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Animal Rights Activist Tackled, Detained After Running onto Court at NBA Playoff Game

April 25, 2022

People

Zemmel was wearing a jersey with the number 5.3 on the back, in reference to the 5.3 million chickens killed at Rembrandt Enterprises.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activist Tackled, Detained After Running onto Court at NBA Playoff Game

April 25, 2022

People

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PRESS RELEASE

Protester Dressed as NBA Ref Runs on Court, Attempts to “Eject” and “Fine” Timberwolves Owner

April 22, 2022

Third disruption by animal rights activists this month follows exposé of chickens being “roasted alive” at team owner Glen Taylor’s factory farm

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PRESS RELEASE

Protester Dressed as NBA Ref Runs on Court, Attempts to “Eject” and “Fine” Timberwolves Owner

April 22, 2022

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PRESS

Animal rights activist chains herself to basket to protest Timberwolves owner

April 16, 2022

New York Post

The woman, wearing a T-shirt that read: “Glen Taylor Roasts Animals Alive” — appeared during a stoppage of play in the second quarter with yellow chains and attempted to secure herself to the stanchion after throwing flyers on the floor.

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PRESS

Animal rights activist chains herself to basket to protest Timberwolves owner

April 16, 2022

New York Post

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Animal Activist Disrupts Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Play-in Game

April 15, 2022

Footage from Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s factory farm reveals chickens fully conscious after being “roasted alive” en masse

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Animal Activist Disrupts Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Play-in Game

April 15, 2022

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BLOG

Glue, Chains, and Guts: A Recipe for Virality

April 14, 2022

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BLOG

Glue, Chains, and Guts: A Recipe for Virality

April 14, 2022

High profile sporting events pose a significant opportunity to get eyeballs on a topic– if one is bold enough to risk criminal charges and bodily harm. And it's a tactic that has been used throughout history.

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TOP PRESS

Amid Bird Flu Outbreak, Meat Producers Seek “Ventilation Shutdown” for Mass Chicken Killing

April 14, 2022

The Intercept

DxE documented video footage of the depopulation at Rembrandt Enterprises, demonstrating the brutal reality of VSD and the true toll of our broken "food" system.

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TOP PRESS

Amid Bird Flu Outbreak, Meat Producers Seek “Ventilation Shutdown” for Mass Chicken Killing

April 14, 2022

The Intercept

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PRESS

Why I glued my hand to a table during a hearing at the Capitol

April 13, 2022

The Sacramento Bee

Polite attempts to change this through conventional channels have failed. Activists must violate decorum and risk their personal reputations to reveal oppression and challenge injustice.

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PRESS

Why I glued my hand to a table during a hearing at the Capitol

April 13, 2022

The Sacramento Bee

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PRESS

Protester Tries To Glue Herself To Court During Clippers-Timberwolves Game

April 13, 2022

Huffington Post

A woman protesting the mass killing of chickens tried to glue herself to a basketball court Tuesday during a play-in game between the host Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers.

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PRESS

Protester Tries To Glue Herself To Court During Clippers-Timberwolves Game

April 13, 2022

Huffington Post

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Chickens Survive “Roasting Alive” Mass Killing at Billionaire NBA Tycoon’s Factory Farm

April 11, 2022

Criminal complaints were submitted to Iowa Attorney General’s Office and county attorney, alleging criminal livestock neglect

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Chickens Survive “Roasting Alive” Mass Killing at Billionaire NBA Tycoon’s Factory Farm

April 11, 2022

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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

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.

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BLOG

Ten Things You Need to Know About the Company Trying to Put Me in Prison

April 29, 2024

My findings show that “No Antibiotics Ever” just means that the chickens are still experiencing severe infection but they aren’t receiving the medication they desperately need. In one barn at a Petaluma Poultry factory farm in Santa Rosa, more than 10% of the chickens died by the time they reached 5 weeks. That is more than double the accepted industry mortality rate.

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BLOG

Newcomer's Perspective

December 26, 2023

The Sonoma County Court's actions didn't stop me but, instead, spurred me to further action just as it did for many others.

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BLOG

I’m Facing over 20 Years in Prison for Rescuing Animals, But I Am Not Afraid

December 2, 2023

Whether I lose my freedom for days, weeks, months, or even years, it is worth it to give even one or two animals a chance to experience freedom for the first time in their entire lives.

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BLOG

A Baby Chicken Taught Me to Never Give Up Hope. His Name is Vincent.

October 1, 2023

To everyone who doesn’t believe in a better world, I understand. I feel your pain and I know how hard it is to keep going in a world as painful as ours. But, just a glimmer of hope saved Vincent’s life and it might just save the rest of the animals, too. So please, don’t give up.

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BLOG

This Disabled Duck is at the Center of a Felony Case. His Name is Bruce.

August 30, 2023

If you saw a little duckling on his back, paddling his legs and struggling to get back up, what would you do? Would you keep walking? Or would you help him? 

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BLOG

Exposing Petaluma Poultry

July 1, 2023

Since 2018, DxE investigators have documented routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at Petaluma Poultry factory farms, but the authorities refuse to intervene -- so they are taking action themselves to rescue the animals.

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BLOG

A Letter to the Editor Re: "Churchill Downs to Cease Racing as It Investigates Deaths of Horses"

June 5, 2023

Your story on the shutdown of the Kentucky Derby racetrack failed to provide important context: the growing worldwide movement to abolish horseracing.

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BLOG

Free Speech under Attack in Rural America

May 23, 2023

During my time in Utah, I found people willing to have open and honest discussions. Why, then, are high-ranking members of the Church and the police attempting to stop that from happening? Could it be that egregious abuses documented by DxE at Smithfield were getting too close to those in power? When open dialogue threatens a power structure, it’s time to scrutinize that power structure.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

19 Arrested at California State Capitol Building Protest Demanding Factory Farm Moratorium

October 1, 2020

Arrestees include photographers and videographers, as well as activists who chained themselves to the building

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PRESS RELEASE

UC Berkeley students holding dead piglets chain themselves to Sather Gate, following exposé of University pork supplier

August 25, 2020

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PRESS RELEASE

Woman Arrested After Spraying Pig Feces at Home of Smithfield CEO

August 7, 2020

Smithfield faces nuisance lawsuit judgements totaling hundreds of millions for waste pollution sprayed disproportionately on communities of color

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PRESS RELEASE

24 Hour Slaughterhouse Vigil Follows Release of Shocking Mini-Documentary

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

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Protestors at SF City Hall Demand City Divest from Animal Agriculture, Citing Pandemic Disease Risk

July 3, 2020

Activists say proposal for partial divestment doesn’t go far enough

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PRESS RELEASE

Facing Prosecution, Animal Rights Group Seeks Court Order on Reyes' Funding Sources

June 23, 2020

Factory farm investigator alleges improper connections between Smithfield Inc. and Utah Attorney General

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PRESS RELEASE

“Roasting Pigs Alive” Exposé, Protest Campaign Culminates in Major Pork Supplier Ending Controversial “Ventilation Shutdown” Practice

June 5, 2020

Twelve activists now face charges, including felonies, as campaign seeks industry-wide ban

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PRESS RELEASE

Coordinated Nationwide Protests Against Smithfield Follow Outbreaks, Exposés and Prosecutions

April 15, 2020

Protesters of Smithfield slaughterhouses and vendors say it undermines the well-being of employees, animals, whistleblowers and the public

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PRESS RELEASE

Anti-Dairy Activist Arrested Following Latest Protest at Biden Event

March 5, 2020

Organizers now planning major demonstrations with 1000+ #LetDairyDie activists, calling on supporters nationwide to join

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