Dora had probably never been treated with kindness by a human, yet she must have sensed something different when investigators with Direct Action Everywhere came into the barn where she was imprisoned. She must have been holding onto some feeling like hope, because as one of these investigators, whose name is Alicia, passed by her open cage, Dora jumped onto Alicia’s backpack – and stayed! She did the whole investigation with Alicia and came out with her too.

Investigators found Georgie, a little turkey chick, stuck on her back on the floor of a Foster Farms turkey facility in California. She had an infected eye and she was surrounded by dead baby turkeys, including chicks whose brains and eyes had been eaten out by insect larvae. They rescued Georgie and gave her round-the-clock care, but it wasn’t enough. After a few days, she died. A necropsy report from UC Davis found that she had a deadly yolk sac infection called omphalitis caused by E. coli bacteria, likely due to fecal contamination. In the midst of a nationwide turkey shortage caused by the avian influenza, we are calling attention to the unsanitary conditions that help facilitate the spread of pandemics in modern poultry farms.

DxE Montreal pulled off a daring open rescue at Marvid slaughterhouse, where some activists stopped a slaughter truck while others ran to the back of the truck, climbed to the top, and pulled a chicken out to carry her to safety. They named her Avril.

While driving through Iowa, a group of DxE activists found a tiny piglet, Charlie, still alive, slowly freezing to death in a “dead pile" outside of a farm. They rushed him to the vet and did everything they could to save his life. He was able to feel warmth and love for three days until he passed away from his injuries. Charlie’s story was shared in The Guardian’s ongoing coverage of US agricultural practices that are illegal elsewhere and in an article on direct action in Current Affairs.

During the 2021 Animal Liberation Conference, activists locked down at the largest chicken slaughterhouse in California, and while they were stopping traffic, another team of activists pulled birds from a stalled slaughter truck. A second rescue team carried birds out from inside the slaughterhouse, and a third team went to a nearby Foster Farms factory farm to save more lives. In total, 14 individuals were rescued and went to sanctuary where they got to experience fresh air and grass for the first time.

UC Berkeley student Zoe Rosenberg led an investigation into one of the university's main suppliers and the largest "meat" producer in the world, Tyson Foods. Inside the company's farms, investigators found thousands of babies struggling to walk and dead birds covered in flies. They rescued two chickens and brought them to sanctuary.