(Credit: Victor at the South Bay Activist Photolog) 

Their words are straight out of a George Orwell novel. Up becomes Down. Black becomes White. Wrong becomes Right. 

"Responsibly Raised. Unconditionally Loved." 

"Food with Integrity."  

"We're growing this new community of people who make a difference and eat certain foods. Because they know it's going to change the world." 

"Cultivating a Better World."  

This is the marketing of a massive multinational corporation, one that steals children from their mothers, butchers the little ones, then sells off their bloody corpses to  an unknowing or uncaring public. 

And it has to be stopped.  

Chipotle and its Cultivate Festival lull the public into believing a lie: that justice or compassion are possible in a system that kills its victims, that the animals march happily to their deaths...

But people of conscience all over the world are rising up with a different message:

Stop the Violence. Now.   

It's time for a new sort of animal rights movement. Bolder. Braver. And more honest. 

 Too often, we are told:

"Take things one step at a time."
"Meet people where they are."
"Accept that change happens slowly, if at all."

But we have been down that path before. A half century ago, the most groundbreaking animal welfare legislation in the history of the United States was passed -- the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958.  (At the time President Eisenhower said, "If I went by mail, I’d think no one was interested in anything but humane slaughter.")

And there has been no greater fraud perpetuated on the public. Not only is the HSA rife with exceptions, but it's widely ignored by an industry that has no interest in helping the victims that it will ultimately kill.  In the years since the HSA, the slaughter of our animal friends has grown exponentially. And yet we continue to walk down that well-worn and utterly futile welfarist path.  

History has shown us that it's the Path to Nowhere. 

It's time for a change. It's time for us to stop apologizing and begging for mercy, and to start standing strongly for our friends who are lying in dark prisons and chains. It's time for us to stop pretending that toothless reforms and consumerist trends can take us down the Path to Liberation. 

Critics tell us that speaking honestly about animal liberation is extreme or crazy. That direct action against violence is counterproductive. But they said the same of pioneering activists in prior generations. And history has proven those criticisms wrong.  Standing confidently for the truth will set us free; it is our greatest source of strength. 

William Lloyd Garrison jolted the antislavery movement in 1831, with his direct and uncompromising demand for slave liberation and equality... with his appeal to defenders of the oppressed to stop skirting around the issue, and, rather, "speak the truth in its simplicity and power."

His message went viral, and within a decade, a mass movement had been mobilized to fight oppression. The ethics of using other human beings -- simply because they were different, and perceived as inferior -- was dramatically forced onto the table. 

We can do the same for animal liberation.... one conversation, protest, or disruption at a time. And when we do, the entire DxE community will be standing with us. 

Until Every Animal is Free.