Defend Direct Action
5th November, unknown location.
via: Animal Liberation Press Office
“A.L.F. 05.11.2022 at 01:00 2 members of the A.L.F. saves 21 hens from 2 different intensive farms in memory of Barry Horne”
November, Czech Republic.
via: Michal Kolesar.
ENG:
“I don’t want to go to places like that anymore. It’s the same misery just in different scenes. It’s getting harder to leave.
We went to rescue ducks. We took nine of them. One of them was lying on her back. Weak and light. In that moment I held her in my hands I knew it was bad. She died just a few kilometres from where she would have died if we hadn’t come.
We took eight of them home. To life. To better times.Thanks to everyone who is with us.”
CZ:
“Nechci už na taková místa. Pořád stejná bída. Jen v jiných kulisách. Je pořád těžší odcházet.
Šli jsme pro kachny. Vzali jsme jich devět. Jednu, která ležela na zádech. Slabá a lehká. Už když jsem ji bral do dlaní, tak jsem věděl, že je to špatné. Umřela nám pár kilometrů od místa, kde by umřela, kdybychom nepřišli.
Osm jsme jich rozvezli do domovů. Do života. Do lepších časů. Díky všem, kdo jsou s námi.”
November, South America
received anonymously via email:
“Anti-specist individuals carried out an animal liberation rescue from a poultry slaughtering industry.
The action was carried out while a truck, loaded with live chickens, entered the torture center and slaughterhouse. Moment in which it was possible to materialize the extraction of a bird that had managed to escape from the despicable plastic cages that imprisoned it and transported it to death.
The hen was in very poor condition, semi plucked and too stressed. After leaving the place, she was taken to a permanent shelter where she will receive veterinary care and special care for her rehabilitation.
This action was dedicated to Barry Horne, a comrade in the struggle for animal liberation, who died on November 5, 2001 after a fourth hunger strike against animal experimentation, while serving an 18-year prison sentence for setting fire to animal exploitation.
Until every cage is empty!’
VIA: Unicorn Riot. By Ryan Fatica,
Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, a 54-year-old environmental activist and former Earth Liberation Front saboteur, was sentenced to time served today after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson and one count of arson. Dibee was also ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service.
Dibee is a former member of an autonomous cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, loose networks of activists who in the late 90s and early 2000s took responsibility for a string of attacks on industries, businesses, and government entities they saw as responsible for the mounting environmental crisis.
In 2005, in the midst of post-911 anti-terrorism fervor, the FBI rolled out Operation Backfire, which ultimately led to the indictment of nearly 20 people on serious felony charges. Although Dibee was not initially charged in the case, he was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury to testify against another activist. When confronted with the choice of whether or not to cooperate, or ‘snitch,’ Dibee chose to flee to Syria, his family’s country of origin. Shortly thereafter, he was indicted in a sweeping conspiracy case.
In summer 2018, Dibee was captured in José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba on his way home from a business trip in Ecuador and was held by Cuban authorities for several days. According to Dibee, he was tortured, threatened with execution, and held without food or water. On August 9, 2018, he was turned over to the FBI and extradited to the United States.
In April 2022, after nearly two years of pre-trial incarceration, Dibee signed a plea agreement admitting to his participation in a conspiracy to commit arson at Cavel West, a meat packing facility in Oregon that was known for slaughtering wild horses, and at a Bureau of Land Management horse facility near Litchfield, California.
Today, two years and five months after his initial capture, Dibee appeared remotely before Federal Judge Ann Aiken’s court in Eugene, Oregon for sentencing. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Dibee to 87 months in prison, citing the severity of his crimes and his time on the run as reasons for a harsher sentence. Ultimately, Judge Aiken would reject that logic saying that time away from one’s family is always a punishment, whether one is in Syria, Russia, or in prison.
“Syria and Russia were not recreational destinations” at this time, the judge said.
In her lengthy statement, Judge Aiken cited Dibee’s 29 months of pre-trial incarceration, during which he was attacked by a white supremacist and later contracted COVID-19, as well as his years of self-imposed banishment abroad, as reasons for issuing the sentence of time served.
The judge also spoke at length about Dibee’s decades of efforts while he was on the run in Syria, Russia, and Ecuador to use his engineering skills to advance environmental causes.
Aiken also cited Dibee’s claim that he was tortured by Cuban authorities when he was captured in Havana. Dibee said they left him without water for days and told him that if he didn’t confess, they’d take him on a plane and drop him in the ocean and he would never be found.
“I don’t think an imagination could dream up” such stories, Aiken said.
She initially sentenced Dibee to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution to those entities targeted in his attacks, but decided to table the issue of restitution for a future hearing after Dibee’s attorney objected.
The judge cited Dibee’s lack of financial resources at present, saying he is not likely to be able to pay restitution soon “unless he strikes it rich” by creating a life changing technology, which Judge Aiken admitted “seems possible.”
