Carrie Litig had previously been visited by the ALF in 2005. Apparently he did not get the message about what happens to those who stay in this barbaric business, so last night we decided to remind him. We saw by his motion lights, cameras and electric fence that he had at least learned to be paranoid, but not paranoid enough. With a little recon, we were able to circumvent these defenses and make our way to the cages.
It is sickening to see such majestic wild animals reduced to a short life in a tiny cage, awaiting a certain and brutal death just to satisfy human greed. We would make sure that that greed would have a price. We ripped open the first cage, then the second and soon we could not stop, even as the brightening sky threatened to reveal us.
Many of the foxes were too scared to leave their cage, but periodically we would look back and notice one after the other had made its way to the ground and was searching for their way out. With the darkness all but gone, we reluctantly made our way to the damaged fence, but not before pocketing a couple dozen of the cards on the cages holding valuable genetic information.
We are far from satisfied with this action; we had to leave many animals behind, but we will be back. We are sure that Kerry Litig will have even more security measures in place next time, that is if he can afford them. He might spare himself some time and money if he read up on the history of the Animal Liberation Front and realized that security systems do not intimidate us. We will find a way in, we always do.
To all the vegans reading this: it’s your turn now! Pelting season is just 3 months away. How many foxes and mink will die in November and how many will live out their natural lives, is all up to you!
So yeah, we’ve been away from the internet and not updating the platform. We know folks rely on the platform to keep going all the time to send anonymous reports or to get news about prisoners or to get legal support in terms of money and whatnot, but the reality of it is, we can’t keep up continuosly with an extremely thin team of people.
Couple of years back we called for support because we couldn’t create and publish all the content we would like to, we were burning out and we were considering shutting down. The job is intense, the repression is constant, and every single person here is a volunteer. We did get an influx of new voices which was extremely welcome, but slow and steady folks have disappeared due to other constraints or needs or capabilities, so the collective is once again wearing thin, burning out and exhausted.
Basically, we need people to show up. UA has always been a collective effort, so if you want the collective to keep existing reach out over email and become part of the collective. it might mean writing an article a month, or one a week, or keeping an eye on prisoner news, or some other content we have not thought of but would fit with the project. It’s up to you.
Please understand this as exactly what it is: UA is a media collective, we are not a direct action group. Don’t contact us to “go on missions”. We don’t “go on missions”. We receive anonymous reports, we keep an eye on prisoner support needs, try to keep tabs with campaigns and write about security culture or about tactics and strategies to further the movement for liberation. We do not and cannot and will not be able to pout you in touch with underground activist groups.
So if you have time and capabilities and will and desire for UA to keep going, hit us up. Otherwise, UA as a platform will appear as and when we can, if we can, until we are done with it!
Thanks to all who support us continuously, you’re fucking grand.
Unoffensive Animal Collective.
PS: Bristol animal lib activists who hate pest controllers: if you’re reading this, your media is corrupted, we can’t see your photos, please re-send!
“Fuck your prison sheds, we will break in and break our comrades out. With a bellies full of rage for the ones left behind we carried half a dozen ducks to a better life. They will know care, respect and safety. We dedicate this action to comrade Alonso Verdejo, we never met you but through your actions we remember you. May historical memory bury those who condemn taking the offensive!”
After almost three years resisting behind bars, Panda has been released from prison, with order to serve the rest of the sentence under partial house arrest and on tag.
Rucio is still serving prison for the same action.
Welcome back to the outside world Panda, we couldn’t be happier for you.
WHAT: National protest against Impex, laboratory animal transporter WHEN: 3rd August, 1PM WHERE: Thrapston Memorial Peace Park, 76 Market Rd, Thrapston, Kettering NN14 4JU
received anonymously via email:
“Join us on August 3rd for a protest against Impex who transport 2,000 dogs every year from the notorious puppy factory MBR Acres to laboratories across the UK. Meet at 1pm at Thrapston Memorial Peace Park.
“This journal contains within a collection of vegan texts contributed by anarcho-nihilists from across the globe. After having conversations about nihilism, anti-civ anarchy and veganism, we, the authors of these texts have all decided to compile our writing into a multi-language zine not only as an expression of global solidarity, but also as a way to make anti-speciesist anarchist ideas accessible to the world. These words, written with the refusal to be silenced by laws and prison walls, represent a wildfire that burns through borders toward every city….
