Focus: He was not a scientist and did not harm animals. But they blew his car up anyway

The latest attack shows that animal rights extremists are now targetting people with little connection to testing labs. Tim Luckhurst reveals who is behind these terrifying tactics

The black Hyundai car was parked in the garage of Michael Kendall's home when it burst into flames, on the night of 26 May. "We heard the alarm go off and ran out to see what was going on," said a neighbour in Bracknell, Berkshire. "A tyre exploded, making a huge banging noise. You could feel the heat coming off the fire."

Mr Kendall, his wife and two young daughters, who had all been asleep in the house before the blaze, escaped unhurt. The fire was blamed on an electrical fault in the vehicle, and not considered suspicious at the time.

That all changed, dramatically, on Thursday. A website called Bite Back carried claims that the Animal Liberation Front had placed an incendiary device under the car. The attack was, it now seems, part of a campaign of terror being waged in this country against any company with a connection, no matter how remote, to scientific research involving animals.

Michael Kendall has been described as a family man with no personal links to animal testing whatsoever. He is, however, finance director for the small Canadian stockbrokers Canaccord Capital, which has provided services to Phytopharm, a British biotechnology group. Phytopharm has, in the past, been a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the research laboratory based in Cambridgeshire that has received a great deal of threatening attention from animal rights extremists.

When Bite Back suggested that this tenuous link had made Mr Kendall a personal target, his company responded by ending its relationship with Phytopharm. Soon afterwards, the Phytopharm share price tumbled.

That was exactly what the ALF wanted. It claimed responsibility for the fire with an internet posting that announced "a new era" of attacks had dawned. "If you support or raise funds for any company connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences we will track you down, come for you, and destroy your property with fire."

The tactic is called tertiary targeting. Barbara Davies of the Research Defence Society (RDS), which promotes understanding of the use of animals in research, says: "The targets of extremists are getting more and more tenuous because the primary targets are so careful to protect their staff. The militants have taken to intimidating the people who supply services to animal researchers. Their objective is to force organisations to close down by targeting individuals."

A spokesman for the National Extremism Tactical Co-Ordination Unit (Netcu), the police task force dedicated to fighting animal rights terrorism, explains. "They will even take it to the fourth degree of separation and target a supplier to a supplier to a supplier. It is extremely serious, very distressing and alarmingly effective."

The website of one of the most militant groups, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, declares: "Shac is here to deliver justice to Huntingdon's suppliers." Jim Watkins (not his real name) was a victim of Shac. He believes extremists targeted him because a foreign shareholder in his company had once done business with HLS. At first he received threats by email. One read: "You're fucked. Your company is fucked. I would gladly go to prison for stabbing an animal abuser to death."

Next, a very authentic hoax parcel bomb was delivered to his house. "Then we got a dozen home visits, always at night." His attackers let off fireworks, spray-painted his house and threw paint stripper on cars. Letters were sent to his neighbours alleging that he was a convicted paedophile. Jim says: "As battlefield tacticians they are technically brilliant. It works. You can't stand it. You do what they want to make them stop."

Major police investigations are currently under way. The head of Netcu, Superintendent Steve Pearl, says: "These are extremely serious crimes. They demonstrate that animal rights extremists continue to recognise no boundaries in what they are prepared to do."

Experts identify four main groups whose members include those involved in what the FBI calls terrorism but British authorities prefer to define as extremism or criminal militancy. These groups also include people who do not approve of extremist tactics. Shac was formed in 1999, as was Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs or SNGP, which campaigns for the closure of Newchurch Farm, near Burton on Trent in Staffordshire, where guinea pigs are bred for laboratory use. Speak is a group originally set up to prevent the building of a primate research centre at Cambridge University. Then there is the ALF itself, a network of groups in Britain and around the world that advocates "rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property".

None of these organisations has formal memberships. They also share members. A Netcu spokesman explains: "There is substantial overlap between all the extremist groups and between legitimate groups and extremists. Overlap between protest and criminal action is a huge problem in the animal rights movement."

Intelligence sources explain that the leading minds behind the broader ALF movement establish local front organisations, on the classic Trotskyite model, to fight specific campaigns. These groups recruit honest, committed animal welfare activists but also provide cover for extremist activity. This is almost always claimed under the ALF banner. The police are currently very concerned about the Gateway to Hell Campaign, an initiative set up to prevent the import of animals for vivisection. It claims to be "an independent collective of animal rights activists". Police sources fear it involves several seasoned ALF extremists.

The campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences rose to prominence in 2001, when shareholders, banks and investors began to be targeted, causing massive disruption and expense to businesses and individuals. Now builders, hauliers, cleaning companies and caterers are deemed "legitimate targets".

Gateway to Hell achieved a notable "success" recently when it celebrated British Airways' promise not to accept the carriage of primates, wild birds or other live animals "for use in any laboratory or for experimentation or exploitation". Earlier activists intimidated Air Mauritius into ending its transport of live macaque monkeys. A spokesman for the airline described that campaign as "commercial terrorism".

Barbara Davies warns: "Secondary and tertiary targeting has had the potential to seriously damage medical research in this country. At the moment all the extremists have to do is say, 'We know where your children go to school' and suppliers will take the route of least resistance and withdraw services to the target companies."

But the RDS believes help is on the way. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which received royal assent in April, gives the police new powers to tackle intimidation of individuals and companies working in the supply chain to animal research facilities. The Government's intention is to end campaigns that the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, believes put "breakthroughs in areas like Aids, cancer and Alzheimer's directly at risk".

But campaigners vow to go on. Keith Mann, 39, a leading member of the ALF now in prison for contempt of court, said yesterday that they have no choice. "We have got Asbos being used against us - we have injunctions to stop us protesting. All that is left now is to turn to extremism."

WHO ARE THEY?

Shac

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Formed in 1999 with main aim of closing down Europe's largest animal testing lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Defended its targeting of Jim Watkins by claiming that he worked for a company that had raised millions for another company that was a customer of HLS. Motto: "Words mean nothing. Action is everything."

SNGP

Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs. Also started in 1999, to campaign for closure of Newchurch Farm in Staffordshire, where guinea pigs are bred for use in scientific tests. Has targeted Calor Gas, which supplies fuel for the central heating at the farm. Motto: "Liberation now".

Gateway to Hell

Just launched, with stated aim of ending vivisection in the UK by targeting the airports, airlines and other means by which animals for laboratory use are imported. Claims to be an "independent collective of animal rights activists". Has already been associated with intimidation of British Airways staff.

The ALF

The Animal Liberation Front, a network of groups committed to direct action against "animal abusers". Tactics include breaking into laboratories, causing damage and destruction to property and making increasingly personal attacks on staff and directors. No central leadership; described by opponents as "the al-Qa'ida of animal rights".