 | |
| Abbreviation | DxE |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2013 |
| Purpose | Animal rights |
| Headquarters | Berkeley, CA |
| Website | directactioneverywhere.com |
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is an international grassroots network of animal rights activists founded in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area. DxE activists started with disruptive protests but now also use non-violent direct action tactics to further their cause, such as open rescue of animals from farms and other facilities and community building. Their intent is to build a movement that can eventually shift culture and change social and political institutions. DxE activists work for "total animal liberation" and the creation of a law requiring "species equality."
DxE protest at Whole Foods Market
History
Founding
DxE
was founded in 2013 by a handful of people in the San Francisco Bay
Area who decided to protest inside restaurants and stores, rather than
outside, which was more typical of animal rights protests. DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung had been investigating slaughterhouses for ten years prior to founding DxE with the goal of scaling up open rescue and other forms of non-violent direct action.
DxE's first action occurred in January 2013. Six activists demonstrated in front of a meat counter at a Sprouts Farmers Market,
contending that the items being sold there behind the counter were not
food but "the torment and suffering of billions of our friends in
factory farms and slaughterhouses."
Growth
DxE continued organizing protests inside restaurants and stores, citing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and ACT UP as influences. In August 2013, DxE activists organized the Los Angeles side of an international multi-city protest, The Earthlings March. Approximately 40 cities and varied activist groups participated in the march.
In October 2013, in response to a viral video produced by Chipotle called The Scarecrow, DxE organized in-store “die-ins” at three San Francisco Chipotle restaurants.
DxE argued that the ad, which advertised Chipotle’s purported efforts
to create a more natural and humane food system was “humanewashing,”
which animal rights activists describe as marketing efforts intended to
disguise the inherent violence of using and killing animals for food.
Within a few weeks, copycat demonstrations were executed in Chicago,
Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia. DxE responded by creating a
platform for coordinated global days of action under the “It’s Not Food,
It’s Violence” message.
DxE has continued with internationally coordinated monthly days
of action. In addition to Chipotle, activists have also targeted other
grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, zoos, circuses, and labs.
The original actions were organized around the San Francisco Bay Area.
By December 2014, DxE's network had grown to at least 90 cities in 20
countries.
DxE hosts an annual Animal Liberation Conference (ALC) for grassroots, peaceful animal rights activists. The ALC is a full week of talks, trainings, and socials all aimed at empowering activists.
Whole Foods campaign
Beginning
in the summer of 2013, DxE activists Wayne Hsiung, Chris Van Breen,
Priya Sawhney, Brian Burns, and Ronnie Rose began an investigation with
an aim to start DxE’s Open Rescue Network. DxE selected U.S.-based natural foods grocery store Whole Foods Market
as the target of the investigation because the company is allegedly
“actively shaping the public’s view of animal agriculture with false
marketing.”
The activists selected Certified Humane Whole Foods egg supplier
Petaluma Farms in Petaluma, California as the target of the initial
investigation.
At one point, activists encountered a diseased hen who had collapsed
and was struggling to breathe and removed her from the farm. They named
her Mei Hua (Chinese for “beautiful flower”) and made her recovery a
centerpiece of the ensuing campaign and imagery.
Another farm owned by the same company was later the subject of a
similar video filmed by a former employee. When asked for comment about
that particular break-in after DxE's release of their initial video, the
Sonoma County
Sheriff's Department stated that a full investigation was underway, but
that the farm appeared to be performing at "industry standards."
DxE released a 19-minute video of the investigation, “Truth
Matters,” on YouTube and Facebook in January 2015 and received coverage
in several international media outlets, including The New York Times and
Mother Jones.
For several weekends following the investigation, and every month
thereafter through early 2016, DxE chapters in several dozen cities
organized protests inside Whole Foods stores, challenging the company’s
“Values Matter” advertising campaign. Whole Foods announced new egg-laying standards shortly after the release of the investigation video.
Over the course of 2015, a larger team of activists investigated
Diestel Turkey Ranch, one of only three companies, out of over 2,000, to
achieve a 5+ rating on the 1-5 scale used by the Global Animal
Partnership, Whole Foods’s animal welfare rating scheme.