Amy Upham and Selena Kate Lloyd (Lloyd is ~39 years old) of Buffalo, NY
Upham and Lloyd were tenants in the apartment above Burning Books, a book store in Buffalo, New York. They told agents from the FBI’s Buffalo office that the shop’s owners—Leslie James Pickering, Theresa Baker, and Nate Buckley—were inciting violence in workshops and talks at Burning Books. As a result, the FBI initiated two years of regular surveillance of the shop and Pickering and Baker’s home. This was exacerbated by the fact that Pickering was a former spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office.
The surveillance ultimately embraced a potential “local eco-terrorist cell” (quote from FBI files) of nine locals: Pickering, Baker, Buckley, and six unnamed others. Lloyd appears to have a prior relationship with the FBI and a history of disrupting organizations and projects in Moscow (Idaho) as well as Buffalo.
Current Information: Upham has relocated to the Asheville, NC, area and is reportedly working for Blueridge Pride. From target Leslie James Pickering: “she went out of her way to go to the FBI with a list of people she didn’t like for whatever reason (even though everyone had always been kind to her) and try to frame them up as terrorists. Then, a year later she recanted her story to the FBI, saying that the so-called terrorist cell was actually just “good people with big hearts, trying to do right” or something like that. She’s a danger to be associated with.
Lloyd’s whereabouts are unknown. Both informants have reportedly struggled with mental illness, and Upham has described Lloyd as abusive and potentially dangerous.
Cara and Celeste were arrested last year and accused of liberating mink from a fur farm. On July the 21st, they had a hearing where some positive developmets were shared. read it directly from their support team:
“On July 21, Judge Paige Rosini heard arguments on an omnibus motion for Cara and Celeste. This motion detailed the state’s lack of evidence for the charges and petitioned the court to dismiss them. We anticipate the judge will hand down a decision in the coming months. In the meantime though…
The RICO charges against Cara & Celeste were dropped! The DA withdrew them before the hearing even started. The judge also asserted that the DA, by way of pretrial services, cannot restrict C&C’s travel. Moving forward, travel requests will be decided by the judge directly.
The defense and prosecution will have 30 days following receipt of the July 21 hearing transcript to submit briefs outlining their legal arguments. Based on these motions, Judge Rosini will decide if any of the charges will proceed to trial.
Trial comes with many financial costs including added lawyer fees, expert witness testimony, travel and accommodations, and possible fees or fines. Please continue to donate if you are able so these defendants are supported through the remainder of their case!”
Credit/debit: Phillyabc.org/nu2
Venmo @phillyantirepression with note “for cc”
Their support website: https://wesupportcc.wordpress.com
“In the spirit of July 4th, we decided the animals languishing on Tonn’s Mink Farm in Massillon, Ohio deserved their own independence day. The fireflies lit our path through the dark as we made our way to the fence, trusty wire-cutters in hand. We took our time with this part, cutting only the wire mesh and not the larger wires which we suspected could activate an alarm system.
Once we made it through and saw our first mink, we could not start opening cages fast enough. The mink quickly realized what was happening and started making no small amount of noise, unable to contain their excitement as they jumped from their prison cells. A quick lap around the surrounding sheds confirmed that their noise did not travel far at all.
We tore open cage after cage; after emptying several sheds, exhaustion had kicked in and we made our way back to the fence. A single mink was perched on top of it, just to the right of where we had torn it down, as if to say goodbye and reassure us that they would find their way out.
Now, reflecting on this action, all we can think about is how we cannot wait to do it again. Nothing that the cops, government or fur industry can threaten us with could ever come close to unsettling us as much as the possibility of one day having to look in the mirror and say “The animals needed me, they cried out for my help and I did nothing.”
Let us be clear: we are sending this communique for one reason alone. It isn’t to garner support or seek approval. Its not for likes or fire-emojis. This is a call to action! We needed only 2 things to accomplish what we did. Wire-cutters and a means of transportation, along with a will to act. Anyone has the same access to fur farms that we did; the animals are crying out for your help NOW! Stop thinking and doom-scrolling and act!
