An update on the twice-targeted USDA Predator Research Facility in Utah.
On October 24th, 1992, the Animal Liberation Front set fire to an office at Utah State University, set fire to a second building at the nearby Predator Research Facility, and released dozens of coyotes from their pens. The coordinated action temporarily halted research at the nation’s only coyote research facility. According to some reports, 33 coyotes were never recovered (the USDA disputes this).
Seven years later, a second raid took place. As reported on Animal Liberation Frontline last week, an unpublicized action occurred in 1999 in which 20 coyotes were freed from pens, and an attempt was made to burn down a building.
This little-known research facility remains in operation today. Here is a look at the current state of the lab, and what we know about it.
An overview
Headed by serial coyote-killer Dr. Julie K. Young, the Predator Research Facility is the only government-funded coyote research lab in the country. It is a division of the USDA’s Animal Damage Control. Started in 1973, it has grown to cover 164 acres.
The facility imprisons 100 adult coyotes on site in outdoor pens. It is located just south of Utah State University “between Millville and Blacksmith Fork canyons” in Millville, Utah. The exact address is listed as 4200 South 600 East, Millville Utah 84326 .
What they do
Hiding behind benign language that states their intention is to “reduce human and wildlife contact,” in reality the operation is another federally-funded meat industry subsidy to protect rancher profits from impact by predators.
After their raid of the facility in 1992, the Animal Liberation Front stated the the purpose of the lab was to “totally control predator populations with poisons, traps and even tracking and eradication using radioactive isotopes.”
The experiments taking place there include the testing of coyote traps used by cattle ranchers. This is the USDA’s own description of their work:
“Testing the effectiveness of various control methods such as aerial hunting, livestock guardian animals, frightening devices, livestock protection collars, and sterilization.
Development and testing of coyote attractants and repellents.
Improvement of traps and snares.”
How to get close to the site legally
There may be only one way to (legally) get close enough to the facility to see the coyotes: Each fall, the Predator Research Facility holds an “open house” which includes a tour that is open to the public.
The next tour is scheduled for Wednesday, October 19th from 4:30 pm and ending at 7:30. Tours start every 20 minutes.
Black bears also imprisoned
This year, after 40 years of housing only coyotes, black bears are now at the facility. The bears are used in studies to prevent rehabilitated bears from becoming what Dr. Young calls “conflict bears” once released. The details of the bear studies have not been made public.
Still open, still vulnerable
Photos of the USDA facility show a very accessible operation located on a public road, making it unsurprising it was twice the target of a nighttime raid by activists.
The lab has remained untouched by the ALF since 1999, yet its work imprisoning and killing coyotes continues.
Final words from the ALF
The words of the Animal Liberation Front after its 1992 raid should not be forgotten:
“Once more the ALF had proven that what could not be accomplished with years of protest, could be achieved with a handful of bravehearted warriors. Now it was time to wait for others to follow our lead.”
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 yet another action in a busy summer, the Animal Liberation Front cuts open pens and releases five birds in Oregon.
In a communique received by Bite Back, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for cutting into two pens and releasing five wild birds near Corvallis, Oregon. The birds were held by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of an exhibition at a state wildlife area. The birds released were 3 ringnecked pheasants, 1 white pheasant, and 1 mountain quail.
An ODF&W spokeswoman confirmed that someone did cut two cages and released birds from E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area. According to police, no birds left their pens and all five remain imprisoned at the exhibition. (Its worth noting that in nearly every instance of an illegal animal rescue, the “victims” have attempted to downplay the success of the action.)
An attempt was made to free more birds from two additional pens. According to the ALF’s communique (posted below), this effort was aborted when a car arrived on the scene, forcing a premature departure.
Damage to property is estimated at $50.
Wildlife farms are the new fur farms
A small surge in wildlife farm raids has been seen the past two years, in ways reminiscent of fur farm raids in the mid-1990s (although not by number of actions). As with fur farms in the 90s, today we are seeing an emerging awareness that there are thousands of farms imprisoning animals that can be liberated directly into the wild.
