Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303 mile long natural gas pipeline  from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia that began construction in 2018 that has been, and continues to be, resisted through lawsuits, tree-sits, aerial blockades, walk-ons, lockdowns, car barricades, and most recently sabotage and arson. 

In July the supreme court filed an emergency order ruling the immediate resumption of the construction of the pipeline and dismissing existing litigation.
In September a judge granted temporary injunction against six protestors, barring them from returning to the site.

Machinery sabotage and arson has taken place in these three months, and the most recent communique A CALL TO WAR AGAINST THE PIPELINE says

“we believe that mvp is financially precarious and can still be stopped through relentless destructive actions, alongside the scaling-up of the existing campaign to cause disruptions and delays. to this end, we call upon like-minded individuals and groups to travel to so-called virginia and west virginia to inflict maximum economic damage against mvp by any means at your disposal. we must demoralize the enemy and prove that their project is doomed to never be completed. A map of the pipeline showing incomplete water crossings can be found at tinyurl.com/mvprfuckers. […] We have seen campaign after campaign fail to stop pipelines over the past decade, and we cannot afford to keep losing.[…] warriorup.noblogs.org and tension.noblogs.org are good starting points to find information on various arson and sabotage techniques.
[…]the only way to stop the deterioration of the climate from getting exponentially worse is to immediately halt the expansion of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and to shut down and dismantle existing infrastructure. wherever you live, there’s a pipeline near you that you can go shut off yourself.”

Image credit: @thegreatunwashed_

The intensive badger cull is in full motion and though no new zones have been authorised, 29 will continue across in England which could result in up to 24,000 murdered in September and October on top of the 210,000 already killed since it began in 2013. However, saboteurs and activists, acting on intelligence and data from previous years, were on hand to take action to prevent killing and protect local populations. Derbyshire Against The Cull were the first to publish their disruption of free-shooting, where the wild animals are shot at night, and was soon followed by cage traps being destroyed by Underground Badger Syndicate. Multiple hunt sabotage groups from across the country have also been active day and night. Though the scale of the cull is bleak, the survival of consistently targeted setts reaffirms the importance of localised action.

Anti-cull action will continue throughout October but cannot be done without support. Many are active night and day, seven days a week. Fuel costs alone are enough to determine how active they can be so donations of any size can help go a long way. Underground Badger Syndicate specifically have set up a fund raiser for their continuous efforts throughout the cull. Tip-off’s are also incredibly important. Though there are groups and individuals specifically dedicated to the cause, anyone can make a difference simply by checking their local badger sett. You never know what you may find, including other items of wildlife destruction nearby as seen by Manchester Hunt Sabs.

The Llandeilo Farmers Hunt have disbanded following financial pressure and a lack of support from landowners. This is a reminder of how important these two factors are for the sustainability of a hunt. It was noted that the hunt attracted very few mounted riders, which is an essential stream of income, and what riders they did have were likely put off by the presence of South Wales Hunt Saboteurs. Some hunts sabotage themselves through their own actions. For example, last season the huntsman was evicted by an angry landowner as the hounds chased his sheep. Events like this act as nails to a hunts coffin. Sabotaging a hunt like this, on top of saving wildlife on the day, can also add further nails to their coffin. Some hunts may seem fair from the possibility of disbanding but, as seen by a recent confirmed amalgamation of the East Sussex & Romney Marsh Hunt with the South Down & Eridge Hunt in England, even hunts with a history of violence and police backing can fall. It was also announced that the Ecclesfield Beagles have folded, a Hare hunt who had famously been the target of a raid by the Animal Liberation Front in the 1980s.

Throughout September, hunt sabotage groups across the UK have been active in disrupting efforts of hunts in training new hounds against fox cubs and leverets, often taking place in the early hours of the morning, with many active during multiple days of the week. This training process is vital for the main hunting season and, when left unchallenged, often results in multiple wild animals being killed during a single hunt meet. The efforts made by saboteurs not only has saved many lives, it also creates complications for the training process which may be detrimental for hunting during the upcoming main hunting season. This month has been extremely busy for groups as, in addition to this, have also been organising and taking part in fundraisers, recruiting new members and taking part in other action such as the badger cull. Donations and messages of support are always appreciated and help with expenses and keeping spirits high.

