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Court Update: The #SonomaTrial Is Finally on the Horizon

December 6, 2022

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Court Update: The #SonomaTrial Is Finally on the Horizon

December 6, 2022

Preliminary hearings finally happened for Rachel and Jon. The prosecution argued that they were "co-conspirators" in the 2018 and 2019 rescues at Sonoma County factory farms. Judge Urioste agreed to send the case to trial on felony charges.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists to Stand Trial in 2018-19 Petaluma Burglary, Conspiracy Case

December 5, 2022

The Press Democrat

Much of Monday’s testimony focused on whether Ziegler and Frohnmayer were present during the protests, which took place on private property, or whether they were directly involved in the thefts of birds from the farms.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists to Stand Trial in 2018-19 Petaluma Burglary, Conspiracy Case

December 5, 2022

The Press Democrat

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PRESS RELEASE

Residents Protest Golden Gate Fields Following Deaths of Three Horses

December 3, 2022

“Humans can consent to run and risk injury. The horses do not, and when they get injured and can’t run anymore, they are killed."

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PRESS RELEASE

Residents Protest Golden Gate Fields Following Deaths of Three Horses

December 3, 2022

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BLOG

True Crime Stories: I Was Arrested for Filming a Protest

November 30, 2022

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BLOG

True Crime Stories: I Was Arrested for Filming a Protest

November 30, 2022

Corporations seem more concerned with shielding the practices of their suppliers from the public than with the cruelty and disease documented in those farms. They know that the public would be horrified if they saw the truth. But what these corporations don’t understand is that repression often makes movements stronger. I’m not going to stop talking about what happens to animals, and I’m not going to stop documenting protests.

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DxE at the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit

November 24, 2022

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BLOG

DxE at the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit

November 24, 2022

Back in October, DxE's Lead Organizer Almira Tanner spoke at the inaugural AVA Summit. Check out her talk: Building a Mass Movement for Animals.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Protest "Violent" Nature of Thanksgiving in Oakland

November 24, 2022

KTVU

Direct Action Everywhere said that Thanksgiving celebrates the genocide of indigenous people with a tradition of violence that takes the lives of more than 40 million turkeys every year.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Protest "Violent" Nature of Thanksgiving in Oakland

November 24, 2022

KTVU

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PRESS

Sen. Cory Booker Has a Plan to Stop Taxpayer Bailouts of Big Meat

November 22, 2022

Vox

“The pandemic shined a light on how broken so many aspects of our food system really are — from meatpacking plants that became Covid hot spots and caused tens of thousands of workers to get sick and hundreds to die to the inhumane killing of millions of animals as brittle supply chains broke down,” Booker said. “As public awareness has increased, so have the calls for transitioning to a more humane and sustainable system."

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PRESS

Sen. Cory Booker Has a Plan to Stop Taxpayer Bailouts of Big Meat

November 22, 2022

Vox

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PRESS

Reynolds’ Contradictory Proclamation Shows Iowa Can Do Better for Animals

November 20, 2022

The Gazette

As it stands, Iowa’s values are incongruent with the message of World Day for Farmed Animals, and as long as we continue to prioritize production over the well-being of animals, they will remain incongruent.

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PRESS

Reynolds’ Contradictory Proclamation Shows Iowa Can Do Better for Animals

November 20, 2022

The Gazette

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Resident Arrested on Felonies for Filming Safeway Protest, Following Findings of Cruelty and Disease at the Store’s Turkey Supplier

November 17, 2022

The investigation at Foster Farms found an E. coli-infected turkey chick, buckets of dead chicks, and a litter beetle infestation. Said former U.S. prosecutor Bonnie Klapper, "[The arrest] is an absurd action on the part of the Berkeley police and one which serves only to protect corporations engaged in animal cruelty from being held accountable by consumers.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Resident Arrested on Felonies for Filming Safeway Protest, Following Findings of Cruelty and Disease at the Store’s Turkey Supplier

November 17, 2022

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Our Top Press Hits

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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

Residents Protest Golden Gate Fields After Third Horse Death in 2023

March 4, 2023

“The racing industry gives horses ridiculous names like “Big Laugh” because the suffering of these animals is just a game to them,” said DxE organizer Kitty Jones. “We give them respectful names because we see them as individuals worthy of respect.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Protesters Call Out Chick-Fil-A for Claiming “Humane” Standards While Sourcing from Animal Abusing Foster Farms

February 25, 2023

Referencing Chick-Fil-A’s history of oppression toward marginalized groups, activists say the company’s disregard for animals is part of a pattern.

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PRESS RELEASE

Protestors Call on Merced DA to Prosecute Documented Cruelty at Foster Farms Livingston Slaughterhouse

February 15, 2023

Citing practices that cause prolonged, terrifying, and painful deaths at Foster Farms’ killing facility, activists call for corporate accountability.

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PRESS RELEASE

Protesters Call for Closure of Primate Research Center at UC Davis, Citing Inhumane Practices, Federal Violations, and Failures of Animal Studies to Produce Relevant Results

January 26, 2023

More than 5,000 monkeys are confined at the center for use in research and breeding. Abusive methods cited by activists include the practice of withholding food and water until monkeys in research studies are so dehydrated they will perform tasks in order to be rewarded with minuscule amounts of food or water.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Call on USDA to End Use of Gas Chambers, Delivering Undercover Footage of Pigs Being Gassed in Slaughterhouse

January 24, 2023

The footage shows pigs screaming, gasping, thrashing violently, and trying to escape as they descend into the pit of CO2 gas.

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PRESS RELEASE

International Animal Rights Network Re-Creates Dramatic First Protest to Celebrate 10 Years of Growth and Landmark Achievements

January 21, 2023

Saturday’s Bay Area demonstration was a nonviolent disruption of Sprouts Farmers Market, recreating DxE’s first-ever action but with a far larger assemblage than the seven activists who participated in 2013. As at the original action, activists delivered a slam poem describing how farm animals live and die while standing in the store’s “meat” section.

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PRESS RELEASE

First-Ever Footage inside a US Slaughterhouse Gas Chamber Obtained at Smithfield Foods

January 18, 2023

Investigator Raven Deerbrook recorded over 16 hours of footage from multiple angles, which shows pigs screaming, gasping, thrashing violently and trying to escape as they descend into the pit of CO2 gas. Former federal prosecutor Bonnie Klapper reviewed the video and determined that use of these devices on pigs violates federal law.

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PRESS RELEASE

Residents Hold Memorial Protest for 15 Horses Who Died at Golden Gate Fields in 2022

January 7, 2023

Activists installed images representing each horse who died in 2022 along the fence at I-80 and hung a 100-foot-long “Shut Down Golden Gate Fields” banner from the pedestrian bridge above I-80.

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PRESS RELEASE

Residents Protest Golden Gate Fields Following Deaths of Three Horses

December 3, 2022

“Humans can consent to run and risk injury. The horses do not, and when they get injured and can’t run anymore, they are killed."

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