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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rescuer Arraigned on Felony, Misdemeanor Charges

March 3, 2025

“If Ms. Rosenberg had rescued a drowning dog from a neighbor’s pool, she would be applauded, not prosecuted,” said Mr. Carraway. “The fact is, California law does not distinguish between rescuing a dog from a pool and rescuing sick and injured chickens from a slaughterhouse. Those who profit off animal agriculture may not like it, but that is the law.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rescuer Arraigned on Felony, Misdemeanor Charges

March 3, 2025

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PRESS

Activists Protest Perdue Farms' Petaluma Poultry At Trader Joe's

March 2, 2025

SF Gate

Activists opposed to one of America's biggest poultry producers protested sales of Perdue Farms products at a Berkeley Trader Joe's on Saturday. Animal welfare advocates inside and outside the store urged the retailer to stop selling products slaughtered by Perdue's Petaluma Poultry.

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PRESS

Activists Protest Perdue Farms' Petaluma Poultry At Trader Joe's

March 2, 2025

SF Gate

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Berkeley Trader Joe's Over Sale of “Criminally Abused” Chickens from Perdue Farms

March 1, 2025

Outside the store, protestors set up a “human meat” display with an activist covered in fake blood and lying on a tray wrapped in plastic to represent the abused chickens whose plastic-wrapped bodies are sold at Trader Joe’s.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Berkeley Trader Joe's Over Sale of “Criminally Abused” Chickens from Perdue Farms

March 1, 2025

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PRESS

Ridglan Farms Under Fire

February 26, 2025

Wisconsin News 3 Now

Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) entered Ridglan Farms in the dark of night. The team conducted what’s referred to as an ‘open rescue', a tactic used by animal rights activists wherein they openly and publicly describe what they have done. This differs from secretive or clandestine rescues. That night, the team took possession of three beagles which they later named Julie, Anna and Lucy. In 2021, the team was charged with felony burglary and theft.

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PRESS

Ridglan Farms Under Fire

February 26, 2025

Wisconsin News 3 Now

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PRESS

“Elon’s Monkey Business” Charged with Cruelty

February 17, 2025

Countercurrents

In addressing Musk’s continued development of BCI’s, DxE organizer Carla Cabral said, “Elon Musk’s actions are a profound example of the link between animal and human cruelty. While animals such as monkeys and pigs are being tortured and killed for Musk’s financial gain, he’s actively spewing hate toward trans people, immigrant communities, and other marginalized groups. And the federal government has shown no willingness to hold Musk accountable..."

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PRESS

“Elon’s Monkey Business” Charged with Cruelty

February 17, 2025

Countercurrents

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Protest at Elon Musk's Neuralink, Call for End to Animal Experiments

February 15, 2025

Protestors displayed a giant Elon Musk head with a speech bubble reading “I TORTURE MONKEYS.” With some activists dressed as monkeys inside cages, others held signs reading “Primates are not prototypes.” Several Bay Area residents, including a former animal experimenter, gave speeches condemning the cruelty and ineffectiveness of animal testing.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Protest at Elon Musk's Neuralink, Call for End to Animal Experiments

February 15, 2025

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PRESS

How Trader Joe’s Got Caught Up in a Farmgirl TikTok Beef

February 3, 2025

The San Francisco Standard

Trader Joe’s is facing pressure to drop a North Bay chicken supplier after a social media post documenting its alleged abuses went viral with the help of celebrities and food influencers.

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PRESS

How Trader Joe’s Got Caught Up in a Farmgirl TikTok Beef

February 3, 2025

The San Francisco Standard

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Dinner Service at Playa Mill Valley Over Ties to Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry

February 2, 2025

On Saturday evening, animal rights activists disrupted the dinner service at the upscale restaurant Playa Mill Valley in Marin County, asking the restaurant to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry due to documented animal cruelty.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Dinner Service at Playa Mill Valley Over Ties to Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry

February 2, 2025

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PRESS

Trial Ahead for CA Animal Activist Accused of Trespassing, Theft, Conspiracy

January 30, 2025

Public News Service

An animal activist is speaking out ahead of her trial in May - accused of trespassing, theft and conspiracy after a protest at a poultry slaughterhouse in Northern California.

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PRESS

Trial Ahead for CA Animal Activist Accused of Trespassing, Theft, Conspiracy

January 30, 2025

Public News Service

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

She Said She Was Rescuing Chickens. A Jury Convicted Her of Conspiracy.

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.”

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TOP PRESS

She Took Chickens from a Slaughterhouse. Was It a Rescue or a Crime?

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.”

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Activist Testifies She Saved Sick Birds, Not Stole Them, in Chicken Rescue Trial

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.

