Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
Media inquiry? Please email press@dxe.io.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
October 24, 2025
The Guardian
TOP PRESS
October 11, 2022
Democracy Now!
In a major victory for animal rights, a jury in Utah has acquitted two animal rights activists who each faced up to five and a half years of prison time for rescuing two sick piglets from Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms, one of the world’s largest pig farms.
TOP PRESS
October 11, 2022
Democracy Now!
PRESS
October 10, 2022
Salon
"State and federal authorities have consistently shielded factory farms from transparency and accountability," said attorney Matthew Strugar. "In nearly two decades of legal work, this case is one of the most egregious I've seen, in terms of denying defendants' constitutional right to a rigorous defense."
PRESS
October 10, 2022
Salon
PRESS RELEASE
October 9, 2022
Activists take on a multibillion-dollar industry -- and win.
PRESS RELEASE
October 9, 2022
Activists take on multi-billion dollar industry - and win
TOP PRESS
October 8, 2022
The Intercept
“Whenever I think about the condition Lily was in and the desperation we felt when we saw her there, struggling and so small and so sick, a little baby in such a horrible, awful, brutal place,” Hsiung said in a video posted to Instagram, “we just wanted to get her out.” Animal rescue “is not the worst part of us as human beings. It’s the best of us.”
TOP PRESS
October 8, 2022
The Intercept
PRESS
October 8, 2022
Salt Lake Tribune
Hsiung urged the jury to “make a decision of conscience,” saying it could lead to companies being more compassionate and governments being more open to animal cruelty complaints.
PRESS
October 8, 2022
Salt Lake Tribune
TOP PRESS
October 8, 2022
New York Times
Many animal welfare advocates viewed the trial as a display of corporate power, and a test of whether the meat industry can legally prevent the public from seeing the sometimes unsavory aspects of modern mass food production.
TOP PRESS
October 8, 2022
New York Times
PRESS
October 7, 2022
KSL News
The video created by the company, which directly shows Hsiung taking the pigs and talking about why he took them, was not allowed to be shown at the trial.
PRESS
October 7, 2022
KSL News
PRESS
October 6, 2022
Fox News
"There are a lot of things that are more important than a sporting event, including the animal exploitation and environmental degradation perpetrated by Smithfield Foods."
PRESS
October 6, 2022
Fox News
PRESS
October 5, 2022
Waging Nonviolence
More than 70 animal rights activists stood outside a courtroom in St. George, Utah, on Tuesday, holding up a giant image of Utah Attorney Gen. Sean Reyes. A word bubble hovered above his head saying, “I cover up animal cruelty.”
PRESS
October 5, 2022
Waging Nonviolence
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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?
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
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.
BLOG
February 1, 2023
Utah legislators with ties to the Farm Bureau released House Bill 114, “Theft Defense Amendments,” in direct response to the outcome of the Smithfield Trial.
BLOG
January 28, 2023
In the first-ever Bay Area Direct Action Skill Share (B.A.D.A.S.S.), starting March 25, a cross-movement cohort of 100 activists will unite in Oakland for 5 days of intensive direct action training.
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
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
PRESS RELEASE
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
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
November 5, 2025
Zoe Rosenberg spoke at the AG’s Office on Wednesday, saying, “Sonoma County’s District Attorney’s Office is not doing anything to address the criminal animal cruelty. Instead, they spent the last two years prosecuting me.”
PRESS RELEASE
October 29, 2025
At trial, the court severely limited what the jury was able to know about these prior findings at Petaluma Poultry, despite the fact that they heavily influenced Ms. Rosenberg’s belief that rescue was necessary.
PRESS RELEASE
September 20, 2025
"I believe Zoe did the right thing by taking sick animals to the vet," said Sharon Loren of Penngrove, who joined the march. "Compassion should never be a crime, but it's on trial here in Sonoma County."
