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A Crime of Compassion?

March 7, 2024

Isthmus

According to the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, “DxE documented dogs crammed into small cages, often alone, with no access to the outdoors; apparent continuous 24-hour lighting; noxious air and feces building up beneath the cages; dogs with red and swollen feet from standing on wire cage floors; and extreme psychological torment. The activists describe the conditions as a ‘factory farm for dogs.’ ”

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PRESS

A Crime of Compassion?

March 7, 2024

Isthmus

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PRESS

Sustainability? Don’t Sustain What We Do to Animals — End It

March 6, 2024

Pathways

Focusing only on the environment is a mistake. We need a different relationship with animals. As "Earthlings" so powerfully states, "We must learn empathy. We must learn to see into the eyes of an animal and feel that their life has value because they are alive."

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PRESS

Sustainability? Don’t Sustain What We Do to Animals — End It

March 6, 2024

Pathways

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Ask Stanford to Never Again Buy Research Subjects from Abusive Dog Breeder

February 27, 2024

The demonstration highlighted the horrifying conditions in which Ridglan Farms confines thousands of beagles for experimentation... The action featured speeches from Stanford alumni and a former Stanford researcher.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Ask Stanford to Never Again Buy Research Subjects from Abusive Dog Breeder

February 27, 2024

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PRESS

Beagles Are Bred by the Thousands on Factory Farms, and It’s Perfectly Legal

February 14, 2024

Sentient Media

At Ridglan, [rescuer Eva] Hamer recalls, beagles were found confined not unlike chickens in the egg industry. “The size to body ratio is similar to a chicken farm,” she says, describing the size of the cages... Another similarity to factory farms, she adds, “is the smell, you can smell them from a mile away.” Yet, there was one thing quite different, even “bizarre,” Hamer adds: “Factory farms tend to be quiet at night. At the dog farm, everyone is howling, thousands of dogs, howling.”

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PRESS

Beagles Are Bred by the Thousands on Factory Farms, and It’s Perfectly Legal

February 14, 2024

Sentient Media

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Controversial Dog Rescue in Wisconsin Reveals Cruel UI Experiments

January 31, 2024

Daily Illini

We should ask ourselves what it means that the people who rescued the animal victims are on trial while the breeders and researchers abusing and killing them are let off with warnings at worst. It means that law enforcement agencies are actively upholding a system of violence.

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Controversial Dog Rescue in Wisconsin Reveals Cruel UI Experiments

January 31, 2024

Daily Illini

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TOP PRESS

A California Town Will Vote on Banning Factory Farms. What Does That Mean for the Rest of the US?

January 30, 2024

The Guardian

If successful in Berkeley, a liberal San Francisco Bay Area town that’s often been at the forefront of US environmental policy, the method can be replicated elsewhere, [activists] say. “We can pave the path to abolishing factory farming,” said Cassie King, an organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, one of the groups that pushed for the measure.

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TOP PRESS

A California Town Will Vote on Banning Factory Farms. What Does That Mean for the Rest of the US?

January 30, 2024

The Guardian

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PRESS

An Emerging Food Fight in California

January 29, 2024

Politico

Direct Action Everywhere and other organizations hoped for statewide action with a bill in 2022 but it never got out of committee. Their argument, then as now in Sonoma County, is that concentrated animal feeding operations are inhumane, bad for the environment and a potential threat to public health.

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PRESS

An Emerging Food Fight in California

January 29, 2024

Politico

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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

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

January 27, 2024

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PRESS

Animal Activist & Attorney Wayne Hsiung Appeals Conviction for Rescuing Sick Animals from Factory Farms

January 19, 2024

World Animal News

“Substantial prejudicial and reversible error occurred in Hsiung’s trial,” said Animal Activist Legal Defense Project Staff Attorney Chris Carraway, who will represent Hsiung on appeal. “Stunningly, Judge Passaglia prohibited the jury from knowing the full scope of animal cruelty at these companies, as well as the activists’ extensive efforts to obtain law enforcement of animal cruelty laws. Thus, Hsiung was unable to explain the intent behind his actions–a crucial element of the alleged crimes."

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PRESS

Animal Activist & Attorney Wayne Hsiung Appeals Conviction for Rescuing Sick Animals from Factory Farms

January 19, 2024

World Animal News

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

California Activist Gets Jail Time for Taking Chickens from Perdue Farms Plant

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.

