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
May 16, 2026
Turlock Journal
Dehorning is controversial because of the pain it inflicts on the animal and is only recommended after local anesthesia is applied as well as sedation by a veterinarian or a trained professional. Some dairies, however, do not follow those guidelines.
PRESS
May 16, 2026
Turlock Journal
PRESS
May 15, 2026
Telemundo Sacramento
Una agrupación de defensa de los animales denunció un presunto caso de crueldad animal en una granja en Ceres. Se trata de Direct Action Everywhere que documentó con la ayuda de un dron a trabajadores agrediendo a terneros.
PRESS
May 15, 2026
Telemundo Sacramento
PRESS
May 13, 2026
The Modesto Bee
“The reality is that even at the supposed best of the best dairy companies, newborn animals are ripped away from their mothers, confined, mutilated and forced into submission through violence,” Almira Tanner, Direct Action Everywhere’s lead organizer, said in a press release.
PRESS
May 13, 2026
The Modesto Bee
PRESS
May 12, 2026
New York Post
In the video, the animals try to buck and get away from the pain being inflicted on them while another worker holds their head down with their foot. At one point, we see one of the calves just collapse from the pain after the horrific experience.
PRESS
May 12, 2026
New York Post
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 12, 2026
PRESS
May 2, 2026
KRON4 Bay Area
Around 20 protesters rallied outside Whole Foods in Berkeley, demanding they stop carrying goat milk from Meyenberg’s Vera Goat Dairy farm near Fresno. This comes ahead of a hearing accusing two activists of felony grand theft after they took two goats they claim were sick last May.
PRESS
May 2, 2026
KRON4 Bay Area
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.”
PRESS RELEASE
May 2, 2026
PRESS
May 1, 2026
Local News Matters
The court reversed the felony conspiracy charge and one misdemeanor trespass charge for Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, co-founder Wayne Hsiung, the organization said. The animal rights group said the court rejected the prosecutor’s argument that animals are to be categorically excluded from a “necessity defense.”
PRESS
May 1, 2026
Local News Matters
PRESS
April 30, 2026
The Press Democrat
“That the court has reversed the majority of Mr. Hsiung’s convictions just a matter of days after argument is a major rebuke to a trial that we have always insisted was riddled with legal and factual errors,” Justin Marceau, director of the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, said in a press release.
PRESS
April 30, 2026
The Press Democrat
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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...
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.”
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
February 19, 2026
Factory Farm Watch is more than a map. It is a launchpad for statewide action to end factory farming.
BLOG
February 6, 2026
A summary of the first annual Animal Liberation Conference in India, co-hosted by DxE and Indore Animal Liberation
BLOG
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.
BLOG
December 18, 2025
No prosecution, conviction, or sentence, will ever stop a movement driven by compassion and care.
BLOG
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.
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.”
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
March 1, 2026
The ten-foot milk carton showed a photo of a calf with the word "Missing" to underscore how the dairy industry routinely separates babies from their mothers on the day they are born.
