When I feel afraid, I just think back to that mother pig in the Smithfield factory farm. And I know I have to be strong. I know what is right, and what is wrong. She made it very clear for me.
Cassie King pets a mother pig at Smithfield. (Direct Action
Everywhere)
After over four years of our court case dragging on, my
co-defendants and I are scheduled to go on trial Sept. 8 in Sonoma
County, California. We are facing dozens of criminal charges,
including eight felonies, for nonviolent animal rescues.
Growing up, I prided myself on following the rules. I was a
straight-A student and faithful Catholic. My teachers trusted me so
much they let me teach the class. Today, I’ve been arrested multiple
times as part of a group that’s being surveilled by the FBI. It
might surprise you to know I still love following rules and doing
what is right, but my understanding of what’s right has changed.
When I moved to the Bay Area to attend the University of California,
Berkeley, my grandma warned me not to get too radicalized. I didn’t
think she had anything to worry about, but I was wrong.
In college, I started meeting people from different walks of life
and learned how little I actually knew. My vegan roommate showed me
videos from dairy farms where newborn cows were taken away from
their mothers. I had never realized that cows, like humans, have to
give birth in order to produce milk. How obvious, in hindsight. It
made me feel ashamed and intensely curious about what else I’d never
been told. Fortunately, it was easy to seek out more information.
I joined the animal rights club on campus and started attending
movie screenings, tabling events and protests. Some of the club
members told me about an off-campus group called Direct Action
Everywhere, or DxE. They took even more dramatic action for animals,
like going inside factory farms to document the conditions and take
suffering animals out. Intrigued, my roommate and I took a bus to
Oakland to a DxE meetup.
....
Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.
Cassie King cuffed and arrested at a factory farm in Sonoma
County. (Direct Action Everywhere)