Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
Media inquiry? Please email press@dxe.io.
PRESS
May 12, 2026
Los Angeles Times
In late February, animal rights activists flew a drone over a calf ranch in the Central Valley and watched as workers kicked and punched the animals. Footage reviewed by The Times shows a worker pulling a calf by the nose with pliers.
PRESS
May 12, 2026
Los Angeles Times
PRESS
November 2, 2023
Northern California Public Media
Hsiung’s supporters, many with the group Direct Action Everywhere, expressed shock by Thursday’s verdict, many fighting back tears and wishing Hsiung well as he was taken for processing at Sonoma County's Main Adult Detention Facility.
PRESS
November 2, 2023
Northern California Public Media
PRESS
November 2, 2023
Press Democrat
The group, Direct Action Everywhere, has been investigating animal cruelty at the two farms where protests occurred while the trial went on, organizer Zoe Rosenberg told reporters. They sought to file what they said is evidence they have gathered with DA Carla Rodriguez, who, according to Rosenberg, had indicated to the group that she would consider an investigation of their claims after the trial concluded.
PRESS
November 2, 2023
Press Democrat
PRESS
October 27, 2023
KRON4 News
On Saturday afternoon, animal rights advocates with Direct Action Everywhere and Stop Bloodsports will gather outside the Golden Gate Fields for a demonstration calling out the horseracing industry and memorializing horses who died at the track this fall.
PRESS
October 26, 2023
Northern California Public Media
On Wednesday, jurors asked two questions seeking legal clarifications related to the case, but a verdict was not reached. The defendant's committed group of supporters, mostly associated with the group Direct Action Everywhere, were once again camped out in front of the court, holding signs and standing in wait for the trial’s outcome.
PRESS
October 26, 2023
Northern California Public Media
PRESS
October 25, 2023
Davis Vanguard
Hsiung was indeed transparent in his closing, telling the jury, “We did what we did because 11 days before the rescue effort at Sunrise, I saw this bird, half blind, unable to move away, unable to even jump up two feet to reach food and water and I left her to die. When I left her to die, that broke my heart.”
PRESS
October 25, 2023
Davis Vanguard
PRESS
October 24, 2023
Press Democrat
Hsiung emphasized his intent to help struggling animals in the 2018 demonstration. But he denied involvement in the second one in 2019.
PRESS
October 24, 2023
Press Democrat
PRESS RELEASE
October 19, 2023
“The thousands of signatures we’ve collected this summer are a testament to how enthusiastic the people of Berkeley are about disassociating with these cruel industries that run counter to our values,” says Berkeley resident and DxE organizer Kitty Jones. “It is high time we move past a system of industrialized exploitation of animals.”
PRESS RELEASE
October 19, 2023
PRESS
October 19, 2023
Sentient Media
Perhaps the most well-known case of open rescue involves two piglets, Lily and Lizzie. Ill and underweight when they were found by activists at a Smithfield-owned (the largest pork producer in the U.S.) facility in Utah, Circle Four Farms, the pigs were rescued by activists and relocated to animal sanctuaries, which the FBI then raided in search of the pigs’ DNA.
PRESS
October 12, 2023
Press Democrat
An image of a chicken with an eye injury and that was believed to be too frail to flee humans was indicative of the chicken population at a poultry farm just outside Petaluma where activists held a protest in 2018, one of them told a jury Thursday.
PRESS
October 12, 2023
Press Democrat
TOP PRESS
March 5, 2026
Vox
DxE filmed Grimmius’s operations using drone cameras, documenting many of the grim realities ubiquitous in the mass production of animals for food: calves being handled roughly, hit, and pushed to the ground. But perhaps most remarkably, the footage offers a rare view of what is arguably the most overlooked form of extreme confinement of farmed animals in the US.
TOP PRESS
December 4, 2025
The Associated Press
Zoe Rosenberg, 23, did not deny taking the animals from Petaluma Poultry but argued she wasn’t breaking the law because she was rescuing the birds from a cruel situation.
TOP PRESS
December 3, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
“They’re denying that any of this suffering is happening,” she said. “We have been calling on the California Attorney General to take action, because the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office has made it abundantly clear that they do not care about these animals whatsoever.” Her supporters cheered and yelled out promises to not give up defending animals.
TOP PRESS
October 29, 2025
The New York Times
The four chickens she took with her — whom she named Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea — are alive at a sanctuary for rescued farm animals, she said. “I will not apologize for taking sick, neglected animals to get medical care,” Ms. Rosenberg said in a statement. “When we see cruelty and violence, we can choose to ignore it or to intervene and try to make the world a better place.”
TOP PRESS
October 29, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
But even if the appellate court doesn’t reverse Rosenberg’s conviction, she likely won’t regret having risked prison time to force a trial. Her trial, by some measures, was still a success. Several national publications — including The New York Times and the Associated Press — covered it, raising awareness of DxE’s goal to eradicate America’s factory-farming industry by 2040.