This action is dedicated to the Northumberland Two, Cara and Celeste. For every prisoner that they take, we will answer with the liberation of thousands! –ALF”
“One of the brightest flames in Britain’s animal rights movement has gone out.
Karl Garside, Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activist , hunt saboteur and investigator has passed away aged 59 from heart disease. For more than four decades on the frontlines of the fight for animal liberation, Karl fearlessly took direct action to end animal abuse.
Karl was born in Birkenhead in March 1966 and in the mid-seventies his family settled in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. In 1983, aged 17, he threw himself into the fight for animal liberation, going vegan and skipping classes at Trafford College to disrupt the Grand National by invading the course. He became a member of the Northern Animal Liberation League (NALL), quickly rising to prominence.
The following year Karl conducted undercover reconnaissance at the ICI laboratories in Alderley Edge, dressing in a suit and pretending to attend a job interview ahead of a major raid. That April he was part of a mass raid by NALL, when around 300 activists stormed and occupied the ICI labs.
That year also saw Karl become an active member of Manchester Hunt Saboteurs, primarily targeting the Holcombe Hunt. Opposing fox hunting became one of Karl’s greatest passions and he dedicated much of his life to confronting hunts directly.
Karl (left) on the autumn 1992 cover of HOWL, sabbing a grouse shoot.
In August 1984 he was one of 200 activists who took part in the Eastern Animal Liberation League’s raid on the Unilever research laboratories in Bedford, where animal experimentation took place, while a demonstration was staged at the front. Karl was among 25 people convicted of conspiracy to burgle, with combined sentences totalling 41 years. He served eight months in prison for his part in the raid, but this didn’t deter him.
While awaiting trial, Karl participated in coordinated ALF actions against the House of Fraser store to highlight and disrupt the chain’s sale of fur. Karl and his then partner were released from prison just after Christmas in 1986.
Karl rapidly became a key figure in organising national hits against hunts notorious for cruelty. He coordinated major actions against the Beaufort Hunt and helped establish the annual Cumbria “fell weeks” alongside his friend and fellow hunt saboteur Dave Callender. These were week-long operations in March when many hunts had already packed up for the season, disrupting a different pack each day across harsh mountainous terrain. Up to 100 activists from the North and Midlands came together under one roof, working side by side for six days of relentless sabbing.
Karl also played a key role in national actions against the Altcar hare coursing event and the Quantock Staghounds. After fell week, through the nineties, he and others kept the pressure up by hitting a different Saturday hunt still running late in the season. The approach was simple: no tolerance for nonsense. Terrier men who thought they could get away with violence quickly learned otherwise. Many late- season Saturday meets in March and April descended into pitched battles that even the authorities couldn’t control.
Karl (left) and Dave Callender (right), calling the pack away from a hunt on Blencathra during a fell week.
Famously, on the night his daughter was born, while other new fathers were calling relatives from the hospital payphone, Karl was busy using it to coordinate a hunt sab for the following morning. After leaving Manchester, he remained deeply committed, on various occasions sabbing with groups from Aberystwyth, Liverpool and Sheffield. He also sabbed extensively in Surrey and throughout Wales.
Karl was also passionately involved in the fight against vivisection. The Consort Beagle Campaign began in late 1996, targeting a breeding facility near Ross-on-Wye where around 800 puppies were kept in wire mesh cages for vivisection. In early 1997, during a protest marking Barry Horne’s first hunger strike, activists broke in and rescued ten puppies. Sixteen more were later liberated in ALF actions. The campaign escalated when hundreds of activists tore down fencing at a World Day demo. After just ten months of intense pressure Consort closed and around 200 beagles were rehomed.
Karl (in green joggers), sabbing the Royal Rock Beagles in Little Barrow, Cheshire, 1995.
Building on this, the campaign to close Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire began in 1997, targeting a profitable cattery that bred cats for laboratories in the UK and abroad. Daily protests, night-time vigils and home visits to staff made Hillgrove a national focus for the anti-vivisection movement. On World Day 1998, 1,500 activists confronted police and tore at the fencing surrounding the farm. Karl played a decisive role in the campaign, which saw over 350 arrests and 21 prison sentences. After nearly two years of sustained pressure, the farm closed in August 1999, and 800 cats were rehomed. It remains one of the most significant victories in British animal rights history.
