PRESS

Measure J & Other Ballot Measures to Ban Slaughterhouses, Explained

October 29, 2024

Sentient

“Sonoma County is an agricultural county with factory farms that have been exposed for abusing animals, violating animal cruelty laws, and polluting waterways with toxic waste — and the authorities have failed to address it,” Cassie King, Communications Lead at Direct Action Everywhere, tells Sentient. Direct Action Everywhere is an animal rights organization, and one of the lead sponsors of Measure J.

PRESS

The Fate of Denver’s Last Slaughterhouse Is on the Ballot

October 23, 2024

Civil Eats

In early October, Direct Action Everywhere, a network of animal rights activists, released undercover footage captured inside Superior this summer. Video footage shows what activists call potential legal and ethical violations: one lamb that appears to be conscious after slaughter; another with a prolapsed uterus, untreated and headed to slaughter; and workers laughing, spanking animals, and simulating sex acts with machinery on the slaughter line.

TOP PRESS

These California and Colorado Ballot Measures Are Terrifying the Meat Industry

October 10, 2024

Vox

In principle, there’s a lot of sense in capping the size of factory farms. Measure J’s proponents are betting that progressive Sonoma County, better known for its tasting rooms than its slaughterhouses, can push California — and the nation — in that direction.

PRESS

Ridglan Farms Cited for New Violations as Hearing Nears

October 8, 2024

The Isthmus

One of the thousands of beagles housed in tiny cages, the inspector found, “was limping while moving through the enclosure, not bearing any weight on the right front leg.” The dog had visible puncture wounds and swelling on its leg, near the carpal joint. There was no documentation of the injury on the cage’s enclosure card, and the facility admitted that no treatment had been provided, saying the injury “probably” would have been discovered later that day.

PRESS

Why Ending Factory Farming Would Be a Benefit for All

September 23, 2024

Waging Nonviolence

During this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael welcome Cassie King, from Direct Action Everywhere, to talk about our relationship with animals, and more specifically about proposed legislation in California that aims to end factory farming.

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.

TOP PRESS

Sonoma Loves Its Farms. Activists Call Them Factories. Could a Ballot Measure Upend This County?

August 30, 2024

San Francisco Chronicle

In dimly lit indoor aisles at Weber Family Farms in Petaluma, hundreds of thousands of white chickens live out their 90 weeks of life. They fly from perch to perch. They dust bathe in the bedding. They nip at water dispensers. They lay egg after egg. And they never leave. These barns are at the heart of a bitter fight that Mike Weber and Samantha Faye are waging for the future of local farming.

PRESS

Sonoma DA Drops Charge against Animal Rescuer Ahead of Trial

August 24, 2024

Davis Vanguard

Another felony burglary count filed against Zoe Rosenberg—an animal rescuer with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE)—was tossed by prosecutors here this last week... “Prosecutors have known the facts of this case for nearly nine months, and they still can’t figure out what to charge,” said Chris Carraway, Rosenberg’s lawyer and a staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project. “It clearly isn’t easy to paint a good Samaritan as a criminal.”

PRESS

Measure DD Sets Out to End Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Berkeley

August 23, 2024

Daily Californian

Mayoral candidate Kate Harrison as well as Berkeley labor commissioner Avery Arbaugh also expressed support for the measure. “I support it as a common sense, human health piece of policy,” Arbaugh said. “Also, as an environmental and ethical policy when it comes to both our treatment of the animals and treatment of the environment.”