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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.

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PRESS RELEASE

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

February 23, 2022

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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.

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TOP PRESS

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

February 23, 2022

The New Republic

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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.

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PRESS RELEASE

California Assemblymember Introduces Moratorium on New Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses

February 20, 2022

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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

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PRESS RELEASE

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

February 13, 2022

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BLOG

5 Tips for Time Management and Organization

February 2, 2022

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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.

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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.

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TOP PRESS

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

January 30, 2022

The Intercept

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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.

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PRESS

FBI Busted For Targeting Animal Rights Activist

January 24, 2022

Breaking Points

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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.

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PRESS

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

January 23, 2022

Des Moines Register

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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.

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TOP PRESS

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

January 23, 2022

The Guardian

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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

On Cooperative Learning

April 3, 2015

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BLOG

The Backlash Effect: How to Transform Violence into Justice

March 18, 2015

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BLOG

The Angelfish in the Room, Part II: Aquatic Communities

March 13, 2015

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BLOG

"An Opiate to the Conscience": Welfarism as a Step to Animal Liberation?

March 12, 2015

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BLOG

Vegan Options are Not Animal Liberation

March 6, 2015

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BLOG

What Ringling Bros. Can Teach Us About Protest (Hint: It Works)

March 5, 2015

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BLOG

What if Everything We Think We Know about Social Change Is Wrong?

March 4, 2015

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BLOG

Interview with Baltimore-Based Animal Liberationist Brenda Sanders

March 3, 2015

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BLOG

How Did I End Up Here?

February 11, 2015

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

State Capitol Demonstration Saturday Demands Factory Farm Moratorium

May 28, 2021

3-day occupation at Governor Newsom’s home culminated with march to State Capitol building for “No More Factory Farms” rally

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Animal Rights Activist Disrupts Preakness Stakes Trophy Presentation

May 14, 2021

Group currently being sued by billionaire track owners calls for end to horse racing, citing animal cruelty

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PRESS RELEASE

UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Fountain Dyed Blood Red After Chancellor and Director of Dining Defend Sourcing from Tyson Foods

May 9, 2021

University administrators falsely claim agribusiness giant isn’t engaged in factory farming, according to students

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PRESS RELEASE

Following UC Berkeley Dining Facility Lockdown, Students Secure Meeting with Chancellor

April 9, 2021

Citing animal cruelty exposés, activists demand the university stop supplying from factory farms

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PRESS RELEASE

Land O’ Lakes Dairy Exposé Reveals Freezing Calves, Widespread Violations of Company Policy and the Law

April 5, 2021

Workers seen dragging newborn calves by their ears

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PRESS RELEASE

24-Hour Demonstration Underway at Gavin Newsom’s House, Featuring Giant Newsom Head

March 24, 2021

Activists are calling for Newsom to enact a statewide moratorium on factory farms and slaughterhouses

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists in Coalinga with 50-foot Banner and Giant Gavin Newsom Head Protest Harris Ranch

March 5, 2021

Following exposé with workers cutting the throats of fully-conscious cows, demonstrators demand moratorium banning new factory farms and slaughterhouses

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Chained Activists Occupy California Horse Racing Track, Stopping Thursday’s Races

March 3, 2021

4 Bay Area residents locked down at Berkeley’s Golden Gate Fields horse racing facility, using heavily-weighted PVC pipes in a direct action maneuver called a “sleeping dragon.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Fully Conscious Cows’ Throats Slit in First-Ever Footage Inside Costco-Supplying Slaughterhouse

March 2, 2021

Graphic hidden-camera footage DxE investigators obtained inside Harris Beef in Selma, CA reveals cows systematically restrained and killed with a slice to the throat while fully conscious.

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