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TOP PRESS

How the FBI and Big Ag Started Treating Animal Rights Activists as Bioterrorists

June 2, 2025

The Intercept

“Animal rights and environmental groups have committed more acts of terrorism than Al Qaeda,” warned an FBI agent who met with Big Ag groups.

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TOP PRESS

This California Student Could Go to Prison for Taking Four Chickens. Was It a Crime or a ‘Rescue’?

May 1, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Just four months after she graduates on May 17 with a bachelor’s degree in social movement strategy, the straight-A student will stand trial in a Sonoma County courtroom for her June 2023 incursion into Petaluma Poultry, a processing facility owned by agribusiness giant Perdue Farms. If convicted for taking four chickens Perdue valued at around $24, she faces up to 5½ years in prison.

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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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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Gun Violence: Striking at the (Speciesist) Roots

March 29, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: Fur Sales Banned In San Francisco, Trophy Hunting Lawsuit, Mar. 16 – Mar. 23, 2018

March 23, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: SF a step closer to fur ban, Trump USDA withdraws animal welfare regulation for organic farms – March 9 - March 16, 2018

March 18, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: Smoking Orangutan Draws Outrage, Legislators Seek to Mandate Factory Farm Egg Sales – March 2 - March 9, 2018

March 10, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: Vegan Solution To World Hunger, Rescued Pig Eaten, Feb. 26, 2018 – Mar. 2, 2018

March 2, 2018

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BLOG

“Does activism really make a difference?”

March 1, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: Big Ag Attacks ‘Test Tube Burger,’ Animal Abusers Must Register, Feb. 20, 2018 – Feb. 26, 2018

February 27, 2018

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BLOG

How to Counter the "Humane Meat" Myth

February 22, 2018

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BLOG

NEWS OF THE WEEK: Vegan Skater Wins The Gold, Activists Protest At Westminster Dog Show, Feb. 13, 2018 – Feb. 19, 2018

February 20, 2018

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

Activists Evoke “Chicken Run” in Retelling of Real-Life Rescues

January 27, 2024

Playing with characters and plot elements from the new film Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget, the protest featured “Zoe Rosenbird” coming to the rescue of sick, injured chickens and transforming the operation that tortured them into an animal sanctuary.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activist Sentenced to Jail for Rescuing Sick Animals from Factory Farms

November 30, 2023

The University of Denver’s Animal Activist Legal Defense Project is working on the appeal. Attorney Chris Carraway said, “I often hear courts describe trials as a search for the truth. Mr. Hsiung’s trial was anything but. The press had limited access; trial participants were unconstitutionally gagged from the beginning; and the court bent over backwards to prevent the defense from detailing the chronic animal cruelty found which informed the intent behind the actions."

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Factory Farm Ban Qualifies for November 2024 Election

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.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Submit Required Signatures to Put Factory Farm Ban on Ballot

September 5, 2023

Activists say voter enthusiasm is high for a ban on factory farms in Berkeley after submitting more than 4,900 signatures to the Berkeley city clerk today, a large overshoot beyond the 3,000 required to get the measure on the ballot.

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PRESS RELEASE

Factory Farm Ban Likely to Be on Ballot After Activists Gather Required Signatures

August 1, 2023

"The vast majority of Berkeley voters that we've talked to care about animals and the planet and are eager to sign on to this initiative,” says Almira Tanner, lead organizer of DxE.

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PRESS RELEASE

Golden Gate Fields Horse Racing Track to Shut Down Following Years of Protests

July 17, 2023

“This closure is a win for horses and for vulnerable humans who are taken advantage of by the gambling industry,” says Rocky Chau, a DxE activist who was arrested during a protest on the GGF track in March 2021.

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PRESS RELEASE

Waves of People Rescue Sick Animals from Perdue's Petaluma Poultry Slaughterhouse, Following an Investigation Finding Rampant Abuse and Disease

June 13, 2023

Hundreds are gathered outside the slaughterhouse calling on the Sonoma County District Attorney to prosecute Petaluma Poultry for documented criminal animal cruelty and infectious diseases that are endangering public health

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PRESS RELEASE

Mice and Fish Rescued from Petco During Animal Liberation March in San Francisco

June 10, 2023

While hundreds rallied in support of the right to rescue animals from abuse, a few activists delivered “feeder” mice and suffering betta fish to safety.

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PRESS RELEASE

Trial Finally Scheduled for Animal Rights Activists Facing Felonies for Rescues in Sonoma County

May 31, 2023

Recent similar trials in St. George, UT and Merced, CA resulted in groundbreaking acquittals for open rescuers.

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