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Animal Rights Activists March through Emeryville IKEA to Protest Selling of Hide Products

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A group of animal rights activists known as “Direct Action Everywhere” marched through the Emeryville IKEA this afternoon. The protesters were opposing the store selling sheep and cow hide products including decorative rugs and blankets.

Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is probably best known locally for a series of protests at The Local Berkeley Butcher Shop in Berkeley and disrupting a Bernie Sanders rally while he was campaigning for the Democratic Primary in Oakland in 2016.

DxE members initially stated they would not stop protesting the butcher shop until the City of Berkeley was ‘meat-free’ and the shop went out of business according to this Berkelyside.com article. They eventually agreed to cease their disruptive protests in exchange for the shop hanging a sign admonishing the practice of butchering animals. An agreement the owners likened to ‘extortion’.


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The Local Butcher Shop has made it its mission to oppose ‘factory farming’ by promoting organic, locally sourced and humanely raised meats.


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The Toronto chapter of DxE recently held a similar protest at the Toronto IKEA chanting slogans and displaying prints of bloody animals.

The below Facebook Live video, posted by local activist Almira Tanner, shows protesters marching through IKEA and pointing out what she states is exploitative. The group of about 25 protesters then marched through the showroom of the busy store with a bullhorn carrying sheepskin rugs with roses and holding signs reading “I want to live.”

The group then line up near the check-out area of the store holding the rugs in front of crowds of onlookers questioning customers if they knew the origin of the products. Tanner identifies herself as a resident of Berkeley on her Facebook profile.

IKEA has not specifically addressed this issue but lists the sourcing of leather and hide products as ‘on track’ for their social and animal welfare goals in their 2016 Sustainability Report [PDF].

There were no reported arrests by the Emeryville Police Department and the protesters left peacefully when asked to by IKEA staff.

DxE identifies themselves as “a community of activists seeking total animal liberation through nonviolent direct action and open rescue.”

Feature Image: @DxEverywhere on Twitter.

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Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

11 Comments

  1. I was at that protest too and it was so sad to see and to hold the animals skins. I can’t believe that we kill and skin sheep and sell their skin like a decoration. Can you image if that was cat skin or dog skin they sold? People would be outraged. That the outrage we should all feel about ANYONE being skinned!

    • If we eat the meat we should also use the rest of the animal. I don’t eat dog or cat but I do eat lamb and beef.

    • So the vision is that we stop shearing and killing domestic sheep? Ok, then what?

      Domesticated sheep can’t survive in the wild. They tend to get ripped apart by predators.

      And if they aren’t shorn, their wool grows forever. They die of heat stress, can’t see, and can reach a point where it becomes impossible to stand.

      So current options for domesticated sheep are either long, easy domesticated life followed by death at the hands of a butcher OR short, impossible life with difficulty moving, seeing, or standing with either a vicious death at the jaws of a predator or slow starvation at the end of it.

      If you have complaints about the natural order, nasty and carnivorous as it is, address then to the man upstairs, not the unfortunate shift manager at IKEA who has to put up with your nonsense.

      • I just want to know why “the man upstairs” decided to make some of the most delicious animals so cute (pigs especially!). I would also like to know if these animals are being raised for their skins … or if these parts are just “leftovers” after being slaughtered for consumption. I doubt anyone is going to throw a whole cow carcass away after “skinning” it. The Local Butcher Shop preaches using the whole animal so using the hide would jibe with this philosophy.

      • Same reason most people dislike snakes, rats, and spiders.

        Evolution prefers people who like keeping animals around that are edible, easy to catch, and have warm furs when the weather gets cold and food is scarce.

        The genes that produced people who like crocodiles and wasps didn’t have much of a chance.

        They aren’t edible as a result of being cute. You evolved to think they’re cute because they’re useful to human survival.

        And they evolved to be even cuter and more consumable because the ugly, bad tasting ones don’t survive very long.

  2. Poor sad, lonely people desperately trying to find meaning in their lives by joining meaningless, hypocritical protests. They cry about killing animals but have no problem killing plants, also a form of life. Why do they place less value on the inhabitants of the plant kingdom? Because they are hypocrits and can find a way to justify anything that fits their agenda. I would love to see an anti-vegan protest.

      • Funny, yes, but we are actually emerging from something of a Dark Ages as regards our understanding of fungi, and the important roles they play in our web of life. Nary plant nor animal though you may be, sentient traveler like me are thee.

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