The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a name used internationally by animal liberation activists who engage in direct action on behalf of animals. This includes removing animals from laboratories and fur farms and sabotaging various facilities. According to their public statements, any act that furthers the cause of animal liberation, where all reasonable precautions are taken not to harm human or non-human life, may be claimed as an ALF action.

The ALF is not a group with a membership but an example of a leaderless resistance. ALF volunteers claim to see themselves as similar to the Underground Railroad, the 19th-century anti-slavery network. Activists remove animals from laboratories and farms, arrange safe houses and veterinary care, and operate sanctuaries where animals live out the rest of their lives.

Covert cells, active in 42 countries, operate clandestinely, with activists working on a need-to-know basis. A cell might consist of just one person. Robin Webb, who runs the British Animal Liberation Press Office, has said: "That is why the ALF cannot be smashed, it cannot be effectively infiltrated, it cannot be stopped.

You, each and every one of you: you are the ALF." Activists say the movement is non-violent. In Behind the Mask, a 2006 documentary, American activist Rod Coronado said: "One thing that I know that separates us from the people we are constantly accused of being—that is, terrorists, violent criminals—is the fact that we have harmed no one." There has nevertheless been widespread criticism that ALF spokespersons and activists have either failed to condemn acts of violence or have themselves engaged in it. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors U.S. domestic extremism, has noted the involvement of ALF activists in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign, which SPLC identifies as using "frankly terroristic tactics," and in January 2005, the ALF was listed in a draft planning document as a domestic terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Noel Molland writes that the ideas behind the ALF can be traced to 19th century England and a small group of activists from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). In 1824, Catherine Smithies, an anti-slavery activist, set up an RSPCA youth wing called the Bands of Mercy, a children's club modeled on the Temperance Society's Bands of Hope, which were aimed at getting children to campaign against drinking. The Bands of Mercy were intended to encourage children to love animals, although some of its members responded with more enthusiasm than the RSPCA had intended, and became known for sabotaging hunters' rifles.

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