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The Problem with "Humanely Raised" Poultry and Eggs

July 3, 2023

AlterNet

Investigations of alternative poultry and egg farms typically reveal practices and attitudes that do not meet consumer expectations—expectations that are cultivated not only by the companies and retailers they do business with but also by animal welfarists who employ “humane” farming language that glosses over the facts with nebulous assertions and omissions... More often than not, the difference between “humane” farms and factory farms is moot.

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PRESS

The Problem with "Humanely Raised" Poultry and Eggs

July 3, 2023

AlterNet

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BLOG

Exposing Petaluma Poultry

July 1, 2023

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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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PRESS

As A Vet, I Would Protect All Animals from Harm – But the Law Won’t Let Me

June 26, 2023

Plant-Based News

Animals, of any size or species, are not objects. You cannot put a price tag on their lives. They are individuals who feel fear, sadness, joy, and other emotions just like we do, and they deserve respect.

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PRESS

As A Vet, I Would Protect All Animals from Harm – But the Law Won’t Let Me

June 26, 2023

Plant-Based News

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Animal Cruelty Ignored

June 24, 2023

Press Democrat

"Not much has changed over the two administrations of Sonoma County district attorneys. They are continuing to retain charges against activists who originally exposed Petaluma Poultry for its animal cruelty."

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PRESS

Letter to the Editor: Animal Cruelty Ignored

June 24, 2023

Press Democrat

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PRESS

Des Sentences Suspendues et des Absolutions Conditionnelles pour les 11 Militants Véganes

June 20, 2023

La Presse

Translation: Suspended sentences and conditional discharges for the 11 vegan activists

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PRESS

Des Sentences Suspendues et des Absolutions Conditionnelles pour les 11 Militants Véganes

June 20, 2023

La Presse

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PRESS

"Raced to Death:" Golden Gate Fields Has Eighth Horse Death of Year

June 20, 2023

Daily Californian

A petition, led by the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere, to shut down the horse track has gained more than 39,000 signatures. “[The horses] are... forced to run until they are, one way or another, led to die,” said campus alumna Cassie King, organizer with Direct Action Everywhere.

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PRESS

"Raced to Death:" Golden Gate Fields Has Eighth Horse Death of Year

June 20, 2023

Daily Californian

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PRESS

Activists Target Petaluma Poultry

June 14, 2023

NorCal Public Media

"As somebody who has a disability myself," Rosenberg said. "I can't imagine what it's like to be an animal who's sick and disabled on the floor of one of these factory farms fighting for food and water, and so I wanna get those animals out and get them the care that they deserve."

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PRESS

Activists Target Petaluma Poultry

June 14, 2023

NorCal Public Media

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PRESS

Bay Area Activist Group Back at Petaluma Poultry Facility, Removes 18 Chickens It Says Reflect Cruel Conditions

June 13, 2023

Press Democrat

Representatives of Direct Action Everywhere, which claimed responsibility for the actions on social media Tuesday, made off with 18 chickens. Their actions, the latest in a series of similar events, are being investigated.

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PRESS

Bay Area Activist Group Back at Petaluma Poultry Facility, Removes 18 Chickens It Says Reflect Cruel Conditions

June 13, 2023

Press Democrat

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists, Dressed as Factory Workers, Take Chickens from Petaluma Poultry Facility

June 13, 2023

KTVU Fox Bay Area

The group said there have been documented instances of "birds collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to walk to food or water, left to slowly starve to death; birds with splayed legs; birds with open wounds."

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PRESS

Animal Rights Activists, Dressed as Factory Workers, Take Chickens from Petaluma Poultry Facility

June 13, 2023

KTVU Fox Bay Area

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Our Top Press Hits

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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TOP PRESS

How the FBI and Big Ag Started Treating Animal Rights Activists as Bioterrorists

June 2, 2025

The Intercept

“Animal rights and environmental groups have committed more acts of terrorism than Al Qaeda,” warned an FBI agent who met with Big Ag groups.

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TOP PRESS

This California Student Could Go to Prison for Taking Four Chickens. Was It a Crime or a ‘Rescue’?

May 1, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Just four months after she graduates on May 17 with a bachelor’s degree in social movement strategy, the straight-A student will stand trial in a Sonoma County courtroom for her June 2023 incursion into Petaluma Poultry, a processing facility owned by agribusiness giant Perdue Farms. If convicted for taking four chickens Perdue valued at around $24, she faces up to 5½ years in prison.

