Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
Media inquiry? Please email press@dxe.io.
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.
PRESS
May 1, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
PRESS
May 27, 2025
Fox 26 Fresno
Five activists a part of Direct Action Everywhere, were arrested for taking two sick baby goats from Meyenberg's Vera Goat Dairy in Stratford, police say. The members of the animal rights group rescued two sick baby goats from Vera Goat Dairy, a large operation supplying Meyenberg Dairy, the nation's leading goat milk producer. The goats showed signs of being sick with infections that affect breathing and sight.
PRESS
May 27, 2025
Fox 26 Fresno
PRESS
May 15, 2025
Sentient
In the preliminary hearing for Rosenberg’s case, Joerger acknowledged that Rosenberg had made allegations of animal cruelty, but stated that she did not investigate the matter. This inaction by law enforcement wasn’t an isolated incident. When the investigation at McCoy’s Poultry facility uncovered dead birds on the farm floor and others that were unable to move, Sonoma County Animal Services referred the matter to the county sheriff’s office for potential prosecution. But no prosecution followed then, either.
PRESS
May 15, 2025
Sentient
PRESS
May 14, 2025
Public News Service
An animal rights group filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from protests in front of the home of an executive for Perdue Foods. "Their lawsuit is a classic SLAPP suit, which stands for 'strategic lawsuit against public participation,' and is basically a way for wealthy corporations to shut down and silence activists through expensive litigation," King explained.
PRESS
May 14, 2025
Public News Service
PRESS RELEASE
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.
PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2025
PRESS
May 13, 2025
The Daily Californian
When I walk across the stage to graduate from UC Berkeley this month, an ankle monitor will track my every step. I am facing up to five and a half years in prison for rescuing four criminally abused chickens, Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. Throughout my four years of university, I’ve lived a double life. There have been many evenings where I have rushed home from school to gear up and prepare for a long, sleepless night of investigating factory farms and slaughterhouses.
PRESS RELEASE
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
PRESS RELEASE
May 4, 2025
PRESS
May 2, 2025
Press Democrat
The billboard, which went up in April along southbound Highway 101 near the East Washington Street exit in Petaluma, features an illustration of Zoe Rosenberg holding a chicken accompanied by the text: “Should she go to prison for rescuing a chicken?”
PRESS
May 2, 2025
Press Democrat
PRESS
May 2, 2025
KCRA 3
In one video shared by Direct Action Everywhere, Rosenberg is seen crouching on dirt while holding a chicken with another chicken lying in front of her. It is not the first time Rosenberg has participated in what she and Berkeley-based organization Direct Action Everywhere call an "open rescue." Before taking the chickens, Direct Action Everywhere investigated Petaluma Poultry, and Rosenberg said she tried to report animal abuse to Sonoma County law enforcement.
PRESS
May 2, 2025
KCRA 3
PRESS
April 18, 2025
Our Hen House
Despite facing harsh pretrial conditions, including an ankle monitor and travel restrictions, Zoe remains steadfast in her commitment to the power of open rescue and animal rights activism.
PRESS
April 18, 2025
Our Hen House
TOP PRESS
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...
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.
TOP PRESS
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.”
TOP PRESS
March 9, 2023
LA Times
“We published this video within an hour with both my name and Alicia Santurio’s name attached to it because we believe what we’re doing is legal and morally right,” Paul said in an interview with The Times.
TOP PRESS
February 14, 2023
New York Times
In any context other than factory farming, treating animals the way we see chickens treated in the Foster Farms slaughterhouse videos would be considered blatant cruelty. Many would also consider it cruel to stand by while someone else handled animals this way. “If there’s someone in my neighborhood watching me boil birds alive, we’d say this is monstrous behavior,” Wayne Hsiung, a founder of DxE, told me.
TOP PRESS
February 9, 2023
San Francisco Chronicle
The message the pigs conveyed in the gas chamber footage is clear: They are in extreme pain, and they want to live. You don’t need the Agriculture Department to tell you that. You can see and hear it for yourself.
TOP PRESS
February 2, 2023
New York Times
“It was horrible cruelty to the pigs inside the chambers,” Jim Reynolds told me. “It’s a violation of federal law.” Reynolds is one of 90 veterinarians who signed an open letter saying that the process shown in the videos probably violates federal law on humane slaughter.
PRESS RELEASE
October 1, 2020
Arrestees include photographers and videographers, as well as activists who chained themselves to the building
PRESS RELEASE
August 25, 2020
PRESS RELEASE
August 7, 2020
Smithfield faces nuisance lawsuit judgements totaling hundreds of millions for waste pollution sprayed disproportionately on communities of color
PRESS RELEASE
July 14, 2020
Rotting pig carcasses are seen being fed on by wild animals after workers cut infected flesh out of carcasses before selling them for human consumption
PRESS RELEASE
July 3, 2020
Activists say proposal for partial divestment doesn’t go far enough
PRESS RELEASE
June 23, 2020
Factory farm investigator alleges improper connections between Smithfield Inc. and Utah Attorney General
PRESS RELEASE
June 5, 2020
Twelve activists now face charges, including felonies, as campaign seeks industry-wide ban
PRESS RELEASE
April 15, 2020
Protesters of Smithfield slaughterhouses and vendors say it undermines the well-being of employees, animals, whistleblowers and the public
PRESS RELEASE
March 5, 2020
Organizers now planning major demonstrations with 1000+ #LetDairyDie activists, calling on supporters nationwide to join
