Berkeley, CA Whole Foods obtains restraining order against vegan activists

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A Whole Foods store in Berkeley filed for a restraining order in an ongoing suit against an animal rights activist organization and its co-founder, according to court records.

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According to the Guardian, protesters from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) will no longer be able to step foot in one of Berkeley's Whole Foods stores. The activist group has protested outside of Telegraph Ave. Whole Foods — as well as other Bay Area supermarkets — over the last several years as a means to call action to the chain's suppliers' alleged animal welfare violations

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The vegan activist group, which espouses "total animal liberation," has attempted to call action to alleged actions taken by one of Whole Foods' main suppliers, Pitman Family Farms. The group claims the farm betrays its commitment to "free-range environments" for its chickens.

DxE claimed they visited a dozen Pitman farms and saw not one chicken roaming outside of its cage, The Intercept reported. Graphic videos released by the group alleged "debeaking" practices, overcrowding, and showed the chickens skirmishing with one another.

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In 2016, the group protested turkey sales at the same Berkeley Whole Foods around Thanksgiving. Last summer, the organization gave a family-owned Berkeley butcher shop an ultimatum; the shop was to hang an animal rights sign in the window, or the group's graphic protests would continue outside.
The group has also disrupted dinner services at the upscale Berkeley eatery, Chez Panisse. Earlier this year, a DxE organizer covered herself in animal feces outside a San Francisco Trader Joe's.

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