September 8, 2001: Animal Rights Activists Torch Arizona Restaurant

Firefighters battle a blaze at a Tucson McDonald’s restaurant. [Source: Moonbattery (.com)]Activists with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) set fire to a McDonald’s restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, causing $500,000 in damages. McDonald’s has long been a target for the organization because of the firm’s large-scale slaughter of beef cattle, and the cover of the ALF manual “ARSON-Around with Auntie ALF” depicts a cartoon of a McDonalds burnt to the ground (see 1997). ALF and its sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), claim credit for the fire in a joint statement, and say the fire is meant as a warning to corporations worldwide. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]