During the past two decades, radical environmental and animal rights groups have claimed responsibility for hundreds of crimes and acts of terrorism, including arson, bombings, vandalism and harassment, causing more than $150 million in damage.   The majority of these crimes went unsolved.

However, in a noteworthy turn of events, 2006-2007 has seen the government make significant strides in its efforts to stem the tide of radical environmental and animal rights violence, making arrests in some of the most notorious cases. 

The biggest case involved over a dozen suspects, calling themselves "The Family," who were indicted in 2006 in connection with a series of firebombing attacks against numerous targets, including U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, Bureau of Land Management wild horse facilities, meat processing companies, lumber companies, and a high-tension power line.  Three others were arrested with bomb-making materials and plotting to destroy federal property, cell phone towers and power generation facilities.  The leader of the group, William Rodgers, committed suicide in jail after his arrest.

The indictments against "The Family" included charges for one of the most notorious acts of eco-terrorism, the 1998 arson of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado.  The crime caused $12 million in damage, but went unsolved for many years.  In December, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Stanilas Gregory Meyerhoff (both members of "The Family") pleaded guilty for the arson.  Two others indicted for the Vail attack, Josephine Sunshine Overaker and Rebecca J. Rubin, remain at large. 

Another noteworthy event occurred in September 2006, when six members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), a radical animal rights group, were sentenced in New Jersey to between one and six years in prison for inciting threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that uses animals to test the safety of drugs and chemicals.  The jury found the six defendants guilty of inciting violence against people and institutions who did business with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a British-based research firm that runs an animal testing laboratory in New Jersey.  SHAC targeted HLS and companies doing business with it by posting on its Web site the names, addresses, phone numbers and other personal information of HLS employees and those who do business with the company.