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”
Unclaimed mink liberation reported in FBI document from ALF legal case.
One of the many documents made pubic in the Alex Hall and William Viehl case revealed a previously unknown action that was apparently the work of animal liberators: Sometime in August, 2008, persons unknown opened 15 pens and released 114 mink from a mink farm in South Jordan, Utah. This action was unclaimed, and was never reported on in the media. Until, this action was not known outside of the fur farming community.
The quote from the FBI document reads:
“McMullin stated that several days before the vandalism at his farm occurred, Hunter Groves Mink Farm may have been targeted by animal rights extremists. McMullin added that about 15 pens had been opened up and about 114 mink had been released.”
“McMullin” refers to Lindsey McMullin, the owner of the farm where Alex Hall and William Viehl released 650 mink in August 2008, an action they were subsequently arrested and served prison time for. The McMullin fur farm is a short distance north of the (former) Groves fur farm.
The Hunter Groves Mink Farm is one that is known to area activists: for many years it was an active mink farm in South Jordan, Utah, located in a (relatively) densely populated area on a major road. At a protest there in 2010, members of SLAAM (Salt Lake Animal Advocacy Movement) were given a tour of the farm by caretakers, and shown that the farm was empty. The caretakers stated the farm had moved to Benjamin, Utah. The new address of that farm has not yet been released, and it is not known if the raid influenced that move.
ALF spraypaint left on mink shed at McMullin Fur Farm in 2008
Just a note for anyone in or near St Louis: I’ll be speaking at Webster University on Monday as part of the international eco-prisoners solidarity day.
The event is being put on by the awesome new group St Louis Vegans. Check out theevent Facebook page.
The talk will be at:
Webster University
Library Conference Room
St Louis, MO
7pm to 10pm
And here’s the full writeup for the event:
“Join us for an event to support prisoners serving sentences for crimes committed to save animals and the environment. This is part of an International Day of Solidarity with Eco-Prisoners.
Peter Young will speak about his own experiences as an animal liberator and subsequent federal prisoner. Thousands of mink released from fur farms. Seven years evading the FBI. Two years spent locked up. Come listen to what Peter has to say about prisoner support, “eco-terrorism,” and animal rights.
We’ll be raising donations for the legal fees of prisoners by taking pre-orders on t-shirts to be printed soon. These shirts are custom-designed by a local print artist and feature artwork that depicts the relationship between human and animal prisoners.
Everyone who attends will also get a packet with contact information for current eco-prisoners and guidelines on how to write them.”
Notorious pro-vivisection group Americans for Medical Progress is exposed using “@Vegwashington”.
The famed animal research lobbying and public relations group American’s for Medical Progress may be following you on Twitter: they are currently using the Twitter name “Vegwashington” to follow over two-dozen activists.
Animal Liberation Frontline has received information AMP has been using this account for nearly two years to track the online activity of animal rights activists. Are they following you? I’ve posted the full list of who they are following below.
Who is Americans for Medical Progress?
If you’ve given any amount of attention to opponents of the animal liberation movement, you are aware American’s for Medical Progress. They work to promote animal research, or more accurately, combat the animal rights movement. They have an emphasis on speaking out against the work of the Animal Liberation Front, through their campaigns such as “Pro-Test”.
Who they follow
The list reads like a fairly typical who’s-who of people you might want to track if you are a pro-vivisection group (I’m flattered to have made the list). There is one suspicious exception: the Twitter feed for “@baconpatriot”, apparently having a pro-meat focus. This raises the question: Is this another secret disinformation / public relations-aimed Twitter account?
It should be no surprise that anti-animal rights groups are monitoring activists on the internet. It’s not just easy, it’s (mostly) anonymous. However, rarely do they get caught and exposed.
The few in recent memory who have been caught (primarily on Facebook), have all made a feeble attempt to cultivate an image of authenticity in their online activist persona. And in every attempt, including this one, it comes off as cartoonish caricature. Like a two-dimensional version of a real “activist”.
In this instance, there’s not much to go off of (they only posted two tweets), but look at the photo, tagline, and tweet content. The only word that comes to mind again is: cartoonish. (Oddly, their second tweet would seem to give them away, calling someone hypocritical for being anti-animal research but pro-chemotherapy.)
Here is the list of those they are currently tracking:
Myself
@peterdyoung
Bruce Friedrich
(Farm Sanctuary)
@BruceGFriedrich
A. (pro-meat emphasis)
@baconpatriot
Jordan Cade Halliday
(grand jury resister / prisoner)
@xacrox
animal liberation
@ALF_Fighter
ForTheAnimals7
Shannon Morgan
@ForTheAnimals7
Jordan Cade Halliday
(another account for Jordan Halliday)
@SupportJH
To prepare for “fur farm raiding season”, a fur farming group distributes an ALF-raid preparation flier.
Historically, June is the beginning of “fur farm raiding season”, when mink born in March mature to a state where they can be liberated. To prepare, the Fur Commission USA is distributing a two-page document titled “Trespass Season Is Coming. Are You Ready?”, to help mink farmers prepare for possible raids by the Animal Liberation Front.