While on the lam, Dibee taught environmental engineering at a university in Syria, even helping to plan a national project on renewable energy. In Russia, he started a business recycling used fuels into biodiesel. In Ecuador, he agreed to create a technology for ecologically sound gold mining to mitigate the dangers of mercury and other toxins involved in current technologies.
“Frankly, this country needs some of the technologies he’s able to craft,” the judge said.
9th November, Utrecht Netherlands.
Via: Active For Justice
ENGLISH:
“Recently we received this picture; spotted by someone in Utrecht. Apparently this graffiti was already there for several weeks!
Even though we did not do this (and it’s not up to us to talk in the name of the person(s) that did this), we did wanted to share it. Apparently more people do not agree with the sale of foie gras.
Restaurant Bistronome des Arts (where this graffiti is/was) is one of the few restaurants in Utrecht that is still selling foie gras. Soon we will announce our next protest; Utrecht has to go foie gras-free. Will we see you then?”
DUTCH:
“Onlangs kregen we onderstaande foto doorgestuurd; gespot door iemand in Utrecht. Blijkbaar stond deze graffiti er op dat moment al enkele weken!
Hoewel dit niet door ons is gedaan (en het niet aan ons is om voor de dader(s) te spreken over deze actie) wilden we het toch even delen. Blijkbaar zijn meer mensen het niet eens met de verkoop van foie gras.
Restaurant Bistronome des Arts (waar deze graffiti staat/stond) is één van de weinige restaurants in Utrecht die nog steeds foie gras verkoopt. We kondigen snel onze volgende actie aan: Utrecht moet en zal foie gras vrij worden. Zien we je dan?”
10th November, Buenos Aires Argentina.
received anonymously via email:
ENG (translation)
“Thousands of buildings for the kidnap and murder go animals and the passivity that makes us accomplices to their death.
That complicity is normalising it, conforming, that complicity is their death penalty.
Where is the fight against the use and murder of animals? In a few outreach campaigns, teaching those monsters that they are not doing it right?
It is enough! We must act beyond what is comfortable, we must put ideas into action.
For that reason we visited a chicken farm, those chickens that would then reach your dinner table chipped up. We took eight beings with us, and they stopped being things, livestock, “something”, to become someone.
Due to the horrible conditions they lived in all might not make it, but from the moment they escaped that place they escaped the reason why they had been born. It is much more preferable for them to die without being abused, without being enslaved and without being “things”, rather than them dying in the hands of their master to end up in some monster’s stomach.
Even if it is one, that is more than enough. Every life matters, and every direct action counts, let’s take action against the machine that subjects them to abuse! Animal Liberators”
SPA (original)
“Miles de centros de secuestro y asesinato de animales por doquier y una pasividad que nos hace cómplices.
Esa complicidad es normalización, esa complicidad es conformismo, esa complicidad es una condena a muerte.
¿y donde esta la oposición al exterminio y uso de animales? solo en algunas campañas de concientizacion? enseñandoles
a lxs monstruxs lo mal que esta lo que hacen?
No! es necesario, accionar mas allá de la comodidad, es necesario elevar las ideas hacia lo concreto.
Por ello visitamos un centro de exterminio de gallinas, esas que después llegan descuartizadas a la mesa, de lxs ciudadanxs modelo. Pudimos llevarnos con nosotrxs 8 seres, que dejaron de ser una cosa, una mercancía, “algo”, para ser una vida.
Debido a las condiciones a las que las someten, quizá no sobrevivan todas, pero desde el momento que salieron de ese lugar de exterminio, se rompió la lógica bajo la cual las hicieron nacer. Y es preferible que mueran sin ser sometidas, sin ser esclavas y sin estar cosificadas,
a que mueran en manos de su carcelero para terminar en el estomago de algún monstrux humanx
y por más que sea una sola, ya es mas que suficiente, cada vida vale, y cada acción directa cuenta, accionemos contra esa maquinaria
de cosificación y sometimiento!
Liberadorxs de animales”
November, Michigan USA.
via: NAALPO
Received anonymously:
“all mink (800) released from pipkorn farm: a delayed response to the farmer’s open letter from 1999; sorry it took us so long to respond (we weren’t born yet). to remind you.
https://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/an-open-letter-to-our-neighbors-from-pipkorn-mink-ranch), this is what was published after the elf freed 5,000 mink from your killing chambers in northern michigan. the midwest is home to many who torture and murder mink.
we like what you’ve done with the place: several new fences and a camera on your barn. these were easily circumvented without the airplanes you suspected from last time, with just a leisurely stroll around back, bolt cutters for the barbed wire, and wire cutters for the chicken wire fence. we also saw how many empty abandoned sheds there were, seems like you were already on your way out.
in this letter, you refered to the mink as “defenseless”, which you would know after analy electrocuting them year after year after year with no remorse. we saw how enlived and energized they were runnning in the field for the first time and believe that giving them a chance at life is better than the certain death they face at your hands. we also wonder whether the community will be so eager to help you after it was confirmed that the mink you held in close quarters developed and spread a specific mutation of covid in your commmunity in 2020. what is being a good neighbor? ruthlessly caging and slaughtering so many beautiful creatures every year? adding considerably to climate and ecological disaster?
all just so rich people can have a new fancy fit?
your wealth is not worth more than one life and certainly not the hundreds of thousands you’ve murdered to date. we came to your farm to free the ones we could (and indeed uncaged every last one), but also to shut you down so the killing stops now. we will make good on this promise, with a little faster response time.”
