Days after every animal was released from a Colorado mink farm, the county rejected its permit to relocate.
On Thursday, the Earth Liberation Front took credit for releasing at least 200 mink from the only known fur farm in Colorado. The farmer immediately announced the farm would have to close.
But there was one wrinkle to the story: The farm was in the process of relocating to a nearby property, and was awaiting approval of a permit to operate there.
Today Moffat county commissioners denied the farm’s permit to relocate.
Because the farm was being forced to move because of its proximity to nearby homes, and the farm has nowhere to move, its future is looking certain: The fur farm appears to be out of business.
Farm likely to shut down anyway
The denial of the permit may be moot, as the farmer announced after Thursday’s raid that he is shutting down the farm:
I won’t be doing the mink anymore. I can’t afford to… get back into it. I’m really tired of fighting.” – mink farm owner Doyle Checketts
Despite shutdown, owner of new location claimed to be going ahead with mink farm
After the announcement the farm would be shutting down, Sherman Romney, the owner of the property where the farm was slated to relocate, told the media he intended to go forward with a fur farm permit. Presumably, he either intended to open a mink farm himself, or find another fur farmer willing to relocate there.
While unclear, whatever plans this property owner had are now officially dead. The county denied the permit, and no one can legally operate a mink farm on the property.
The end
We will post any confirmed updates as we learn of them, but for now the conclusion to this story appears to be this: Animal liberators raided the only (known) fur farm in Colorado, and shut it down forever.
Owner announces the farm will close after every animal is released at a small Colorado mink farm.
“I won’t be doing the mink anymore. I can’t afford to… get back into it. I’m really tired of fighting.” – mink farm owner Doyle Checketts
In a communique received by Bite Back, the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for releasing 200 mink Thursday night from the only known fur farm in Colorado. The owner of the farm immediately announced the farm would shut down.
“We’re done. I’m too old to start again.” – farm owner Doyle Checketts
Existence of farm first made public just 3 days ago
The raid comes just 72 hours after the existence of the farm was first made public in an article headlined “Moffat County mink farm relocation proposal causing a stink.” The article, published Tuesday, covered resistance to the farm’s attempt to expand on a new property. Prior to the article, there were no known fur farms in the state.
While the article did not list the farm’s address, it did offer several clues to the farm’s location, including the name of it’s owner. This raid is a testimony to both the investigative ability and quick action of animal liberators, who located a farm within 72 hours with only a name, and then shut it down.
The communique revealed the exact address to be 622 Valley View Drive in rural Moffat County, 8 miles west of Craig, Colorado.
Address of future mink farm location also revealed
The ELF also determined the property where the farm had applied to relocate, and published it in their communique as:
35591 North Hwy 13
Craig CO
The owner of this property, James Gore, states he still intends to open a mink farm on this property, despite the closure of the farm that was attempting to relocate there.
With the Animal Liberation Front (and Earth Liberation Front) so quick to raid newly discovered farms, and the ELF publicizing this address in their communique, the odds are very much against James Gore in opening this farm without intervention from animal liberators.
A quarter of the mink remain free
While figures directly from fur farmers are never to be trusted, the owners reported that 50 of the 200 mink remain free as of Friday.
Losses estimated at $250,000
The raid caused a massive amount of financial damages for a release of only 200 animals. While the value of their pelts was estimated at only $10,000, the farmer had a contract to sell the breeding stock to a Danish company for $250,000. Because the breeding stock have intermixed with non-breeding stock, and the farmer can no longer tell them apart, he is unable to sell them as breeding stock and is out a quarter of a million dollars.
Fur farm siege continues
This hugely successful raid comes after 9 previous fur farm raids in four months, the biggest surge of activity since the 1990s. The last animal release occurred in early October, when a lone activist took credit for releasing 450 mink from a farm in Minnesota. Additional liberations took place in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
The takeaway
With only a name in a newspaper article to work with, courageous individuals were able locate a mink farm in less than three days, and shut it down in one night.
