Animal Rights Groups Invades UC Berkeley Cal Dining Hall in March Against Factory Farming

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar / Pro Bono Photo

Sept. 26 - "Animals don't want to spend their lives in cages, just like us!" "Animals love their babies, just like us!" These were a couple of the slogans protesters from the animals rights group Direct Action Everywhere shouted as they marched through the UC Berkeley campus.

They entered the large Cal Dining cafeteria shouting animal rights slogans and, as what seemed to be the manager looked on, stood on chairs to hold a fifteen minute rally. Speakers blasted UC's involvement with Tyson foods in particular and factory farming corporations in general.

Afterwards, they again marched through the campus.

See all high resolution photos here.

Background (from event announcement):

UC Berkeley’s dining hall system, Cal Dining, is actively purchasing meat and other animal products from factory farms that have been exposed for extreme animal cruelty, worker abuse, and environmental pollution.

Tyson Foods is perhaps the most disturbing company that Cal Dining works with. Tyson Foods has been investigated by numerous animal rights organizations, including our student group. Time and time again, they’ve been found abusing chickens by crowding them together in filthy conditions, denying them veterinary care, mutilating them with no anesthesia, throwing them in the trash alive, and so much more. Tyson is also ranked 5th in terms of most workers injured on the job and a civil rights complaint was filed against them in 2020. They’re the #1 water polluter in agribusiness, polluting the waterways more than even Exxonmobile.

Cal Dining states on their website that they “prioritize ingredients from producers that practice environmental and social responsibility.” Tyson Foods practices the opposite, as do other companies Cal Dining works with such as Hormel and Real Good Fish.

This month, we are marching through campus to show UC Berkeley that their students want to see them put their money where their mouth is and transition away from using factory farms to supply animal products in the dining halls.