To Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies,

On March 9, your podcast Seen and Herd, produced by Western United Dairies, devoted an episode segment to attacking animal rights activists and spreading misinformation about Direct Action Everywhere (DxE).

In that episode, you made a series of claims about DxE that have no basis in reality. Your organization represents powerful businesses across California and I would hope for more thorough fact-checking (or any fact-checking at all) from your team and yourself. Then again, the industry you represent depends on misleading the public, so I won’t say I’m shocked that you're spreading lies.

This letter, which I have also emailed to Western United Dairies, is written in the spirit of transparency. I wrote this to correct the falsehoods you shared and to invite you to engage in an honest and transparent conversation.

1. First, you falsely accuse DxE investigators of trespassing to obtain drone footage of factory farms

In the podcast, you described a recent DxE vigil at the two largest calf-raising facilities in California, both operated by Grimmius Cattle Company, and you stated, "This was followed by I believe some trespassing behavior where drone footage was shot of this same facility."

No one stepped foot on Grimmius Cattle Company during this vigil, or during other drone documentation of this massive calf-raising operation, which confines more than 200,000 calves between the two locations.

Police were present. They came and left because:

• The protest was peaceful.
• Participants were standing on public property.
• Drone pilots were certified and operating within local, state, and federal law.

Drone operators launch from public property. Either you don't understand these logistics, or you are misinterpreting lawful droning as trespass. Before you throw out misinformed accusations, you should educate yourself about the laws governing aerial documentation as DxE drone pilots do.

Later in the podcast, you again falsely accuse DxE activists of trespassing to get the drone footage that was reported to law enforcement prior to the vigil. The footage you're mentioning shows:

• Baby cows violently shoved and thrown to the ground
• Sick calves dragged and shot in the head
• Calves left to die from neglect inside their crates, and collected once their bodies had grown stiff
• Piles of dead animals on the property

I wish you were more concerned about this illegal animal cruelty than about the legal drone recording that captured it. Don't you think the public has a right to know when animal abuse is happening?

2. Second, you claim that DxE is a “domestic terrorist organization”

You stated, "I would remind everyone that DxE is actually a domestic terrorist organization, as listed by the FBI.”

This is another fabrication.

There is no FBI list that includes Direct Action Everywhere as a domestic terrorist organization. None. If you believe such a list exists, you should publish it.

No DxE activist has ever been charged with nor convicted of terrorism. The reality is that DxE is strictly committed to nonviolence. It is one of our core values. DxE investigators are trained in nonviolence, and we have compassion for everyone, including people like you who are caught up in a violent system.

This hasn't stopped industry groups like the Animal Agriculture Alliance from trying to paint us as terrorists. Because animal-exploiting industries cannot defend their practices, they try to smear the people exposing them. And it isn't just animal agriculture. The attempt to label peaceful activism as “terrorism” is part of a long-standing playbook, one that has repeatedly been used to discredit and suppress dissent in the United States. Recent targets include Black Lives Matter, university students protesting the genocide in Gaza, and individuals like Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good who were murdered by ICE and then quickly labeled "domestic terrorists" by DHS.

3. Third, you claim that calves rescued by DxE usually die

You stated in the podcast, "We have had incidents where these folks have stolen calves before. The calves usually pass away because of malnutrition and malneglect [sic] because these people put them in their cars."

That is a bald-faced lie.

There has never been a case where a calf rescued by DxE died. The calves we have rescued have gone on to live long lives in sanctuary after receiving extensive veterinary care, far better care than they were receiving inside the industrial facilities they came from.

Making up stories about animals dying in rescuers' cars may be convenient for the industry narrative, but it simply isn't reality. And your purported concern for these rescued animals rings hollow when you are defending an industry that ultimately kills every single animal, whether that's after a dairy cow is "spent" and can no longer be the milk machine you need them to be, or when a young bull is sent to be killed for beef, or when a days-old calf at a calf ranch like Grimmius gets sick and is shot in the head. Again, please see the footage linked above.

These are not the only falsehoods you shared in the podcast. It's actually impressive how many lies you fit into less than 12 minutes.

You also stated, "DxE is obviously funded from a number of spider groups. You have Farm Forward, The Humane League, HSUS - the animal humane society of the United States, California Environmental Justice Alliance, Earth Justice, Animal Outlook, I could go on. There's probably 70-80 groups that kind of all put money into the kitty."

None of these groups fund or have ever funded DxE. You didn’t cite evidence because there isn’t any. So where exactly did this come from? Did you just make it up on the spot, or is this something your team repeats often enough that it starts to sound true?

On its own, this kind of fabrication might seem minor. But it reveals something bigger: a willingness to say whatever sounds convenient, regardless of whether it’s true. I suspect that comfort with distorting reality, or straight up lying, is a job requirement when you're defending an inherently cruel industry.

Interestingly, this whole podcast segment was in response to our recent publication of FactoryFarmWatch.org, an interactive map of California's 1300+ factory farms, but you declined to say the website's name saying "I don't want to give it any air."

If California dairies are as humane and transparent as Western United Dairies claims, why are you trying so hard to keep your listeners from seeing where these operations are located?

FactoryFarmWatch.org documents industrial animal facilities across California and connects them to the corporations that profit from them. It allows journalists, researchers, consumers, and residents to understand the scale of factory farming in the state. We created this resource because we believe in transparency.

Will you join us in giving transparency a try?

You ended the podcast by saying, "Our board meetings are open to members and non-members if you're so inclined to discuss issues with us." I would love to take you up on that invitation and have a face-to-face conversation. Please let me know the details and I would be glad to call in or join in person. We would also be happy to have a representative from Direct Action Everywhere on the Seen and Herd podcast. Would you let listeners hear both sides?

If you truly believe in transparency, then a public discussion should be a welcome opportunity. If you'd like to set the record straight on some things, let's let the public hear both sides in conversation and decide which side has the facts, and any falsehoods can be addressed directly.

If the California dairy industry is confident in its practices, it should welcome scrutiny—not run from it.

Alas, I suspect I won't hear back.

Cassie King
Communications Lead
Direct Action Everywhere

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More Info About Western United Dairies

Western United Dairies is a trade organization representing more than 75% of the milk produced in California. WUD's mission statement centers on promoting policies for "the profitability of the industry" and "maintaining the strong, positive public image of the dairy farmers." Of course, activists who expose the truth are a threat to this positive public image.

The WUD website is quite revealing. It lists “wins” that include fighting regulations designed to protect workers and the environment and any kind of progress for animals. Among them: 

• defeating a community-led petition for rules that would have protected farmworkers from avian flu exposure
• amending the law to allow large numbers of dead animals to be buried on site at factory farms, at risk to the surrounding environment and public health
• blocking plant-based funding

These are not things to be proud of. They are signs of an industry prioritizing profit above the lives of workers, animals, and communities.