The concern over ALF raids is well-warranted. Since 1995, there have been over 90 raids on fur farms across the US. A (well-done) chart included in the flier traces the rise and fall of ALF fur farm raids, from the peak of 1997 and 1998, to a whole year without a documented action in 2006, to another small surge in 2008 (and 2011, not shown in the chart).
These are some of the more interesting notes from the document:
*The flier instructs fur farmers that “we must be on guard from June to October, the period ALF’s The Final Nail calls the ‘window of time advisable for fur farm liberations’.”
*It instructs fur farmers to report any suspicious activity to the FCUSA for their “Neighborhood Watch Report”.
*Quote: “Should your farm be hit by terrorists, call 911. This is an emergency.” Second, farmers are instructed to call their breeder’s association to solicit other farmers to round up mink; and third, to call the Fur Commission USA directly at 541-595-8568.
*Especially interesting, the Fur Commission offers these resources directly to law enforcement:
“• A Neighborhood Watch Report detailing suspicious activities, license plates, and “criminal acts”.
• A large library of documents on animal rights and eco-terrorism in the Press Kit section of the FCUSA website and in a password-protected section.
• A “Netwatch e-mail news service of articles, press releases and alerts relating to eco-terrorism”.
Here is a full scan of the flier (click to enlarge):
This is a photo fur farmers took of themselves filling half the courtoom at the sentencing for Victor VanOrden, jailed (and since released) for an attempted raid at the Circle K Fur Farm in Sioux City, Iowa.
Warcry Communications has entered the world of fiction with our sixth book: Vegan Nation – an animal liberation novella by longtime activist Rick Bogle. The book is finally back from the printer and ready to ship.
(Before I start promoting the book, everyone should check out Rick’s blog: Primate Freedom.)
Vegan Nation came out in somewhat limited circulation about 3 years ago. I owned a copy for over a year before reading, and when I did, I knew I wanted to do what I could to give it a wider audience.
Vegan Nation is a novella in the (short) literary tradition of books like Rage and Reason. The book follows an activist as he launches an outlaw campaign to stop animal abusers for good, in a militant effort to spark a vegan revolution.
The story draws from lessons in history, particularly the campaign of abolitionist John Brown. While fictional, Vegan Nation is a cautionary tale of what could happen if animal exploiters continue to refuse dialogue or exercise any restraint in their profit-driven onslaught against non-human animals.
Here is some text from the back cover:
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated that slavery would not end for at least a century. In 1859, abolitionist John Brown waged a war of weapons against slaveholders, shortening this time to seven years. He is now recorded in history as “the man who killed slavery”.
Today, animals are killed by the billions for food and science, while activists who lawfully protest this cruelty are vilified and imprisoned as “terrorists”.
In time, those responsible for this violence may very well reap what they have sown.
This is the story of one such future. It is a story of a present-day John Brown, bringing the war against animals home to their abusers – a last recourse that may finally bring about a vegan nation.
I started Warcry because I believe one book is more powerful and motivating than a thousand “website hits”. Thank you for all the support Warcry has received the last year, and to everyone who purchased the titles Warcry has printed in that time: Flaming Arrows, Underground, and now Vegan Nation.
I will be shipping all pre-orders out over the next several days. Order your copy now and (maybe) have it by the weekend.
– Peter Young
PS: If you haven’t seen the announcement about the next book yet, 1) It’s called For The Wild, 2) it’s a collection of letters from political prisoners with much more, and 2) there is a full writeup on it here.
Below, you can watch video of a building at the Clarinda Livestock Auction in Iowa going up in flames.
Investigators say there was a “good possibility” the fire was caused by a discarded cigarette.
In the past month, buildings at several Midwest animal abuse targets have also gone up in flames, including a rodeo training facility, mink farm, and dairy farm. Four of them have been ruled arson.
Egg farm in Oregon is raided by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) for the second time this year.
This week, Bite Back received an anonymous communique from the Animal Liberation Front claiming responsibility for the liberation of four chickens from an Oregon factory farm. The ALF communique stated this was the same farm from which six hens were liberated in January.
The communique reads, in full:
“During the second week of May 2012, two activists entered an egg farm located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. 4 hens were removed from the premises and placed in good homes where they will live out the rest of their natural lives. This is the same farm where 6 hens were liberated last January.
This action was done to save these individual animals from the torture and misery intrinsic to industrialized egg production, as well as to demonstrate that although we may not be able to free every animal, we can free some. This was done in full solidarity with the anarchists and animal liberationists facing state repression here on the west coast and abroad.
Freeing the prisoners.
ALF
**We are intentionally omitting the name, address, and specifics of the farm targeted. The relatively small number of animals taken will most likely, once again, go unnoticed by the farmer and will hopefully allow us to take advantage of the non-existent security on this farm for future raids and investigations.”
Years after being visited by the ALF, fur farms in Minnesota and Maryland are confirmed closed.
I am happy to pass along that the Gunnink Fox Farm (Chandler, MN) and Parsons Mink Ranch (Salisbury, MD) have both been confirmed as closed.
