Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
Media inquiry? Please email press@dxe.io.
PRESS
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
August 30, 2024
San Francisco Chronicle
BLOG
September 10, 2022
The systems we have designed for animals are mentally abusive from the very beginning.
BLOG
September 10, 2022
The systems we have designed for animals are mentally abusive from the very beginning.
PRESS
September 9, 2022
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday’s protest was prompted by the death of a thoroughbred racehorse named Mia Solina on Sunday during the Bay Area heat wave. The horse’s death was the 10th at Golden Gate Fields this year.
PRESS
September 9, 2022
San Francisco Chronicle
PRESS
September 9, 2022
Independent Journal Review
“I want the world to know that animal rescuers are facing years in prison because of this company’s undue influence on our democracy.”
PRESS
September 9, 2022
Independent Journal Review
PRESS
September 9, 2022
Fox News
"Smithfield, like the animal agriculture industry itself, is a barbaric house of cards -- built on unconscionable, systemic abuse, and desperate attempts to shield that abuse from the public eye."
PRESS
September 9, 2022
Fox News
"Smithfield, like the animal agriculture industry itself, is a barbaric house of cards -- built on unconscionable, systemic abuse, and desperate attempts to shield that abuse from the public eye," Shokrai said in a news release. "I want the world to know that animal rescuers are facing years in prison because of this company’s undue influence on our democracy."
PRESS RELEASE
September 9, 2022
"This is really about inverting the truth: making peaceful activists look dangerous, when the real danger is Smithfield and other companies that systematically torture millions of innocent sentient beings while destroying our environment."
PRESS RELEASE
September 9, 2022
PRESS
September 9, 2022
USA Today
Direct Action Everywhere said the protesters on Thursday night were trying to highlight an upcoming Smithfield Foods factory farm trial.
PRESS
September 9, 2022
USA Today
PRESS
September 9, 2022
New York Post
The motive for the wild act was to bring justice for two other activists facing over a decade in prison for rescuing two sick baby piglets from a Smithfield Foods factory farm.
PRESS RELEASE
September 8, 2022
Emek Echo and Katia Shokrai ran across the field holding up red smoke flares and wearing shirts with “RIGHTTORESCUE.COM” text.
PRESS RELEASE
September 8, 2022
PRESS
September 5, 2022
Mercury News
"Seagulls poop. Pigeons poop. Crows poop and so do ducks -- but no one is talking about killing them, so why should we kill the geese?" Supervisor David Canepa said.
PRESS
September 5, 2022
Mercury News
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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...
TOP PRESS
June 13, 2023
The Intercept
In conjunction with the release of an undercover investigation on the factory farm, the group DxE mounted an “open rescue” of birds from a slaughterhouse.
TOP PRESS
March 30, 2023
Salt Lake Tribune
If government agencies were taking these [investigative] reports seriously and protecting animals from cruelty, there would be no need for bills like this. But certain Utah legislators have decided that the real problem with sick, suffering animals is the potential for negative publicity for the industry and so it is the industry, not the animals, that need protection.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
June 15, 2021
The Tennessee legislature has passed a bill that would include farms in the definition of critical infrastructure. But at what cost?
BLOG
May 26, 2021
Research indicates that likely the best tactic to reduce the impact of imposter syndrome is talking about it.
BLOG
April 20, 2021
New investigation into Land O'Lakes shows routine violations of own animal welfare standards
PRESS RELEASE
October 1, 2020
Arrestees include photographers and videographers, as well as activists who chained themselves to the building
PRESS RELEASE
August 25, 2020
PRESS RELEASE
August 7, 2020
Smithfield faces nuisance lawsuit judgements totaling hundreds of millions for waste pollution sprayed disproportionately on communities of color
PRESS RELEASE
July 14, 2020
Rotting pig carcasses are seen being fed on by wild animals after workers cut infected flesh out of carcasses before selling them for human consumption
PRESS RELEASE
July 3, 2020
Activists say proposal for partial divestment doesn’t go far enough
PRESS RELEASE
June 23, 2020
Factory farm investigator alleges improper connections between Smithfield Inc. and Utah Attorney General
PRESS RELEASE
June 5, 2020
Twelve activists now face charges, including felonies, as campaign seeks industry-wide ban
PRESS RELEASE
April 15, 2020
Protesters of Smithfield slaughterhouses and vendors say it undermines the well-being of employees, animals, whistleblowers and the public
PRESS RELEASE
March 5, 2020
Organizers now planning major demonstrations with 1000+ #LetDairyDie activists, calling on supporters nationwide to join
