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Delays Continue in Criminal Case of Animal Activists Accused of Taking Chickens from Petaluma Poultry Farms

November 15, 2022

The Press Democrat

They argue that their efforts to rescue chickens are authorized under California’s animal cruelty law.

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PRESS

Delays Continue in Criminal Case of Animal Activists Accused of Taking Chickens from Petaluma Poultry Farms

November 15, 2022

The Press Democrat

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PRESS RELEASE

After Acquittal for Smithfield Foods, Whistleblowers and Activists Protest Costco’s Continued Sale of Smithfield Pork

November 12, 2022

The two factory farm investigators who were found “not guilty” last month joined the protest.

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PRESS RELEASE

After Acquittal for Smithfield Foods, Whistleblowers and Activists Protest Costco’s Continued Sale of Smithfield Pork

November 12, 2022

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PRESS RELEASE

Investigation Finds Sick Turkey Chicks among Litter Beetle- and Larvae-Infested Corpses at Foster Farms

November 10, 2022

Rescued turkey chick had an infection called omphalitis caused by E. coli.

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PRESS RELEASE

Investigation Finds Sick Turkey Chicks among Litter Beetle- and Larvae-Infested Corpses at Foster Farms

November 10, 2022

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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

Three Lessons from the Smithfield Trial

November 7, 2022

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

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PRESS

Activists March Through Downtown Orlando Demanding Justice for Animals

November 3, 2022

West Orlando News

With plant-based food companies on the rise, fur bans increasing in number, and animal welfare regulations growing stricter in many states, to say that a sort of societal evolution is taking place would not be a far reach.

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PRESS

Activists March Through Downtown Orlando Demanding Justice for Animals

November 3, 2022

West Orlando News

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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

What Is an Animal’s Life Worth?

October 25, 2022

Vox

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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

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

October 18, 2022

New York Times

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PRESS

FBI Defeated in Historic Victory for Animal Rights Activists

October 11, 2022

Breaking Points

Krystal and Saagar take a detailed look at how animal rights activists won against the FBI in a landmark trial.

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PRESS

FBI Defeated in Historic Victory for Animal Rights Activists

October 11, 2022

Breaking Points

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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

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

October 11, 2022

Democracy Now!

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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

How Chipotle Hurts Pigs...By Not Selling Them

January 22, 2015

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BLOG

How The New York Times’ Exposé of the Meat Research Center is Deceiving Readers… and Hurting Animals

January 21, 2015

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BLOG

Appropriation and Animal Rights: The Intersectional Activist

January 19, 2015

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BLOG

Did The New York Times Cover Up Whole Foods's Fraud?

January 16, 2015

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BLOG

Veganism is NOT Cruelty-Free

January 14, 2015

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BLOG

Why Farm Country Hates Whole Foods (Radio Interview)

January 13, 2015

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BLOG

On the Importance of Open Rescue: Four Reasons to Get Serious about Liberation

January 9, 2015

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BLOG

Why Target Whole Foods

January 8, 2015

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BLOG

Interview with Marie and Butterfly, Founders of Solfood Catering and Cafe Caravan

January 7, 2015

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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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