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PRESS

Judge Axes ‘Necessity Defense’ in Chicken Rescue Case, But Rules in Defense Favor Otherwise

March 10, 2023

Davis Vanguard

A potentially historic trial for establishing animal rights involving a former “Baywatch” and movie actress moved along – albeit slowly – in Merced County Superior Court this week as jury selection dragged into Friday, and Judge Paul Lo made several key rulings that could change the course of the proceedings.

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PRESS

Judge Axes ‘Necessity Defense’ in Chicken Rescue Case, But Rules in Defense Favor Otherwise

March 10, 2023

Davis Vanguard

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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

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

March 9, 2023

LA Times

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PRESS

Jury Selection Begins for Activists Accused of Stealing Chickens from Foster Farms

March 7, 2023

ABC 30

Their supporters gathered outside the courthouse to urge the district attorney's office to focus on Foster Farms rather than the activists, who they believe had the right to rescue the animals.

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PRESS

Jury Selection Begins for Activists Accused of Stealing Chickens from Foster Farms

March 7, 2023

ABC 30

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PRESS

Merced Trial over ‘Rescue’ of Slaughterhouse-Bound Chickens Features ‘Baywatch’ Star as Accused, and Maybe Other Hollywood Actors

March 6, 2023

Davis Vanguard

A trial slated to start here in Merced County Superior Court March 7 is of the most unusual kind—first, one of the accused is a Hollywood actress who is itching for trial and has refused all plea offers; second, the case involves the “rescue” of chickens destined for a slaughterhouse; and, three, large corporate agricultural businesses are intimately involved.

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PRESS

Merced Trial over ‘Rescue’ of Slaughterhouse-Bound Chickens Features ‘Baywatch’ Star as Accused, and Maybe Other Hollywood Actors

March 6, 2023

Davis Vanguard

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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

Residents Protest Golden Gate Fields After Third Horse Death in 2023

March 4, 2023

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PRESS

In Wauwatosa, Residents and Animal Rights Activists Are Fighting the City over How to Deal with Nuisance Coyotes

March 2, 2023

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"(Coyotes) are a critical part of our urban ecology and ecosystem, so they can't be removed," said [protest organizer Megan] Scott. "I think we all need to coexist together. It's just natural, and you can't control one animal's destiny for your own benefit."

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PRESS

In Wauwatosa, Residents and Animal Rights Activists Are Fighting the City over How to Deal with Nuisance Coyotes

March 2, 2023

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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PRESS

Opinion: Who Decides Which Animals Deserve Love and Compassion and Which Ones Don’t?

February 27, 2023

Sonoma County Gazette

I wonder why we differentiate between a chicken that is a “pet” and a chicken that is in a factory farm. Both are equally capable of feeling love, joy, sorrow, and pain. Is it that one has been reduced to “poultry” – a commodity – rather than the living, breathing, sentient being that it really is?

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PRESS

Opinion: Who Decides Which Animals Deserve Love and Compassion and Which Ones Don’t?

February 27, 2023

Sonoma County Gazette

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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

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

February 25, 2023

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PRESS

Judge Grants Subpoena of Foster Farms after Activist Chicken Rescue

February 22, 2023

Fox 26 News

The defense says Foster Farms will need to provide any evidence of condemned, diseased, or deceased chickens within the same flock the two birds were rescued from.

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PRESS

Judge Grants Subpoena of Foster Farms after Activist Chicken Rescue

February 22, 2023

Fox 26 News

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

Spy Cams Reveal the Grim Reality of Slaughterhouse Gas Chambers

January 18, 2023

Wired

Animal rights activists have captured the first hidden-camera video from inside a carbon dioxide “stunning chamber” in a US meatpacking plant.

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TOP PRESS

What Is an Animal’s Life Worth?

October 25, 2022

Vox

The pigs’ essentially zero value is baked into the meat industry’s business model... 15 percent of piglets die before they’re finished weaning. The pork industry may slaughter over 125 million pigs a year, but they breed far more, knowing many will die from disease and injury.

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TOP PRESS

I Did Not Steal Two Piglets. I Saved Them. A Jury Agreed.

