The local animal liberation movement gained another round of attention last weekend when Oakland’s Direct Action Everywhere group convinced the owners of a Berkeley butcher shop to put up a sign in the window that reads: “Attention: Animals’ lives are their right. Killing them is violent and unjust, no matter how it’s done.”

Aaron and Monica Rocchino, owners of the Local Butcher Shop agreed to the animal rights organization’s demand to post their sign after 12 weeks of Sunday protests.

“It was the least offensive option that they gave us,” said Monica Rocchino. “It’s really not affecting us; it’s affecting our neighbors and our community.”

Animal rights activism in the Bay Area has increasingly targeted local meat and dairy companies that make claims about the welfare and sustainability of their products, with the ultimate goal of removing animals from agriculture and other types of confinement altogether.

Rocchino said the protests happened during Sunday butchery classes they hold at the shop, which teach skills like filleting fish and cutting up whole chickens. Another option the protest group presented was to change Local Butcher Shop’s business model to a vegan butcher shop. In exchange for keeping up the sign, the group agreed to limit protests to twice a year.

“If the sign goes down, the protests return,” Rocchino said.

In recent weeks, neighborhood residents had begun counter-protesting the group, Rocchino said — not necessarily because they were customers of the shop, but because they were tired of the disruption.

In a press release, Direct Action Everywhere called the shop’s decision to put up the sign a “victory.” Within the last year, the group has also staged protests inside Chez Panisse, the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market and a Chinatown poultry shop.

Rocchino said so far business hasn’t been affected by the sign.

“If anything, (customers) say ‘this is ridiculous and we’re sorry that you’re being extorted that way.’ It’s not going to change anyone’s mind,” she said. “They’ve put a lot of thought into where they’re getting their meat.”

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan