THREE RABBITS LIBERATED FROM A FACTORY FARM (2011)

In 2011, the Animal Liberation Front broke into a farm in the outskirts of Barcelona to document the conditions of the rabbits, living in raised battery cages and destined to be killed for their meat.

They took three rabbits away from the farm as they struggled to find more suitable homes, but the footage they released was horrendous. Rows and rows of wire cages with barely any space to move, without ever seeing the sun and without any hay or suitable feed.

They dedicated the action to the memory of Barry Horne, but also in solidarity with Osmar Evcan, who at the time of the liberation was on hunger strike in a Turkish prison, demanding vegan food.

The video is not perfect and the anonymous activists did not have the latest technology at their disposal, but they ensured to show how the action worked and how the rabbits were living before their liberation, which is always an amazing plus on a report.

You can read their whole report here:

“On November 9, well into the night, total liberation activists entered a rabbit farm in a town near Barcelona to once again collect images of how animals are abused and confined; this time it was rabbits, and we took the opportunity to give freedom to some of them.

On this occasion there were three individuals who we liberated and who are now in a safe place where they can enjoy the rest of their days according to their needs. It was a difficult task since this time we had to suppress our desire for freedom and limit ourselves to only a few of the hundreds who were in the farm.

This liberation is dedicated in part to the memory of Barry Horne which pushes us to keep fighting and in part because we want to show solidarity with Osmar Evcan, who at the time of the liberation was on hunger strike in a Turkish prison demanding something as basic as vegan food within those walls of misery and loneliness.

For these and for the many other prisoners who fight against this shitty system, all our rebellious love and rage.

ALF”

UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA SPRAYPAINTED AFTER DEAL WITH VIVOTECNIA VIVISECTORS.

18th January, Barcelona.

According to reports on Twitter, the University of Barcelona was the target of spray painting warning them to liberate the beagles they have contracted to be killed by Vivotecnia.

The University contracted the services of Vivotecnia to test a new pharmacological drug, paying them 255.648,8 euros for it. The trial is supposed to last 28 days and 38 beagle puppies are being tested. At the end of the test, the dogs are scheduled to be killed.

Their murder date is the 24th of January, and people are fighting in many different ways to force them to release the dogs. In this case, anonymous folk spray painted “LAST WARNING”, “LIBERATE THE BEAGLES” and “STOP VIVOTECNIA” on the walls of the university.

REMEMBERING FERNÁN, A FIGHTER FOR TOTAL LIBERATION – UNOFFENSIVE REPORTS.

There are folks in the frontlines that for one reason or another are widely known and mentioned often. Other people chip away at the enormous rock that is oppression throughout their whole life without asking for credit and without wanting notoriety. Sometimes those people fall through the cracks and only those who knew them personally remember them once they are gone.

Fernán was one of those people. Fernando Sanchez Grassa. An animal liberationist involved with the Spanish ALF (FLA), an anti-fascist, a fighter against Daesh who joined the YPG in Kurdistan and an incredible human being who is remembered by his friends with the love and rage reserved for those who truly meant something to your life.

Fernán died climbing a mountain in the Himalayas on the 4th of November 2019. A year later, an unnamed group liberated a dog tethered to a dairy farm and called him Fer.

When talking to people who knew him, they only have words of adulation. “He was incredibly sweet, a revolutionary to the core”. “He was in the riots in Italy, 2001, when Carlo Giuliani died. There are pictures of him at a mink raid, placing incendiaries at a fur farm and even some photos during a partridge farm liberation”.

And indeed, Fernán was photographed many times during FLA (ALF) raids. In 2003, after having visited a mink farm in Lubia, Spain, and having found that all the animals had already been killed, they planed and took action by setting the farm on fire. That arson would be the only recorded fur farm arson in the country of Spain. They would later dedicate the action to not only Barry Horne, but also the Palestinian people.

He was photographed cutting the fence of a game farm breeding partridges for hunters to shoot, and on a different occasion, at a mink farm raid where over 1000 mink were released before the farmer interrupted the raid.

There is no doubt that Fernán fought against oppression at a completely different level that many of us would only dream of. And after having learnt about him, we felt you too should know his name. He never took action to gain fame, but his memory should be powerful enough to still inflict blows in the oppression machine that devours the earth.

He was also a published author and we would like to end this with a quote from one of his books that perfectly explains what his life and history should do to all of us:

“We hope this article is nothing but a germ that replicates and creates more memories and love. We now pass you this weapon; take it”.

BRISTOL ‘KILL THE BILL’ – PRISONER SUPPORT

Folks in the UK have been tirelessly fighting the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, a piece of legislation being pushed through that would drastically impact people’s right to protest legally. The bill gives police increased stop and search powers, it gives prison sentences for ‘locking on’, it criminalises trespass which will greatly affect the Gypsy, NFA, traveller and hunt sabbing community who already experience regular police harassment. It even gives the police the power to give ASBO like orders to protestors, regardless of if they have committed a crime. These orders aim to remove the freedom of speech and assembly of certain individuals and could ban them from seeing people or even sharing stuff online.

