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Bill Would Remove Defense in Animal Welfare Cases

January 20, 2023

Fox 13 Salt Lake City

"That's what the Utah State Legislature is trying to criminalize, rescuing and saving animals who are in need of care. That's something that any compassionate person should be able to act on," said Jeremy Beckham with the Utah Animal Rights Coalition.

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Bill Would Remove Defense in Animal Welfare Cases

January 20, 2023

Fox 13 Salt Lake City

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"You’re Shooting Yourself in the Foot": Pig Trial Jurors Reveal What Went on in Deliberations

January 20, 2023

St George News

“It felt there was so much being hidden and suppressed,” a juror named Jill said. “That was a turning point for me when the prosecution shut down any mention of animal cruelty.”

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"You’re Shooting Yourself in the Foot": Pig Trial Jurors Reveal What Went on in Deliberations

January 20, 2023

St George News

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Video of Pigs Thrashing as They Die, Audio of Their Screams Haunts SoMa Costco

January 19, 2023

San Francisco Standard

Activists maintain the company is violating the Humane Slaughter Act, a federal law that aims to decrease the suffering of livestock during slaughter. While the footage was projected onto the Costco Wholesale store, audio played of the pigs screaming through speakers across the street.

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Video of Pigs Thrashing as They Die, Audio of Their Screams Haunts SoMa Costco

January 19, 2023

San Francisco Standard

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Animal Rights Protesters Project Secret-Recorded Video of Pigs on a San Francisco Costco

January 18, 2023

KTVU/Fox 2

About two dozen protesters held signs to draw attention to the practice. They said the pigs suffer for several minutes before they die.

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PRESS

Animal Rights Protesters Project Secret-Recorded Video of Pigs on a San Francisco Costco

January 18, 2023

KTVU/Fox 2

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PRESS RELEASE

First-Ever Footage inside a US Slaughterhouse Gas Chamber Obtained at Smithfield Foods

January 18, 2023

Investigator Raven Deerbrook recorded over 16 hours of footage from multiple angles, which shows pigs screaming, gasping, thrashing violently and trying to escape as they descend into the pit of CO2 gas. Former federal prosecutor Bonnie Klapper reviewed the video and determined that use of these devices on pigs violates federal law.

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PRESS RELEASE

First-Ever Footage inside a US Slaughterhouse Gas Chamber Obtained at Smithfield Foods

January 18, 2023

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TOP PRESS

Spy Cams Reveal the Grim Reality of Slaughterhouse Gas Chambers

January 18, 2023

Wired

Animal rights activists have captured the first hidden-camera video from inside a carbon dioxide “stunning chamber” in a US meatpacking plant.

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TOP PRESS

Spy Cams Reveal the Grim Reality of Slaughterhouse Gas Chambers

January 18, 2023

Wired

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Inspiring Stories from 2022, Part 3

January 13, 2023

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Inspiring Stories from 2022, Part 3

January 13, 2023

DxE Korea is unstoppable; disrupting the NBA playoffs gets people talking (and not just about sports); and a landmark verdict for the Right to Rescue

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PRESS

Case Dismissed against “Chain Girl” Who Disrupted Memphis Grizzlies Playoff Game

January 13, 2023

ABC 24

Rosenberg was protesting Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, whose factory farm, Rembrandt Enterprises, roasted birds alive in a mass kill method called “ventilation shutdown plus” after an avian flu outbreak.

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Case Dismissed against “Chain Girl” Who Disrupted Memphis Grizzlies Playoff Game

January 13, 2023

ABC 24

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Protest Burnout Is Real. Sasha Zemmel Wants St. Louisans to Stay Engaged

January 12, 2023

St. Louis Public Radio

After more than 80 years, the St. Louis-based Moolah Shrine Circus is ending its use of elephants. The decision was framed as a retirement, but the announcement followed months of sustained protests by the St. Louis chapter of Direct Action Everywhere.

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Protest Burnout Is Real. Sasha Zemmel Wants St. Louisans to Stay Engaged

January 12, 2023

St. Louis Public Radio

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Our Top Press Hits

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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

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True Crime Stories: I Was Arrested for Filming a Protest

November 30, 2022

Corporations seem more concerned with shielding the practices of their suppliers from the public than with the cruelty and disease documented in those farms. They know that the public would be horrified if they saw the truth. But what these corporations don’t understand is that repression often makes movements stronger. I’m not going to stop talking about what happens to animals, and I’m not going to stop documenting protests.