According to the Wildlife Farm Database, thousands of these farms imprison animals including elk, woodchucks, bobcats, squirrels, ferrets, deer, pheasants, and many more species.
The ease of raiding wildlife farms was highlighted in this quote from the ALF’s communique:
“There are over 100 registered captive wildlife facilities in the state of Oregon that imprison pheasants, quail, mink, elk and other wild animals. These facilities generally contain little to no security, require little to no specialized skill set to raid, and hold animals which in many cases can be directly liberated into the wild. All it takes is a little determination and a $15 pair of bolt cutters to make animal liberation a reality.”
The communique
The Animal Liberation Front’s communique reads, in full:
“On the night of August 15th the masked liberators of the Animal Liberation Front carried out the rescue of wild pheasants and quail from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife game bird exhibition pens at the EE Wilson wildlife area (north of Corvallis). Wire cutting tools were used to completely cut open 2 of the game bird pens and partially cut open 2 others giving 3 ringnecked pheasants, 1 white pheasant, and 1 mountain quail a chance to escape into the surrounding wildlife area. If it wasn’t for a car pulling into a lot next the pens, forcing us to make a premature departure, the rest of the dozen or so birds would have been
given a chance at freedom as well. This action is no victory for those left behind.
The EE Wilson wildlife area was once home to an ODFW breeding program that bred pheasants mainly to be released to repopulate state hunting grounds. The ODFW discontinued this program in the late 1990’s, however they still keep a small number of birds on this site as a tourist attraction. It is sad and pathetic that these wild birds would have to spend their entire lives in a cage for any reason, let alone for something as trivial and frivolous as being put on display for the public.
There are over 100 registered captive wildlife facilities in the state of Oregon that imprison pheasants, quail, mink, elk and other wild animals. These facilities generally contain little to no security, require little to no specialized skill set to raid, and hold animals which in many cases can be directly liberated into the wild. All it takes is a little determination and a $15 pair of bolt cutters to make animal liberation a reality.
In solidarity with anarchist prisoners Marie Mason and Eric Mcdavid. For the silent ones and all those on the run.
20 coyotes released in a second, unclaimed action at a USDA predator research facility in 1999.
Occasionally an Animal Liberation Front action (or one that bears its mark) will go both unclaimed and unnoticed by nearly everyone. An attempted arson and release of 20 coyotes at the USDA Predatory Research Facility in Millville, Utah was just such an action.
On August 1st, 1999; persons unknown cut their way into locked coyote pens and released 20 coyotes. Subsequently, a fire was set near a building, but failed to do damage.
An employee at the facility bluntly explained how the liberators got through the perimeter fencing:
“They pretty much cut their way through”
The only known mention came in a small Logan, Utah newspaper, which reported the incident. There was no claim of responsibility, and to my knowledge, the action was never reported in any animal rights media source.
The USDA coyote research facility near the Utah State University campus.
Similar to previous raid at the coyote lab
The USDA Predatory Research Facility was put on the map seven years earlier in 1992 in a very similar action, when the Animal Liberation Front released dozens of coyotes and set fire to two buildings there. The action was part of the ALF’s “Operation Bite Back,” which targeted a half-dozen wildlife (primarily fur) operations in the early-1990s.
The attack temporarily halted research at the facility, and 33 coyotes were never recovered.
Coyote research facility continues to this day
The coyote research lab continues to operate to this day, imprisoning over 100 coyotes for experiments to benefit the trapping and livestock industries. The facility covers 164 acres and lies at the base of a mountain range just south of the Utah State University campus in Millville, Utah. It is the country’s only coyote research facility financed by the government.
Over 100 coyotes are imprisoned at the lab
Much history goes unwritten
The brief media report is all that we may ever know about this action.
If you come across reports of other unpublicized actions that bear the mark of the ALF, please submit to Animal Liberation Frontline so this history can be documented.
