Declaration of War

by Screaming Wolf

This book describes the opinions and feelings of a group of people who were once members of the Animal Liberation Front. Liberators believe that a human has a no greater claim to life than a mole or a sea bass. They feel that humans are the lowest form of life, and that the world would be a much better, more peaceful place without them. If you agree with this position, then you will love this book.

Genres: Book Club

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 1991

Reviews

[Ryan McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it’s awesome that there are people who are comfortable with advocating carbombing vivisectors.

Just kidding, that’s obviously horrible.

It’s kinda cool though.

Only joking, of course.

Still...

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirty years anniversary of this carefully written polemic on animal liberation. It claims to have been received by a couple on a floppy disc, from an author named Screaming Wolf, who says they speak on behalf of an ideological group calling themselves The Liberators. The climate is obviously very different now and ideas such as infiltrators working inside exploitation industries are unlikely to pass muster in the surveillance state of today.

It contends that “only” 12% of humans are concerned with ethics (surely too high?) and as such the remainder will require additional threats to fall into line. Vegans however tend to be a peaceful lot so to this day there have been no fatalities in the name of other animals. As such the author goes to lengths to attack pacifist Gandhian beliefs. Prolifers etc have no qualms over using violence to forward their human causes so is this reticence the speciesist cop out that the author argues it to be?

The book calls for a separation with the global economy (the usage of cars and roads and their harms are particularly highlighted) and yet it only references human numbers in the final paragraph. Surely an antinatalist position would be key given how our numbers multiply all the other ills? The 400,000 new humans added to the planet daily are most likely not to hear of veganism, let alone ever convert.

[Sorkunde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent manifesto on Animal Liberation and why Direct Action is needed to free animals from bloodthirsty abusers.
This is of course something published in the hey days of the Animal Liberation Movement (and ALF) and only touched on the tip of the iceberg, but some arguments and tactics to monkey wrench the corrupt system are still valid today.

Pretty cool that a brave publisher took Screaming Wolf's thoughts and made a book out of it.

Violence is never the solution, not even when is the police jumping the gun.

[Robert Fitzsimmons · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads more as satire then as it does honest, like if you asked a German to write on ecoterrorism but missed all the nuance of the subject. A fun title but a frustrating read, books like Always Looking Forward or The Earth Liberation Front 97 to 02 capture the essence better.