The communique
“On the night of November 14th, the Earth Liberation Front visited the previously unknown Colorado mink farm of Monte Ages, located at 622 Valley View Drive in Moffat County. This is one of the smallest mink farms in operation, so opening nearly every cage took very little time. The mink understood our mission and quite literally flew to the ground to make a dash for freedom. To cause the deranged Mr. Ages more financial trouble, breeding cards were removed and strewn about, and thrown in the piles of mink waste.
Michael Whelan will offer the same tired lies in response to this action. He advises farmers to ‘sympathize with the poor, lost animals.’ The lost wild animals who are now able to move freely, who will no longer be subject to Michael and his friends preferred methods of execution in the pelting season just two weeks away.
The truth is that mink are not domesticated. They are captive bred, and only for the quality of their pelts. Mink are aquatic animals who are solitary in the wild and travel several miles per day. The surrounding area of Moffat County is pristine wildlife habitat. The ones who escaped this wildlife prison will now live out their lives along the Little Snake and Yampa Rivers.
Mr. Ages has plans to move and expand his operation to 35591 North Hwy 13 in the town of Craig. This will not be tolerated. Your dreams of despoiling Northwest Colorado, contaminating our drinking water, and exploiting native american wildlife will turn into a nightmare. There will be consequences when darkness falls.
We send a salute to those courageous few who continue to fight alongside the earth and animals, even as your work is overshadowed by the bloggers, video editors, and all manner of self-aggrandizing activists.”
Five mink remain free and 80% of breeding records destroyed in the fifth fur farm rescue this summer.
The FBI is investigating the release of 20 mink in Utah Friday in a raid police say was interrupted by the arrival of a feed truck. Roughly 80% of the farm’s breeding records were also destroyed. Police say five of the mink remain free.
So far, the Animal Liberation Front (or other nebulous group) has not taken credit.
Since the ALF launched “fur farm raiding season” with the release of The Final Nail #4 in early June, farms in Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, and now Utah have been hit, with as many as 7,300 animals released. This is the 5th rescue of fur farm animals in two months, in a summer that has seen a wave of large Animal Liberation Front (and unclaimed) actions.
Aftermath of an ALF mink release in nearby Kaysville UT (2008)
Breeding records destroyed
Maximizing the impact of the raid, the majority of the breeding cards (generally found posted above cages) were also destroyed. This can cripple a mink farm by destroying the verifiable pedigree of its most valuable asset: Breeding stock. Without breeding records, a farm can suffer a massive financial loss and be forced to start from scratch.
Historically, the Animal Liberation Front has begun fur farm releases by destroying the records; a mostly silent activity unlikely to arouse attention before the noisier phase when animals are released.
Name of the farm kept secret
This is the first time in memory that police have refused to name the target of an animal liberation action, citing the threat of future raids. A police spokesperson had this to say about area mink farmers:
“They’re trying to remain as aloof as they possibly can because they don’t want to be revictimized.”
Narrowing down the list of possible targets
Although not named, the list of potential targets is narrowed down significantly by one detail: The raid was allegedly thwarted by the arrive of a feed delivery truck.
The Blueprint fur farm list contains an anonymously-submitted list of all Summit County fur farms on the delivery route for the Utah Fur Breeder’s Cooperative. Presumably, their feed delivery truck is the one referred to by police.
In all probability, the most recent mink release was at one of these six farms.
The season for liberation
This rescue is yet another significant, life-saving action in the most active summer for the ALF in over a decade. Here is a list of the larget Animal Liberation Front (and unclaimed) actions of this summer:
Pheasants released from “game breeder”, Riverside CA (July 22nd)
Horse slaughterhouse set on fire, Roswell NM (July 27th)
4,800 mink released from fur farm, Burley, Id (July 28th)
Bobcat freed from fur farm, Plains MT (August)
Birds release from wildlife exhibit, Corvallis OR
2,000 mink released from fur farm, Morris IL (August 14th)
500 mink released from fur farm, Keota IA (August 30th)
In the fourth fur farm raid in just over a month, 100 mink are released in Keota, Iowa.
