The "269" branding in Iowa - the first organized 269 branding in North America.

January 27th is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

"In relation to animals, all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka.”
-Isaac Bashevis Singer

On this day in Iowa City, Iowa, activists will be staging a public branding of the number ‘269’ as a political statement in protest to the global animal holocaust. This event is inspired by the brave activists who captured the world's attention by having the number 269 branded on their flesh.

If you would like to participate in this event, please contact emilybarwick@gmail.com or Emily Moran Barwick on Facebook. Any support is appreciated. Exact location and time remain to be announced.

The nameless, faceless victims whose bodies are used to feed us, obviously had desires and feelings before their throats were slit open with cold, calculated brutality. It's strange that we define ourselves as a "law abiding, moral" society, yet routinely and savagely massacre innocent beings.

The branding of the calf's number, chosen by the meat industry to be "269", is for us an act of solidarity and immortalization.

We hope to be able to raise awareness and empathy towards those, whose cries of terror and pain are only heard by steel bars and the blood stained walls of the slaughterhouses.

We are all equal in our suffering, and if humanity has any chance of surviving and evolving, we must accept that oppression of the weak - whether excused by gender, race or species - lacks any rationality and fundamental sensitivity towards those who may not cry out using our language, but feel pain no less than us.

So we ask: What will happen with the individual numbered "269"?

Is her/his life not more meaningful than a pointless, sanguinary practice?