Animal Activism Collective

Background and Agenda

Animal Activism Collective provides training for animal rights activists to conduct aggressive, disruptive protests inside businesses and outside of personal residences. The group advocates for animal liberation and veganism. 

Activities

Animal Activism Collective believes that people should “uphold the moral considerations of a pig, chicken, or cow with the same gravity they consider their own.”

AAC conducts in-your-face protests at businesses it is targeting. In a campaign against a hotel chain, AAC posted videos of activists going inside the hotel with noisemaking devices. Videos posted by AAC also show activists wearing face coverings that obscure their identities. 

AAC also targets third parties who are associated with their targets. In a campaign against a grocery chain, AAC activists targeted a separate business that was associated with a board member of the grocery chain. 

AAC has also partnered with two other extremist groups, Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade and International Council for Animal Welfare, to hold a “Grassroots Animal Rights Summit” to train activists and conduct protests. 

AAC hosts a podcast on YouTube, called the Animal Liberation Hour.

Funding

Tax returns reveal AAC has received funding from the Nash Foundation and $75,000 from a donor-advised (“dark money”) fund that acts as a middleman between an anonymous donor and a grantee.

Personnel and Associates

The head of Animal Activism Collective uses the pseudonym Penimah Tehilah. Her real name is Payton McKnight and is from North Carolina. She appears to have received training from PETA; social media posts show her in a PETA shirt and cutting a video for PETA’s “Students Opposing Speciesism” campaign. 

AAC’s treasurer is Mikee Yago, who goes by the online handle “Meatfree Mikee.” Photos on social media show him protesting an aquarium and with a “Meat is Murder” sign. 

AAC’s vice president Trey Morrow was arrested with other animal activists in 2022 for trespassing after reportedly refusing to leave a Louis Vuitton store. Morrow was arrested alongside Jerry Vlasak, who infamously argued murdering scientists who work in biomedical research would save millions of animals’ lives.