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Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.

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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

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

July 31, 2022

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PRESS

Activists Protest Foster City's Plan to Kill 100 Geese Over Poop Problem, Health Risk

July 25, 2022

NBC Bay Area

Animal rights activists are not giving up in a fight to stop the killing of 100 geese on the Peninsula.

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PRESS

Activists Protest Foster City's Plan to Kill 100 Geese Over Poop Problem, Health Risk

July 25, 2022

NBC Bay Area

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BLOG

On the Anniversary of Unseen, We Came to Bear Witness

July 21, 2022

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BLOG

On the Anniversary of Unseen, We Came to Bear Witness

July 21, 2022

Activists gathered for a vigil exactly two years after the release of Unseen, a documentary that exposed the horrors inside Yosemite Foods, a slaughterhouse in Stockton, California, that kills 2,000 pigs every day.

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BLOG

What I learned from saving Chester – then watching him die

July 19, 2022

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BLOG

What I learned from saving Chester – then watching him die

July 19, 2022

DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung recently shared the story of a very sick pig who was rescued from Farmer John. This is an excerpt from his Substack blog, The Simple Heart.

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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

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

July 14, 2022

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PRESS

A Bird Flu Depopulation Method So Cruel, Veterinarians Yell Foul

July 8, 2022

CounterPunch

A VSD occurrence at Rembrandt Farms in Rembrandt, Iowa is particularly troubling says Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) who did the onsite investigation.

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PRESS

A Bird Flu Depopulation Method So Cruel, Veterinarians Yell Foul

July 8, 2022

CounterPunch

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PRESS

Joey Chestnut 'felt bad' after putting hot dog eating contest protester in chokehold

July 5, 2022

USA Today

"Protesters wore masks of Star Wars' "stormtroopers" and of Darth Vader and displayed “Expose Smithfield’s Deathstar’’ signs. The ‘Deathstar’ reference compares the villainous megaweapon from the Star Wars film series to the largest factory pig farm in the country, Smithfield Foods’ Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah."

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PRESS

Joey Chestnut 'felt bad' after putting hot dog eating contest protester in chokehold

July 5, 2022

USA Today

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PRESS

Joey Chestnut eats 63 hotdogs — and takes down a protester

July 5, 2022

Deseret News

The “Smithfield Deathstar” sign was specifically referencing “Operation Deathstar” in 2017, when activists from the California-based Direction Action Everywhere sneaked onto a Smithfield farm in Utah’s Beaver County to document the treatment of the pigs.

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PRESS

Joey Chestnut eats 63 hotdogs — and takes down a protester

July 5, 2022

Deseret News

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BLOG

Why I Disrupted Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 5, 2022

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BLOG

Why I Disrupted Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 5, 2022

Our signs read “Expose Smithfield’s Deathstar” referring to Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, the largest pig farm in the country. While many criticized the tackiness and absurdity of the action, it garnered much needed media attention.

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

Protests Are Wrong Until They’re Right

April 28, 2022

New York Magazine

Protests are often unpopular, but as this article shows, in the end, they tend to be right.

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TOP PRESS

Amid Bird Flu Outbreak, Meat Producers Seek “Ventilation Shutdown” for Mass Chicken Killing

April 14, 2022

The Intercept

DxE documented video footage of the depopulation at Rembrandt Enterprises, demonstrating the brutal reality of VSD and the true toll of our broken "food" system.

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TOP PRESS

My first job was slitting the throats of chickens at a slaughterhouse. It changed me forever

March 22, 2022

San Francisco Chronicle

Compelling testimony by a former slaughterhouse worker who is now a member of DxE's core organizing team.

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TOP PRESS

Why the Anti-Factory Farming Movement Needs Direct Action

March 14, 2022

Current Affairs

DxE activists are showing that anyone can, if they give themselves permission, start creating the world they want to live in.

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TOP PRESS

Animal Rights Activists Rescued Two Piglets From Slaughter. They Wanted to Get Caught.

February 23, 2022

The New Republic

DxE investigators are pressing for a trial they hope will go down as a pivotal moment in the history of the animal rights movement.

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TOP PRESS

Prosecutors Silence Evidence of Cruel Factory Farm Practices in Animal Rights Cases

January 30, 2022

The Intercept

The government wants to keep juries from seeing gruesome evidence of animals in distress, demonstrating yet again the massive power corporations wield in our current system.

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TOP PRESS

An animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed?

January 23, 2022

The Guardian

DxE's investigation of ventilation shutdown is probably the most important investigation in more than a decade, said Justin Marceau, an animal law scholar and professor at the University of Denver.

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TOP PRESS

Compassion Is Not a Crime: Animal Rights Activist Avoids Jail After Conviction for Baby Goat Rescue

December 8, 2021

Democracy Now!

In conversation with host Amy Goodman, DxE investigator Wayne Hsiung asks “Are the living creatures of this Earth property, or are they living creatures that deserve some form of dignity and respect?”