Police were called to a rural Iowa mink farm at 5:30 Friday morning, responding to a call about “loose animals.” Police blocked off the road and began to roundup the over 100 mink that had been released sometime overnight. A police spokesperson described the scene:
“It looked like someone had opened the lids on the cages and let them run out.”
As with another recent fur farm raid in neighboring Illinois, there has been no claim of responsibility so far.
The animals were reportedly kept in cages “in plain sight of the road.” No graffiti or other indicators of a motive were left behind, and police are investigating the incident as a “prank.”
“We don’t see any signs of an animal rights group at this time… This looks like a prank at this point.”
However they may not be aware that this the fourth animal liberation action in a three-state area in three weeks, making it highly unlikely this is anything but the work of animal liberators.
Surge of activity in the Midwest
In the month of August, there were four actions in the three-state Iowa-Wisconsin-Illinois area, with the latest occurring just four days before this latest incident.
With four actions in three weeks, and 75% of them targeting the fur industry, this latest incident is unlikely to be a “prank.”
The farm in question
According to the website Final Nail, the fur farm targeted was:
Don Conrad
1109 190th Street
Keota, IA 52248
Phone: (641) 636-3858
Iowa remains a center of activity
Fur farms in Iowa are far and away the most targeted by the Animal Liberation Front, with 10 farms raided since 1997. Other ALF actions in Iowa have included the rescue of birds on two occasions from Double T Farms, a breeder of birds for vivisection (both claimed by the Animal Liberation Front), and the raid at the University of Iowa in 2004, in which 401 animals were rescued.
This activity prompted a newspaper in Waterloo Iowa to do a three-part series on animal liberation activity in the state recently, referring to the University of Iowa raid the state’s “most notorious,” and the throwing of red paint on the Butter Cow a “terroristic act.’ (police quote)
Recently, police near Keota took to staking out a proposed horse slaughterhouse in nearby Sigourney, fearing animal rights activists would burn it down.
Apparently they were staking out the wrong target.
In yet another large action this summer, 2,000 mink are released from a small farm in Illinois.
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.
Aerial view of the Morris, IL fur farm where 2,000 mink were released.
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.
All three fur farm raids have taken place in less than one month. In late-July, as many as 4,800 mink were released from a fur farm in Burley, Idaho. And earlier in August, the last bobcat imprisoned at a Montana fur farm was released from its cage.
This small wave of ALF fur farm activity comes after the slowest period since the Animal Liberation Front began its fur farm campaign in the mid-1990s. Last year, there was only a single release of animals from a fur farm: The release of 13 foxes from a farm in Elkton, Virginia.
No claim of responsibility – yet
News of this action comes almost two weeks late, and it was not known of publicly until a Morris, IL newspaper ran the story today. No communique has (yet) been received, and there are no known details beyond what is reported in the article. The fur industry has (so far) remained quiet about the incident.
In the third animal release in as many weeks, a bobcat is freed from a Montana fur farm.
The Animal Liberation Front is taking credit for the release of a single bobcat from the Frazier Fur Farm in Plains, Montana. In a communique released today, the ALF stated they entered what appeared to be a closed fur farm, then found a single bobcat in a hutch at the rear of the property. They opened the cage, and watched the bobcat “run free into the wilderness.”
This is the second fur farm liberation in just over two weeks. In late-July, anonymous individuals took credit for releasing between 2,400 and 4,800 mink from a fur farm in Burley, Idaho.
This is the first recorded live liberation from a Montana fur farm. Montana is said to be home to 14 bobcat and lynx farms, according to Coalition Against Fur Farms.
The Frazier Fur Farm is not to be confused with the Fraser Fur Farm, in nearby Ronan, Montana. The latter farm is believed to be the largest wildcat farm in the country, with approximately 90 bobcats.