Two main updates from the Campaign Against the Fur Trade this month.

First, the pressure is continuing against Marc Jacobs, with CAFT dishing out the numbers to call to let them know what you think of their death trade. Pressure continues outside Marc Jacobs stores to let their customers know about the suffering behind the brand. See @caftusa for details.

Second, an anonymous group released around 7,000 mink from a farm in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, making state news. It would seem that most have not been found. Long may the mink live free <3

Since the beginning of the badger cull operation in the UK, over 200k badgers have been killed. Badgers are a protected species in the UK, but because cattle farmers blame them for bovine tuberculosis, every year an intensive cull is organised in specific areas of England in an attempt to reduce the numbers down to 30%.

Many groups, hunt sabs and individuals fight the badger cull day and night, looking for traps to smash, searching for shooters to move on from setts and causing a nuisance to every single person who gets involved in the murder of badgers.

UBS, like every year, is out there in the fields getting wet and muddy and terrorising hunters and farmers wherever they walk. Since the beginning of September they have smashed badger cage after badger cage, toppled the hunting towers they find on the way and destroying all other wildlife murdering traps they stumble upon.

They reached out to let us know that they are in need of economic support to carry on being the absolute pain in the ass they are to hunters and that they’ve set up a fundraiser. If you can afford it, please send UBS some coins. As they are a completely independent group they do not receive funding from any organisation, so your help will be immensely appreciated.

You can find UBS on:
Instagram: @undergroundbadgersyndicate
Facebook: When The Wild Things Come At Night.

https://donorbox.org/the-big-anti-cull-fundraising-bucket-for-ubs

SOLIDARITY!

Last month a RICO indictment came against 61 people alleged to be a part of Defend the Atlanta Forest. RICO(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) carries sentences of up to 20 years, some named in the indictment already face charges of Domestic Terrorism carrying between 5 and 30 years by itself. The fund taking donations to support legal defense is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.

The Defend the Atlanta Forest struggle is being engaged with in many directions and with many tactics from legal, to clandestine attack and sabotage, to planned mass non-violent direct action protest.

Clandestine action, claimed through communiques, continue to include such things as sabotage of machinery involved in construction, attacks on funders/contractors, attacks on the police, and the public identification of police officers. Interestingly during the last week of action in Atlanta, various parts of Norfolk Southern’s rail infrastructure was sabotaged. The communique claiming the rail sabotaged stated “our original intent was not propaganda of the deed, but to cause economic harm. However, in light of the recent RICO charges, we realized that people might need a little encouragement on how to respond. Norfolk Southern owns and operates many railroads across the country east of the Mississippi.” 

The petition organized by Vote To Stop Cop City is currently in a legal battle as the signatures in the petition are verified and counted. This petition, if accepted, would put to a vote the lease that allows the Atlanta Police Foundation to build cop city on the land.

Shortly after religious individuals chained themselves to construction equipment, a new group, Block Cop City, announced plans for a mass action on Nov. 13 to halt construction of the facility. The group says it plans to hold a 70-city tour in the runup to the mass action and then a convening in Atlanta beginning Nov. 10 and ending with the mass action at the construction site. Block Cop City, says November’s action will not engage in the tactic of property destruction and economic sabotage used in March and at other points over the last two years. The group plans instead to engage in a tactic known as “non-violent direct action.”

via: Unsalted Counter Info

The fur industry in the Pacific Northwest is a shell of what it once was.

Since the first recorded ALF liberation at a fur farm in 1986, where 66 foxes were freed from a fox farm outside of Portland, anti-speciesists in the PNW have waged a war against the fur industry.  At least 20 farms have been visited, and over 31,000 genetically wild animals have been given a chance at freedom.  All of these animals are native to North America and can survive and thrive in the wild.

Only 5 fur farms remain in Oregon today, down from 18 in 2007. The fur farmers cite direct action, aging facilities, aging operators, and low pelt prices as the reasons.