Activists recorded video apparently at a Diestel-owned farm in
Jamestown, CA, showing filth, overcrowding, and birds dying as infants. Diestel added a brief mention to its website of its Jamestown farm following the investigation.
DxE released another investigation in November 2016 into Jaindl
Farms, a Whole Foods farm that has supplied the White House with
Thanksgiving turkeys since the 1960s rated in the 98th percentile of
animal welfare according to an animal welfare audit.
The activists released footage of birds with mutilated beaks,
struggling to walk, and crowded to the point of repeated trampling.
Two Huffington Post reporters visited the farm on invitation of
Jaindl's owner and found that while severe injuries were uncommon,
turkeys had visible sores.
On May 29, 2018 several hundred DxE activists held a protest
outside Cal Eggs Farm in Petaluma, CA, which is a supplier to Whole
Foods. Some of the activists entered a barn and carried out live and
diseased birds. 40 of the activists were arrested for misdemeanor
trespassing. DxE activists see "open rescue" as establishing "the right to rescue" animals legally in the future.
After numerous protests inside the Whole Foods store in Berkeley,
CA, Whole Foods obtained a restraining order against DxE activists in
September 2018, prohibiting Wayne Hsiung and 150 other unnamed DxE
activists from entering that particular store or its parking lot.
Liberation Pledge
In
November 2015, DxE became one of the most visible backers of a new
action known as the “Liberation Pledge,” with co-founder Wayne Hsiung
authoring a piece in the Huffington Post announcing the pledge. According to the website liberationpledge.com, the pledge is as follows:
"The pledge is simple:
One: Publicly refuse to eat animals - live vegan.
Two: Publicly refuse to sit where people are eating animals.
Three: Encourage others to take the pledge."
The pledge was considered controversial upon release, including criticisms regarding food justice concerns and by potentially isolating vegans who take the pledge. Several prominent figures in the animal rights movement, including Anita Krajnc of the Toronto Pig Save and Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs took the pledge, with McHenry declaring, "We must stop the eating of animals."
Wanyama Box creator Nzinga Young defended the Liberation Pledge,
writing, "when I spend time in safe spaces with sacred people, I don’t
want to see carnage."
Costco campaign
In July 2016, DxE released an investigation into Farmer John, a Hormel subsidiary and supplier to Costco, Safeway, and the LA Dodgers based just outside of Los Angeles. The investigation documented the use of carbadox, an antibiotic identified by the FDA as a carcinogen and recommended for removal from the market.
The activists argued that similarity between animal and human biology
inevitably led to potential crises like antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Following the Farmer John investigation, DxE activists repeatedly interrupted LA Dodgers baseball games to protest the team's touting of Farmer John's "Dodger Dogs" hot dogs.
Activists in LA, Colorado, and the San Francisco Bay Area jumped on the
field during plays at several games with banners declaring "Dodgers
Torture Animals" and "Animal Liberation Now." The activists tied their protests to Farmer John, protesting the promotion of "torture and death of animals."
DxE followed up its Farmer John investigation by investigating a cage-free egg supplier to Costco.
Costco had been a key leader in the 2016 trend of food companies
committing to shift to a cage-free egg supply, but, according to DxE,
the investigation raised questions about the state of animal welfare
after that shift.
DxE released a video that shows dead birds on the floor and injured
hens pecked by other chickens. One bird had a piece of flesh hanging off
its beak.
In response to the video released by DxE, the supplier claimed that the
activists had committed a "break-in and trespassing" and that "The
video does not show what truly goes on in our barns and appears to be
staged for production effect".
The group did not seek permission to enter the farm, Lead Organizer
Wayne Hsiung said, but he argued that the group had not broken any laws
because they had suspected animal cruelty and that gave them a right to
enter the property.
All birds inside the farm were destroyed due to the contamination risk
the activists had introduced into the farm, according to the supplier.
The two DxE organizers who conducted the investigation were initially
charged with felony commercial burglary and subsequently pleaded
no-contest to a reduced charge of trespass.
