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".

[24] 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.

[31] The video footage from the farm that DxE released shows birds with mangled beaks, broken legs, missing eyes, open sores and facial lesions.

[33] Two Huffington Post reporters visited the farm on invitation of Jaindl's owner and found that while severe injuries were uncommon, some turkeys had visible sores.

[33] In response to DxE's video, the group was accused of ecoterrorism by Jaindl's legal counsel in a letter to Wayne Hsiung, who also stated "This criminal activity fostered by your organization is reprehensible, and cannot be overlooked.

"[40] 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.

Activists from the organization claimed that many of the "cage-free" farms were housing the chickens in crowded cages and violating principles dictated by the "certified humane" label.

[50][51] In December 2016, DxE open rescue projects began expanding beyond the Bay Area when members in Toronto released an investigation of a pig farm.

[54][non-primary source needed] 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.

[57] 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."

[60] Led by DxE Organizer Aidan Cook, under the name of "Denver Baby Animal Save" the group entered the property masquerading as volunteers[61] and took three chickens, after asking to hold some of the birds and being assisted in doing so by the farm owners' eight-year-old daughter.

In April 2019, DxE activists broke into a Smithfield Foods farm in North Carolina to expose overcrowding and unsanitary conditions there, and the extensive use of antibiotics.

In addition to acquiring footage of scores of sick piglets and refrigerators full of powerful antibiotics, the group took a 6-week-old female pig, subsequently named Lauri, and rushed her to a vet.

Responding to an inquiry from The Times, Smithfield leveled accusations that the group has a history of manipulating footage in order to "mislead the public and gain attention for its activist agenda which includes 'total animal liberation.

'"[66] In May 2020 DxE obtained and released video footage of the ventilation shutdown (VSD) method used to kill pigs at an Iowa Select Farms facility.

Other, later charges against Johnson, also relating to activity at facilities owned by Iowa Select Farms, were also suddenly dropped in January 2022 after the defense subpoenaed executives and employees to testify.

Johnson, who had hoped the cases would go to trial in order to challenge the constitutionality of ag-gag laws, stated "we are setting a precedent that rescuing animals from situations where they're in distress is the right thing to do.

[77] 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.

"[24] On May 29, 2018, several hundred DxE demonstrators held a protest outside Cal Eggs Farm in Petaluma, California, and 40 of the activists entered a barn and carried out live and diseased birds.

They were identified after posting high-quality video online of an open rescue of taking pigs from a Smithfield Foods facility in Beaver County, Utah.

[91][92] In September 2021, DxE activists Alicia Santurio and Alexandra Paul participated in an open rescue when they took two severely ill chickens from a truck outside of a Foster Farms slaughterhouse in Livingston, California.

Early actions in DxE's history include a guerrilla 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.

[95][96] 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.

[100][101][102] 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.

[104][105] On December 23, 2020, Johnson was interviewed by Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, where he posed as the CEO of meat packing company Smithfield Foods.

[106][107] On September 3, 2021, Johnson posed as Donnie D. King, the CEO of Tyson Foods, for an interview on Newsmax to discuss ventilation shutdown, saying: It may be a little unorthodox of me to be saying this, quite frankly, but one of our main pork suppliers ... went with the most economic option available to them and they literally loaded thousands of pigs into industrial sheds.

DxE said the protests were over alleged acts of animal cruelty by Rembrandt Enterprises farms, which like the Timberwolves NBA basketball team is also owned by Glen Taylor.

[109] On September 8, 2022 during the National Football League's 2022 Kickoff Game at SoFi Stadium, two DxE activists ran onto the field carrying pink smoke bombs during the fourth quarter, disrupting play between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills.

[110] Less than a month later, during a Week 4 matchup against the Rams and San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium, another DxE activist ran onto the field near the end of the first half, also carrying a pink smoke bomb and wearing a shirt similar to the two protesters from the previous incident.

"[114] 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.