Defend Direct Action
1st November, Germany.
According to local press, the police is looking for witnesses as a hunter found their tower shot at, counting over 10 bullet holes.
The hunter says the occurrence has been very frightening and they cannot imagine who could’ve done it.
The hunting tower that was shot in Sehlem forest declined any comment.
31st October, North Italy.
Received anonymously via email:
ENGLISH (translation):
“Dolcetto o scherzetto? (Trick or Treat?)
Hunters and anyone who tortures and kills animals deserve only tricks.
On Halloween night, abetted by night and fog, we attacked and set fire to a location from which hunters shoot birds.
The fire devoured and purified this place of death.
The fight for Animal Liberation continues, no ifs or buts!
Animal Liberation Front”
ITALIAN (original):
“Dolcetto o scherzetto? (Trick or Treat?)
I cacciatori e chiunque tortura e uccide animali merita solo scherzetti.
Nella notte di Halloween, complice la notte e la nebbia, abbiamo attaccato e dato fuoco a una postazione da cui i cacciatori sparano ai volatili.
Il fuoco ha divorato e purificato questo luogo di morte.
La lotta per la Liberazione Animale continua, senza se e senza ma!
Animal Liberation Front”
PHOTO UNRELATED. Credit: WeAnimals, Canada 2014.
We received the following information about a fox farm in Dundee, MN USA:
“Earlier this fall, on the lakeside grounds of what we thought would be Sieverding Fox Farm (36414 130th St, Dundee, MN), we found only ruins. Despite being well before pelting season, the area was in complete disuse. The two sheds were broken down and bare of any cages, the dusty breeding cards above the empty space the only reminder of what once took place there. The outdoor cages, once lined up in neat rows, were shoved tightly together and surrounded by chest-high grass.
To ensure we weren’t jumping to conclusions, we checked every other building. There were rusty boats and cars, but no evidence of an active fur farm. Though we’re glad to confirm this closure, we regret that generations of foxes were born to die here and never set free to run wild along the starlit lake.”
On October 30th Leonard was released from the hospital, back into prison. However, Leonard still needs continued medical care, his health is continuously getting worse. For example is he experiencing partial blindness. You can put pressure on politicians and prison staff to provide Leonard with the medical care that he needs. You can find contact information to Senate Judiciary Committee here: https://www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org/donate
Leonard is 80 years old, having been locked up since 1976, for a crime he didn’t commit. His was convicted by a racist jury of the involvement in the murder of two FBI agents inside Pine Ridge Reservation. Leonard does not have a release date. You can find more information about Leonard’s case here: https://unoffensiveanimal.is/prisoner-support/
UNTIL ALL ARE FREE
via: Warzone Distro
As we all attempt to manage our lives with bodies fatigued by wage-slavery, attention spans manipulated by illuminated screens, and minds desperate for new consumer trends that provide temporary relief, the wilderness around us dies, suffocating beneath the paved roads and metallic infrastructure of a prison world we’re paid to expand. To the critical mind, it becomes clear that industrial society is active warfare, not only against all living beings contained within its social and institutional parameters, but also deep within its own builders.
It becomes clear that no government, president, or politician can ever grant us real freedom, and no officer of the law or court system can keep us safe. The colonial establishment known as “america”, like all other colonized landscapes, is designed to disempower, control, and dominate a mass population of people, starting at the individual level.
Despite the best efforts and intentions of political optimists, there is no reforming it. We are all left with only two choices: surrender ourselves to it or resist.
So some of us chose to resist, fighting back and refusing to surrender our lives to the workforce needed to maintain and expand this colonial empire. We understand that the battle is in the streets but also within us – against a mindset conditioned by a society that wishes to enslave us. We have no desire to wait. Our position is pure negation; a refusal to comply with the governing norms and expectations of society. Our vision: industrial collapse and total liberation by every means necessary.
Warzone Distro is a zine creating and publishing project that covers a wide range of topics including (but not limited to) veganism, straight edge/radical sobriety, anarcho-nihilism, individualist anarchy (no, not ancap bullshit), anti-colonization, anti-civ, queer nihilism, and anti-fascism. All zines on- and off-line are free. Mailed zine requests are welcomed. Donations are welcomed as well.
https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/
Venmo: @veganatomic
Cashapp: $HazelLilith
received anonymously via email:
30th October, Talensac France.
[image unrelated, report did not include images]
ENG (translation):
“The counter-attack is being organized in the Talensac forest. Under the cover of darkness, rabid little rabbits armed with saws attacked the death installations that are the hunting stands. Five of them fell to the rabbits’ determined assaults. It was a joy to see these symbols of oppression dismantled, a joy shared by the other animals in the forest.
Will these acts be reproduced as quickly as the rabbits?”
