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PRESS RELEASE

Judge Dismisses Multiple Felonies Against Animal Rescuer

May 13, 2024

Berkeley student in Perdue poultry case now faces 1 felony and 3 misdemeanors

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PRESS RELEASE

Judge Dismisses Multiple Felonies Against Animal Rescuer

May 13, 2024

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PRESS

‘Animal Rescuer’ Sees 1 Felony Charge Dropped in Perdue Poultry Case – Still Faces Other Charges

May 4, 2024

Davis Vanguard

“As Ms. Rosenberg’s years-long efforts to obtain enforcement of animal cruelty laws shows, prosecutors are more focused on silencing those who expose animal cruelty than stopping the cruelty itself,” said Chris Carraway, Rosenberg’s lawyer and a staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project.

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PRESS

‘Animal Rescuer’ Sees 1 Felony Charge Dropped in Perdue Poultry Case – Still Faces Other Charges

May 4, 2024

Davis Vanguard

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BLOG

Ten Things You Need to Know About the Company Trying to Put Me in Prison

April 29, 2024

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BLOG

Ten Things You Need to Know About the Company Trying to Put Me in Prison

April 29, 2024

My findings show that “No Antibiotics Ever” just means that the chickens are still experiencing severe infection but they aren’t receiving the medication they desperately need. In one barn at a Petaluma Poultry factory farm in Santa Rosa, more than 10% of the chickens died by the time they reached 5 weeks. That is more than double the accepted industry mortality rate.

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PRESS

ASUC Passes Right to Rescue Resolution as Student Animal Rights Activist Awaits Trial

April 29, 2024

Daily Californian

“The Associated Students of the University of California has recognized that nonhuman animals are sentient beings,” the resolution reads. “The act of investigating conditions of commercial animal operations and exposing abuses to the public and law enforcement is in the interests of both those individual animals and the public that cares about them.”

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PRESS

ASUC Passes Right to Rescue Resolution as Student Animal Rights Activist Awaits Trial

April 29, 2024

Daily Californian

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PRESS

Berkeley Law’s Animal Legal Defense Fund Is Mobilizing Students for Animal Rights

April 19, 2024

Daily Californian

“I would say animal rights are the moral blindspot of our generation,” [ALDF co-director Taj] Uppal said. “Once we recognize that we can say, ‘Okay, this entire system is harmful — let’s transition to something that’s better and more ethical.’ ”

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PRESS

Berkeley Law’s Animal Legal Defense Fund Is Mobilizing Students for Animal Rights

April 19, 2024

Daily Californian

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PRESS

Judge Will Weigh Whether to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Ridglan Farms

April 18, 2024

Isthmus

The petition from [Wayne] Hsiung and Dane4Dogs, later amended to include more supporting testimonials from veterinarians and animal welfare groups, argues that the appointment of a special prosecutor is warranted “because of Ridglan Farms’ ongoing, flagrant criminal conduct; because the welfare of thousands of beagle victims depends upon it; and because the interests of justice and the rule of law require that no one, even a corporation in a powerful industry, is above the law.”

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PRESS

Judge Will Weigh Whether to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Ridglan Farms

April 18, 2024

Isthmus

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Rescuing Animals

April 17, 2024

Press Democrat

When I rescued two neglected ducks from the Reichardt factory farm in Petaluma last year, I was arrested on felonies and called a terrorist. When Santa Rosa firefighters rescued ducklings from a storm drain, they were celebrated (“Santa Rosa firefighters save ducklings from storm drain,” pressdemocrat.com).

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Rescuing Animals

April 17, 2024

Press Democrat

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PRESS

Ridglan Farms Critics Want Their Day in Court

April 4, 2024

Isthmus

Madison-based nonprofit Dane4Dogs and [former defendant] Wayne Hsiung... filed a petition to appoint a special prosecutor to charge the facility, Ridglan Farms, for what they said were violations of Wisconsin laws against animal abuse. “The facts presented in this petition…would unquestionably be criminal animal abuse if undertaken by an ordinary citizen,” reads the petition. “The question facing this court is whether, after years of governmental inaction, corporations also will be held accountable to the law.”