After the Hillgrove campaign, Karl and his young family moved to Surrey where they lived on a narrowboat. Momentum continued with the campaign to shut down Shamrock Farm, the UK’s only importer of primates for laboratories. Beginning in 1998, Save the Shamrock Monkeys (SSM) organised a mix of protests, all-night vigils and large national demos. Despite a £3 million annual turnover, the facility lasted less than 16 months under pressure. Karl took part in the campaign, which ended in March 2000 when the site announced its closure. Although Shamrock claimed its primates would be humanely relocated, all were sold to laboratories. The closure marked another landmark victory in the fight against vivisection suppliers.
After Shamrock, attention turned to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest animal testing laboratory in Europe. In 1999 the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign was launched with the goal of closing HLS through sustained pressure on its clients, suppliers and financial backers. Karl joined the campaign early on, taking part in direct actions across the UK. SHAC became one of the most high-profile and heavily policed animal rights campaigns in British history. Karl remained active throughout SHAC’s peak years, supporting actions that exposed the cruelty inside the labs and challenged the corporations funding it.
While living in Surrey, Karl and his family played a central role in the Surrey Anti- Hunt Campaign, a focused effort to shut down the Old Surrey, Burstow and West Kent Hunt. Launched in the wake of a near-fatal incident in 2000 in which saboteur Steve Christmas was run over and seriously injured by a hunt vehicle, the campaign applied the same uncompromising tactics used successfully against animal testing suppliers. For several years Karl helped organise sustained pressure on the hunt and its supporters, combining regular sabbing with public outreach, intelligence gathering and targeted actions. It was one of the first campaigns in the UK to treat a fox hunt as a primary target, rather than a weekly opponent and helped establish a new model for anti-hunting activism.
Karl also supported the SPEAK campaign (originally launched as SPEAC – Stop Primate Experiments at Cambridge) from 2002 to 2007. The campaign, run by his friend Mel Broughton, successfully pressured the University of Cambridge to abandon plans for a new primate testing lab, citing financial risk. After that victory the campaign shifted focus to Oxford University, where a new animal research facility was under construction. Over the next three years SPEAK delayed the project through sustained protest and action.
Following earlier successes in direct action, Karl spent the final decade of his life focused on covert investigations, while continuing to take part in direct action until 2020. In 2014 he founded the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT), a grassroots collective dedicated to exposing cruelty and illegality within hunts through covert surveillance and evidence gathering. HIT quickly gained a reputation for its professionalism and impact. That same year, during the badger cull, Karl was arrested for aggravated trespass while sabbing. Despite focusing increasingly on investigative work, he remained committed to frontline action.
Karl in the field during a covert investigation.
As the founder of HIT he oversaw some of the most impactful exposés in the British animal rights movement. In 2016, HIT’s footage led to an official investigation into the South Herefordshire Hunt after evidence emerged of fox cubs being thrown to hounds in a kennel yard. As a result of HIT’s investigation, the South Herefordshire Hunt disbanded entirely.
In the final months of his life Karl had begun working full time as an investigator for the League Against Cruel Sports, continuing his lifelong mission to expose animal cruelty. On his final day he rescued hens from a so-called free-range farm before heading out for a run.
For his entire adult life, Karl was the tenacious, driven, ruthlessly obsessed man that we all knew. Nothing could shake him from his chosen path. He had a brain that was unrivalled, able to think outside the box, able to inspire love and devotion and loyalty and commitment from those who volunteered to assist him. He was always wedded to the notion of his own tight personal security, aware that so many of his colleagues had been brought down by the state and imprisoned. He was the quiet one, the thinker, the planner, shunning the limelight and keeping himself focused on what really mattered. Yet he subscribed to the Irish Republican tradition of always being there for the families and children of those comrades that got locked up. Karl was the best of men, the best of colleagues and the best of activists. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
Karl is survived by a daughter and two granddaughters.
Karl Garside – Celebration of Life
Saturday 2 August 2025 2pm – late Corn Exchange, Newport, NP20 1DD
Join us to celebrate the life of Karl Garside, with vegan food, a bar, Celtic music and stories shared among friends, family and all who knew him.
All are welcome.
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