FRENCH (original):
“La contre-attaque s’organise dans la forêt de Talensac. A la faveur de la nuit, des petit.e.s lapin.e.s enragé.e.s armé.e.s de scies ont attaqué les installations de mort que sont les miradors de chasse. Cinq d’entre eux sont tombés sous les assauts déterminés des lapin.e.s. Quelle joie de voir ces symboles d’oppression être démantelés, joie partagée par les autres animaux de la forêt.
La reproduction de ces actes sera t-elle aussi rapide que celle des lapin.e.s ?”
4th November, UK.
received anonymously via email:
“23 years later and we are still thinking of Barry Horne. Those who take action for liberation are never forgotten.
Barry gave his all and fought like hell. If you don’t know about some of the things he was involved in; from fighting to save Rocky the dolphin, to raiding Interfauna, to smashing fancy wine bottles at a vivisectors conference and so much more! You need to go learn some history and get inspired.
We thought of you Barry as we broke our way into a ‘free range’ egg farm and the stench stung our eyes. We thought of all the fire inside you that fueled you to fight so hard for animal liberation, right till your last breath. May that fire burn as bright for all of us and spur us on till we win.
Fuck fur farms, fuck vivisection labs, fuck zoos, fuck oceanariums, fuck your ‘free range’ farms, fuck the hunts, fuck prisons, fuck all cages everywhere!
In his own words “If you don’t act then you condone. If you don’t fight then you don’t win. And if you don’t win then you are responsible for the death and suffering that will go on and on.””
Hey folks! Many people have been asking for Wildfire volume 3. We have found a very small bunch of them, so we’ve listed them on the website. When they are gone, they are gone, we were lucky to find this bunch hidden in a shelf!
We have also brought stickers back in stock. Please note that the sticker image is not necessarily indicative of the stickers you’ll get. It depends on stock and what we have around, but you’ll get a mixed pack of 25 stickers of whatever designs we have available!
We have also found a few old t-shirts and hoodies we are thinking of putting up soon, they will be very limited (and odd sizes) because we are no longer printing the old designs. Before anyone asks, the Defend Direct Action in Medium is NOT available (but many people ask for it, so if we hear a lot of interest we could look at doing a run for the DDA design? Let us know in the comments!)
We are working with talented artists to release a limited drop fundraising t-shirt and prints to raise some coins for the mink liberation arrestees. This will have to be pre-order only, but last time when we did the Susaron print it took a long time to reach the minimum. We want to ask you all if the pre-order, fundraising style drop of merch is something that you like and can get behind, because if we want to ensure we print tees before the Christmas holiday rush (specially to send abroad) the preorder time will be short (probably two weeks?) so we will be needing your support either by grabbing one or by sharing it as much as possible!
Let us know your thoughts, we really value what you folks think about it. We would also like to hear about what kind of garments you like most. Do you like the designs on the front or the back? Is our usual black garment getting boring now and we should be looking at other colours? Should we do tees or hoodies, or both? Are zip hoodies better or would you give them a miss? Just talk to us so we know what to roll out!
Just a reminder that UA is not a shop, and we don’t “sell stuff”. We have a few bits and bobs we print cos they are cool as a method to reward donations by our supporters. For that reason, you can chose what you pay on our website, and can make the decision to donate much more than the suggested price!
If you want to check the few products we have up at the minute, this is the address: unoffensiveanimal.is/shop
All profits are used to support arrestees and prisoners and to upkeep the costs of the website and servers and other associated tech expenses. We do not make a wage from this and have never done in the almost decade long that the collective has existed.
FOR THE WILD!
Over the past month we received a total of 13 reports from around the world. The UK came on top with 5 direct action reports, but France, Germany and Italy made the list too, and we added Serbia as a new country we’ve heard of direct action for animal liberation! The USA had a report too, where a mink farm was raided.
Most of the actions reported were related to hunting, although 4 of them were related to animal agriculture liberation reports.
On the prisoner support front we had a busy month too. Zerofoursixeight is selling stickers to raise funds for animal liberation codefendants. We also wrote about Osman, who has been locked up in turkey for decades. We heard news about the sentencing of the Susaron prisoners and head the first public information about the two people accused of liberating mink in the USA.
As always, if you appreciate UA as a platform for prisoner support and direct action, you can support us on patreon or donate to us on PayPal. We genuinely appreciate every single donation and do not get paid for the job, we use every penny for arrest and prisoner support and to upkeep costs of servers and website.
patreon: www.patreon.com/animalliberation
Paypal: [email protected]
KEEP FIGHTING!
[Image credit: @thegreatunwashed_]
Similar to September, October has been an intense month. Fox hunts continued to relentlessly hunt fox cubs as well as the government sanctioned culling of badgers.