TOP PRESS
October 28, 2025
The Associated Press
A California animal rights activist on trial for taking four chickens from one of Perdue Farms’ major poultry plants said Tuesday that she was rescuing Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea from abuse while prosecutors say she broke the law.
TOP PRESS
October 24, 2025
The Guardian
I asked Rosenberg what outcome she was hoping for. “My ideal outcome is honestly just whatever is best for the animals,” she said. “An acquittal wouldn’t set an actual legal precedent, but it would set a social precedent, to some extent, and send an important message.”
TOP PRESS
October 17, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
Before a jury in a Sonoma County courthouse, Rosenberg testified that she believed at the time that her actions, often called “open rescue,” were “lawfully justified” to prevent what she considered “criminal animal abuse” by Petaluma Poultry, a Sonoma-based operation owned by Perdue Farms, a major poultry supplier nationwide.
TOP PRESS
October 6, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
Though Rosenberg is technically the one on trial, they plan to force a deep review of the often-unsavory practices occurring at meat-processing facilities across the country.
BLOG
December 16, 2025
To some, my being here may look like losing. I don’t see it that way. I see it as a sign that we have come to be a real threat to companies like Perdue that make billions of dollars off the mistreatment of animals.
BLOG
December 15, 2025
Since my incarceration, lives have continued to be saved. On my first day in jail, two chickens were rescued from a slaughterhouse in Stockton, California. They've been named Josephine and Jasmine.
BLOG
December 11, 2025
My cell is small, but I can stand up and take a few steps. In many parts of the US, animals can legally be housed in such tight confinement that they can't even spread their limbs or turn around.
BLOG
December 10, 2025
My prosecutors are hoping my jail sentence will scare you. They’re hoping you’ll consider rescuing an animal and then think of me and change your mind. No. Think of me if you will, but then do it.
BLOG
December 4, 2025
This is the statement defendant Zoe Rosenberg read in court at her sentencing hearing on Dec. 3, 2025, before she was sentenced to 90 days in jail for rescuing Poppy, Aster, Ivy, and Azalea from Perdue's Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse.
BLOG
October 27, 2025
Updates and summaries from Week 7 of the Perdue Rescue Trial
BLOG
October 20, 2025
Updates and summaries from Week 6 of the Perdue Rescue Trial
BLOG
October 13, 2025
Updates and summaries from Week 5 of the Perdue Rescue Trial
BLOG
October 6, 2025
Updates and summaries from Week 4 of the Perdue Rescue Trial
PRESS RELEASE
June 30, 2026
Direct Action Everywhere Los Angeles campaigned to urge the grocery chain to cut ties with Meyenberg, after the group’s investigation at a Meyenberg dairy exposed emaciated, ill goats and an illegal dead pile
PRESS RELEASE
June 22, 2026
A DxE drone investigation released in May shows calves kicked in the face, yanked by their tails, and disbudded with hot irons at Agresti Calf Ranch in Stanislaus County. The facility is owned by the Agresti-Assali family which also owns the adjacent Clover Sonoma milk supplier Double D Dairies. DxE investigators witnessed calves from Double D Dairies being transported to Agresti Calf Ranch.
PRESS RELEASE
June 20, 2026
With Bay Area cities moving to ban the retail sale of animals, animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) are turning up the pressure on one of the Bay’s biggest pet retailers: Petco. Dozens of activists with DxE, PETA, and other groups protested inside and outside Petco in San Mateo Saturday afternoon.
PRESS RELEASE
June 12, 2026
Dozens of animal rights activists protested outside biopharmaceutical giant Merck’s West Coast headquarters on Friday, condemning the company’s recent purchase of beagles for animal testing from Ridglan Farms, a notorious dog breeding facility near Madison, Wisconsin that has made national headlines in recent months.
PRESS RELEASE
June 2, 2026
Terry Seese, the Chief of the DA’s Bureau of Investigation, came to speak to the advocates. He took the letter and confirmed the DA’s office is aware of the footage taken at Agresti Calf Ranch, but deflected responsibility onto the Sheriff’s office, which has not made a referral.
PRESS RELEASE
May 17, 2026
Following San Francisco Animal Commission’s vote to recommend a ban on the retail sale of animals, advocates rallied in San Francisco to bring attention to cruelty of the exotic pet trade
PRESS RELEASE
May 16, 2026
Activists gathered peacefully on public property by the calf ranch to bear witness to the calves and called on authorities to take action to protect these vulnerable animals. Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies were already present when activists arrived and warned them not to trespass.
PRESS RELEASE
May 12, 2026
New footage showing illegal animal cruelty at a Clover Sonoma-linked calf ranch was published today at FactoryFarmWatch.org. The footage, which was obtained via drone at Agresti Calf Ranch in Stanislaus County, shows calves being kicked in the face, yanked by their tails, and disbudded with hot irons until they collapse in pain.
PRESS RELEASE
May 2, 2026
“Whole Foods presents itself as an ethical retailer, but it continues to sell milk connected to serious animal welfare concerns,” said Madhu Anderson, who organized the protest. “We’re asking them to take responsibility for what’s happening in their supply chain.”