Each one was raided twice by anonymous activists, and at least two of the actions were claimed by the Animal Liberation Front.
The report states that the remaining sheds at Parsons Mink Ranch are being used for storage, and that Calvin Gunnink has moved to Odessa, MN. The previous property (where the fox farm was located) is in foreclosure under new owners.
News of the closures comes over a decade after the ALF raids. It is not known at what point during this time the farms closed, and there is no evidence to suggests the closures are directly related to the ALF actions. If anything, it at least brings “closure” to the bloody legacy of two of this country’s remaining fur farms.
Update from Jose Palafox on UC-Santa Cruz grand jury, two new subpoenas served.
Last week I reported there was a new subpoena served in the ongoing investigation into the 2008 firebombing of an alleged animal researcher’s home in Santa Cruz. There was no claim of responsibility or any other evidence to suggest it was the work of activists, yet the incident served as the impetus for the AETA 4 case, and the media reported as though it were a foregone conclusion it was the work of animal liberationists.
After the AETA 4 case was dismissed, all was quiet from the FBI for some time, and it appeared the investigation was in a lull. Then last week, news came that Bay Area resident Jose Palafox had been commanded to appear before a grand jury that appears to be seeking indictments in the case.
This is Jose’s latest statement (read his first statement here), which reveals new information that there are two other people have been subpoenaed, bringing to the total to three. Names of the other two have not been made public.
“Folks,
A quick update on my Grand Jury Subpoena.
I have retained a kick-ass lawyer who works with the National Lawyers Guild. He just informed me that my initial appearance date before the Grand Jury has moved from next week to June 12. This should give us more time to work on the case. Will let you all know as it gets closer to the date on ways that folks can support. The hearing will be held in the S.F. Federal Building.
As of now, we now know that 3 folks have been subpoenaed (another was contacted by the FBI). There was an informal teach-in on Grand Juries in Oakland and more are being planned.
I really appreciate all of the solidarity and support from folks all around.
pa’lante, Jose Palafox 5/18/12”
As always, I will be posting any new updates here.
Hundreds of buffalo slated for death escape from a farm, 30 remain free.
200 buffalo escaped from a buffalo meat farm in Ashton, Iowa Sunday. Their freedom, however temporary, did not come at the hands activists, but a pen that had been left unlatched.
As of this writing, 30 remain free and have been reported stampeding across five counties.
Men found living under freeway in Orange County may be linked to meat restaurant vandalism, police say.
Police raided a “homeless camp” under the 405 freeway Thursday, which they say was adorned with animal rights materials and graffiti. Among the items found, according to reports, were “Animal Liberation Front posters”, including one with the phrase “Even vegans want to slaughter pigs”, an apparent reference to police.
Police believe the men may be connected to unspecified vandalism at a restaurant called Meat House on 17th Street in Costa Mesa. This connection is said to be “under investigation”.
FBI agents serve activist with a subpoena to appear at a grand jury investigating 2008 arson in Santa Cruz.
Update 5/11/2012: A second person has also been subpoenaed. Please read the update from Jose Palafox posted in the comments.
A heads-up that Jose Palafox in California has been subpoenaed to a grand jury by FBI agents. From the subpoena, it appears the grand jury is investigating a fire set at the home of a UC-Santa Cruz animal researcher in 2008. There was no claim of responsibility for the fire, and there is no evidence activists were responsible. Nonetheless, the incident became the impetus for the “AETA 4” case, which saw the indictment of four Bay Area activists before charges were dismissed in 2010.
If there are more subpoenas served, I will be posting here.
The full statement from the person subpoenaed reads:
“”I HAVE BEEN SUBPOENAED BEFORE A GRAND JURY
On Friday May 4th, I was approached by two FBI agents at the BART Station at 19th and Broadway in Oakland. They asked my name, identified themselves as Carrie and Matt from the FBI, and served me a subpoena to testify before a federal Grand Jury. They informed me that I had been served and left without asking me any other questions.
From the face of the Grand Jury Subpoena, it appears related to an animal rights action that took place in Santa Cruz in August of 2008. I know nothing about the Santa Cruz action but believe this is a political prosecution and part of a government attempt to gather information on activists, specifically involved in the animal rights movement.
I will be getting a lawyer and plan to exercise my rights to the fullest extent. If anyone else receives a similar subpoena or a visit from the FBI, you can contact the National Lawyers Guild for advice on you rights.
This is the second time I have come into contact with the FBI. A couple of years ago, I had to deal with the Oakland Police Department regarding a private criminal matter, unrelated to activism, and without my knowledge was interviewed by an FBI agent. He began to ask me questions about my activism and political affiliations. I asked what agency he was from and I immediately stopped answering any questions. Probably unrelated but you never know.
I feel that it is important to let folks know about this political repression and to let people know that I will be needing support. However, the lawyer I did briefly speak with advised me not to answer any questions about the facts the case. I can talk about what the government’s allegations are and what is happening with court appearances but I can’t answer questions about the facts so please don’t ask.
