Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
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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
PRESS RELEASE
July 23, 2025
Scott Fitzpatrick, Live Production Manager for national poultry giant Perdue Foods, filed a lawsuit Tuesday to stop public protests by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) over documented animal cruelty.
PRESS RELEASE
July 23, 2025
PRESS
July 19, 2025
The Daily Californian
According to DxE lead organizer Almira Tanner, another lawsuit defendant, a 2023 DxE investigation into the Petaluma Poultry plant alleged that there were chickens that were severely sick and unable to get food or water. Additionally, the investigation claimed that there are decomposing animals in the facilities, diseased birds and inhumane slaughterhouse practices.
PRESS
July 19, 2025
The Daily Californian
PRESS
July 16, 2025
Hoodline
Picture this: you're trying to buy organic chicken for dinner, and suddenly there are protesters with megaphones asking you to reconsider your protein choices. That's been the reality at Trader Joe's locations across California
PRESS
July 16, 2025
Hoodline
PRESS
July 15, 2025
ABC 30 Fresno
They are asking the District Attorney's Office to investigate conditions at Vera Goat Dairy in Stratford after a disturbing discovery the group says they made earlier this year. "Dead mother and baby goats are being thrown out like garbage in an illegal dead pile. We have documented Vera Dairy and have found these sick animals being neglected, denied medical care, being left to die," Direct Action Everywhere organizer Cassie King says.
PRESS
July 15, 2025
ABC 30 Fresno
PRESS
July 14, 2025
The Press Democrat
“We brought this to Trader Joe’s, but instead of listening, they blocked us, refused all dialogue, and hired powerful attorneys to try to shut us up,” Cabral said in a statement. “Customers have made it clear — they don’t want to be lied to. They want ethical products they can trust. So why won’t Trader Joe’s live up to the values they claim to hold?”
PRESS
July 14, 2025
The Press Democrat
PRESS
July 14, 2025
Pleasanton Weekly
On July 2, a group of roughly 20 activists associated with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere occupied the original Trader Joe’s store located at 610 S. Arroyo Pkwy. in Pasadena. The group held banners and signs while delivering speeches in front of the poultry section of the store and the checkout aisle alleging how Petaluma Poultry — a food manufacturing company based in Petaluma — has systematically abused animals in its factory farms and slaughterhouse.
PRESS
July 14, 2025
Pleasanton Weekly
PRESS
July 9, 2025
ABC7 Bay Area
"This is an attack on California that could hurt everyone in the country, including millions and millions of animals who are living in these facilities and already have so few protections," King said.
PRESS
July 9, 2025
ABC7 Bay Area
PRESS
July 9, 2025
SF Gate
“It is absurd that I’m being charged with felony vandalism,” Kandada said in the DxE’s July 3 news release. “The refrigerator is perfectly fine, my hand is fine, but the chickens are not fine.”
PRESS
July 9, 2025
SF Gate
BLOG
July 9, 2025
Judge Gnoss’s ruling is simply another disturbing reminder that our legal system values money over living, breathing beings with personalities, thoughts and feelings.
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
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
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.
BLOG
July 9, 2025
Judge Gnoss’s ruling is simply another disturbing reminder that our legal system values money over living, breathing beings with personalities, thoughts and feelings.
BLOG
July 6, 2025
From daring rescues and major investigations to powerful protests, media coverage, and critical courtroom battles, we’ve been pushing the fight for animal liberation forward. Here’s a look at what we made happen this past quarter.
BLOG
April 17, 2025
The resistance of 2025 might not look like the resistance of 2017. That’s okay. In fact, sociologist Doug McAdam has demonstrated that tactical innovation was critical for the continued success of the civil rights movement. As organizers introduced new tactics, movement activity (‘insurgency’) rose dramatically.
BLOG
April 5, 2025
Perdue's legal complaint is riddled with false accusations meant to malign nonviolent activists and keep the attention off its abuse of animals.
BLOG
March 6, 2025
We have already begun to develop a large, trained, and coordinated network of chapters across the state, and to create a factory farm map and resource guide that will become the go-to source for information about industrialized animal agriculture in California.
BLOG
December 29, 2024
The silver lining of repression is that it gives movements the opportunity to prove how strong they are. While the past year has been hard, I feel incredibly grateful for all of the ways the animal rights movement has grown and persevered.
BLOG
December 12, 2024
“Do we have factory farms in Berkeley?” was a common response I got when collecting signatures. I explain that we want to prevent another animal gambling operation from opening up in Golden Gate Fields’ absence. Plus, Berkeley can be the first municipality to ban CAFOs and set a precedent that other places can follow. Berkeley voters understood. They signed the petition, and this November, they voted yes. Measure DD passed with 62% “YES” votes, making history for animal and environmental protection.
BLOG
September 10, 2024
If people do not believe that they can change a situation, they will never act to do so. If we do not believe that animal liberation is possible and that we can make it happen, it never will. In fact, animal agriculture and other unjust systems rely on our hopelessness and cynicism.
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 RELEASE
March 20, 2025
“I’m appalled that Trader Joe’s would continue to knowingly sell abused animals,” said Sally Zito of Los Angeles, who joined today’s protest in Monrovia. “I have delivered letters and I’ve called corporate headquarters and asked to talk to Trader Joe’s buyers, and they denied this request. They are putting their profits over the lives of animals.”
PRESS RELEASE
March 15, 2025
The protest spotlighted the zoonotic pathogens found at Petaluma Poultry, including salmonella, campylobacter, antibiotic-resistant Enterococcus, and Clostridium perfringens. Two protestors wore the type of biosecurity suits that are required for investigations and held yellow caution tape in front of the store’s meat section, which contains chickens slaughtered at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse
PRESS RELEASE
March 3, 2025
“If Ms. Rosenberg had rescued a drowning dog from a neighbor’s pool, she would be applauded, not prosecuted,” said Mr. Carraway. “The fact is, California law does not distinguish between rescuing a dog from a pool and rescuing sick and injured chickens from a slaughterhouse. Those who profit off animal agriculture may not like it, but that is the law.”
PRESS RELEASE
March 1, 2025
Outside the store, protestors set up a “human meat” display with an activist covered in fake blood and lying on a tray wrapped in plastic to represent the abused chickens whose plastic-wrapped bodies are sold at Trader Joe’s.
PRESS RELEASE
February 15, 2025
Protestors displayed a giant Elon Musk head with a speech bubble reading “I TORTURE MONKEYS.” With some activists dressed as monkeys inside cages, others held signs reading “Primates are not prototypes.” Several Bay Area residents, including a former animal experimenter, gave speeches condemning the cruelty and ineffectiveness of animal testing.
PRESS RELEASE
February 2, 2025
On Saturday evening, animal rights activists disrupted the dinner service at the upscale restaurant Playa Mill Valley in Marin County, asking the restaurant to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry due to documented animal cruelty.
PRESS RELEASE
January 29, 2025
Jason Arnold, Director of Operations for Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse, ignored activists’ requests for a meeting regarding documented criminal animal cruelty at the slaughterhouse
PRESS RELEASE
December 14, 2024
Activists covered in fake blood lay down on a giant “plate” to bring attention to the violence behind serving dead animals as food during the holidays. Protestors also called on Safeway to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry, where undercover investigations have exposed sick and injured animals left without care.
PRESS RELEASE
November 12, 2024
A coalition of groups, including the Berkeley-based animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and Compassionate Bay, led the effort to gather the signatures to get this CAFO ban on the ballot.