Bobcat imprisoned at Montana fur farm, 2009.
Despite the fur industry’s attempt to hide the location of their farms, the ALF continues to find them. The communique for this action stated the address of Shelli Frazier’s farm was previously unpublished, further indicating the ALF’s ability to locate and target unpublicized fur farms. Many farms targeted by the ALF the past 10 years have been unpublished in documents such as The Final Nail.
A 2006 fur farm application submitted by Shelli Frazier to the state of Montana reads:
Applicant wishes to establish and operate a fur farm to propagate and sell Bobcats. The applicants plan to initially have 2-4 bobcats in enclosed cages. When fully operational, operators have indicated that they may have up to 50 bobcats on the premises.
As the ALF indicated in their communique (posted below), this business plan did not work out for Shelli Frazier. When they finally located her farm this week, only one bobcat remained.
The communique also referenced another failed Montana bobcat farm in Lolo, owned by Cole MacPherson. Remnants of McPherson’s farm remain, and he continues to hold an active fur farm permit despite his farm being found empty in 2012.
After a decline in raids the past 2 years, the actions of the past three weeks indicate this will be another prolific “fur farm raiding season” for the Animal Liberation Front.
The Animal Liberation Front’s communique reads, in full:
“In the early morning hours of July 27, the Animal Liberation Front visited the property of Shelli Frazier at 6934 Highway 200 in the town of Plains, Montana, completely surrounded by the beautiful Lolo National Forest. Frazier applied in 2006 for a permit to imprison bobcats on her property in a fur farm that she hoped would eventually grow to sixty cats. Despite already making a living breeding horses, she perhaps felt that this could be a lucrative side business. We arrived at her unpublished address determined to correct her mistake, and watch her investments run free into the wilderness.
Exploration of the site revealed that the force of economics had already precluded any need for the force of boltcutters – strewn about this disgusting and decrepit property were large empty cages, the rusted remains of Shelli Frazier’s dreams.
It was not until we checked every single run in an empty cat hutch tucked at the back of the northern lot that we found the tragic consequences of her business ineptitude. In one of the runs, huddling against the back wall, surrounded by rotting food, mildewed wood, and his own feces, was a lone bobcat.
The sight of a creature so majestic in a state so pathetic cannot be done justice with words. We have yet been unable to determine why Frazier kept him and him alone, but if it was a sense of sentimentality, it certainly was not evident from his treatment. Emaciated and filthy, his beauty was evident even through the matted fur and traumatized stare, with his bushy jowls and black ear tufts. To be in such proximity to this creature, staring into his haunting yellow eyes, changed every member of our cell. We could only speculate as to how he had suffered and what he had seen, but we could know with certainty that he deserved a shot at freedom. We opened his cage and left.
Shelli Frazier is not the only cruel human ever to keep such noble cats in tiny cages in Lolo National Forest. More than two decades ago, Rodney Coronado visited Cole MacPherson’s bobcat prison in the town of Lolo just an hour’s drive south of Plains. MacPherson’s farm was Frazier’s fantasy – a shed of sixty pacing, neurotic, traumatized large cats. Though he was forced to close shop around 2005, the ALF still keeps tabs on MacPherson – today, he continues his dental practice in Missoula. This should be a lesson to Frazier. If you ever again hold wild creatures captive on your land, we will breach it to free them.
Animal Liberation Front
Additionally, though we generally avoid airing internal issues in communications such as this, we felt that this small action, unlikely to attract media attention, would be appropriate to do so: As an ALF cell, we adhere strictly to the guidelines, including a policy of total nonviolence. Because of our desire not to be misrepresented to the media in this regard, we have in the past very clearly
requested that NAALPO not publicize or speak to the press about certain actions of ours. NAALPO has flagrantly disregarded our wishes in this regard. When a press office claiming to represent the ALF directly scoffs at the requests of the ALF, this should be a scandal within the animal rights movement. Those of us underground risk our freedom and sometimes lives rescuing animals; the least we can expect is a press office that is responsive to us. We regret having to hash this out here, but due to our anonymity we have no other recourse. We hope that NAALPO will respect our wishes in the future – it seems to us that its very legitimacy would hinge on this.”
