News

Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.

Media inquiry? Please email press@dxe.io.

Featured

All News

PRESS RELEASE

Utah judge rules to gag evidence of cruelty, disease at Smithfield Foods in trial of prominent animal rights activist

February 23, 2022

Two defendants face years in prison after removing sick piglets from the largest factory pig farm in the U.S.

Read More

PRESS RELEASE

Utah judge rules to gag evidence of cruelty, disease at Smithfield Foods in trial of prominent animal rights activist

February 23, 2022

Read More

TOP PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Rescued Two Piglets From Slaughter. They Wanted to Get Caught.

February 23, 2022

The New Republic

DxE investigators are pressing for a trial they hope will go down as a pivotal moment in the history of the animal rights movement.

Read More

TOP PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Rescued Two Piglets From Slaughter. They Wanted to Get Caught.

February 23, 2022

The New Republic

Read More

PRESS RELEASE

California Assemblymember Introduces Moratorium on New Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses

February 20, 2022

California Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (D-Van Nuys) introduced a bill Friday to enact a moratorium on new factory farms and slaughterhouses statewide. Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San José) is a joint author on the bill, AB 2764.

Read More

PRESS RELEASE

California Assemblymember Introduces Moratorium on New Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses

February 20, 2022

Read More

PRESS RELEASE

BREAK UP WITH TYSON: UCB Students’ Valentines Day Protest Calls Out University Sourcing from Factory Farms

February 13, 2022

UC Berkeley administrators claim the world’s largest chicken producer doesn’t use factory farming

Read More

PRESS RELEASE

BREAK UP WITH TYSON: UCB Students’ Valentines Day Protest Calls Out University Sourcing from Factory Farms

February 13, 2022

Read More

BLOG

5 Tips for Time Management and Organization

February 2, 2022

Read More

BLOG

5 Tips for Time Management and Organization

February 2, 2022

Tip #1: You need an organizational system that you understand and use every day.

Read More

TOP PRESS

Prosecutors Silence Evidence of Cruel Factory Farm Practices in Animal Rights Cases

January 30, 2022

The Intercept

The government wants to keep juries from seeing gruesome evidence of animals in distress, demonstrating yet again the massive power corporations wield in our current system.

Read More

TOP PRESS

Prosecutors Silence Evidence of Cruel Factory Farm Practices in Animal Rights Cases

January 30, 2022

The Intercept

Read More

PRESS

FBI Busted For Targeting Animal Rights Activist

January 24, 2022

Breaking Points

Matt Johnson discusses the FBI's campaign against him after he exposed widespread abuse in farms across Iowa.

Read More

PRESS

FBI Busted For Targeting Animal Rights Activist

January 24, 2022

Breaking Points

Read More

PRESS

Opinion: My arrest and aborted prosecution underlined 3 lies Iowa is propagating about animal agriculture

January 23, 2022

Des Moines Register

The government, in short, is an active collaborator in industrial animal cruelty. That animal abuse is routine does not make it acceptable.

Read More

PRESS

Opinion: My arrest and aborted prosecution underlined 3 lies Iowa is propagating about animal agriculture

January 23, 2022

Des Moines Register

Read More

TOP PRESS

An animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed?

January 23, 2022

The Guardian

DxE's investigation of ventilation shutdown is probably the most important investigation in more than a decade, said Justin Marceau, an animal law scholar and professor at the University of Denver.

Read More

TOP PRESS

An animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed?

January 23, 2022

The Guardian

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.”

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

DxE's Blog

BLOG

The piglet who made it in The New York Times

October 27, 2021

A legal fight over pig crates in North Carolina ended this year. But the rescue of a piglet shows that the struggle has just begun.

Read More

BLOG

The Power of Symbolic Victories

August 12, 2021

Humans want to be on the winning team. Winning also gives those involved in the struggle a boost of motivation and efficacy.

Read More

BLOG

Here's the plan for our next mass action

July 30, 2021

Read More

BLOG

Covid Exposed the Brutal Reality of America’s Meat. And It’s Worse Than You Think.

June 22, 2021

Bloomberg columnist Adam Minter recently penned an article titled “Covid Almost Caused a Meat Crisis,” sounding the alarm about potential meat shortages. But the meat industry is itself a perpetual crisis, and Minter’s diagnosis of both problem and solution get it exactly wrong.

Read More

BLOG

When Critical Stops Meaning Critical: The Expansion of Tennessee’s Critical Infrastructure Statute

June 15, 2021

The Tennessee legislature has passed a bill that would include farms in the definition of critical infrastructure. But at what cost?

Read More

BLOG

Some Big Updates to DxE's Roadmap for Change

June 2, 2021

Read More

BLOG

Do you suffer from imposter syndrome?

May 26, 2021

Research indicates that likely the best tactic to reduce the impact of imposter syndrome is talking about it.

Read More

BLOG

Why we urgently need a moratorium on animal agriculture expansion

May 7, 2021

Read More

BLOG

Happy dairy companies are lying to you

April 20, 2021

New investigation into Land O'Lakes shows routine violations of own animal welfare standards

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More