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 RELEASE
October 1, 2026
Factory farm investigators with the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) just confirmed that Valadao Dairy, owned by Congressman David Valadao's family, sends newborn dairy calves to Grimmius Cattle Company, California's largest calf-raising operation where DxE investigators have recorded sick baby cows being dragged from a trailer and shot in the head.
PRESS
September 28, 2026
The E'ville Eye
Participants carried signs reading “Save the Dogs,” distributed hundreds of leaflets urging California members of Congress to co-sponsor the legislation and were accompanied by several rescued laboratory beagles.
PRESS
September 28, 2026
The E'ville Eye
PRESS RELEASE
September 26, 2026
With the group were several rescued lab beagles. The demonstration, which was organized by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), aimed to raise awareness about the COMPACT Act (H.R.10522), a bipartisan bill that was introduced on Wednesday to end federal funding for experiments on dogs and cats.
PRESS RELEASE
September 26, 2026
PRESS
September 23, 2026
The San Francisco Chronicle
“I have really, really wrestled with this,” Trevino told the court, according to a transcript shared by defense attorneys. Trevino said he’d reviewed the defense’s motion to reduce the charges before the hearing and was “persuaded” by private conversations with attorneys. In their motion, the activist’s attorney shared a photo allegedly showing two dozen dead goats and their young kids in an open-air pile in the dirt.
PRESS
September 23, 2026
The San Francisco Chronicle
PRESS RELEASE
September 23, 2026
At a hearing last month, Judge Jim Trevino reduced all of the felony charges to misdemeanors after reviewing a defense filing detailing evidence of significant animal cruelty at the dairy, calling the filing persuasive. After today’s judicial diversion, all charges will be dismissed following completion of 40 hours of community service and 5 months probation.
PRESS RELEASE
September 23, 2026
PRESS RELEASE
September 21, 2026
Workers at California's largest dairy operation were recorded hitting and kicking young calves in the face in July. In another part of the facility, footage shows a worker whipping adult cows to move them toward the milking barn.
PRESS RELEASE
September 21, 2026
PRESS RELEASE
September 18, 2026
The drone footage shows workers pushing and pulling newborn calves from a trailer, kicking them to make them stand, and throwing them into small, individual crates, which are a common form of intensive confinement used in the calf-raising industry.
PRESS
September 9, 2026
The Tenderloin Voice
In a sun-drenched patch of grass at Union Square, a flock of pigeons gathers around Carla Cabral. She is half-crouched and her gaze is fixed on a spot right in front of her toes. I only realize she’s made a move when the flock explodes into flight — she has darted out her arms, moving faster than I thought humanly possible, and when she straightens, she’s holding a bird. Her grip appears gentle, but secure.
PRESS
September 9, 2026
The Tenderloin Voice
PRESS
September 8, 2026
The Intercept
The FAA has launched an investigation of an animal rights activist whose group’s videos of conditions at California cattle ranches sparked outrage, with the agency simultaneously proposing new rules that could prevent the pilots’ flyovers altogether.
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
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.
BLOG
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?
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
May 1, 2023
I have seen firsthand the trauma these programs inflict on children and the violence they inflict on animals. It’s time we reform 4-H and FFA to no longer include programs where kids raise animals to die.
BLOG
March 23, 2023
We have the momentum and we cannot stop now. 2023 will bring more open rescues, more bold actions, and more trials. As we tear down the industry, we lift up animals. We show the world the violence that must be left in the past, and the beauty the future can hold.
BLOG
February 1, 2023
Utah legislators with ties to the Farm Bureau released House Bill 114, “Theft Defense Amendments,” in direct response to the outcome of the Smithfield Trial.
BLOG
January 28, 2023
In the first-ever Bay Area Direct Action Skill Share (B.A.D.A.S.S.), starting March 25, a cross-movement cohort of 100 activists will unite in Oakland for 5 days of intensive direct action training.
PRESS RELEASE
May 14, 2021
Group currently being sued by billionaire track owners calls for end to horse racing, citing animal cruelty
PRESS RELEASE
May 9, 2021
University administrators falsely claim agribusiness giant isn’t engaged in factory farming, according to students
PRESS RELEASE
April 9, 2021
Citing animal cruelty exposés, activists demand the university stop supplying from factory farms
PRESS RELEASE
April 5, 2021
Workers seen dragging newborn calves by their ears
PRESS RELEASE
March 24, 2021
Activists are calling for Newsom to enact a statewide moratorium on factory farms and slaughterhouses
PRESS RELEASE
March 5, 2021
Following exposé with workers cutting the throats of fully-conscious cows, demonstrators demand moratorium banning new factory farms and slaughterhouses
PRESS RELEASE
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.”
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
February 14, 2021
The activists said they are drawing attention to Smithfield's heartless attitude
