Third Fur Farm Raid in One Month: 2,000 Mink Released in Illinois

by Peter Young / Animal Liberation Frontline

Aerial view of the Morris, IL fur farm

Local media is reporting 2,000 mink were released on August 14th from a fur farm in Morris, Illinois. Police state they received a call at 5am on August 14th from the farm owned by Bob Dodeghero. 2,000 mink had been released, two trucks had been doused with paint stripper, and a barn had been spray painted with “Liberation is love.”

The farm is one of the smallest mink farms in the country. A farm of its size (as shown in the photo below) is typical of a farm that can hold somewhere in the range of 2,000 animals, making it likely that every animal was freed.

The ALF’s “freedom summer” continues

This is the 6th major US action of the summer, which has seen a horse slaughterhouse arson, two releases of birds from game farms, and three releases of animals from fur farms.

After ALF Visit, Farmers Say They are Out of the Pheasant Business

by Peter Young / Animal Liberation Frontline

Last week, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for releasing dozens of pheasants from the Ash Grove Pheasant Farm in Riverside California. Now the owners have announced they are out of the pheasant-breeding business altogether.

Co-owner Theresa Fitzgerald told the media this week that she will keep any recaptured birds as “pets”, but will no longer sell pheasants. While the information is unconfirmed, it would appear the ALF effectively shut down the Ash Grove Pheasant Farm.

The importance of fact-checking

It is not uncommon for animal businesses to feed disinformation to the public to avoid being a target. There have been confirmed cases of this, such as fur farms making false claims of closure to remove themselves from the public’s radar, and animal researchers announcing the end to protocols that in fact continue using less “cute” animals (e.g. replacing dogs with pigs).

ALF Releases Captive Pheasants from Farm in Riverside, CA

anonymous communique / North American Animal Liberation Press Office

Riverside, CA: In a communique received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front has taken credit for liberating captive pheasants from four out of six pens at a Riverside, California farm on July 22nd. According to documents posted at the Wildlife Farm Database (“Directory of captive wildlife operations for activists”), the Ash Grove pheasant farm is one of just over 60 farms in California that breed “game birds,” including quail and partridges.The birds are slaughtered for sale as meat, or sold to captive hunting facilities to be shot at close range by so-called hunters.

This is the third raid of a pheasant farm in the last 18 months. In March 2012, the Animal Liberation Front released 70 to 100 birds from a farm in Oregon. Several months later, the ALF released “dozens” of pheasants from another Oregon farm.

The communique reads, in full:

On the night of July 22, the masked rescuers of the Animal Liberation Front entered the Ash Grove Pheasant Farm at 10540 Victoria Avenue in Riverside, California. As the farmer slept just feet away, the fencing was torn open with wire cutters. Four of the six pens on the property were breached, giving these beautiful beings a chance at freedom.

San Diego Fur Shop, Owner’s & Manager’s Residences Sabotaged by ALF

from North American Animal Liberation Press Office

July 21, 2013

Received Anonymously:

In the early morning hours of July 16, 2013, anarchists in San Diego took action on behalf of the millions of fur-bearing animals who are trapped, enslaved, and killed to sustain the global fur industry.

We first visited Furs By Graf at 7670 Claremont Mesa Boulevard in the Claremont neighborhood. Every single piece of plate glass on this hideous enterprise was soaked in glass etching solution. The exterior of the store was covered in red spray painted slogans. Bottles of foul smelling butyric acid were sprayed into the interior, leaving this place of commerce smelling like death; identical to the odor present on every fur farm. We hope this is a costly clean up, and serves to drive away all patronage.

Comic Book Analysis and Review: Liberator #2

Matt Miner’s Animal Liberation Comic Gives Hero Themes a Reality Check

by Rabb!t / Earth First! Newswire

The second installment of the ALF-inspired comic series, Liberator, comes out this Wednesday [Update: street date changed to 7/31], and I have to say this issue is even better than the first. The story, characters, and political issues are complex, the art is sharp, clean and vibrant, and the moments of ecologically-motivated property destruction and animal rescue are even more satisfying this time around. If you haven’t read the first issue or our first review, you may want to do so before you read on, in order to get some context for the following analysis. Be warned, there are a few minor spoilers ahead (but nothing you probably couldn’t guess from looking at the cover).

As an activist who enjoys reading comic books, I knew the Liberator series would resonate with me, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t be accessible to non-activist comic book fans, or non-comic book-reading activists. While portraying underground animal rights activists as superheroes sounded like a great idea, it had the potential to be forced into place, and consequently come across as either too hokey for the political issues or too serious for the medium. As it turns out, my concerns were unfounded. In fact, rather than alienating either set of potential fans, the unique combination of underground activism with classic comic book structure offers something for everyone, and adds a refreshing dose of realism and depth to traditional superhero themes.

Comic Book Review: Liberator #1

from Earth First! Newswire

The first issue of the Animal Liberation Front-inspired comic book, Liberator, hits shelves today. Check it out for pages of awesome animal fury against cruel anthropocentrists.

Liberator #1 [Black Mask Studios, 2013] is about two activists—one who puts her freedom on the line by committing civil disobedience, and one who works underground, running an autonomous campaign of liberation and sabotage against dog fighting rings and fur farmers. Security culture, tactical diversity, shitty coworkers, asshole cops, explosions—Liberator seems to have it all. It’s refreshing to see a comic hero fighting for something I care about, rather than protecting the financial security of the rich and middle class. The comic world hasn’t had anything approaching this since Grant Morrison’s Animal Man chickened out during a laboratory arson.

The art, with illustrations by Javier Sanchez Aranda and coloring by Joaquin Pereyra, is lively and engaging, if a little more technophilic than I would have expected from such a niche publication. But where Liberator really sets itself apart is with its writing. In a medium dense with mutations and magic, Matt Miner presents us with a new kind of hero. Damon, the protagonist, is a barista by day and an almost Travis Bickle-like ski mask-donning animal rescuer by night.

Gagged by Big Ag: How Exposing Abuse Became a Crime

Illustration by Tim O’Brien

Horrific abuse. Rampant contamination. And the crime is…exposing it?

by Ted Genoways / Mother Jones

Shawn Lyons was dead to rights—and he knew it. More than a month had passed since People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had released a video of savage mistreatment at the MowMar Farms hog confinement facility where he worked as an entry-level herdsman in the breeding room. The three enormous sow barns in rural Greene County, Iowa, were less than five years old and, until recently, had raised few concerns. They seemed well ventilated and well supplied with water from giant holding tanks. Their tightly tacked steel siding always gleamed white in the sun. But the PETA hidden-camera footage shot by two undercover activists over a period of months in the summer of 2008, following up on a tip from a former employee, showed a harsh reality concealed inside.