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.”
Activists hide out inside fair building and sabotage the iconic “butter cow” in Iowa.
A group calling themselves “Iowans for Animal Liberation” took credit Monday for infiltrating the Agriculture Building overnight, and pouring red paint over the world famous Iowa State Fair “Butter Cow”. In a statement, the group stated the paint “represents the blood of 11 billion animals murdered each year in slaughterhouses, egg farms, and dairies.”
A slogan was also left on the glass case housing the sculpture: “Freedom For All.”
For over 100 years, the life-sized “butter cow” has been a staple of the Iowa State Fair, attracting nearly 1 million visitors annually. It is widely held as a symbol of, and source of pride for, animal agriculture in Iowa.
In an anonymous statement released Monday, the group described how they infiltrated the building and carried out the action:
“We hid inside the Agriculture Building and emerged after closing. After dismantling the lock to the refrigerated case housing the Butter Cow with a screwdriver, we doused the entire butter sculpture in red paint… We then left a painted message on the glass of the display: ‘Freedom for all.'”
This is the second successful infiltration of the Butter Cow display. In 2011, anonymous individuals took credit for bypassing a guard in the Agriculture Building, scaling a wall in a back hallway, entering the refrigerated case with the sculptures, and and affixing a sign reading “Go Vegan.”
Police stated they are reviewing security footage at the Butter Cow to identify suspects.
The action has become one of the largest sabotage-related media stories in recent memory, with coverage on most major news sites, and even sparking comment from Iowa’s governor:
“I think it’s a despicable act. First of all, I love the Iowa State Fair, I love the butter cow. Attacking the butter cow, that’s personal.”
Iowa state senator Chuck Grassley also weighed in on the action, saying:
“There’s a good way and a bad way of expressing your opposition to animal agriculture, whether it’s in an academic way or a political way or whether it’s in written intellectual statements or whether it’s out on a soap box.”
Media coverage has also focused on the history of the Animal Liberation Front in the state. Past ALF actions have included the largest mink release on record (14,000 mink from an Iowa farm in 2000), and a raid at the University of Iowa (401 animals removed from labs in 2004).
With the media quoting heavily from the communique, this action served as a delivery device to bring the plight of animals into the minds of millions of people nationwide. One frequently used excerpt, quoted in places such as the site for Time Magazine, read:
“We intend this action to serve as a wake up call to all who continue to consume meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and all animal products: You are directly supporting suffering and misery on the largest scale the world has ever known.”
The full statement of responsibility reads:
“Iowans for Animal Liberation is taking responsibility for destroying the iconic Iowa State Fair ‘Butter Cow’ on the night of August 10th.
We hid inside the Agriculture Building and emerged after closing. After dismantling the lock to the refrigerated case housing the Butter Cow with a screwdriver, we doused the entire butter sculpture in red paint. The paint represents the blood of 11 billion animals murdered each year in slaughterhouses, egg farms, and dairies. We then left a painted message on the glass of the display: ‘Freedom for all.’
We intend this action to serve as a wake up call to all who continue to consume meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and all animal products: You are directly supporting suffering and misery on the largest scale the world has ever known.
Each year, nearly 1 million people visit the Butter Cow, a life-sized cow sculpted out of butter. Let this action be a reminder that this attraction represents the suffering of billions of animals each year: animals stolen from their mothers on dairy farms, imprisoned in cramped cages on egg farms, ground up alive in hatcheries, and hoisted by their legs while their throats are slit in slaughterhouses. The Butter Cow is a symbol and celebration of this mass murder.
The Iowa State Fair has attempted to cover up this action from the media and fair-goers since it was discovered early Sunday. With this communique, we are submitting a link to a photo of the sabotaged Butter Cow, taken the night of the action.
If factory farmers continue to lie to the public that their farms are ‘humane,’ then they will be happy to accept our challenge:
Allow the media and public into your farms.
Allow the media and public into your slaughterhouses.
