the hose on (preferably inside an open window)
» When John Doe is on vacation, and there are no animals at home, leave him a pile of ash to return to
» Steal his newspaper (the little things can be the salt in the wound)

Every home is different, so be creative and look to exploit any prospect. The possibilities are endless with some ingenuity.

Most importantly, make sure everything is clean of fingerprints and DNA. Leave nothing behind other than a big mess (or a clean padlock in a particular instance).

When Their Work Keeps Following Them Home

After the identity and home of the animal-abuser has more than adequately been verified and proper reconnaissance has been done, plan out your night’s course of action to the smallest detail. Have an escape route and emergency rendezvous point planned. Check the surrounding houses to make sure that no neighbors are up and about. Make sure that your target is sound asleep and unsuspecting.
When combining different methods of mischief like gluing locks, spray painting, damaging automobiles, and smashing windows, start nearest the front door and with the quietest actions first. It’s simply not a good idea to smash out a window and then go glue the front door locks or to tear up the lawn and then start spraying messages. Strike fast and hard; then get away fast.

It is imperative that the maximum amount of destruction is planned, as the first attack may make any subsequent attack unsafe. Don’t assume you can just finish up an incomplete job at a later date, but don’t discount one either. If you decide to return, and you should, approach from a different angle and vary your technique as well as the time and day of a subsequent visit. Let him sweat a little before returning, and just as he feels things are returning to normal, rattle his cage in a big away again. Or if he’s replaced the front windows after your first visit, considering cruising by later that night and shooting them out with a slingshot and marbles. There will be no mistaking the message.

Be creative and seize any unique opportunity that presents itself in your suburban assault. Make every effort to not only destroy property, but to completely dismantle the animal-abuser’s sense of security.

Take every liberty in completely screwing with his head and ensuring that, when leaving the strain of work, he retreats to a strained household. Try pitching his kid’s tricycle through the front window to really get under his skin. He’s a scumbag who profits from the death of sentient beings… all bets are off!

Targeting the home of an animal-abuser not only adversely affects the finances and psychological well-being of the abuser himself, but those with whom he resides. A hard day’s work is bad enough, but when the castle has been ransacked and the marriage is stressed, a reassessment of priorities is inevitable.

Combining a variety of the tactics previously mentioned can easily inflict several thousand dollars worth of damage, create a lot of headache, and cause many sleepless nights. Every dollar of damage and every psychological assault brings the adversary one step closer to reconsidering his role in animal exploitation.

Bringing the fight to the doorsteps of the animal-abuser employs a strategy that combines economic and psychological values of sabotage that cannot be overstated. By staging the battlefield on our opposition’s home turf, we gain an incredible advantage that animal-abusers have yet to combat. Making it personal efficiently destroys the security, morale, and finances of those who torture innocent lives. So get out there and don’t just knock; beat down Death’s door.

And remember: Maximum Destruction, NOT Minimum Damage.