About BAAL

Bold Activists For Animal Liberation

Who we are

We are built by the ones who never fit in, queers and hippies, edge lords and weirdos, people who see how broken the world is. We refuse to stand by and do nothing while it burns! We’re not just another voice in the crowd, we’re the obnoxious and annoying fucks for the animals that continue to get silenced.

Fueled by the rebellious spirit of punks and animal lovers, we stand against oppression and fight for animal liberation; we defy the norms, challenge the system, we disrupt and scream the truth that animals are not ours to exploit.

Why we do what we do

Every year, trillions of animals are exploited, tortured, and murdered, while their suffering is invisible, normalized, and dismissed. Unlike most oppressed groups, nonhuman animals can't just come together and march or protest for their rights.

Humans take advantage of this to completely strip them of everything. Their personhood, the chance at life they deserve. That is why we will never stop fighting for animal liberation.

What sets us apart from animal rights groups?

Punks

We're punks. Fueled by straight edge ethics and radical compassion, we fight oppression with zero tolerance for injustice, just some punks that wanna rage against the machine.

Intervening

We don't wait for permission, legislation, or public approval, we intervene wherever harm is, whether that's a fish gasping for air in a plastic bag or a cow screaming in a slaughterhouse.

Globally

While we're based in San Diego, California, animal exploitation and cruelty isn't a local issue, it persists everywhere. No matter the place, species, or contexts, and show up with a rebel spirit.

Our manifesto

Our core belief is simple, that nonhuman animals are the most oppressed and exploited beings on Earth. Fighting for their liberation is our mission.

Animal rights: the compassionate frontier. These are the voyages of the BAAL enterprise.

Our life-long mission: to create a new world, to save animal lives and reform our civilization, to boldly fight like no one has fought before.

Our origin

Bold Activists for Animal Liberation was founded by Justice Owens after noticing a serious gap in the local activist scene. While there were animal rights organizations around, it felt like the messaging got lost, drowned out by the silence when there should be more resistance.

Frustrated by the lack of urgency, Justice started a social media page and started promoting BAAL as an animal rights organization, they began reaching out to friends, trying to get the BAAL rolling for animal rights.

With the power of friendship, and convictions, they made a sick no-holds-barred campaign against PB Shore Club, a local bar torturing fish in cruel goldfish racing events. The campaign caught some pretty hardcore rep, because many were done being polite about the torture of these non-human animals.

Since then, we've been dominating the San Diego scene, organizing direct actions, blasting the truth on every corner, being unapologetic, and bold as fuck. Now we're starting to branch out, connecting with other orgs and inspiring others to do bad-ass and bold actions. Let's just say... the BAAL is moving.