Vegan Protesters Force California Butcher to Hang Animal Rights Sign

A California butcher shop has caved to the demands of a vegan, animal rights group to hang a sign on the storefront that says animals’ have the right to live. The animal rights group, Direct Action Everywhere, held protests in front of the Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley, Calif., for four months. The Washington Post reports that protesters would be “dripping with fake blood, tightly bound in plastic wrap as if they were cuts of meat. Singing, shouting, lecturing customers.” The vegan protesters sent a list of demands to the butcher shop, including that the shop hang a sign in their window. The sign says “Attention: Animals lives are their right. Killing them is violent and unjust, no matter how it’s done.”  Direct Action Everywhere has touted the coup as a “victory” on the groups Facebook page where it shares a video of “A famous butcher shop in Berkeley is now warning its customers that meat is violence!” The Local Butcher Shop began in 2011, buying whole animals to butcher from local farms and is owned by the husband and wife team of Aaron and Monica Rocchino. “To be threatened and forced to abide by their beliefs just makes me sad,” Monica Rocchino told The Guardian. “Their tactics are really extremist … This is ethical extortion.” Despite The Local Butcher Shop meeting some of the demands of Direct Action Everywhere, the animal rights activists have started an online petition to stop butchers in Berkley from using the term “humane” to describe their meat. In the petition Direct Action Everywhere organizer and investigator Matt Johnson writes, “This groundbreaking victory is the first of DxE’s “Facing the Truth” initiative, which empowers us, as individuals and communities, to unveil the long-suppressed truth of animal exploitation and demand transparency and integrity in our food system. It paves the way for additional animal-friendly progress, including an end goal of a meat-free Berkeley by 2025.”...more