The defendants were then ordered to pay restitution of $331,991 to
compensate the farm owner’s claim that he was forced to depopulate
(slaughter) all chickens in the barn, despite the fact that all of the
chickens the farmer killed were in the wrong barn, a barn the activists
never entered.
The DxE activists assert that the depopulation occurred to cover-up
cruelty at the farm, and they cite documents showing rates of animal
mortality far above industry standards.
Activists staged protests at Costco stores around the country following the investigation.
Open rescue expansion
In
December 2016, DxE open rescue projects began expanding beyond the Bay
Area when members in Toronto released an investigation of a pig farm. The project was followed up by an internationally coordinated rescue with animal advocates in Sweden, Germany, and Australia. In April 2017, DxE activists in Colorado conducted an investigation of Morning Fresh Farms, a cage-free chicken egg supplier.
In 2017, activists with DxE entered Smithfield Foods-owned
Circle Four Farms in Utah and performed an Open Rescue of two piglets
subsequently named Lily and Lizzie. They referred to the two piglets by
code names Lucy and Ethel to maintain secrecy after the rescue. Their
rescue, unfortunately triggered an extensive multi-state FBI hunt for
the two baby piglets.
DxE released a virtual-reality video that takes viewers into barns at
Circle Four Farms and shows sows with bloody and mangled teats; pregnant
sows gnawing on the bars of the narrow stalls they live in until they
give birth; and piglets clambering over and nibbling dead siblings.
A video taken by DxE that coincided with the Open Rescue at Circle Four
Farms has been called inaccurate by a spokesman for Smithfield; the
video purports to show mistreatment and abuse of animals at Circle Four
Farms. In November the same year, a group of DxE activists, which included actress Alexandra Paul, claimed to expose animal cruelty and neglect at Zonneveld Dairy, a Land O'Lakes
dairy supplier based in California, which included "young calves living
in filthy hutches, unprotected from record low and high temperatures
between 19 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit, suffering from pneumonia,
diarrhea, open sores, maggot infestations, and infections." The team of
activists performed an Open Rescue on one sick calf, later named
Roselynn.
In September, 2017 DxE organizers attended a small-scale poultry
processing class at Long Shadow Farm, a 6-acre farm in Berthoud,
Colorado specializing in pasture-raised chickens. The facility raises
animals and offers "poultry processing services."
Led by DxE Organizer Aidan Cook, under the name of "Denver Baby Animal
Save" the group entered the property masquerading as volunteers
and took three chickens, after asking to hold some of the birds and
being assisted in doing so by the farm owners' 8 year old daughter.
Opinions on the actions vary, with DxE organizers and members claiming
to have "rescued" the birds, while the farm owners considered it
"theft". A DxE spokesperson stated that "even if the animal rights group
could have saved more chickens by purchasing them, the group opposes
buying into a system that hurts animals."
The DxE organizers who conducted the "open rescue" responded to an
inquiry by the farm owner, "We have taken your birds to a sanctuary,
where they can be free." Two of the chickens that were taken were carriers of mycoplasma, a highly infectious respiratory disease in poultry.
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office is investigating several felony
allegations including trespassing, attempted theft of livestock and
theft of livestock.
In May 2018, a Utah prosecutor filed felony charges against six
DxE activists stemming from an undercover investigation into brutal
conditions on a turkey farm in Moroni, Utah which serves as a supplier
for Norbest.
The DxE investigation found "tens of thousands of turkeys crammed
inside filthy industrial barns, virtually on top of one another." The
activists rescued three turkeys suffering from disease or injuries and
were on the brink of death. The charges include two felony theft charges
that carry possible prison terms of five years each.
In October 2018 the verdict of the judge was to allow 3 of the
defendants to perform community service in lieu of further punishment if
they plead guilty to misdemeanors. However, Wayne Hsiung and Paul
Darwin Picklesimer will have to go through an additional trial to
determine the final verdict.
