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PRESS

Jury Selection Is Dragging on in Sonoma County Animal Activist’s Trial. Here’s Why

October 2, 2025

The Press Democrat

After more than two weeks of jury selection, attorneys are still working to seat a panel for animal activist Zoe Rosenberg’s felony conspiracy trial in Sonoma County Superior Court — a high-profile case that has required an unusually large pool of potential jurors.

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PRESS

Jury Selection Is Dragging on in Sonoma County Animal Activist’s Trial. Here’s Why

October 2, 2025

The Press Democrat

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PRESS

Opinion: San Diego Must Stop Subsidizing Animal Cruelty and Ban Rodeos

October 2, 2025

The San Diego Union Tribune

In the middle of the performance, a horse named Wako Kid bolted into a metal fence with a sickening thud. The crowd gasped as he crumpled to the ground, clearly gravely injured. It was horrifying, and it happened right in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

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PRESS

Opinion: San Diego Must Stop Subsidizing Animal Cruelty and Ban Rodeos

October 2, 2025

The San Diego Union Tribune

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 3: Sept 29th-Oct 3rd, 2025

September 29, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 3 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 3: Sept 29th-Oct 3rd, 2025

September 29, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 3 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 2: Sept 22nd-27th, 2025

September 22, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 2 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 2: Sept 22nd-27th, 2025

September 22, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 2 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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PRESS

Animal Welfare Group Rallies Around Accused Activist Before March Through Petaluma

September 22, 2025

Petaluma Argus-Courier

About 60 members and supporters of the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere gathered Saturday in Petaluma’s Penry Park to rally behind one of their own — Zoe Rosenberg, who is currently on trial in Sonoma County — before marching through downtown toward the Lakeville Highway chicken processing plant connected with her criminal case.

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PRESS

Animal Welfare Group Rallies Around Accused Activist Before March Through Petaluma

September 22, 2025

Petaluma Argus-Courier

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PRESS

Petaluma Woman Faces Prison for Chicken Rescue

September 20, 2025

KRON4

Animal rights activists marched Saturday in Petaluma in support of a woman on trial for allegedly taking four chickens from a local poultry slaughterhouse.

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PRESS

Petaluma Woman Faces Prison for Chicken Rescue

September 20, 2025

KRON4

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists March in Petaluma During Felony Animal Rescue Trial

September 20, 2025

"I believe Zoe did the right thing by taking sick animals to the vet," said Sharon Loren of Penngrove, who joined the march. "Compassion should never be a crime, but it's on trial here in Sonoma County."

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists March in Petaluma During Felony Animal Rescue Trial

September 20, 2025

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PRESS

Charged with Felony Conspiracy, UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist’s Trial Begins

September 17, 2025

The Daily Californian

“Each and every one of these chickens was an individual,” Rosenberg said at her press conference. “With a personality, thoughts and feelings. Each and every one of them had been deprived of just about everything.”

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PRESS

Charged with Felony Conspiracy, UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist’s Trial Begins

September 17, 2025

The Daily Californian

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 1: Sept 15th-19th, 2025

September 15, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 1 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 1: Sept 15th-19th, 2025

September 15, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 1 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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Our Top Press Hits

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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TOP PRESS

Activists Call It Rescue. Farms Call It Stealing. What Is ‘Open Rescue’?

August 7, 2023

National Geographic

These crusaders are part of the so-called “open rescue” movement, in which animal rights activists brazenly take animals from factory farm operations. Direct Action Everywhere—better known as DxE—is at the forefront of this movement in the United States...

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TOP PRESS

Dangerous Pathogens and Cruelty Law Violations at Perdue Subsidiary, Animal Rights Report Alleges

June 13, 2023

The Intercept

In conjunction with the release of an undercover investigation on the factory farm, the group DxE mounted an “open rescue” of birds from a slaughterhouse.

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TOP PRESS

Opinion: Utah Undermined the Jury System to Shield Big Ag from Scrutiny

March 30, 2023

Salt Lake Tribune

If government agencies were taking these [investigative] reports seriously and protecting animals from cruelty, there would be no need for bills like this. But certain Utah legislators have decided that the real problem with sick, suffering animals is the potential for negative publicity for the industry and so it is the industry, not the animals, that need protection.

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TOP PRESS

The Fight Against Factory Farming Is Winning Criminal Trials

March 21, 2023

Vox

DxE’s theory — that when you show a jury of ordinary citizens what happens to animals in the meat industry, they’ll agree that they deserve rescue — turned out to be true, challenging the idea that the animal rights agenda is radical or unpopular.