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BLOG

DxE at the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit

November 24, 2022

Back in October, DxE's Lead Organizer Almira Tanner spoke at the inaugural AVA Summit. Check out her talk: Building a Mass Movement for Animals.

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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

Social justice organizations unite to fight devastating ruling on California’s anti-SLAPP statute

September 20, 2022

Today, a coalition of advocacy groups filed an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court in support of this case, written by the First Amendment Coalition and signed by Greenpeace USA, ACLU of Northern California, Amazon Watch, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and many more.

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BLOG

Rise Up, Berkeley

September 19, 2022

Why is it that 60 years after the Freedom of Speech Movement, we can’t rally more than 200 people to fight for the future of our planet? Why is it that when we’re being faced with injustices like racism, fascism, worker abuse, animal abuse, income inequality, loss of reproductive rights and environmental destruction, one of the most progressive student bodies in the world barely rises up?

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BLOG

The History and Future of Rose’s Law: Animal Bill of Rights

September 18, 2022

Rose was the sole survivor of all the birds at McCoy’s that day, and amid the tragedy that occurred for the others, Rose’s story offered a glimmer of hope. The fact that her rescue was permitted was proof that they all deserved to be rescued, that even the police knew rescuing them was the right thing to do.

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BLOG

We're Driving Animals Mad

September 10, 2022

The systems we have designed for animals are mentally abusive from the very beginning.

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DxE Wins Motion for New Jury and Trial Location

August 23, 2022

The #SmithfieldTrial is moving to Washington County, Utah because the judge agreed it would be a challenge to find an impartial jury in Beaver County.

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BLOG

Calling Foul on Culling Waterfowl

August 16, 2022

Despite this supposed safeguard, if a local entity wants to take the lives of Canada geese, an application and a verbal statement over the phone grants instant permit approval from the USDA –which killed 26,000 Canada geese last year alone.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

11 Peaceful Demonstrators Remain in Custody on $100,000 Bond Each, Following Protest at Chick-fil-A Supplying Slaughterhouse

September 27, 2021

Just-released hidden camera footage from inside the Foster Farms facility reveals fully-conscious animals routinely being improperly slaughtered -- conduct activists allege is criminal

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Activist Fools Newsmax on Live TV, Posing as Tyson Foods CEO to Promote “Roasting Pigs Alive”

September 2, 2021

Imposter disavowed nonviolent animal rights activists as“terrorists”

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PRESS RELEASE

UC Berkeley Students Cover Sproul Hall Steps in Fake Blood, Protesting University’s Factory Farm Purchasing

August 24, 2021

Student-led investigation into UCB chicken supplier Tyson Foods shines new light on administration’s erroneous claims that it doesn’t supply from factory farms

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PRESS RELEASE

Following IPCC Climate Report, Berkeley Activists Slam Governor Newsom’s Wildfire Photo Op

August 8, 2021

Group behind Berkeley vegan transition bill says Newsom’s inaction on environmental impact of animal agriculture is unacceptable

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Drop Banner From Roof of In-N-Out, Demanding the Company Cease Supplying From Factory Farms

August 6, 2021

California residents want the the company to disclose supplier information, citing animal abuse and environmental destruction

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Becomes First U.S. City to Commit to Exclusively Plant-Based Food Purchases

July 26, 2021

Berkeley City Council passed a resolution late Tuesday to switch 50% of city expenditures on animal-based foods to plant-based by 2024, and commit to a long-term goal of 100% plant-based.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Held Rally at City Hall After 18 Hour Sit-In at Berkeley Mayor’s House

July 20, 2021

Activists want to keep the pressure on Mayor Arreguin’s climate commitments

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Doused in Fake Blood, Locked in Cages Demand Neiman Marcus Drop Fur

June 26, 2021

Chanting activists entered the store holding placards while others rallied outside

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Held Rally at Berkeley Mayor’s House, Demanding City Divest from Animal Agriculture

June 14, 2021

Berkeley residents say Mayor Arreguín broke his commitment to support their divestment proposal

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