Philosophy
“Humane fraud”
One
of DxE’s most central campaign topics has been its ongoing campaign
against companies who claim to sell products with superior animal
welfare standards, such as Whole Foods Market, Chipotle and small family
farms. Through investigations, public statements and writings,
protests, and livestock theft, DxE has alleged in many cases that such
companies are lying about the actual conditions on their farms and/or
suppliers’ farms. DxE also believes that it is impossible to raise and
kill animals in a humane way.
Social science
DxE’s
leaders include a number of students of social science, and DxE
organizers aim to use social science in persuading others to join their
protests and self-proclaimed rescues. DxE has published articles on the
evidence for nonviolent civil resistance based on the work of political
scientist Erica Chenoweth, the importance of social ties based on the
work of sociologist Doug McAdam, and the importance of mobilizing masses
of ordinary people based on research by network scientist Duncan Watts.
Consumer veganism
Activists
and writers associated with DxE have criticized the animal rights
movement’s contemporary focus on creating individual vegans and
celebrating consumer products like vegan ice cream rather than focusing
on activism and changing social and political institutions.
DxE argues that the individual focus is less effective than trying to
change institutions, since the individual focus does not lead people to
do more once they stop using animals personally. Instead, DxE argues that activist groups should push people to take action so that the movement grows more quickly.
Activists with DxE have argued that nonviolence is in principle a
practice of anger toward systems and compassion toward individuals and
that a protest movement will be more successful by focusing on
governments, corporations, and other institutions rather than making
individual consumers defensive by attacking them personally.
DxE’s blog has argued that consumer vegan options also distract
from the actual threat to animals, allowing companies that are hurting
animals like Whole Foods to avoid criticism and leading animal rights
activists not to take action against them. In a debate with Rutgers philosopher and animal rights theorist Gary Francione, DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung stated that “activism, not veganism, is the moral baseline.”
Tactics
Open rescue
Wayne Hsiung cites as an inspiration for DxE the work of Patty Mark, an Australian animal rights activist and founder of Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV).
ALV activists popularized the tactic of going into farms in the middle
of the night without disguises and filming the conditions inside.
The tactic stands in contrast to the more common form of investigation
in the U.S. animal rights movement in which an investigator poses as a
farm worker to film using a hidden camera. Open rescue activists
emphasize that their approach allows the portrayal of individual
animals’ stories since activists can focus on animals in the farm, and
to rescue animals who would otherwise die of disease document their
recovery. It
also touts open rescue as a form of activism anyone can undertake,
offering the possibility and goal of thousands of open rescue teams
across the country.
DxE has cited open rescues as particularly key to exposing
“humane” companies that are generally smaller and more difficult to
infiltrate.
In April 2016, three members of DxE went undercover to Yulin, China,
home of the Yulin dog meat festival, to document the upcoming
preparations of the festival; they said they’ve been able to catch some
of the brutality on camera at one of the largest slaughterhouses in the
city.
Two of the activists with DxE were able to smuggle out the video
footage they had captured, along with three dogs bound for slaughter.
Open rescue has been criticized by one such smaller, "humane"
company that has been the target of DxE's use of the tactic. Petaluma
Farms, a distributor of eggs for Whole Foods, was investigated and the
subject of a highly publicized campaign and open rescue of DxE's.
Jonathan Mahrt, an employee of Petaluma Farms and son of Petaluma Farms'
owner Steven Mahrt, said, "My dad’s take is that it’s a sad day when
farmers and ranchers have to be concerned about security."
On May 29, 2018 several hundred DxE demonstrators held a protest
outside Cal Eggs Farm in Petaluma, CA, and 40 of the activists entered a
barn and carried out live and diseased birds. These 40 activists were
arrested for misdemeanor trespassing.
DxE activists believe that they have the legal right to rescue animals
from farms in California described in state laws, and they want to
establish this right in courts.
A major open rescue action was held on Saturday, September 29,
2018 at Petaluma Farms, the supplier to Amazon and Whole Foods, and the
largest in the US. Several dying hens were removed from filthy, crowded
sheds. One hen was allowed to leave with the activists and was sent to a
sanctuary, however the rest were sent to animal control and,
unfortunately did not survive. Petaluma sheriff's office reported that
67 activists were arrested at the scene. DxE counted it was 58 activists
who were arrested. After release, activists continue to protest against
police unlawfulness, despite the activists having the right to the open
rescue under California penal law code statue 597E, Doctrine of
Necessity. The activists are continuing to fight to be allowed to continue open rescues.
