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Free Speech under Attack in Rural America

May 23, 2023

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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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PRESS

Injured Horse Euthanized at Golden Gate Fields; 8th Horse to Die at Track in 2023

May 22, 2023

CBS Bay Area

"No legitimate sport would tolerate the deaths of 28 of its athletes in 20 weeks in just one state," said Martha Sullivan of the organization Kill Racing Not Horses.

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PRESS

Injured Horse Euthanized at Golden Gate Fields; 8th Horse to Die at Track in 2023

May 22, 2023

CBS Bay Area

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PRESS

Animal Activist Appealing Pioneer Day Trespassing Guilty Verdict in Beaver County

May 21, 2023

St. George News

Vollmar, who is part of an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit against Beaver County and several sheriff’s deputies, says his First Amendment rights were violated when he was interrogated by deputies at the Pioneer Day event last July 23.

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PRESS

Animal Activist Appealing Pioneer Day Trespassing Guilty Verdict in Beaver County

May 21, 2023

St. George News

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PRESS

Activists Put Spotlight on Treatment of Dogs at Dane County Research Facility

May 14, 2023

Seehafer News

“After sometimes months or years of confinement that drives many of them to insanity, they’re subjected to experiments that are so nightmarish that they’re hard for people to believe are true,” [activist Wayne] Hsiung contended.

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PRESS

Activists Put Spotlight on Treatment of Dogs at Dane County Research Facility

May 14, 2023

Seehafer News

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PRESS

The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Prop 12 is a Win against Factory Farming. But the Pigs’ Lives Will Still Suck.

May 12, 2023

Vox

Now, the U.S. animal movement has the opportunity to further empower ordinary citizens to make decisions about animal treatment democratically, rather than letting corporations decide what counts as animal cruelty.

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PRESS

The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Prop 12 is a Win against Factory Farming. But the Pigs’ Lives Will Still Suck.

May 12, 2023

Vox

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PRESS

Petaluma Animal Rights Activists Still Don’t Know When They’re Going to Trial

May 10, 2023

Press Democrat

“I’m looking forward to my day in court, because I believe people in Sonoma County want animals to be protected, not tortured,” said [Wayne] Hsiung, who’s representing himself.

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PRESS

Petaluma Animal Rights Activists Still Don’t Know When They’re Going to Trial

May 10, 2023

Press Democrat

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PRESS

Opinion: Costco Must Take Accountability for Animal Cruelty at Its Suppliers, Instead of Suing Us for Protesting

May 10, 2023

Veg World Magazine

Costco wants to push us away and restrict our activity as much as possible to prevent customers from seeing the horrors that happen at its suppliers.

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PRESS

Opinion: Costco Must Take Accountability for Animal Cruelty at Its Suppliers, Instead of Suing Us for Protesting

May 10, 2023

Veg World Magazine

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BLOG

Growing Support for the Right to Rescue

May 5, 2023

When we come together in person to take action, we are unstoppable. History has shown this. And Sebastopol passing a Right to Rescue resolution, and condemning their own District Attorney for ignoring animal cruelty and prosecuting animal rescuers, is just the latest example.

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BLOG

Growing Support for the Right to Rescue

May 5, 2023

When we come together in person to take action, we are unstoppable. History has shown this. And Sebastopol passing a Right to Rescue resolution, and condemning their own District Attorney for ignoring animal cruelty and prosecuting animal rescuers, is just the latest example.

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PRESS RELEASE

NY Congresswoman Calls on FBI to Investigate Animal Rescue

May 5, 2023

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney wants federal funds used to surveil people who support rescuing animals in distress.

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PRESS RELEASE

NY Congresswoman Calls on FBI to Investigate Animal Rescue

May 5, 2023

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Our Top Press Hits

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

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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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 7: Oct 27th-29th 2025

October 27, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 7 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 6: Oct 20th-24th, 2025

October 20, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 6 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 5: Oct 13th-17th, 2025

October 13, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 5 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 4: Oct 6th-10th, 2025

October 6, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 4 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 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 - Pre-Trial Updates

September 12, 2025

The Perdue Rescue Trial begins on Monday, September 15th at the Sonoma County Superior Court in Santa Rosa, California.

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BLOG

Trader Joe’s Is Suing Me to Keep You in the Dark

July 31, 2025

Trader Joe’s is known as “America’s most reputable brand,” and I’m learning firsthand that this might be because they relentlessly silence their critics and go to great lengths to protect their image from public scrutiny.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

Monday Night Football Disrupted by Activists on Field, Highlighting “Landmark” Piglet Rescuer Trial That Began Today

October 3, 2022

Two men face 10+ years in prison in a case decried by legal experts as unconstitutional retaliation for exposing abusive conditions

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PRESS RELEASE

Dozens of Activists Hang Massive 200-Foot Banner from Bay Trail Pedestrian Bridge

September 24, 2022

The demonstration is the kickoff for a week of action dedicated to promoting Rose’s Law, an animal bill of rights that DxE says is their ultimate vision of a kind and just world for animals.

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PRESS RELEASE

“I COVER UP ANIMAL CRUELTY!” Protesters Erect Giant Head of Utah AG Sean Reyes Ahead of Prominent “Right to Rescue” Trial

September 9, 2022

"This is really about inverting the truth: making peaceful activists look dangerous, when the real danger is Smithfield and other companies that systematically torture millions of innocent sentient beings while destroying our environment."

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PRESS RELEASE

Bills-Rams Game Disrupted as Animal Activists Run on Field, Deploy Smoke Flares Ahead of Piglet Rescuer Trial

September 8, 2022

Emek Echo and Katia Shokrai ran across the field holding up red smoke flares and wearing shirts with “RIGHTTORESCUE.COM” text.

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PRESS RELEASE

Utah Judge Changes Venue in Piglet Rescuers’ Trial, After Canvassers Face Death Threats

August 20, 2022

Judge Wilcox repeatedly expressed concerns about advocates potentially intimidating local residents. This is contrary to recent footage and a lawsuit in which it is canvassers supporting Hsiung and Picklesimer who faced death threats and were forced to stop talking to sidewalk pedestrians.

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PRESS RELEASE

SF Giants MLB Game DISRUPTED By Animal Activists in YODA and DARTH VADER Costumes

July 31, 2022

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PRESS RELEASE

Supporters at “Vigil at Yosemiteville Horror” Event to Comfort Pigs Outside Slaughterhouse

July 14, 2022

Animal rights advocates gathered to mark the two-year anniversary of the release of Unseen, an undercover mini-documentary exposing extreme cruelty inside this facility, and to bear witness and spread compassion for its victims.

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PRESS RELEASE

Joey Chestnut HEADLOCKS Animal Activist in Darth Vader Costume During Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 4, 2022

Investigators with same animal rights group face felony trial in September after rescuing piglets from a Smithfield Foods factory pig farm

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PRESS RELEASE

After Judge Rules to Exclude Animal Cruelty Evidence In Trial, Bay Area Felony Defendants March with Photos from Farm

June 18, 2022

Over 70 activists, including two Bay Area residents facing felony charges for rescuing piglets from a Smithfield factory farm in Milford, Utah, marched through the streets of San Francisco Saturday.

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