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist to Serve Jail Time After ‘Chicken Rescue’ Conviction

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.

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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

UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist Found Guilty in ‘Chicken Rescue’ Trial

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.

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TOP PRESS

California Woman on Trial for Taking Chickens from Perdue Farms' Plant Says She Was Rescuing Them

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.

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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

Berkeley Grad’s Chicken ‘Rescue’ Trial Begins in Sonoma County with Question of Intent vs. Crime

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.

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TOP PRESS

How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists

June 3, 2025

Wired Magazine

Hundreds of emails and internal documents reviewed by WIRED reveal top lobbyists and representatives of America’s agricultural industry led a persistent and often covert campaign to surveil, discredit, and suppress animal rights organizations for nearly a decade, while relying on corporate spies to infiltrate meetings and functionally serve as an informant for the FBI.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Newcomer's Perspective

December 26, 2023

The Sonoma County Court's actions didn't stop me but, instead, spurred me to further action just as it did for many others.

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BLOG

I’m Facing over 20 Years in Prison for Rescuing Animals, But I Am Not Afraid

December 2, 2023

Whether I lose my freedom for days, weeks, months, or even years, it is worth it to give even one or two animals a chance to experience freedom for the first time in their entire lives.

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BLOG

A Baby Chicken Taught Me to Never Give Up Hope. His Name is Vincent.

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.

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BLOG

This Disabled Duck is at the Center of a Felony Case. His Name is Bruce.

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? 

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BLOG

Exposing Petaluma Poultry

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.

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BLOG

A Letter to the Editor Re: "Churchill Downs to Cease Racing as It Investigates Deaths of Horses"

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.

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BLOG

Free Speech under Attack in Rural America

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.

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BLOG

Cedar the Goat Shines a Light on the Dark Reality of 4-H and FFA

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.

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BLOG

Our 2023 Story

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.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Rally at UC Berkeley Demanding a Pardon for Student Animal Rescuer

January 23, 2026

UC Berkeley students, alumni, and local residents held a “Free Zoe” rally and march on the UC Berkeley campus on Friday, demanding the pardon of animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg, who is currently on house arrest.

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PRESS RELEASE

Judge Denies Trader Joe's Motion for Contempt Against Animal Rights Activists

January 12, 2026

He also denied Trader Joe’s request to restrict protesters’ use of amplified sound on public property outside their stores, writing, “prohibition on the use of sound amplification devices is an invalid infringement upon Defendants’ free speech rights.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rescuer to Begin House Arrest Tomorrow Following Solitary Confinement in Jail

January 12, 2026

Zoe Rosenberg will check in at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office tomorrow and get an ankle monitor put on before beginning her home detention

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Advocates Rally at Governor’s Office to Pardon Activist Jailed for Rescuing 4 Chickens

December 17, 2025

A representative for Governor Newsom’s office spoke with the activists rallying today and said the governor is aware of the petition and looking into it. She said, “We hope she’s ok,” acknowledging the danger Ms. Rosenberg faces in jail.

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists March Demanding the Release of Animal Rescuer from Jail

December 13, 2025

Zoe Rosenberg is jailed in Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility after being sentenced last week to 90 days in jail for rescuing four suffering chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Trader Joe’s Over Supplier Tied to Jailing of Animal Rescuer Zoe Rosenberg

December 6, 2025

Demonstrators urged the grocery chain to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry, with placards showing recent conditions of Petaluma Poultry operations

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rescuer Zoe Rosenberg Sentenced to 90 Days in Custody for Saving Chickens Worth $24

December 3, 2025

Today, animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg was sentenced to 90 days in custody for saving four chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. She will become eligible for jail alternatives for the final 60 days of her sentence.

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PRESS RELEASE

Joaquin Phoenix Condemns Prosecution of Animal Rescuer in Sonoma County, Calls for Prosecution of Animal Cruelty

November 24, 2025

Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix is urging the Sonoma County District Attorney to prosecute animal cruelty at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse, after her office has ignored repeated reports of documented animal cruelty at the company’s factory farms and slaughterhouse.

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Hold Vigil Outside Trader Joe's-Supplying Slaughterhouse in the Wake of Chicken Rescuer Conviction

November 8, 2025

DxE is calling for Petaluma Poultry to be prosecuted for scalding birds alive, citing that California’s animal cruelty law prohibits inflicting unnecessary cruelty on an animal.

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