After a visit from the Animal Liberation Front, a “game breeder” farm says they will no longer sell pheasants.
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).
There are only two ways to confirm with a high-degree of likelihood that this farm is in fact out of the pheasant-breeding business:
An unannounced, on-site visit to the farm
The farm being removed from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife “Game Breeder” list. (The owners believe the Animal Liberation Front obtained their address from this list.)
As to the former, this kind of visit will likely only happen if the ALF returns, or other anonymous individuals visit the farm covertly for data-gathering purposes.
And the latter will only be verified when the state of California releases its 2014 list next year.
A (tentative) victory
As for now, it appears the ALF shut down the Ash Grove Pheasant Farm.
Fearing an arson attack, police maintain presence outside an upcoming slaughterhouse in Iowa.
Keokuk County sheriffs have positioned themselves outside an upcoming horse slaughterhouse this week over fears it will be set on fire by the Animal Liberation Front.
The concern comes after the only other horse slaughterhouse in the US was set on fire last week, temporarily delaying its opening.
Fire, and other good news
In another positive turn, a judge Friday blocked the opening of both horse slaughterhouses. The two plants were to be the first in the country to open after a recent move by the Obama administration to reverse a 2008 congressional move that ended the practice. The order is only temporary, and is pending the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit.
Police stakeout continues
According to media reports, the proposed horse-slaughtering plant owned by “Responsible Transportation LLC” in Iowa remains under the close eye of local police, who consider the building to be squarely in the crosshairs of the Animal Liberation Front.
Despite an arson that damaged five air compressors “beyond repair” last week, an upcoming New Mexico horse slaughterhouse now says it will open on schedule. The company had previously stated the arson would “delay” Monday’s opening.
Refrigeration units at the Valley Meat Co. in Roswell., N.M., lit up in flames on Tuesday, in what was speculated to be an arson by animal rights activists. Neither the Animal Liberation Front nor other group has yet taken responsibility.
The plant was to be the first horse slaughterhouse in the nation, after changes at the USDA closed the last remaining three in 2007.
The slaughterhouse has been under tremendous pressure since announcing it would be first in the country to open after the Obama administration recently allowed horse slaughter in the US to resume. The plant faces a federal lawsuit from the Humane Society of the United States and other plaintiffs.
This slaughterhouse was also put on the map in March, when one of its workers shot a horse in the head on camera, and said, “All you animal activists, fuck you.”
The sentiment was returned Tuesday, when (presumed) animal activists set the building on fire.
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.
The opening of the nation’s only horse slaughterhouse is stalled after the building is set on fire.
An arson attack Saturday has halted the opening of a horse slaughterhouse in Roswell, New Mexico. The Valley Meat Company was in the process of converting from a cow slaughterhouse to a horse slaughterhouse, and was scheduled to open this week. Federal courts shut down the last three horse slaughterhouses in 2007. When opened, the Roswell plant would have been the only horse slaughterhouse in the US. That opening has now been halted.
The owner stated that on Saturday night someone apparently jumped the fence, then poured accelerant over the compressors to the slaughterhouse’s refrigeration unit.
Valley Meat Co. owner Rick De Los Santo said:
“They tried to burn the place down.”
The slaughterhouse was to begin killing horses on Monday. Without a functioning refrigeration unit, the plant is now unable to operate, and the opening has been delayed.
The arson has not (yet) been claimed by the Animal Liberation Front, or other clandestine group.
Valley Meat Company horse slaughterhouse
More information will be posted as it is available.
Animal Liberation Front cuts fencing and frees birds from pheasant farm near Los Angeles.
In a communique received by Bite Back, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for a raid on a pheasant farm in Riverside, California, on the night of July 22nd. Four of the six pens at the operation were cut open, allowing the birds to escape.
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.
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.
It is likely these types of raids on wildlife farms will continue to build in popularity. As with mink farms, once the word is out that there are farms holding captive wildlife that can be released directly into the wild without the burden of having to find homes, such farms will become very appetizing targets for those who work outside the law.