For some, action against the badger cull didn’t stop. Underground Badger Syndicate and The Great Unwashed have both been successful in finding and dealing with cages, though have each stated the exhaustion of the search and the reality of what the wildlife is up against. In one post, UBS put it bluntly by saying that there is so much ‘death and destruction’ and that setts ‘targeted for years are starting to fade’. Likewise, TGU referred to the ongoing situation as ‘bleak’ and asks the question on many minds; ‘when the fuck will it end’?
Well, it would appear the answer is not with the new Labour government, as Natural England, a public body connected to the UK Governments’ Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (who are responsible for the cull) finally published the redacted licenses that detail the minimum and maximum quotas for each zone and confirmed a new zone was authorised in Cumbria. Adding them together, over 10,000 could be murdered.
It must be said though that it is widely believed that the cull has given a green light for the illegal persecution of badgers and culling in itself is very loosely regulated – the true extent of badger suffering and murder can only be speculated but could be much worse.
Despite this, action continued to be taken (and will continue in the supplementary zones) throughout October. In addition to the above mentioned, Liverpool Hunt Saboteurs, Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs, Derbyshire Against the Cull and Cornwall Against The Badger Culls have noticeably been the most active and seen to be sending free shooters away and removing bait points. Derbyshire Against the Cull is uploaded an appreciation post which thanked their supporters for messages of support and confirmed how important this helped to keep them going. Messages such as this, whether it is aimed at a badger group, hunt sabotage group or a lone individual taking action can make a huge difference is strongly encouraged by us.
A standard cull license is 6 weeks long which would normally finish in mid-October, though many often get extensions. This was the case this year with a number of zones being granted extra time to kill, later confirmed to have been finished by the end of October.
The hunting of fox cubs, for the purpose of training new hounds and dispersing foxes ahead of the main hunting season, has been ongoing since the start of September. It is a relentless period where fox hunts go out up to 5 times a week, giving little chance for young wildlife. It is by far the most controversial part of hunting and is a PR-nightmare for the image of ‘trail hunting’ that they attempt to portray. Because of this, the presence of saboteurs can be enough to spoil their efforts, as seen by Kent Hunt who decided to not attend their own meet after they were apprehended by Kent Hunt Saboteurs. Similarly, the West Sussex Hunt Saboteurs forced the Chiddingford Leconfield & Cowdray Hunt to pack up and leave 45 minutes after unboxing the hounds, which they claim may be their quickest sab.
Some groups have also been able to shut down multiple hunts in a single day. Northants Hunt Saboteurs, after packing up the notorious Cottesmore Hunt, then received a tip off and proceeded to also pack up the Pipewell Foot Beagles. In a hit report, they concluded ‘this is what we are set out to do’.
Not all interactions with a hunt can be successful though. It is worth remembering that the odds are often against hunted and skill of saboteurs can sometimes only assist them so much. Despite their efforts, a fox was killed at the opening meet of the Seavington Hunt, who were clearly worried that they had been caught on camera after they attempted to conceal and dispose of the body. In the published video, it is clear that hunt staff, rather than celebrate their intended result, panic. Saboteurs cannot stop all kills, but can certainly make the huntsman’s (and all who are participating) experience as terrible as possible and not letting them have a good time.
Other opening meets (the first hunt of the main season) for other hunts across the country took place at the end of October, some of which were during the week rather than a Saturday – showing a clear attempt to avoid saboteurs during a significant day for them. Again, saboteurs can’t always be present but this is a clear example of how sabotage has altered their movements. Having an opening meet on a week day does in fact have an effect on their attendance of supporters, which is a factor in their income stream. And like many other campaigns, if you keep hitting their pocket, things start to change and can result in them crumbling altogether.
One specific hunt who’ve had a terrible time is the Eastern Counties Mink Hounds. While most mink and otter hunting packs have finished for the year, this particular hunt felt they’d try one last meet. Also unlike others, they seemingly only go out once a month which makes them an appropriate target for a campaign. It is believed that they have only been able to hunt without the presence of saboteurs once this year, and every time they’ve had company they have had no choice but to give up. On this occasion, South of Norfolk Hunt Saboteurs, along with Suffolk and Essex Hunt Saboteurs, arrived to wish the hunts master an unhappy birthday after they were caught shoulder-deep in water, hunting. A stand-off ensued, with a heated confrontation, but this is seen as a reflection of the success of stopping them multiple times throughout the season. And sure enough, they were forced to give up once again.
Any information about wildlife killing fundraisers, hunting, the location of traps, tools and infrastructure used to kill and anything dodgy or suspicious relating to the interference or ill-treatment of wildlife should be reported to your local hunt sabotage group. Unsure of your local group? Contact the Hunt Saboteurs Association’s tip-off line at 07443148426 or via social media. The smallest bit of information could make the biggest different to wildlife life.
NO LIFE LIKE THE WILD