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TOP PRESS

Former TV Star, Now a Chicken ‘Rescuer,’ Found Not Guilty of Foster Farms Theft

March 20, 2023

LA Times

“This is a victory for [the chickens] Ethan, Jax, and all other living beings subjected to abuse by corporations like Foster Farms,” Santurio said in a news release from Direct Action Everywhere. “I have so much love for the chickens in my family and I want all animals to experience that safety and respect.”

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TOP PRESS

‘Baywatch’s’ Alexandra Paul on Trial; Video Shows ‘Open Rescue’ of Foster Farms Chickens

March 9, 2023

LA Times

“We published this video within an hour with both my name and Alicia Santurio’s name attached to it because we believe what we’re doing is legal and morally right,” Paul said in an interview with The Times.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

The Press Won't Link California's Elephant Seal Deaths to Factory Farms

May 28, 2026

The elephant seals at Año Nuevo are dying because they share beaches with infected seabirds — infected because H5N1 has become endemic in wild bird populations worldwide, a spread driven in significant part by the concentration and global trade of farmed poultry.

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BLOG

“Make Sure It’s a F***ing Felony": What Happened at the Preliminary Hearing in the Meyenberg Rescue Case

May 20, 2026

Deputies testified that they never investigated the animal cruelty allegations at the dairy or referred them to any agency, despite being told about dead and suffering animals on site. One officer even defended the facility by claiming that “you can go to any dairy, anywhere in the country, and there will be dead goats there.”

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BLOG

How Pepper Spray Can Save Puppies

April 22, 2026

Open rescue as a strategy is not just about getting a few animals out of their cages, it is also about creating a crisis that can no longer be ignored. It is about forcing the public and people in power to choose a side.

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BLOG

An Open Letter Responding to Western United Dairies' Disinformation

March 19, 2026

The dairy industry trade group's CEO, Anja Raudabaugh, spread blatant lies about animal rights activists on a recent podcast discussing DxE's latest project, FactoryFarmWatch.org. This blog corrects the record and invites Ms. Raudabaugh to engage in an honest and transparent conversation.

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BLOG

Exposing Big Ag with Factory Farm Watch

February 19, 2026

Factory Farm Watch is more than a map. It is a launchpad for statewide action to end factory farming.

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BLOG

ALC India Was a Huge Success!

February 6, 2026

A summary of the first annual Animal Liberation Conference in India, co-hosted by DxE and Indore Animal Liberation

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BLOG

An Open Letter to My Judge

January 4, 2026

I think the public has made it resoundingly clear that they feel Perdue should be prosecuted for its crimes. I hope you'll take that into consideration and use your power as a judge to do some good for these animals. 

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BLOG

Zoe's Reflections on Animal Rising's Beagle Rescue Trial Verdict

December 18, 2025

No prosecution, conviction, or sentence, will ever stop a movement driven by compassion and care.

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BLOG

An Open Letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta

December 17, 2025

I write to you from this jail cell on behalf of the animals, to beg for your assistance and intervention. This cruelty and suffering has gone on far too long.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Merck For Purchasing Dogs for Animal Testing From Notorious Ridglan Farms

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.

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Stanislaus County DA, Urging Prosecution of Calf Ranch for Animal Cruelty

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.

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Petco to Demand End of All Animal Sales

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

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Hold Vigil for Calves After Investigation Exposes Illegal Animal Cruelty

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.

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PRESS RELEASE

Calves Kicked, Violently Handled at Clover Sonoma-Linked Calf Ranch, Drone Footage Reveals

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.

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Whole Foods Over Goat Milk Supplier Cruelty, Felony Charges Against Rescuers

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.”

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest at Meyenberg Goat Milk Plant, After Prosecution of Animal Cruelty Investigators

April 11, 2026

Protesters at the Meyenberg plant held signs reading “Meyenberg Lies, Animals Die” and “Compassion Is Not a Crime.” Two of the defendants were present and spoke out about the cruelty they documented at Vera Goat Dairy.

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PRESS RELEASE

Four People Charged with Felony Grand Theft for Rescuing Sick Goats from Whole Foods-Supplying Goat Dairy

March 25, 2026

Four activists have been charged with felony grand theft by the Kings County District Attorney following the open rescue of two sick baby goats from Vera Goat Dairy in Stratford last May. Vera is a 9,000-goat operation that supplies the nation's largest goat milk producer, Meyenberg.

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PRESS RELEASE

Marin Grocer Good Earth Cuts Ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry Amidst Animal Cruelty Concerns

March 11, 2026

Controversial chicken producer Petaluma Poultry has lost another customer following an investigation by animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), which exposed animal neglect and cruelty at the company’s factory farms and slaughterhouse in Sonoma County.

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