And this is what happens when you let the inmates take over the asylum.
A Whole Foods in Berkeley, California – yep, that Berkeley – actually had to file a restraining order against a group of militant vegan protesters who’d planned to “occupy” their store.
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), a group dedicated to "total animal liberation," had planned to camp out in and around the high-end grocery store for a week to protest “animal rights violations” by Whole Foods’ parent company, Amazon, saying that the all-natural food chain’s “organic” label doesn’t necessarily guarantee their suppliers are treating their farm animals “humanely.” The group, which once forced a butcher in Berkeley to hang an animal rights sign in his window before they'd agree to stop holding graphic protests outside his store, has launched similar protests against Whole Foods for several years and has also launched an all-out assault on Chipotle.
To protest such injustices against chickens and the like, this group of vocal vegans often takes to stomping around Whole Foods stores screaming through megaphones and banging on drums, blocking cash registers, throwing fake blood on cartons of eggs, re-enacting animal slaughters with human actors, and setting up graphic photo displays throughout the meat aisles.
But according to The Guardian, one Berkeley Whole Foods was having none of that nonsense, and quickly filed a restraining order against the group preventing them from coming inside the store and freaking out all their customers.
Early that week, the group sang, chanted and beat drums to attract customer attention from sidewalk. But on this quiet Friday afternoon, with the weeklong demonstration nearly over, a few members sat behind tables, megaphones facing down, waiting for interested passersby to approach them. King said they’d had some luck getting customers curious about their signs to walk over. But, when asked, a few different groups of people eating lunch outside the store didn’t seem to notice – or care – about what was happening beyond their parked cars. Without access to the inside of the store, it was harder for the demonstrators to get attention.
DxE has said it plans to force Berkeley, a known liberal city with some of the nation's most far-left policies, to be the first city to ban the sale of meat.