Mass protests
Inspired by both activist networks and street theater groups such as Improv Everywhere,
DxE mobilizes masses of activists to creative protest in prominent
public spaces. Early actions in DxE’s history include a guerilla poem, a
“freeze” at a prominent mall, the disruption of a screening of American
Meat with the stories and images of companion animals, and numerous
other creative efforts.
Notable network-wide protests have included an effort in the
summer of 2015 to incorporate dogs, cats, and other companion animals
into protests as a symbol of human support, connections, and equality
with animals. DxE also issued the #DisruptSpeciesism and #DogMeatPlease
viral video challenges in September 2014 and 2015, respectively, which
garnered social media fame when videos by DxE organizers Priya Sawhney,
Kelly Atlas, and Jenny McQueen went viral.
In March 2018, DxE co-hosted a rally with Compassionate Bay in
support of Supervisor Katy Tang of San Francisco leading the effort to
ban the sale of fur in the city. Later that month, the board of supervisors of San Francisco voted unanimously to ban the sale of new fur.
Public event disruptions
Activists
within the DxE network have undertaken a number of prominent
disruptions of public figures. In August 2015, Iowa activist Matt
Johnson asked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie about his veto of a widely supported bill banning gestation crates for mother pigs that the public widely regarded as cruel. Johnson also asked Christie about his prosecution of animal rights activists (see Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) and general opposition to the cause.
When Christie rebuffed Johnson’s questions, Johnson leapt on stage with
several other activists and a banner demanding “ANIMAL LIBERATION NOW.”
Johnson staged similar disruptions along the campaign trail, including at Iowa campaign events by Ohio Governor John Kasich and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and an appearance by former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina at the Iowa Pork Producers.
Fiorina replied to Johnson’s protest by condemning him for protesting
for animals and not the lives of unborn children. Several activists from
Iowa and Indiana also interrupted a Republican family values forum on
the eve of Thanksgiving and the release of DxE’s Diestel Turkey Ranch
investigation video.
In January 2016, activists interrupted a speech by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf at the 100th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Farm Show, saying that there was no reason to confine and kill pigs, chickens, and cows when it was not okay to do that to dogs or cats.
DxE activist Zach Groff has stated that DxE aims to ensure that any
event or public figure “promoting violence against animals” is the
target of a protest interruption.
Criticism
Direct Action Everywhere has received criticism from vegan and non-vegan consumers, and the shops and farms they have targeted. Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review has called their protest tactics in Berkeley "bullying" in regards to graphic Berkeley protests in the summer of 2017. Alice Waters, proprietor of the Chez Panisse, was a target of some of these protests and called them an "outrage" and that the DxE protestors "need to do their homework". On the subject of these protests and the protesters' knowledge of humane food, the Director of Operations for Certified Humane, Mimi Stein, said in an email to the Washington Post
that “DxE is attempting to undermine consumer confidence in products
which are in fact ethically produced and businesses working in good
faith to reinvigorate a very desirable traditional business
model...Shame on DxE!”
Lauren-Elizabeth McGrath of vegan magazine Ecorazzi commented in 2016
that "They’re an organization that is set on disrupting the day of the
average meat-eater, but fails to help them beyond just that" and
discussed accusations of racism within the organisation. Carol Adams, vegetarian-feminist and author of The Sexual Politics of Meat,
announced on her blog that she intends to boycott events that host DxE
speakers, stating that "DxE is both a counterproductive organization
[for activism] as well as cult."
In May 2018 Hsiung and four others were charged in Utah with
burglary, livestock theft, and engaging in a pattern of illegal activity
(felonies); and engaging in a riot (misdeameanor). They were identified
after posting high-quality video online of taking pigs from a
Smithfield Foods facility in Beaver County, Utah.
