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Opinion: The Government Is Trying to Stifle a Growing Animal Rights Movement

August 10, 2023

Salt Lake Tribune

The backlash to the success of the animal rights movement echoes the backlash to other growing social movements... Just as I took the stand to speak out against bills in Utah, community members can find ways to push for justice and transparency. The acquittals of activists in Utah and California, the rejection of industry-driven bills, and the introduction of animal welfare propositions indicate that our message is reaching the public and show that we need to continue to exercise the power of collective action.

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PRESS

Opinion: The Government Is Trying to Stifle a Growing Animal Rights Movement

August 10, 2023

Salt Lake Tribune

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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

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

August 7, 2023

National Geographic

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PRESS

Voters Will Weigh-in on Banning Berkeley Factory Farms in 2024

August 3, 2023

KALW Public Media

Activists are hoping that the ordinance will inspire other cities in California to pass their own prohibitions.

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PRESS

Voters Will Weigh-in on Banning Berkeley Factory Farms in 2024

August 3, 2023

KALW Public Media

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PRESS

Factory Farm Ban Slated for Ballot Following Signatures

August 3, 2023

SF Gate

If passed, the measure would be the first of its kind in California.

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PRESS

Factory Farm Ban Slated for Ballot Following Signatures

August 3, 2023

SF Gate

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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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PRESS RELEASE

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

August 1, 2023

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PRESS

Proposed City Ordinance Will Regulate Animal Mistreatment at Local Horsetrack

July 18, 2023

Daily Californian

“The closure of GGF signifies that the public is becoming aware of the inherent cruelty of animal-exploiting industries,” [DxE press coordinator Alison] Morikawa said. “Residents and elected officials alike are recognizing the violence of horse racing and are moved to act for a more ethical future.”

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PRESS

Proposed City Ordinance Will Regulate Animal Mistreatment at Local Horsetrack

July 18, 2023

Daily Californian

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PRESS RELEASE

Golden Gate Fields Horse Racing Track to Shut Down Following Years of Protests

July 17, 2023

“This closure is a win for horses and for vulnerable humans who are taken advantage of by the gambling industry,” says Rocky Chau, a DxE activist who was arrested during a protest on the GGF track in March 2021.

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PRESS RELEASE

Golden Gate Fields Horse Racing Track to Shut Down Following Years of Protests

July 17, 2023

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PRESS

Golden Gate Fields Racetrack to Close This Fall

July 16, 2023

NBC Bay Area

"This is a huge victory for the animal rights movement," said DxE organizer Cassie King. "Across the country and around the world, we're seeing rising public pressure and protests against the cruelty of the horseracing industry."

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PRESS

Golden Gate Fields Racetrack to Close This Fall

July 16, 2023

NBC Bay Area

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PRESS

Activists Show Disturbing Slaughterhouse Gas Chamber Footage outside American Veterinary Medical Association Convention

July 16, 2023

EIN Newsdesk

Veterinarians say the more than 16 hours of grizzly footage shows the most common method used to kill pigs in the United States is not humane.... They are asking the AVMA to take a leadership role in addressing what they call some of the cruelest practices in animal agriculture.

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PRESS

Activists Show Disturbing Slaughterhouse Gas Chamber Footage outside American Veterinary Medical Association Convention

July 16, 2023

EIN Newsdesk

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Our Top Press Hits

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.

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TOP PRESS

Secret Recordings Capture the Ugly Reality Inside a Denver Slaughterhouse

October 9, 2024

The Intercept

Videos shared with The Intercept prior to the report’s public release show, among other scenes, lambs with their throats slit hanging upside down and thrashing on the slaughter line; one animal with an internal organ that has been torn inside-out and left dangling behind it as it heads to slaughter; injured lambs being led to slaughter; workers laughing, spanking animals, and engaging in simulated sex acts with nearby machinery as lambs are having their throats slit; and the apparent use of so-called Judas sheep — adult sheep kept alive at the facility and used to lead the young sheep to slaughter.

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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.

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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

An Animal-Rights Activist and the Problem of Political Despair

March 15, 2024

The New Yorker

Instead of planning actions, many activists now spend their time litigating microaggressions and small disputes within their ranks... As a response, [DxE co-founder Wayne] Hsiung has tried to promote a maxim of "braver spaces, not safer spaces," which encourages the animal rights community to put aside their individual concerns, if possible, and do things like risk felony jail time for the cause.

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TOP PRESS

A California Town Will Vote on Banning Factory Farms. What Does That Mean for the Rest of the US?

January 30, 2024

The Guardian

If successful in Berkeley, a liberal San Francisco Bay Area town that’s often been at the forefront of US environmental policy, the method can be replicated elsewhere, [activists] say. “We can pave the path to abolishing factory farming,” said Cassie King, an organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, one of the groups that pushed for the measure.

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TOP PRESS

You’re More Likely to Go to Prison for Exposing Animal Cruelty Than for Committing It

November 9, 2023

Vox

Hsiung’s trial and conviction show the extraordinary difficulty of trying to discuss what happens to animals on factory farms in a legal system that only sees them as property. At both factory farms in this case, DxE had documented gruesome conditions prior to their open rescue actions and had submitted animal cruelty complaints to authorities (though no action was taken by legal officials, King said). Yet it was the activists, not the farm owners, who were criminally charged and had to explain themselves to a jury.

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TOP PRESS

This Is the Ops Manual for the Most Tech-Savvy Animal Liberation Group in the US

November 8, 2023

Wired

For the first time, guerrilla animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere reveals a guide to its investigative tactics and toolkit, from spy cams to night vision and drones. Bernier says that DxE decided to publicly release its guide, even in the wake of Hsiung’s conviction, to help activists who are already committed to carrying out covert investigations do their work more safely and effectively.

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TOP PRESS

Animal Rights Activist Convicted of Felony for Rescuing Sick Chickens

November 4, 2023

The Intercept

Hsiung’s defense was in many ways stymied from the jump. The judge barred almost all photo and video evidence of animal cruelty from the trial, as has been the case in a number of previous DxE trials. As I’ve previously noted, the decision to disallow such evidence is usually made to benefit a defendant — not showing gruesome images of a murder victim, for example. Such logic has been flipped in DxE cases, including Hsiung’s most recent, to the benefit of powerful agribusiness.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Rescued Animal Profile: Miley

December 1, 2016

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BLOG

Read Between the Labels: Unwrapping the Thanksgiving Turkey

November 24, 2016

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BLOG

Animal Rights Activist Profile: Sarah Blazer

November 23, 2016

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BLOG

Animal Rights News Recap 11/18/16

November 18, 2016

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BLOG

What Is the Berkeley Animal Rights Center?

November 17, 2016

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BLOG

Animal Rights Activist Profile: Jackie Lawrence

November 16, 2016

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BLOG

Four Takeaways from the Effective Animal Activism Symposium

November 15, 2016

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BLOG

Animal Rights News Recap 11/11/16

November 11, 2016

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BLOG

Animal Rights Activist Profile: Adam Alderson

November 10, 2016

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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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