Bristol has been at the centre of a lot of resistance to this terrifying bill. On the 21st of March 2021 at a Bristol Kill the Bill demo, just weeks after the arrest, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a MET police officer, the protest erupted into a clash between protestors and police. The police dressed in full riot gear started hitting protesters round the head with batons and people took action to defend themselves and fight back. A cop shop and police vehicles were also targeted with windows smashed and vans set alight. Many arrests have been made since with some facing serious riot charges.

On Friday 30th of July, five ‘Kill the Bill’ protesters were collectively sentenced to over 14 years in jail. On the 9th of September, one person was sentenced to over 4 months for simply stealing a police officers hat. It is clear the police and courts are doing everything they can to try and repress the uprising against this bill and severely punish those caught fighting back. One person alone was sentenced to 14 years in prison for their part in the protest.

Bristol ABC have a list of ‘Kill the Bill’ prisoners and their addresses so please put pen to paper and send these folks letters,. Let them know they are supported and you are proud of their bravery and resilience in taking a stand and defending themselves and others from the brutality of the police.

Yasmin, another ‘Kill the Bill’ protestor brutally beaten by police and facing prison time for the privilege will be on trial in Bristol Crown Court on Monday 31st of January 2022. There is a call out for court support and a demo will be taking place outside the court starting at 8:30am.

We send our unconditional solidarity and support to all those facing state repression as a result of fighting this oppressive bill.

For more information regarding how to support ‘Kill the Bill’ prisoners check out: https://bristolabc.wordpress.com

They also have a fundraiser for prisoners sentenced as a result of the March ‘Kill the Bill’ protests

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ktb-prisoner-support-fund

Bristol Defendant Solidarity, @BristolDefenda1 on twitter, are offering unconditional support to people arrested at Bristol protests. From legal info to solidarity through arrest & court.

LOVE & RAGE

WHAT THE FUCK IS UNOFFENSIVE ANIMAL (PART 3, WHAT WE DON’T DO)

So we’ve talked about our background and our intentions and we have mentioned what Unoffensive does. If you haven’t read those two posts, head to Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. Today, we will try and clarify what we do not do.

Unoffensive is a media platform receiving anonymous reports. We cannot put you in touch with the ALF because we do not know who sends those reports. In fact, when people send incomplete reports we are unable to respond to them to clarify details or ask for photos. We do not have contact with the Animal Liberation Front.

In the same way, we do not take part in illegal actions. There is no point in contacting us to “join during an action” because we are a media hub, not a direct action group. We also do not fund illegal actions. We will discuss more how we deal with money in future instalments, but folks need to understand that donating to Unoffensive is not a way of sending money to people taking actions of liberation or sabotage.

Lastly, people must know that we do not share “sign the petition” links. For the most part, they are a way of collecting huge networks of email addresses willingly given by like-minded individuals, so it is a very easy way of creating lists of people that might take dissenting actions. On a more practical level, we would not be able to share every single petition we get sent, so we decided that we do not share any of them. There is a similar action about sanctuary fundraisers. We do not share sanctuary fundraisers but not because we do not think folks should support sanctuaries, but because sanctuaries do not need the heat that we could add to the equation. People should support animal sanctuaries without a doubt, but of the three fundraisers we have shared in the past, two of the sanctuaries were raided a week later. It is not worth the hassle because it is obvious that authorities do not understand we do not have links with illegal actions, so they blame anyone else by proxy.

So to sum it up, no, we cannot put you in touch with the ALF. No, we do not know who did x, y or z action. No, we cannot send animals to your home if “homes are needed”. We cannot fund illegal actions and we do not take part in illegal actions either.

In the next post, we will talk about how people send reports anonymously.

For now, if anyone wants to support Unoffensive, you can do so by donating on www.patreon.com/animalliberation.

until then

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT RIOT!

THE WEST ‘ANTI HUNTING’

Hunt sabotage has happened for a very long time, and whilst there is a lot of noise from the HSA and hunt sab groups in the UK, the UK is not the only country that has seen organised anti-hunting sabotage.

In this clip from The West, released in the 90s, we can see different groups fighting against hunting in the USA. They mention the use of anti-mating spray and bear sprays to try and keep the hunters’ dogs from bear scents.

Of course, the hunt lobbyists are seen using the same tired excuses to justify hunting; the management of wildlife and the conservation of habitat.

Jonathan Paul, giving an interview, also makes a big point about what they are doing. Whilst stopping them from killing a single individual is very important, it is equally as important to show the establishment that there are people out there who do not agree and are not comfortable with the senseless murder of the wild and with the business that surrounds that murder.

When a hunter giving an interview gets asked about the possibility of someone being hurt if the protests continue, his answer is certain: “Yes, someone will get hurt, and as I see it, probably won’t be a hunter”.

LIBERATION OF FIVE LITTLE HENS.

January, France.

received anonymously via email:

“We took action in a hen breeding place in France. We rescued five young hens so that they could avoid a short life of exploitation before being slaughtered. These lucky people are now far away from this speciesist farm and will hopefully live a long life full of joy with other species friends.

