Animal Liberation News

The first U.S. countywide vote to prohibit factory farms will take place on November 5 in Sonoma County. This historic measure was named Measure J after the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors asked the Registrar of Voters to assign the already intensely debated initiative a measure letter months earlier than normal. The battle over the ballot measure comes after a decade of investigations into Sonoma County factory farms.

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.

On February 15, activists gathered at the office of Merced County District Attorney Nicole Silveira to ask her to prosecute documented criminal animal cruelty and worker abuse at Foster Farms’ slaughterhouse in Livingston, instead of prosecuting the individuals who rescued two animals from just outside the facility. Two women are being charged with theft, with the trial set to begin March 7 at Merced County Superior Court.

Mink "liberation season" generally runs June through October in the US. This year, the season ran a little late, but turned out to be the largest in nearly a decade. Four mink "farms" across Ohio and Michigan were targeted by the Animal Liberation Front in November and December. Perhaps 16,000 mink were freed in the actions. Lion Farms, the largest mink farm in the US, is closing on December 23 as a result of the ALF action.

Responding to legal pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, the federal government finalized a new rule on July 30 expanding critical habitat protection along the West Coast for critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The population of Southern Residents stands at just 74 orcas. The National Marine Fisheries Service designated 15,910 square miles of new critical habitat, expanding current protections in Washington’s Salish Sea south along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California to Point Sur.