October 18, 2022

New York Times

During the closing statements in the trial, in which I represented myself, I told jurors that a not-guilty verdict would encourage corporations to treat animals under their care with more compassion and make governments more open to animal cruelty complaints.

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TOP PRESS

Right to Rescue: Jury Acquits Animal Rights Activists Who Saved Piglets at Smithfield Factory Farm

October 11, 2022

Democracy Now!

In a major victory for animal rights, a jury in Utah has acquitted two animal rights activists who each faced up to five and a half years of prison time for rescuing two sick piglets from Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms, one of the world’s largest pig farms.

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TOP PRESS

Activists Acquitted in Trial for Taking Piglets from Smithfield Foods

October 8, 2022

The Intercept

“Whenever I think about the condition Lily was in and the desperation we felt when we saw her there, struggling and so small and so sick, a little baby in such a horrible, awful, brutal place,” Hsiung said in a video posted to Instagram, “we just wanted to get her out.” Animal rescue “is not the worst part of us as human beings. It’s the best of us.”

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TOP PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case

October 8, 2022

New York Times

Many animal welfare advocates viewed the trial as a display of corporate power, and a test of whether the meat industry can legally prevent the public from seeing the sometimes unsavory aspects of modern mass food production.

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TOP PRESS

Trial Begins for Animal Activists Accused of Stealing Two Piglets from Utah Factory Farm

October 3, 2022

Fox 13 Salt Lake City

“They did a nonviolent action, and they saved the lives of two piglets who would have been discarded by the industry anyway.”

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TOP PRESS

Standing Trial: Should we care about animal liberation?

September 19, 2022

Harper's Magazine

Most readers care about humans, not pigs. What gets us going is a compelling main character facing many years in prison, not several million pigs spending a lifetime in circumstances that make prison look comparatively relaxing.

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TOP PRESS

Protests Are Wrong Until They’re Right

April 28, 2022

New York Magazine

Protests are often unpopular, but as this article shows, in the end, they tend to be right.

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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

19 Arrested at California State Capitol Building Protest Demanding Factory Farm Moratorium

October 1, 2020

Arrestees include photographers and videographers, as well as activists who chained themselves to the building

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PRESS RELEASE

UC Berkeley students holding dead piglets chain themselves to Sather Gate, following exposé of University pork supplier

August 25, 2020

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PRESS RELEASE

Woman Arrested After Spraying Pig Feces at Home of Smithfield CEO

August 7, 2020

Smithfield faces nuisance lawsuit judgements totaling hundreds of millions for waste pollution sprayed disproportionately on communities of color

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PRESS RELEASE

24 Hour Slaughterhouse Vigil Follows Release of Shocking Mini-Documentary

July 14, 2020

Rotting pig carcasses are seen being fed on by wild animals after workers cut infected flesh out of carcasses before selling them for human consumption

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Protestors at SF City Hall Demand City Divest from Animal Agriculture, Citing Pandemic Disease Risk

July 3, 2020

Activists say proposal for partial divestment doesn’t go far enough

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PRESS RELEASE

Facing Prosecution, Animal Rights Group Seeks Court Order on Reyes' Funding Sources

June 23, 2020

Factory farm investigator alleges improper connections between Smithfield Inc. and Utah Attorney General

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PRESS RELEASE

“Roasting Pigs Alive” Exposé, Protest Campaign Culminates in Major Pork Supplier Ending Controversial “Ventilation Shutdown” Practice

June 5, 2020

Twelve activists now face charges, including felonies, as campaign seeks industry-wide ban

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PRESS RELEASE

Coordinated Nationwide Protests Against Smithfield Follow Outbreaks, Exposés and Prosecutions

April 15, 2020

Protesters of Smithfield slaughterhouses and vendors say it undermines the well-being of employees, animals, whistleblowers and the public

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PRESS RELEASE

Anti-Dairy Activist Arrested Following Latest Protest at Biden Event

March 5, 2020

Organizers now planning major demonstrations with 1000+ #LetDairyDie activists, calling on supporters nationwide to join

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