Via: NAALPO
November, Ohio USA.
Received anonymously:
“MINK LIBERATED IN OHIO – FOR BARRY, RUN WILD
MOTIVATED BY LOVE AND RESPECT FOR BARRY HORNE, ANIMAL LIBERATIONISTS FREED 1,000 MINK SLATED FOR CERTAIN DEATH THIS MONTH IN MASSILLON OHIO. THE FRIENDLY GUARD DOG GRACIOUSLY STOPPED BARKING, AIDING US IN OUR MISSION EVEN AS THE MINK SCREAMED IN EXCITEMENT ABOUT THEIR FREEDOM.
MINK ARE GENETICALLY WILD, AND SO EAGERLY RAN IN GRASS FOR THE FIRST TIME TOWARDS FREEDOM (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM SOME SHREDDED CHEESE). THEY CAN NOW EXPECT HEALTHY LIVES IN NATURE. MINK ARE SOLITARY ANIMALS, BUT THESE POOR BABIES WERE FORCED INTO TINY WIRE CAGES STUFFED FULL OF OTHER MINK, UNTIL THEY WERE SCHEDULED FOR ANAL ELECTROCUTION OR GAS CHAMBERS IN PELTING SEASON (MID NOVEMBER- EARLY DECEMBER).
A NEARBY FARM WAS VISITED AS WELL, WHICH PREVIOUSLY HAD BEEN CONFIRMED TO HAVE MINK AND THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS FOUND: A HARSH REMINDER TO TAKE DECISIVE ACTION AS SOON AS YOU CAN.
WE HOPE THIS INSPIRES YOU, DEAR READERS, TO DESTROY ALL CAGES. WE ACT IN SOLIDARITY WITH ALL IMPRISONED BEINGS, INCLUDING THE BRAVE SOULS AT THE MASSILLON CHILD PRISON WHO HAVE COURAGEOUSLY RIOTED FOR THEIR FREEDOM. THERE HAS NOT BEEN A MINK LIBERATION IN THE LAND UNDER US OCCUPATION SINCE 2019. WE HOPE THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A RESURGENCE! CHECK OUT FINALNAIL.COM TO FIND A LIST OF ANIMAL TORTURE AND MURDER FACILITIES.”
5th November, Somerset UK.
Received anonymously via email:
“Nature reserves should be a sanctuary for ALL wildlife, regardless of species. But that’s not the case at Westhay National Nature reserve. What should be a place of safety was instead totally covered in traps. Mink rafts containing mammal traps barely hidden under plastic boxes and many visible from the public footpaths. Any mink captured inside would have been killed, given that the government has made it illegal to release them back into the wild.
We are horrified that Somerset Wildlife Trust are killing wildlife in their reserves. Fuck their speciesism, a mink has as much right to stay alive as a badger, an otter, or a redshank.
As fireworks terrorised animals near and far, we bashed at least 16 traps, leaving a bunch of them draped over signs and in walkways so the morning visitors could see for themselves that the wildlife haven is in fact a place of death. We also stole a trail camera that had been set up next to two of the traps. Footage on it showed a family of 3 beautiful mink going about their lives. We just hope we weren’t too late for them.
This action is dedicated to Barry Horne, who died on 5th November 2001. We will continue his fight for every animal who has ever suffered at the whims of humans.”
On the 18th of September the world woke up to the news that Grupo de Respuesta Animal had struck again in Chile, this time against a meat packaging facility that had been set alight. A few weeks later, GRA released a communique explaining their action:
Two days ago we heard the news that chilean police had made four arrests in relation to that arson, claiming that the mobile phones of four people had been pinpointed into that location on the night of the action.
Today, the four comrades faced a judge, who has sent them to prison without possibility of bail whilst the cops investigate the case. They have not been charged and the filth could very easily be making up the evidence they’ve used to convince the judge to lock them up, but their case will be up for review in 70 days and until then they will remain behind bars.
Comrades in Chile have started to organise and donations as well as addresses for letter wirtting will be made public soon. We will publish those promptly after we have been made aware of how you can support.
Ni culpables, ni inocentes. ENEMIGOS SIMPLEMENTE!
Solidarity.