Animal Liberation News

Despite being sued by Trader Joe's, activists with the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) continue to protest at their stores. On July 19, the group held a 40-minute funeral for the chickens being sold inside an Oakland store. They mourned the countless chickens who suffer and die at Trader Joe's "free-range," "organic" chicken supplier. DxE investigators have documented systemic animal abuse at Petaluma Poultry.

Scientists have confirmed a dead gray whale that washed up in Richmond died as a result of blunt force trauma due to a suspected vessel strike. The news comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a revised population estimate showing continued decline in eastern north Pacific gray whale numbers, some 13,000 individuals, the lowest since the 1970’s.

A new study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry documents a mass mortality event of monarch butterflies near one of California’s most iconic overwintering sites and links the deaths to pesticide contamination. In late January 2024, hundreds of monarchs were found dead or dying on a private property near the trees of Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary, where they typically cluster during the winter.

On February 15, activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) protested outside a Neuralink lab in Fremont to protest the company’s cruel experiments on animals. Owned by Elon Musk and headquartered in Fremont, the company has subjected primates and pigs to invasive brain chip implants. Employees have spoken out saying the procedures are rushed and cause needless suffering and deaths. Neuralink has killed more than 1500 animals.

Daniel Andreas San Diego had been hunted by the FBI for 20 years, wanted for questioning in the 2003 bombings of Chiron and Shaklee, two businesses paying Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) to murder 500 animals per day testing products such as oven cleaner and pesticides. The bombed offices were only slightly damaged, injuring no one; there was an ongoing international campaign at the time to crush HLS called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).

Golden Gate Fields in the East Bay is finally shutting down. For the last race day on June 9, animal rights activists gathered to mourn the deaths of all the horses who have died there since it opened 1941. Dressed in black, with a coffin and holding flowers, activists held a short funeral procession. They spoke of horse racing's abuse of horses for sport and of how the animals are slaughtered when no longer useful.

In an inexplicable move, the National Marine Fisheries Service has allowed a little known fishery that targets bottom-dwelling sablefish to expand into federally designated habitat for critically endangered Pacific leatherback turtles off the coasts of Oregon and California. The fishery's lines can wrap around sea turtles’ necks or front flippers, anchoring them to heavy pots on the seafloor, resulting in injuries and deaths.