Los Angeles

Animal Rights Activists Hold 48-Hour Vigil Outside Vernon Slaughterhouse

September 28, 2020 / 10:55 PM PDT / KCAL News

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VERNON (CBSLA) — Dozens of animal rights activists held a protest Monday outside of a Vernon slaughterhouse for the second night in a row.

A police officer shines his flashlight toward the roof as animal rights activists on a 48-hour vigil gather outside the Farmer John slaughterhouse and processing plant in Vernon, an industrial city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles on September 28, 2020. - A banner reading "Fight to Rescue" was unfurled by activists who, in an act of civil disobedience, climbed onto the roof of the plant to unfurl it in an effort to draw attention to what they say is the plant's inhumane treatment of animals as well as issue of factory farming. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

The demonstration was part of the protesters' 48-hour vigil outside the Farmer John meat processing plant on Vernon Avenue.

The protesters accuse Smithfield Foods, the owner of the facility, of animal cruelty and worker exploitation.

The activists said they also wanted to call attention to factory farming's effects on the environment and public health.

"The pandemic that we're living through, the wildfires, the suffering, the COVID outbreaks in this facility, it's coming from animal agriculture," Cassie King, with Direct Action Everywhere, said. "We need to start giving this violent industry the attention it needs and start to dismantle it."

Activists are calling on state lawmakers to pass a moratorium, banning slaughterhouses and factory farms in California.

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