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PRESS

Ridglan Farms Critics Want Their Day in Court

April 4, 2024

Isthmus

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TOP PRESS

Groups Seek to Ban Large-Scale Animal Farming in Sonoma County

April 4, 2024

Los Angeles Times

Lewis Bernier, an animal rights activist supporting the initiative, said he has visited several factory farms across the country, documenting inhumane treatment, and one farm in Sonoma County stands out as having “the worst and most systemic animal cruelty that I’ve ever seen.”

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TOP PRESS

Groups Seek to Ban Large-Scale Animal Farming in Sonoma County

April 4, 2024

Los Angeles Times

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

Activists Call It Rescue. Farms Call It Stealing. What Is ‘Open Rescue’?

August 7, 2023

National Geographic

These crusaders are part of the so-called “open rescue” movement, in which animal rights activists brazenly take animals from factory farm operations. Direct Action Everywhere—better known as DxE—is at the forefront of this movement in the United States...

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TOP PRESS

Dangerous Pathogens and Cruelty Law Violations at Perdue Subsidiary, Animal Rights Report Alleges

June 13, 2023

The Intercept

In conjunction with the release of an undercover investigation on the factory farm, the group DxE mounted an “open rescue” of birds from a slaughterhouse.

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TOP PRESS

Opinion: Utah Undermined the Jury System to Shield Big Ag from Scrutiny

March 30, 2023

Salt Lake Tribune

If government agencies were taking these [investigative] reports seriously and protecting animals from cruelty, there would be no need for bills like this. But certain Utah legislators have decided that the real problem with sick, suffering animals is the potential for negative publicity for the industry and so it is the industry, not the animals, that need protection.

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TOP PRESS

The Fight Against Factory Farming Is Winning Criminal Trials

March 21, 2023

Vox

DxE’s theory — that when you show a jury of ordinary citizens what happens to animals in the meat industry, they’ll agree that they deserve rescue — turned out to be true, challenging the idea that the animal rights agenda is radical or unpopular.

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TOP PRESS

Former TV Star, Now a Chicken ‘Rescuer,’ Found Not Guilty of Foster Farms Theft

March 20, 2023

LA Times

“This is a victory for [the chickens] Ethan, Jax, and all other living beings subjected to abuse by corporations like Foster Farms,” Santurio said in a news release from Direct Action Everywhere. “I have so much love for the chickens in my family and I want all animals to experience that safety and respect.”

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TOP PRESS

‘Baywatch’s’ Alexandra Paul on Trial; Video Shows ‘Open Rescue’ of Foster Farms Chickens

March 9, 2023

LA Times

“We published this video within an hour with both my name and Alicia Santurio’s name attached to it because we believe what we’re doing is legal and morally right,” Paul said in an interview with The Times.

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TOP PRESS

Opinion: Rescuing Farm Animals from Cruelty Should Be Legal

February 14, 2023

New York Times

In any context other than factory farming, treating animals the way we see chickens treated in the Foster Farms slaughterhouse videos would be considered blatant cruelty. Many would also consider it cruel to stand by while someone else handled animals this way. “If there’s someone in my neighborhood watching me boil birds alive, we’d say this is monstrous behavior,” Wayne Hsiung, a founder of DxE, told me.

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TOP PRESS

I Snuck into a California Slaughterhouse to Film How They Kill Pigs. It Was Horrifying

February 9, 2023

San Francisco Chronicle

The message the pigs conveyed in the gas chamber footage is clear: They are in extreme pain, and they want to live. You don’t need the Agriculture Department to tell you that. You can see and hear it for yourself.

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TOP PRESS

Opinion: Spy Cams Show What the Pork Industry Tries to Hide

February 2, 2023

New York Times

“It was horrible cruelty to the pigs inside the chambers,” Jim Reynolds told me. “It’s a violation of federal law.” Reynolds is one of 90 veterinarians who signed an open letter saying that the process shown in the videos probably violates federal law on humane slaughter.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Believing Is the First Step to Animal Liberation

September 10, 2024

If people do not believe that they can change a situation, they will never act to do so. If we do not believe that animal liberation is possible and that we can make it happen, it never will. In fact, animal agriculture and other unjust systems rely on our hopelessness and cynicism.

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BLOG

Ten Things You Need to Know About the Company Trying to Put Me in Prison

April 29, 2024

My findings show that “No Antibiotics Ever” just means that the chickens are still experiencing severe infection but they aren’t receiving the medication they desperately need. In one barn at a Petaluma Poultry factory farm in Santa Rosa, more than 10% of the chickens died by the time they reached 5 weeks. That is more than double the accepted industry mortality rate.