Anonymous activists raid fur farm owned by Fur Commission USA board member.
Update: In media reports, the number of mink released now ranges from 3,600 to 4,800.
In a detailed communique received by Bite Back, “friends of wildlife” took credit for the second significant animal liberation in one week: releasing the entire breeding stock from the Burley, Idaho mink farm owned by Fur Commission USA board member Cindy Moyle. The communique stated that on the night of July 28th, approximately 2,400 animals were released.
This action is the first fur farm raid of what is unofficially known as “fur farm raiding season”. Starting in June, mink start to become mature enough to survive without their mothers, and mink on fur farms start to be killed in late-November. So historically, the Animal Liberation Front has struck almost entirely inside this window.
Damages estimated at nearly $1 million
Update: A press release from the Fur Commission dispute’s the police figure of animals released, and puts the number at “under 4,000.”
Local media is reporting the mink on the Moyle farm are valued at $100 each, but that the breeding stock are “more valuable.” Police have stated the number of mink released is 4,800, twice the communique’s estimate of 2,400.
We can reach a dollar-amount estimate of what this raid will cost Cindy Moyle based on these assumptions:
The breeding stock must be pelted out entirely, and will be a total loss because the farmer cannot tell which mink is which.
The breeders are very conservatively worth $200 each.
4,800 mink were released (as stated by police).
By these figures, this raid will conservatively cost the fur farmer $960,000, or just under $1 million.
The weak link: Breeding stock targeted
In a highly strategic move, the activists bypassed the majority of the mink on the farm and specifically released the breeding stock. Breeders represent a lynchpin for any farm. The quality of a mink’s pelt, and thus the price it can command at fur auctions, is most heavily defined by the farm’s specific breeding stock.
When breeders are released, they mix together and the farmer is unable to link each mink to its specific breeding records. Whatever animals are recaptured no longer have any breeding value, and must be pelted out. Breeding stock can be extremely valuable, sometimes worth over $1,000 each.
To quote Cindy Moyle, who spoke the the media after the raid:
“There is no way to connect the breeding history with the females now.”
What’s more, a farm’s breeding stock can represent a lifetime of work. There is unlikely to be any “genetic backup” for lost breeding stock, and a farm is forced to start it’s entire breeding program from scratch – a blow that can set a farm back decades.
Fur Commission’s security guidelines put to the test
As a board member of the Fur Commission USA, Cindy Moyle should be expected to adhere to security guidelines advised by her own group. However as the communique suggested, FCUSA board members apparently either don’t follow their own advice, or the recommended security is easily circumvented.
The communique stated the Moyle mink farm was chosen, in part, to “test out the efficacy of FCUSA’s new emphasis on farm security.” This refers to the Fur Commission USA recently shifting its focus from public relations to farm security, a move which indicates in part that fur farmers feel the Animal Liberation Front represents the biggest threat to their survival.
This shift in focus was marked in part by the publication of a security guide: “Site Security: Strategies and Protocols” The Fur Commission manual, which was alluded to in this communique for Moyle raid, gives instructions on how fur farmers can protect their farms from the Animal Liberation Front. (This guide has been obtained by Animal Liberation Frontline, and can be read here.)\
Challenging fur industry lies, preemptively
The lengthy communique also addresses several of the most common falsehoods repeated by the fur industry in the wake of mink releases. Among them, the survivability of farm-raised mink in the wild, and the labeling of animal liberators as “terrorists.”
There is one fur industry claim the authors don’t refute. From the communique:
“They will say that our raid may inspire copycat actions. We say that it undoubtedly will. It is a glorious thing that we live in a world where individuals regularly demonstrate the ultimate act of compassion – risking their freedom for the freedom of others.”
Summer is heating up
In the last week, pheasants were freed from a California farm, a horse slaughterhouse was set on fire, and now a large-scale mink liberation. With this surge in activity, this summer is on the fast-track to the ALF’s most prolific in years.
Full communique for Cindy Moyle mink release
“On the evening of July 28, 2013, friends of wildlife entered the Burley, Idaho, mink farm of Fur Commission USA Board Member Cindy Moyle, compromised the perimeter fencing, and set up roving surveillance of the on-site night watchman. We then liberated the entirety of her breeding stock into the wild, emptying over twenty-five percent of this wildlife prison.
Illuminated in the moonlight, 2400 of these wild creatures climbed out of the cages where they had passed their entire lives in isolated darkness, to feel the grass under their feet for the first time. Their initial timidity quickly became a
cacophony of gleeful squealing, playing, cavorting, and swimming in the creek that runs directly behind the Moyle property. They will live out their new lives along the Snake River watershed.
Cindy Moyle is a current Board Member, and former Treasurer, of the Fur Commission USA. After the recent leadership shuffling in FCUSA, we felt that the Moyle Mink Ranch would be perfect to test out the efficacy of FCUSA’s new emphasis on farm security.The Moyles are a mink dynasty in Idaho, operating up to eight farms, their own in-house feed operation, and a tannery. Those doubtful of our resourcefulness and guile have in the past called the Moyle farms impenetrable. Indeed, this is the first time that anyone has attempted action against one of them.
Having now had the pleasure of testing them ourselves, we wholeheartedly approve of the new FCUSA security guidelines. We are happy to see FCUSA members increasing their overhead on security – it means they are only that much closer to bankruptcy when we raid their farms. In the case of the Moyles, the breeding records we destroyed represent over thirty years of painstaking
genetic selection. There will be no recovering these genetic lines.
Aside from their operations harming helpless animals, the Moyles have also been federally investigated for exploiting undocumented workers and trafficking endangered species. Mike Moyle, ex-mink farmer and the current Idaho House Majority Leader, has used his political position to block Idaho neighborhoods from being able to declare his family’s foul and fly- infested prisons to be public nuisances.
The fur industry will no doubt propagate falsehoods regarding this act of kindness.
They will claim that we are terrorists. We say that if peacefully opening cages is an act of terrorism, then the word has no meaning. It is appropriately applied to the mass imprisonment and killing of wild animals.
They will claim that these mink are domesticated animals and will starve. Documentation on the success of farm-bred mink in the wild is extensive, so we will add only our experience watching these naturally aquatic animals, who had spent their entire lives in cages, head instinctively for water and begin to swim and hunt.
They will claim that conditions on mink farms are humane. We ask why, then, they try only to hide those farms from the public, pushing for legislation to criminalize the taking of photographs. The mink that we freed from the Moyles lived in intensive confinement in their own waste. Their suffering was plain to the eye, and their yearning for freedom plain to the soul.
They will say that our raid may inspire copycat actions. We say that it undoubtedly will. It is a glorious thing that we live in a world where individuals regularly demonstrate the ultimate act of compassion – risking their freedom for the freedom of others.
They will say that we will not stop short of the complete and total end of the killing of animals for their fur. On this point we are in total agreement.
Damage estimate and new info about last week’s fox liberation in Virginia.
One source apparently close to the farm’s owner is reporting damages from last week’s Virginia fox farm raid at $25,000 to $30,000. In addition to liberating 13 foxes, the Animal Liberation Front stated they also “damaged machinery” at the farm.
Although mainstream media has yet to pick up the story, there is other information Animal Liberation Frontline has learned about the fox liberation:
Owner Scott Dean is a trapper and member of the Virginia State Trapper’s Association (VTA), National Trappers Association (NTA), and Fur Takers of America (FTA).
