Action needed against Direct Action Everywhere

When a person thinks of animal rights organizations, Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is typically not the first one that comes to mind.

Roy Graber Headshot
(kolesnikov, Bigstock)
(kolesnikov, Bigstock)

When a person thinks of animal rights organizations, Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is typically not the first one that comes to mind.

However, the group’s recent antics (let’s just go with that word for now) prove that it could very well be the most dangerous animal rights organization out there.

With an above-the-law type of attitude, DxE seems to take pride in the fact that its members have been arrested for doing what it believes are justifiable crimes in order to prevent farm animals from, again for what it believes (is), suffering.

Recently, the Animal Agriculture Alliance distributed a press release cautioning its members about the extremist group and how much grief it can cause those who raise animals for food production.

According to the Alliance’s press release, as part of its “Animal Liberation Conference,” Direct Action Everywhere spearheaded a protest during which hundreds of activists descended upon a California farm. The activists unlawfully entered a barn and stole animals. Dozens of activists were eventually arrested for trespassing on the farm.

After this, DxE began calling upon activists across the country to receive training in order to conduct copycat protests on other farms.

Series of DxE member arrests

The concerns of the Alliance, which annually hosts speakers who share views on dealing with such extremists at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit, are well founded.

Just this week, a member of this organization, Amber Canavan, was arrested after allegedly taking a chicken raised for Foster Farms from a traffic accident scene and refusing to return it when asked repeatedly to do so by a Foster Farms employee and a Washington state trooper.

There have been other arrests.

Here are just a few that have been reported on WATTAgNet.com:

  • In May, DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung and five other DxE members were arrested on suspicion of stealing live turkeys that were being raised for processing by Norbest. Hsiung, incidentally, has reportedly said DxE has a mission of “trying to destroy animal agriculture,” but in an email, he wrote that he had no memory of making that comment and said his aim can be more accurately described as one to "transform and rejuvenate our food system."
  • In April, Hsiung and an underage member was arrested on suspicion of trespassing at a Whole Foods Market store.
  • In 2017, DxE member Jonathan Frohmayer was arrested on suspicion of trespassing after he allegedly refused to stop blocking a truck while on the property of Petaluma Poultry in Petaluma, California. Other activists were at the scene in Petaluma, but Frohmayer was the only person who allegedly refused to comply with police requests to move.

After these arrests were made, DxE, on its website and via social media, acts like it did nothing wrong and that the true crimes are being committed by people who are raising animals in order to feed a growing human population.

But DxE is wrong and the Alliance is right.

The Alliance, in its release, urged law enforcement officers and policymakers to take a strong stance against illegal activities, like the ones carried out by DxE. The Alliance also stated that every state has animal cruelty laws in place, and any concerns about animal care should be reported to local law enforcement, and not “investigated” by animal rights extremists.

That is rational thinking. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the folks at DxE are capable of rational thinking.

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