The makeup of a typical pheasant farm.
The ease of raiding wildlife farms was expressed in this excerpt from the ALF’s communique:
“Their victims can be immediately released, with no rehoming necessary. This life saving action took no specialized skill, less than twenty-four hours of planning, and fifty dollars. With basic tools and determination, anyone is capable of destroying the barrier that stands between an animal and their freedoms.”
Thousands of farms operation nationwide, imprisoning species such as native cottontail rabbits, turtles, coyotes, squirrels, and hundreds of other wildlife species.
The full ALF communique reads:
“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.
Wildlife farms are everywhere. Their victims can be immediately released, with no rehoming necessary. This life saving action took no specialized skill, less than twenty-four hours of planning, and fifty dollars. With basic tools and determination, anyone is capable of destroying the barrier that stands between an animal and their freedoms.
Stop fraternizing about it. Stop fantasizing about it. Stop frightening yourself out of it. You know you want to – just do it. Wild non-humyns await their release from prisons in your neighborhoods.
‘For only a fool would cling to this world as it is,’
FBI investigates coordinated attack on San Diego’s only fur store and the home of its owners.
This week the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) took credit for a sabotage action against Furs by Graf, in San Diego. The front of the store was redecorated with spray-painted messages including “Killer” and “Murderer,” and glass-etching fluid was used to damage windows.
The same night, the homes of owner Kimberley Graf and her parents were also targeted.
The owner stated to the media the fur store has been vandalized about a dozen times over the years but this is the first time her home was targeted.
The Animal Liberation Front took credit this week in an anonymous communique. The communique reads, in full:
“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.
We then hiked to owner Ludi Graf’s home, at 9589 Upland Street in Spring Valley. His home was given the same treatment. We paint stripped his luxury winnebago parked in the driveway. Slogans were painted in blood red on his garage and the winnebago. The windows of the winnebago were etched. The remainder of the etching solution was applied to the windows of his home. Concrete destroying muriatic acid was poured on his driveway.
It was another short hike to manager Kimberley Graf’s home at 3674 Birdie Drive in La Mesa. Her luxury pickup truck was painted red and soaked in paint stripper. All windshields and windows on the truck were smeared with etching solution. We covered her house and driveway in spray paint. Muriatic acid was dumped on the porch.
These actions were taken to vocalize the cries of the millions of wild beings yearning for freedom. This is in vain unless it inspires others to liberate and sabotage. Every fur farm prisoner deserves a jail break.
In solidarity with our comrades fighting in Vancouver,
Animal Liberation Front”
A how-to guide on raiding farms, The Final Nail #4 receives national news coverage as fur farmers react.
In June, the Animal Liberation Front announced the release of the new Final Nail, the anonymously-authored guide to raiding fur farms. This fourth volume of the publication contains the standby Final Nail material (fur farm addresses + how-to instruction), as well new info not seen in previous editions.
The Final Nail #4, which has been posted numerous places online, includes:
State-by-state directory of mink, fox, and bobcat farms
A guide to security on fur farms
How to avoid getting caught
Fur farm photos
A recent history of fur farm raids
A “most wanted” list of important targets
An analysis of weak links in the US fur industry
A history of “the fur farm list”
A guide that inspires action – every time
Upon their release, each of the past three volumes of The Final Nail have set off a wave of fur farm raids. The first edition in 1996 saw 16 ALF raids in the six months after publication. Prior to it’s release, there had only been five in U.S. history.
The last edition- The Final Nail #3 – saw limited circulation, and enjoyed only a brief appearance online before seemingly vanishing into a print-only version, which would occasionally be seen distributed at animal rights events. Much of the content from #3 is retained in #4, along with a significant amount of new material.
The media picks up the story
What made the release of this Final Nail different was the media attention. At least six media outlets picked up the story nationwide, covering the release of the guide and the response from fur farmers.