The five farms that remain in operation are:

Cascade Farms of Oregon, 7582 Hunsaker Road SE, Turner, OR 97392

Ruef’s Fur Ranch, 12305 Ruef Lane, Mount Angel, OR 97362

Ruef & Sons (Oregon Mink / Ormink), 11658 Baron Road NE, Mount Angel, OR 97362

Slack/Masog Farms, 32600 Fur Road, Lebanon, OR 97355

Western Star Fur Farm, 40801 Savola Lane, Astoria, OR 97103

Only 4 fur farms remain in Washington. They are:

Moore/Rodriguez mink farm, Moore Quality Ranch, 9471 or 9580 Mount Baker Highway, Deming, WA 98244

Marr mink farm, 4800 Mount Baker Highway, Deming, WA 98244

Roesler Brothers Fur Farm, 33425 138th Street SE, Sultan, WA 98294

Brick Road Fur Farm (possibly closed), 19780 NE 55th Place, Redmond, WA 98053

This is an industry incredibly vulnerable to attack.  2022 saw over 15,000 mink liberated from fur farms in Ohio and Michigan, with the second largest fur farm in the U.S., Lion Farms, closing as a result. Two farms have been visited in 2023, the Olsen mink farm in Independence, WI saw 4000 mink aided to escape, and a week later dozens of foxes were freed from the Tim Jahr fur farm in Arlington, MN.

Every animal on fur farms will be murdered for their fur in November. We have two months to act. For a complete list of fur farms visit finalnail.com

Since 2017, Djurfront has been campaigning to shut down Niclas Pettersson’s mink farm in Falkenberg, Sweden. He was the perfect target for multiple reasons, including the fact that he owned the only mink farm in the southern part of Sweden, making him very isolated from the lobby industry.

Since the begining of the campaign activists did everything they could to make him stop murdering mink. From demonstrations to blockades and even climbing the security tower inside the farm, Niclas was told time and time again that his murdering business was not welcome and needed to stop.

The campaign didn’t just see aboveground activities. In August 2017, activists broke into the farm and liberated 2000 mink. In 2019 just before his daughter’s graduation, the ALF set his car on fire in front of his house. The fire travelled to the adjacent vehicle damaging it too, and the daughter complained that she was unable to be driven to graduation. During halloween that same year the Swedish Animal Rights Militia threw lots of cat shit in Niclas’ garden and set up a grave stone in the front of his house ‘RIP Niclas Pettersson ex-mink farmer’.

Sabotages, slashed tyres, locking the gates of the farm and militant demonstrations were a known happening to Niclas, who a couple of weeks ago decided to shut down for good.

We want to send love and congratulations to everybody who fought against that farm and ended up winning that battle, you’re all absolutely fantastic and the animals are a tad better thanks to you! During the campaign people were heavily assaulted, a good few were convicted of different crimes and there even was prison sentences served. Thank you for your fight and your resilience!

In the 2019 arson report, the ALF wrote: “We have a message for you, Nicolas: We have already won. The question remains – how much do we need to escalate before you give up? We will keep increasing our actions until you stop, until your fur farm is closed and your exploitation of animals is consigned to history. For a future of freedom and a present of fire.” Well, it seems they were right, Niclas had already lost and his animal exploitation business would turn into nothing but a line in the history books.

CELEBRATE AND FIGHT BACK! CONGRATULATIONS TO DJURFRONT AND ALL ACTIVISTS THAT FOUGHT THE MINK FARM IN FALKENBERG

STÄNG MINKFARMEN I FALKENBERG!

[Image credit: @nottinghamhuntsabs]

Fox hound, Harrier, Beagle and Basset packs are now routinely being taken out exercising by hunt staff, with many actively beginning cub and leveret hunting. This pre-lude to the main hunting season is carried out to train young hounds how to kill. Aside from this, the training process is vital for building a relationship between the huntsman and hounds as well as hounds learning how to work as a pack. Therefore, sabotaging this is not only important for protecting wildlife on the day but can also be detrimental to hunting efforts during the main season by becoming acquainted with the landscape and where wildlife specifically reside which gives them a better opportunity to act. Many sabotage groups across England and Wales have been present during exercise and have taken action when cubbing has been attempted, including Devon County who disrupted three meets in one week as well as other activity.