In addition to the fox farm, Dean also owns “D&S Nuisance Animal Control” out of the same address. His website describes the company as providing the following services: “animal capture, animal removal, animal control, animal trapping, animal exclusion, animal damage repairs, animal waste cleanup, and more.”
Among the “nuisance” animals Dean will capture are foxes. This raises the question: Rather than “humanely” euthanizing the foxes other people pay him to capture (as he promises on his site), does he instead sell them for fur?
If so, this is almost certainly in violation of his National Wildlife Control Operators Association membership at best, and against the law at worst. Dean’s business live-trapping wildlife on other people’s property would provide him a steady stream of animals that aren’t just free – other people are paying him to take them. While we can’t know for certain, Dean’s dual work as a fur farmer and “wildlife pest removal” provider would seem to pose an inherent conflict of interest.
I will post any new information on the raid as it is available.
Thirteen foxes liberated from a fur farm in northern Virginia
On Saturday night, the ALF emptied a small fur farm approximately two hours from Washington DC. All 13 foxes on the farm were released. According to the communique posted by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the ALF also damaged equipment at the farm. The farm bordered Shenandoah National Park, where the foxes returned to their natural habitat.
The fox farm raided appears to be:
D & S Fox Farm
16671 Fox Farm Ln.
Elkton VA 22827-2739
540-298-9927
Owner: Dean Scott
The full communique reads:
“On the night of August 5, the Animal Liberation Front visited the only known fur farm in the state of Virginia, Scott Dean’s D&S Fox Farm in Elkton. We opened every one of the few cages at D&S, giving thirteen beautiful foxes a chance at new lives in the nearby Shenandoah National Park. As we watched a few of them immediately scurry off to freedom, we damaged the machinery that allows Dean to continue his day-to-day operation confining and torturing these sensitive creatures. Dean, it appears that this is a hobby providing you only supplementary income – it is our commitment to free your prisoners and cost you more than you make until you shut down. To those nationwide who also seek justice for the innocent, your nearest fur farm is at most a state away. Take action for animals. -ALF”
The past 3 years, mink liberations have surged in Oregon. This was the fourth mink liberation in the Astoria area alone in the past three years. In July 2010, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for setting fire to to several vehicles and a barn at the Ylipelto Fur Farm , also in Astoria. October 4, 2009 saw another 300 mink released from the same location, which was also the site of the release of 1,500 mink in 2008.
The communique reads: On the evening of September 24, we visited the mink farm on Savola Road in the outskirts of Astoria, Oregon, cutting holes in their fences before making our way through their sheds and opening cages.
Capitalism is cancerous and deadly to every life it comes into contact with. We’re not interested in reforms and stall tactics, nor in the continuance of a culture that views lives as an economic resource.
On these cooling autumn nights we warm our fingers on the breeding records we took from your sheds and throw into our fire, and take comfort in seeing that some of us still have it in them to run into the wilderness beyond the fences.
For those whose sympathies lie with laws and commerce over lives, look around: retailers and restaurants are catching fire, windows are broken, tires slashed, and security costs are rising. Now might be a good time to consider another line of work.
This action was dedicated to the radical teachers, gardeners and foragers, to those embezzling from corporations, sharing indigenous skills, setting fires, molotoving cops, and all those working to challenge capitalism’s deathgrip in their own communities. Your work inspires us.
Fewer calls to action, more action.
The Gordon Shumway Brigade
Exclusive photos inside the Palmer Erickson fur farm where over 1,000 animals were liberated last week
On October 10th, 2011, a person or persons unknown opened cages at a mink and fox farm in Jewell, Iowa; releasing 1,200 to 1,500 animals.
I’m posting here for the first time photos taken inside this farm. These were submitted anonymously during the research phase of the Fur Farm Intelligence Project (read more about the project here). The exact date of the photos is unknown, but they were obtained in 2009.