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TOP PRESS

These California and Colorado Ballot Measures Are Terrifying the Meat Industry

October 10, 2024

Vox

In principle, there’s a lot of sense in capping the size of factory farms. Measure J’s proponents are betting that progressive Sonoma County, better known for its tasting rooms than its slaughterhouses, can push California — and the nation — in that direction.

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TOP PRESS

Secret Recordings Capture the Ugly Reality Inside a Denver Slaughterhouse

October 9, 2024

The Intercept

Videos shared with The Intercept prior to the report’s public release show, among other scenes, lambs with their throats slit hanging upside down and thrashing on the slaughter line; one animal with an internal organ that has been torn inside-out and left dangling behind it as it heads to slaughter; injured lambs being led to slaughter; workers laughing, spanking animals, and engaging in simulated sex acts with nearby machinery as lambs are having their throats slit; and the apparent use of so-called Judas sheep — adult sheep kept alive at the facility and used to lead the young sheep to slaughter.

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TOP PRESS

Sonoma Loves Its Farms. Activists Call Them Factories. Could a Ballot Measure Upend This County?

August 30, 2024

San Francisco Chronicle

In dimly lit indoor aisles at Weber Family Farms in Petaluma, hundreds of thousands of white chickens live out their 90 weeks of life. They fly from perch to perch. They dust bathe in the bedding. They nip at water dispensers. They lay egg after egg. And they never leave. These barns are at the heart of a bitter fight that Mike Weber and Samantha Faye are waging for the future of local farming.

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TOP PRESS

Groups Seek to Ban Large-Scale Animal Farming in Sonoma County

April 4, 2024

Los Angeles Times

Lewis Bernier, an animal rights activist supporting the initiative, said he has visited several factory farms across the country, documenting inhumane treatment, and one farm in Sonoma County stands out as having “the worst and most systemic animal cruelty that I’ve ever seen.”

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TOP PRESS

An Animal-Rights Activist and the Problem of Political Despair

March 15, 2024

The New Yorker

Instead of planning actions, many activists now spend their time litigating microaggressions and small disputes within their ranks... As a response, [DxE co-founder Wayne] Hsiung has tried to promote a maxim of "braver spaces, not safer spaces," which encourages the animal rights community to put aside their individual concerns, if possible, and do things like risk felony jail time for the cause.

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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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DxE's Blog

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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BLOG

Zoe's Reflections from Jail on the Role of Repression

December 16, 2025

To some, my being here may look like losing. I don’t see it that way. I see it as a sign that we have come to be a real threat to companies like Perdue that make billions of dollars off the mistreatment of animals.

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BLOG

An Update from Zoe After Her First Days in Jail

December 15, 2025

Since my incarceration, lives have continued to be saved. On my first day in jail, two chickens were rescued from a slaughterhouse in Stockton, California. They've been named Josephine and Jasmine.

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BLOG

An Update from Zoe in Jail

December 11, 2025

My cell is small, but I can stand up and take a few steps. In many parts of the US, animals can legally be housed in such tight confinement that they can't even spread their limbs or turn around.

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BLOG

My Impending Incarceration and the Urgency of Animal Rescue

December 10, 2025

My prosecutors are hoping my jail sentence will scare you. They’re hoping you’ll consider rescuing an animal and then think of me and change your mind. No. Think of me if you will, but then do it.

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Our Press Releases

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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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Activists Protest Cruelty in CA Dairy Industry with Ten-Foot-Tall Milk Carton

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.

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PRESS RELEASE

VIDEO: Dozens Hold Vigil at CA’s Largest Calf-Raising Factory Farm, Following Exposé of Calf Abuse

February 21, 2026

Drone footage published this week at FactoryFarmWatch.org shows calves being thrown to the ground, dragged and shot in the head at Grimmius Cattle Company

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PRESS RELEASE

Map of California Factory Farms Exposes Hidden Supply Chains Behind “Humane” Labels

February 17, 2026

The first-of-its-kind map at FactoryFarmWatch.org is the most comprehensive single source of information on CA's 1300+ industrial animal farms

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PRESS RELEASE

Hours After Completing House Arrest, Activist Negotiates Rescue of Chicken from Slaughter

February 11, 2026

After completing both phases of her court-ordered detention for rescuing four birds from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse, animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg’s first course of action was to travel to a chicken slaughterhouse in Stockton.

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PRESS RELEASE

Judge Throws Out Perdue’s Claims in Lawsuit Against Animal Activists

February 6, 2026

Sonoma County Judge Jane Gaskell struck both causes of action brought by the national poultry giant Perdue Foods in a lawsuit against Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). Judge Gaskell also struck these causes of action for Perdue executive Scott Fitzpatrick. Perdue is now removed from the case and only two causes of action remain for Fitzpatrick.

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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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