Stag hunting, which is confined to the south west of England, has also begun. Sabotaging this form of hunting comes with differing challenges to cub & leveret hunting but efforts to disrupt this has produced results. Though there were multiple kills by the Devon & Somerset Stag Hounds during one Saturday, the hunt was unsuccessful the following Saturday due to efforts made by saboteurs from Mendip, Devon and Dorset. Following a three-hour chase, the hunted stag escaped into sanctuary land which forced the hunt elsewhere. Land ownership played a key factor in this and, despite the real problem of hunt trespass, can limit a hunts availability to hunt freely. Advice on hunt trespass can be found from your local sab group. Days later at another meet, the same hunt resorted to violence against saboteurs from Devon and Mendip who received multiple injuries, including one who was taken to hospital, two vehicles severely damaged and equipment stolen. Both groups are calling for donations for repairs and replacements and be done via their social media pages.

Border County Mink Hounds attempted to hunt on a Sunday, likely as an attempt to evade being caught due to being an uncommon day to hunt. However, they were successfully intercepted by saboteurs from Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Manchester and were packed up within minutes. Later in the month, the Dove Valley Mink Hounds packed up instantly on the arrival of saboteurs from Staffordshire and Nottingham.

Saboteurs from Brighton announced that the South Down and Eridge Hunt have had their application for their annual boxing day parade rejected by Lewes council. These parades are historically the biggest day in the hunting calendar, are hugely symbolic and are carried out by the majority of hunts across the UK and Ireland, if not all. Though it is possible for a parade to happen in another capacity, this rejection is a huge blow to a hunts morale and their pocket, as they often use it as an opportunity to raise money. Pressure from depleting funds and overall support is a sure route to a hunt disbanding.

Grouse shooting has begun and, as is tradition, started on the 12th August which is self-proclaimed as the ‘glorious twelfth’. Historically this date has seen shoots taking place on the majority of Grouse moors, if not all, across the middle and north of England as well as Scotland, but has become increasingly targeted by saboteurs from across the UK. This is by far the most expensive form of shooting and can cost shoot organisers thousands in financial loses simply through refunding participants if a shoot is called off. Saboteurs turning up, especially on mass, is a sure way to achieve this and is exactly what they achieved this year after intercepting and shutting down multiple shoots over three days. Two saboteurs were found ‘guilty’ of aggravated trespass and were handed conditional discharges, restraining orders and a fine of £3500. Staffordshire Hunt Sabs are calling for support and donations which help cover such costs and can be done by following the link on their social media accounts. Direct action is playing an important role in the demise of the Grouse shooting industry and is accompanied by mounting pressure from campaigns led by conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts. With land-owning facilitators such as United Utilities pulling the plug on licensing, shooting is becoming less and less sustainable. Whilst in the area, saboteurs also used the opportunity to search for, and respond to, the abundance of traps across the estates. One gamekeeper was quoted saying “there is no doubt that the sight of sabs makes the keepers’ hearts sink”. 

Similar items and more, have also been found and destroyed in other parts of the country throughout the month, including high-seats, snares and fen traps. As Staffordshire Hunt Sabs point out, Larsen traps are banned in their country of origin, yet remain legal in the UK. Campaigns to ban traps are ongoing and is a method that can produce results, such as the National Anti Snaring Campaign and the recent ban on snares in Wales. Until then, a direct approach can not only save wildlife at the time, as seen by Staffordshire and Jorvik saboteurs, but also causes financial damage to whoever intends on using them.

Preparations for the intensive badger cull continue with surveying, information gathering, sett checking and training days, as seen by groups such as Derbyshire Against The Cull as well as saboteurs from Yorkshire, Sheffield and elsewhere. Funds are crucial for groups to continue to operate so consider making a donation. One dedicated anti-cull group, Underground Badger Syndicate, who has been busy with high-seats, is one group asking for such support for fuel costs.

