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 14, 2024
Daily Californian
“In an effort to deflect their own responsibility and failure to protect animals (the prosecution is) really trying to make an example out of people like Ms. Rosenberg,” defense attorney Chris Carraway said. “As a result, they are throwing as many charges as they want in order to scare people from blowing the whistle.”
PRESS
May 14, 2024
Daily Californian
PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2024
Berkeley student in Perdue poultry case now faces 1 felony and 3 misdemeanors
PRESS
May 4, 2024
Davis Vanguard
“As Ms. Rosenberg’s years-long efforts to obtain enforcement of animal cruelty laws shows, prosecutors are more focused on silencing those who expose animal cruelty than stopping the cruelty itself,” said Chris Carraway, Rosenberg’s lawyer and a staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project.
PRESS
May 4, 2024
Davis Vanguard
BLOG
April 29, 2024
My findings show that “No Antibiotics Ever” just means that the chickens are still experiencing severe infection but they aren’t receiving the medication they desperately need. In one barn at a Petaluma Poultry factory farm in Santa Rosa, more than 10% of the chickens died by the time they reached 5 weeks. That is more than double the accepted industry mortality rate.
PRESS
April 29, 2024
Daily Californian
“The Associated Students of the University of California has recognized that nonhuman animals are sentient beings,” the resolution reads. “The act of investigating conditions of commercial animal operations and exposing abuses to the public and law enforcement is in the interests of both those individual animals and the public that cares about them.”
PRESS
April 29, 2024
Daily Californian
PRESS
April 19, 2024
Daily Californian
“I would say animal rights are the moral blindspot of our generation,” [ALDF co-director Taj] Uppal said. “Once we recognize that we can say, ‘Okay, this entire system is harmful — let’s transition to something that’s better and more ethical.’ ”
PRESS
April 19, 2024
Daily Californian
PRESS
April 18, 2024
Isthmus
The petition from [Wayne] Hsiung and Dane4Dogs, later amended to include more supporting testimonials from veterinarians and animal welfare groups, argues that the appointment of a special prosecutor is warranted “because of Ridglan Farms’ ongoing, flagrant criminal conduct; because the welfare of thousands of beagle victims depends upon it; and because the interests of justice and the rule of law require that no one, even a corporation in a powerful industry, is above the law.”
PRESS
April 18, 2024
Isthmus
PRESS
April 17, 2024
Press Democrat
When I rescued two neglected ducks from the Reichardt factory farm in Petaluma last year, I was arrested on felonies and called a terrorist. When Santa Rosa firefighters rescued ducklings from a storm drain, they were celebrated (“Santa Rosa firefighters save ducklings from storm drain,” pressdemocrat.com).
PRESS
April 4, 2024
Isthmus
Madison-based nonprofit Dane4Dogs and [former defendant] Wayne Hsiung... filed a petition to appoint a special prosecutor to charge the facility, Ridglan Farms, for what they said were violations of Wisconsin laws against animal abuse. “The facts presented in this petition…would unquestionably be criminal animal abuse if undertaken by an ordinary citizen,” reads the petition. “The question facing this court is whether, after years of governmental inaction, corporations also will be held accountable to the law.”
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 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.
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.