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BLOG

Newcomer's Perspective

December 26, 2023

The Sonoma County Court's actions didn't stop me but, instead, spurred me to further action just as it did for many others.

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BLOG

I’m Facing over 20 Years in Prison for Rescuing Animals, But I Am Not Afraid

December 2, 2023

Whether I lose my freedom for days, weeks, months, or even years, it is worth it to give even one or two animals a chance to experience freedom for the first time in their entire lives.

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BLOG

A Baby Chicken Taught Me to Never Give Up Hope. His Name is Vincent.

October 1, 2023

To everyone who doesn’t believe in a better world, I understand. I feel your pain and I know how hard it is to keep going in a world as painful as ours. But, just a glimmer of hope saved Vincent’s life and it might just save the rest of the animals, too. So please, don’t give up.

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BLOG

This Disabled Duck is at the Center of a Felony Case. His Name is Bruce.

August 30, 2023

If you saw a little duckling on his back, paddling his legs and struggling to get back up, what would you do? Would you keep walking? Or would you help him? 

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BLOG

Exposing Petaluma Poultry

July 1, 2023

Since 2018, DxE investigators have documented routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at Petaluma Poultry factory farms, but the authorities refuse to intervene -- so they are taking action themselves to rescue the animals.

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BLOG

A Letter to the Editor Re: "Churchill Downs to Cease Racing as It Investigates Deaths of Horses"

June 5, 2023

Your story on the shutdown of the Kentucky Derby racetrack failed to provide important context: the growing worldwide movement to abolish horseracing.

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BLOG

Free Speech under Attack in Rural America

May 23, 2023

During my time in Utah, I found people willing to have open and honest discussions. Why, then, are high-ranking members of the Church and the police attempting to stop that from happening? Could it be that egregious abuses documented by DxE at Smithfield were getting too close to those in power? When open dialogue threatens a power structure, it’s time to scrutinize that power structure.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

Activists Delivered 7,000 Paper Hearts to Farmer John Slaughterhouse for the 7,000 Pigs Killed Each Day

February 14, 2021

The activists said they are drawing attention to Smithfield's heartless attitude

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PRESS RELEASE

Case Dismissed Against Iowa Man Who Exposed Cruel Mass Pig Killing at Major Pork Supplier

January 28, 2021

Grundy County Attorney Cites Iowa Select Farms’ refusal to testify as cause for dismissal

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PRESS RELEASE

Gavin Newsom Impersonator Satirically Chastises Animal Activists at CA Capitol Rally

January 11, 2021

Group that hoaxed Fox News on live TV last month also behind today’s demonstration

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PRESS RELEASE

Case Dismissed Against Fairfield Woman Who Blocked Trucks to Prevent Cruel Mass Pig Killing

January 10, 2021

Grundy County Attorney Cites Iowa Select Farms’ refusal to testify as cause for dismissal

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Activist on Fox News Poses as Smithfield Foods CEO to Alert Public of Pig Farming’s Threat to Public Health

December 22, 2020

Imposter cites animal agriculture’s role in creating and spreading pandemics, and harms to the environment and animals

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Lay 333 Flowers at Farmer John Slaughterhouse, One for Each Infected Worker

December 10, 2020

Activists with Direct Action Everywhere are calling for a statewide moratorium on factory farms and slaughterhouses, citing animal and worker abuse

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Activists Expose Site of COVID-19 Oregon Mink Outbreak, Defying State Officials' Secrecy

December 7, 2020

Citing mink-to-human transmission in Denmark, advocates say the public deserves transparency about the nature of the threat

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PRESS RELEASE

Thanksgiving Miracle: Utah Farmer Releases Turkeys to Whistleblowers Facing Felonies for Investigations of Factory Farms

November 22, 2020

While Smithfield demands prison for Utah activists, this turkey farmer is helping them rescue more animals

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PRESS RELEASE

Following OSHA Fines, Activists Protest Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses Throughout California

November 17, 2020

Simultaneous protests at slaughterhouses and factory farms throughout CA demand moratorium prohibiting new factory farm and slaughterhouse construction

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