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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

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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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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BLOG

Three Lessons from the Smithfield Trial

November 7, 2022

Do your homework, get feedback, and find the simple story.

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BLOG

Social justice organizations unite to fight devastating ruling on California’s anti-SLAPP statute

September 20, 2022

Today, a coalition of advocacy groups filed an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court in support of this case, written by the First Amendment Coalition and signed by Greenpeace USA, ACLU of Northern California, Amazon Watch, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and many more.

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BLOG

Rise Up, Berkeley

September 19, 2022

Why is it that 60 years after the Freedom of Speech Movement, we can’t rally more than 200 people to fight for the future of our planet? Why is it that when we’re being faced with injustices like racism, fascism, worker abuse, animal abuse, income inequality, loss of reproductive rights and environmental destruction, one of the most progressive student bodies in the world barely rises up?

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BLOG

The History and Future of Rose’s Law: Animal Bill of Rights

September 18, 2022

Rose was the sole survivor of all the birds at McCoy’s that day, and amid the tragedy that occurred for the others, Rose’s story offered a glimmer of hope. The fact that her rescue was permitted was proof that they all deserved to be rescued, that even the police knew rescuing them was the right thing to do.

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BLOG

We're Driving Animals Mad

September 10, 2022

The systems we have designed for animals are mentally abusive from the very beginning.

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BLOG

DxE Wins Motion for New Jury and Trial Location

August 23, 2022

The #SmithfieldTrial is moving to Washington County, Utah because the judge agreed it would be a challenge to find an impartial jury in Beaver County.

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BLOG

Calling Foul on Culling Waterfowl

August 16, 2022

Despite this supposed safeguard, if a local entity wants to take the lives of Canada geese, an application and a verbal statement over the phone grants instant permit approval from the USDA –which killed 26,000 Canada geese last year alone.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Food Network Chef Tyler Florence’s Restaurant, Over Ties to Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry

July 20, 2024

On Saturday evening, animal rights activists protested inside and outside of Miller & Lux, an upscale steakhouse in Mission Bay that is owned by celebrity chef Tyler Florence. The protesters were calling on Florence to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry. They marched and chanted through the restaurant, holding signs that read “Drop Petaluma Poultry” and “Stop Supporting Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry’s Criminal Animal Abuse.”

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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

Felony Charges Dismissed Against Beagle Rescuers

March 8, 2024

Today, in a stunning development, the State of Wisconsin moved to dismiss charges against three animal rights activists accused of rescuing three beagles from Ridglan Farms, one of the last two remaining large breeders of dogs for vivisection in the country. Judge Mario White granted the dismissal at a hearing this morning.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Ask Stanford to Never Again Buy Research Subjects from Abusive Dog Breeder

February 27, 2024

The demonstration highlighted the horrifying conditions in which Ridglan Farms confines thousands of beagles for experimentation... The action featured speeches from Stanford alumni and a former Stanford researcher.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Evoke “Chicken Run” in Retelling of Real-Life Rescues

January 27, 2024

Playing with characters and plot elements from the new film Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget, the protest featured “Zoe Rosenbird” coming to the rescue of sick, injured chickens and transforming the operation that tortured them into an animal sanctuary.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activist Sentenced to Jail for Rescuing Sick Animals from Factory Farms

November 30, 2023

The University of Denver’s Animal Activist Legal Defense Project is working on the appeal. Attorney Chris Carraway said, “I often hear courts describe trials as a search for the truth. Mr. Hsiung’s trial was anything but. The press had limited access; trial participants were unconstitutionally gagged from the beginning; and the court bent over backwards to prevent the defense from detailing the chronic animal cruelty found which informed the intent behind the actions."

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Factory Farm Ban Qualifies for November 2024 Election

October 19, 2023

“The thousands of signatures we’ve collected this summer are a testament to how enthusiastic the people of Berkeley are about disassociating with these cruel industries that run counter to our values,” says Berkeley resident and DxE organizer Kitty Jones. “It is high time we move past a system of industrialized exploitation of animals.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Submit Required Signatures to Put Factory Farm Ban on Ballot

September 5, 2023

Activists say voter enthusiasm is high for a ban on factory farms in Berkeley after submitting more than 4,900 signatures to the Berkeley city clerk today, a large overshoot beyond the 3,000 required to get the measure on the ballot.

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PRESS RELEASE

Factory Farm Ban Likely to Be on Ballot After Activists Gather Required Signatures

August 1, 2023

"The vast majority of Berkeley voters that we've talked to care about animals and the planet and are eager to sign on to this initiative,” says Almira Tanner, lead organizer of DxE.

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