Breaking news and publications from Direct Action Everywhere.
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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
November 7, 2017
Mother Jones
TOP PRESS
November 1, 2017
The Intercept
TOP PRESS
October 5, 2017
The Intercept
TOP PRESS
September 14, 2017
The Washington Post
TOP PRESS
July 6, 2017
The New York Times
TOP PRESS
October 20, 2016
The Washington Post
While the hens are not in cages, the video shows them crowded together, covered in feces and blood, struggling to breathe and attacking and even eating one other.
TOP PRESS
January 8, 2015
The New York Times
An animal rights group released on Thursday a disturbing video of laying hens at a farm in Northern California that supplies eggs to Whole Foods and Organic Valley, among other retailers and distributors.
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 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
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.”
PRESS RELEASE
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.
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.