The takeaway from the articles in total is that fur farmers are very concerned about the fourth Final Nail, because they know what has followed the release of the last three: a wave of farm break-ins.
The most recent article, from a Stoughton, Wisconsin newspaper, focuses on the local North American Fur Auctions pelt processing plant being named on the ALF’s “most wanted” list.
Nancy Daigneault, director of communication for NAFA in Toronto, said the company takes the ALF’s threat seriously.
“It’s something that you have to be vigilant about,” Daigneault told the Hub in a telephone interview. “The Animal Liberation Front are extremists. Their whole purpose in life is to destroy the industry. They encourage criminal acts. They encourage people to break into farms.”
A Caldwell, Idaho newspaper published a follow-up on a fur business that was set on fire by the ALF in 2011, and mentions the recent release of The Final Nail #4.
Another Idaho paper also ran a story, mentioning the listing of Idaho State University fur farm industry researcher Jack Rose:
“In addition to local fur farms, the hit list includes Jack Rose, a physiology professor at Idaho State University. Rose occasionally conducts medical research on minks at his lab at the university’s Department of Biological Sciences in Pocatello.
The Final Nail is not new, Rose noted. “It’s been a problem for many years.”
He said he hadn’t known he was listed in the new directory of targets. But shutting down animal lab research would “set medicine back 100 years.”
“In addition to the list of addresses and contact information, the group’s publication provides detailed descriptions and photographs of fur farm locations, a “most wanted” list, as well as a guide on “How to Raid a Fur Farm.” It describes what equipment to bring, where to park, and how to avoid getting caught.”
The paper for a past Animal Liberation Front target – Washington State University – ran this story (PDF) on the new Final Nail, claiming the university no longer has mink “on campus.” It is unclear if the mink are held off campus, if the university has stopped fur industry research altogether, or if the statement is simply a lie to deter future raids.
Six mink, seven coyotes, and ten mice were liberated from the research farm in 1991.
A local TV station in Utah ran a report, which showed a reporter waving a copy of The Final Nail #4 in front of the Provo skyline, and warning viewers of the threat posed by a guide that instructed activists on how to destroy Utah’s fur industry. The story also featured an interview with a local fur farmer, who would no identify himself. Unfortunately, the video of the story is no longer posted on the KUTV website (please send a copy to Animal Liberation Frontline if you have one).
The calm before the storm?
The ALF’s statement on it’s new Final Nail read, in part:
“June 1st has come to be known as the launch of ‘fur farm raiding season”, when mink born on fur farms begin to reach maturity and can be released into the wild. The authors intend this latest Final Nail to set off fur farm raiding season by inspiring a new wave of liberations.”
The past two years have been the lowest in ALF fur farm-related activity since the mid-1990s, with only one fur farm liberation taking place in the last 12 months (the release of 12 foxes from a farm in Virginia).
As of this writing, it’s wait-and-see as to whether The Final Nail #4 continues its tradition of inspiring another wave of fur farm raids.
![517815e50ea60.image[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/517815e50ea60.image1_.jpg)
![517815f0dd0e4.image[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/517815f0dd0e4.image1_.jpg)
![517815da99cf6.image[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/517815da99cf6.image1_.jpg)
![517815ddec85e.image[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/517815ddec85e.image1_.jpg)
![517815ee2867e.image[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/517815ee2867e.image1_.jpg)
![fraser-lynx-money-shot4[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/fraser-lynx-money-shot41.jpg)
![ButterCow_AP943604082594_620x350[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ButterCow_AP943604082594_620x3501.jpg)
![W_PHEASANT_0803dkfm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/W_PHEASANT_0803dkfm1.jpg)
![photo218[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/photo2181.jpg)
![294707276_0bb9f937f41[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/294707276_0bb9f937f411.jpg)
![941238_10151565404362108_1503123592_n1[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.animalliberationfrontline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/941238_10151565404362108_1503123592_n11.jpg)