The farm is located along railroad tracks approximately one mile south of downtown Jewell, Iowa (pop. 1,239). About two miles northwest of the farm is a second mink farm, the Isebrands fur farm, raided by the ALF in 1999. Also located in downtown Jewell is the Hawkeye Mink Cooperative, a feed supplier and pelt processor for Iowa fur farms. Jewell has been been hit hard by Animal Liberation Front (and other unclaimed) actions since 1999, with four mink releases and a break-in at the Hawkeye feed supplier (see “how it was done” article in Bite Back #14).
These photos show the mink and fox imprisoned by Palmer Erickson at his Jewell fur farm. Last week, over 1,000 animals were spared the fate of those shown here by anonymous individuals who released them to freedom.
Major spike in Animal Liberation Front actions: three fur farm raids and a fur company arson in two weeks
In the latest action in a huge offensive against the fur industry, over 1,000 animals were released from Miller’s Mink Ranch in Gifford, Washington. In a communique, animal liberators took credit, and stated they opened approximately 75% of the cages at the farm. Breeding records were destroyed, and three mink were taken off-site and released into the wilderness.
This is the latest action in a major spike of ALF activity over the last two weeks, with three fur farm raids, one attempted raid in Iowa, an arson against a fur wholesaler in Idaho, and two massive fish releases in California (which may or may not have been the work of animal liberationists).
There has not been a wave of mink releases on this level since 1998. In a ten day period between August 18th and 28th of that year, five fur farms were hit and over 13,000 animals released. I believe that had this momentum been sustained, the fur industry would have possibly been eradicated in the US in a few short years. This recent surge in activity, if maintained, could present just such a threat.
Even the Fur Commission USA is being uncharacteristically transparent in its concern over the surge in actions, stating –
“Until this September, not a single incident of any significance had been reported this year by the US fur industry… But now there’s a major blip on the graph.”
This is the 11th reported fur farm release in Washington since 1996.
The fight to save the animals on US fur farms before pelting season continues.
– Peter Young
The full communique from the action reads:
“In the early morning hours of October 12th, we entered Miller’s Mink Ranch on Addy-Gifford Road in Washington, and took down every breeder card in one of the two large, main sheds. We opened approximately 3/4 of the cages, many of which had more than one animal, freeing more than a thousand animals. We also took 3 individuals and released them at different locations.
We chose to do this not because we believe that humans wearing fur is inherently wrong. Rather we think that the callous disrespect with which the fur industry treats the animals is despicable. The fact that it has become and ‘industry’ for the vanity and fashion of the rich is what we hate. In the Pacific NW the fur industry represents more than just animal abuse and species-ism. Trapping, killing, and skinning fur bearing mammals for profit was one of the first steps of westward expansion and manifest destiny in this area. It was one of the first parts of the colonial process that decimated many Native people and cultures. The fact that the fashion and fur industries point to Native people wearing fur as their justification of the factories of death is inexcusable. These people responsible have no personal or cultural ties to the native people who were here first, in fact, they are a part of the system that destroyed their way of life. The current way of ‘farming’ mink, fox, bobcat, and lynx does not bear any similarity or have any hint of the same respect for life and nature that the native tribes and cultures around here have.
We are not asking for better conditions for farmed mink, for a more humane way of caging wild beings. Mink are fiercely territorial animals in the wild, with territories that can be miles long, usually along waterfronts where they can swim and hunt fish and small mammals. This freedom is their birthright as wild creatures. The approximately 2 square feet in which Miller’s Mink Ranch cages two and sometimes three mink for the whole of their lives is unspeakable. It is unfortunately the standard for mink farms the world over. The agony and frustration at never feeling more than wire under paws that were meant for swimming and pursuing prey can only be wondered at. Some mink’s fervor for freedom is so great they bite the wires of their cages until they break their teeth.
We would like to dedicate this act to every rebel warrior who died nameless and whose rage and bravery went unseen and unknown, to all who struggle against oppression, even with no light at the end of the tunnel in sight.”
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