Anyone can play a part in wildlife defence. Information and tip-offs can make a huge difference, whether it is about a hunt taking place, suspicious behaviour in the countryside or concerning discoveries whilst walking a dog or going for a walk. Most, if not all, sabotage groups have social media accounts which be used as a point of contact, with some having direct contact phone numbers and can be found via a quick search online. Otherwise, the tip-off line for the Hunt Saboteurs Association is 07443148426.

NO LIFE LIKE THE WILD

CAFT USA continues to increase the pressure on Marc Jacobs, who in June paraded fox fur hats at their show at New York Public Library, and against Max Mara and LVMH who still sell fur clothing.

CAFT is still calling for activists to make their voices heard by protesting in as many Max Mara and LVMH stores as possible, and by disrupting all of Marc Jacobs fashion events until it drops fur. There is also information on the caft_usa socials for how to contact these companies online to demand that they go fur-free.

The group has also put out some really useful information about security culture for animal activism after six of their activists were arrested. This can be found on their Instagram.

There were several positives this month in the broader campaign against fur. In Wisconsin, 3000 mink are now free from their cages after being released from a fur farm. And two companies went fur-free: Paul Stewart and Windsor!

Stay safe!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the descriptions might be graphic to readers. Mentions of torture, death, misscarriage and more.]

Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, almost 6 million refugees have fled the country. After outpours of grassroots solidarity with displaced Ukrainians, European governments were forced to stop dragging their heels and allow these people into their country. This stands in stark contrast to the racist violence of Fortress Europe, whose deliberate negligence regularly allows people from across the Global South to die at its borders.

Two years ago, the Polish state declared a state of emergency, creating an exclusion zone that journalists and activists could not access. With the support of the EU and the UK, the Polish state built a 180km fence along its border with Belarus.  This was in response to Belarus openly encouraging migrants to come to Belarus on the promise that from there
they could easily enter the EU – using them as a geopolitical tool to put pressure on the eastern states of the EU.

While the exclusion zone is now gone, every day scores of migrants still cross the border only to be met with the unaccountable violence of the Polish border force, armed with guns, pepper spray and dogs. Similar stories are playing out on the borders with Latvia and Lithuania, and the militarisation of the border has only worsened with the invasion of
Ukraine.

Both the Polish and Belarusian governments cannot escape the logic of states – they dehumanise the migrants, seeing them not as people but as threats to their security and control. While Belarus seeks to use migrants as a weapon, the EU sees them as an existential threat.

Migrants are lured to Belarus and coerced into paying thousands of US dollars before being detained in camps and subject to brutal repression including rape, being bitten by dogs, and having food and water withheld. The Belarusian police then push these migrants to the border fence and force them across, sometimes through the freezing rivers that make up part of the border, or deep in the Bialowieza Forest.

Migrants have drowned or frozen to death, pregnant women have miscarried, and countless people have sustained injuries at the hands of the Belarusian police, crossing the wall, or in the forest. However, they find no safe haven in Poland. Border guards indiscriminately torture migrants with beatings and pepper spray, including stripping migrants and using it on their genitals. Migrants are robbed of their belongings and pushed back through the fence to Belarus, in contravention of the much-touted EU laws on refugees.

This process then repeats in a cycle of violence as migrants who are trapped in a no-man’s land are forced to repeat this crossing until they can successfully evade Polish police or are finally detained for years in one of Poland’s detention camps to await deportation.

While states can only pretend they can wash their hands of the responsibility for migrants’ safety, anarchists from across Poland come to the eastern region and conspire with locals to provide practical solidarity with people on the move. Teams travel into the forest to give migrants food, water and clothes and provide badly needed medical aid that, if the migrants were to seek at hospital, would only lead to their deportation.

Borders are the invention of the state. The sanctity and integrity of the state is reliant on these borders being militarised and impermeable. Borders exist not only at the frontiers of our countries, but exist as institutions in our workplaces, healthcare and education system.
Undocumented migrants face the full force of the violence of the state, often with no recourse to justice. The only solidarity they can rely on is grassroots solidarity. And if we are to abolish the state, we need to abolish borders, wherever they lie.