The ALF took shape in England in 1976, when Ronnie Lee's Band of Mercy hunt saboteurs adopted a name for clandestine animal rescue and sabotage under two rules: liberate animals and destroy the property of their exploiters, while taking every precaution never to harm a living being. Like the ELF that later copied its structure, it was a banner for autonomous cells, not an organization.
The first acknowledged American action came in 1979, when raiders freed animals from the NYU Medical Center; in 1982 the first U.S. cells began systematic laboratory raids. From the start the American movement paired rescue with documentation — the animals came out, and so did the files and videotapes that made the labs' own records the movement's chief weapon.