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TOP PRESS

A US activist took a sick goat from a meat farm – now he faces seven years in jail

December 6, 2021

The Guardian

This case is about smashing the myth of benevolent small-scale farms, which may talk of free-range and happy animals, but still ultimately treat animals as property and slaughter them for profit.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Inspiring Stories from 2022, Part 3

January 13, 2023

DxE Korea is unstoppable; disrupting the NBA playoffs gets people talking (and not just about sports); and a landmark verdict for the Right to Rescue

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BLOG

Inspiring Stories from 2022, Part 2

January 11, 2023

Keeping sanctuary animals safe; activists who saved chickens demand a date with the justice system; and Charlie, a piglet whose story touched thousands

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BLOG

Inspiring Stories from 2022, Part 1

January 10, 2023

Read how Dora saved herself, how "No More Factory Farms" was introduced as legislation in California, and why two brand-new activists decided to get loud for animal rights

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BLOG

Not Guilty by Reason of Humanity

December 13, 2022

The feeling of hearing those words “not guilty” after five long years of the uncertainty and judicial bureaucracy was indescribable. But mostly I felt proud. Proud of the jury, our legal team, and Direct Action Everywhere.

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BLOG

Court Update: The #SonomaTrial Is Finally on the Horizon

December 6, 2022

Preliminary hearings finally happened for Rachel and Jon. The prosecution argued that they were "co-conspirators" in the 2018 and 2019 rescues at Sonoma County factory farms. Judge Urioste agreed to send the case to trial on felony charges.

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BLOG

True Crime Stories: I Was Arrested for Filming a Protest

November 30, 2022

Corporations seem more concerned with shielding the practices of their suppliers from the public than with the cruelty and disease documented in those farms. They know that the public would be horrified if they saw the truth. But what these corporations don’t understand is that repression often makes movements stronger. I’m not going to stop talking about what happens to animals, and I’m not going to stop documenting protests.

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BLOG

DxE at the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit

November 24, 2022

Back in October, DxE's Lead Organizer Almira Tanner spoke at the inaugural AVA Summit. Check out her talk: Building a Mass Movement for Animals.

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BLOG

Three Lessons from the Smithfield Trial

November 7, 2022

Do your homework, get feedback, and find the simple story.

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BLOG

Social justice organizations unite to fight devastating ruling on California’s anti-SLAPP statute

September 20, 2022

Today, a coalition of advocacy groups filed an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court in support of this case, written by the First Amendment Coalition and signed by Greenpeace USA, ACLU of Northern California, Amazon Watch, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and many more.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS

VIDEO: Animal Activists Disrupt CA Poultry Federation Board Meeting, Present Award for "Biggest Animal Abuser"

June 10, 2025

Animal rights activists with DxE disrupted multiple events at the Summer Board Meeting of the California Poultry Federation, a trade association representing commercial chicken and turkey producers across the state. Among CPF's twenty board members are three executives from Petaluma Poultry, the California subsidiary of national poultry giant Perdue Foods, where DxE investigators have documented widespread violations of animal cruelty laws since 2018.

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PRESS RELEASE

Judge Refuses to Gag Animal Rescuer

June 4, 2025

Describing the requested gag order as “overbroad and vague by any constitutional standard,” Judge Gnoss noted that Ms. Rosenberg’s critics, too, had participated in public discussion about her case, pointing by way of example to a statement by Bill Mattos, President of the California Poultry Federation, describing Ms. Rosenberg’s rescue of four chickens as a “terrorist act.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Five Activists Arrested after Rescuing Sick Baby Goats, Confronting Authorities at Whole Foods-Supplying Goat Dairy Recently Exposed for Violations Including a Massive Dead Pile

May 27, 2025

Tuesday's rescue follows a months-long investigation into Vera Goat Dairy by DxE earlier this year, which found that dozens of dead mother and baby goats are regularly dumped into an illegal dead pile on the property, indicating that the operation is experiencing high rates of mortality.

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PRESS RELEASE

Hundreds March in Petaluma in Support of Animal Liberation

May 24, 2025

Approximately 200 activists with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) marched through downtown Petaluma Saturday afternoon in support of animal liberation and the right to rescue animals from abuse. They began at Penry Park and weaved through downtown including past diners at restaurants along the riverfront. Along the way, they chanted, delivered speeches, and handed out educational information to the public about Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse.

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Protest at District Attorney’s House, Disrupt Parade; Week of Action Against Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry is Underway

May 19, 2025

Over the weekend, animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) held protests across Sonoma County to elevate animal cruelty at Petaluma Poultry, a subsidiary of national poultry giant Perdue Foods. On Sunday, they delivered their message to Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez with a protest outside her home in Windsor, urging her to finally prosecute Petaluma Poultry for documented criminal animal cruelty.

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Group Files Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss Perdue Lawsuit Against Free Speech

May 13, 2025

Free speech experts say that Perdue’s lawsuit is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP suit, intended to silence activists, burden them with legal fees, and intimidate them from protesting. California's anti-SLAPP statute was passed to enable defendants to quickly dismiss meritless lawsuits targeting protected activities.

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Disrupt Trader Joe's in Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Part of Nationwide Weekend of Action

May 4, 2025

Direct Action Everywhere activists protest dozens of Trader Joe’s stores across the country asking the retailer to cut ties with Perdue’s California subsidiary, Petaluma Poultry, given documented animal abuse

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Disrupt Oakland Trader Joe's Over Sale of Chickens from Perdue Farms

March 29, 2025

“I want to know why Trader Joe’s is continuing to support Perdue’s animal cruelty and endangering consumers,” said Conrad de Jesus, an Oakland resident who participated in the protest. “They’ve seen the evidence of sick and injured animals languishing without medical care at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry. It’s time they cut ties with this awful company.”

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PRESS RELEASE

Dozens Protest at Home of Perdue Slaughterhouse Director

March 22, 2025

A handful of counter-protesters showed up with a Trump flag and a cardboard sign reading “Eat chicken.” They heckled the speakers and disrupted photos by standing in front of the photographers.

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