In November, on November 12, 2025, residents, allies, and advocacy groups scored a decisive victory as a proposal for a new slaughterhouse in Jacksonville, Florida, was officially withdrawn following widespread public uproar. This outcome demonstrates the power of coordinated grassroots action, unapologetic advocacy for farmed animals, and communities united to speak out against violence!

In collaboration with Solutionary Species and other advocates, In Defense of Animals mobilized over 13,000 concerned citizens to send emails, submit public records requests, and make calls to the Jacksonville Planning Commission, City Council, and Public Affairs Office. The community protested outside and spoke up at two Planning Commission meetings, condemning cruelty and killing, including impassioned testimony from vegan activist Shannon Blair. They also cited public-health risks, environmental harm, and the trauma to nearby residents and schoolchildren from seeing or hearing animals in torment. 

The plan would have butchered chickens, mother dairy cows, male calves, steers, and likely pigs, goats, and sheep, many of them infants. Their bodies would have directly supplied the developer’s stores, to be marketed as “fresh” and “humane,” despite the reality that all animal farming and slaughter are legalized cruelty.

This victory follows a previous win in 2024, when residents, working alongside In Defense of Animals, Solutionary Species, and the Plant Based Treaty, successfully stopped the same developer’s earlier slaughterhouse proposal in another part of town after strong community resistance. The Jacksonville developer’s operations were linked to a facility previously investigated by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM), whose undercover work documented 41 alleged felony-level acts of cruelty, including conscious slaughter, improper or absent stunning, violent handling, and prolonged suffering.

While slaughterhouses are a nightmare for animals, many never survive the horrendous transport. They suffer from dehydration, heat stress, severe exhaustion, injury, and many freeze to death. It is estimated that more than 166,000 cows, 330,000 pigs, and 20 million chickens die during transport in the U.S. each year, with over 800,000 pigs arriving at slaughterhouses too weak or injured to walk. Despite this staggering cruelty, the USDA rarely acts — of 19 investigations over 17 years, only four produced warnings, and none imposed fines.

The volume of public opposition to this proposal shows that people are waking up to the reality of these horrific facilities. Slaughterhouses have no place anywhere. No animal should be exploited, especially for unnecessary products, and no human should have to kill for a living. 

Our shared planet and all its inhabitants need healing, not the enslavement, torture, and killing caused by animal farming. This victory demonstrates that extending the same empathy we have for dogs and cats to every animal creates real change and justice.

Find out more about how to get involved and help us secure more wins like this one by visiting our Farmed Animals campaign.