Liberate, sabotage, block, destroy, let’s end this oppressive system!”

CAFT, A RESURGENCE OF DECENTRALISED PRESSURE CAMPAIGNING BRINGING THE FUR INDUSTRY TO ITS KNEES.

This week in The Frontlines we would like to talk about CAFT (Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade), which restarted in November 2020 making a huge dent against the fur industry.

Since its inception, CAFT has played their part to force fur-free policies on Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Alice + Olivia, and Monique Lhuillier. Alice + Olivia only lasted for 11 days when CAFT started targetting them when large nonprofits had been at it for the past ten years.

Their secret? Good old decentralised pressure campaigning and some strategic thinking.

CAFT insists that one of their key strategies is their decentralised campaign model. Instead of dictating, restricting or controlling what independent local groups decide to do, they aim to provide support, information and coordination. Any local group can organise against the target and the only agreed notion is the importance of consistent and focused action.

Secondly, they do not shy away from expanding their target pool. When a company is resistant to activist pressure, they will target secondary and tertiary businesses associated with the fur producing company. No one is safe; subsidiaries, investors and even board members are acceptable targets, and by destroying the company’s ability to do business in peace they manage to get the targetted company to drop fur from their portfolio.

For that reason, there have been many different and colourful actions to put pressure on the fur trade. From peaceful leafletting and demonstrations outside the store to in-store disruptions, writing messages in fake blood, attaching alarms to helium balloons to be released inside the shop and even noise demos in front of managers and corporate executives’ homes, local groups take initiative and decide by themselves what the best course of action is.

CAFT insists on a couple of important points, the necessity of security culture and the zero-tolerance policy against those talking to the cops, but also that they believe all their campaigns are 100% winnable using legal methods.

CAFT’s current campaign is against Moncler group (handy little store locator link just below):
https://www.moncler.com/en-gb/storelocator/
And they have recently expanded their target to Stone Island, being a subsidiary of Moncler. (also handy store locator below:)
https://www.stoneisland.com/experience/en/the-brand/stores/

They are asking for you to start a local group and put pressure on the business however you think is best, or if it already exists, to join your local group and take action!

You can find out more about them or donate to their campaign on monclerkillsfoxes.com, and you can find them on Facebook at Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade https://www.facebook.com/caftusa or on Instagram at @CAFTUSA.

WHAT THE FUCK IS UNOFFENSIVE ANIMAL (PART 2, WHAT WE DO)

So now you know our political background and intentions (if you don’t check out Part 1!), and it is time to talk about what we do.

Unoffensive serves as a platform for a multitude of things, and one of them is reporting on animal liberation direct action from around the world. We receive anonymous reports submitted via secure means and publish them on the platform, allowing those taking action to explain what, how and why they took action whilst remaining anonymous. This means that individuals and groups can remain safer whilst having the opportunity to reach out to wider audiences and express themselves however they want.

We also try to help as a prisoner support hub. This translates in a few different ways. We collect (and try to keep up to date) addresses for those locked up in prison, so people can write letters. We give updates about their current situation, and we try and send money for their commissary or legal fees as much as we are able to.

But prisoner support isn’t just about prisoners! We also try to publicise court cases and sentencing of activists that have not ended up in prison, as well as help fundraising or sending money for their legal fees. This helps create a culture of solidarity, but also it is useful as a “sentencing comparison” so folks understand previous sentencing attached to actions and are able to weigh up the risk-reward factor.

Lastly, we try to also be an education hub. Be it by talking about history, or about anarchist concepts, or even about security and technology, if folks that follow us learn something new that will further expand their knowledge and help them keep fighting, that is our biggest and most important objective.

Now that you know what we do and who we are you should be able to paint an image of what Unoffensive is. In a future post, we will cover what we do not do.

Until then;

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT RIOT!

PORGREG PIG FARM, A BLOCKADE, TWELVE ARRESTS AND THE END OF AN ERA.

Porgreg was a farm in Canada set up in the 80s that was able to exploit up to 3500 pigs at any one time. In December 2019, a group of twelve activists decided to occupy the farm, demanding that the conditions of the pigs be publicised. What they found inside was nightmarish. The farrowing crates were littered with dead and decomposing piglets. The fattening pens, swimming pools of shit and piss. Pigs had nowhere to be warm, or dry, and their food simply sunk into the puddle of their waste.

The group of activists occupied the farm for six hours, asking the press to come in and film the conditions of the place. The police did not care and arrested all, charging them with breaking and entering and impeding a police officer.

After the action, the footage obtained was publicly released, causing a huge ripple effect. MAPAQ (the Ministry of Agriculture in Quebec), had never once inspected the Progreg farm in their forty years of existence. They visited the farm just a week after the occupation for the first time since the farm had opened.

Investors lost trust and pulled out. Meanwhile, retailers decided they were no longer going to buy pigs that were reared at the farm.

During the action’s trial in October 2021, which lasted seven days, the farmer explained; “we can no longer profit from farming pigs and had to close down”.

The activists will receive their verdict (and possible sentencing) on the 24th of February. We will make sure to cover what the results are.

SOLIDARITY!