How the agricultural industry spys animal rights activists and pushes the FBI to see it as a bioterrorist
Hundreds of emails Internal documents of the online review reveal the top lobbyists and representatives of the U.S. agricultural industry, often conducting a continuing secret campaign to monitor, discredit and suppress animal rights organizations for nearly a decade while relying on corporate spies to infiltrate meetings and function as an FBI insider.
The documents, obtained primarily from the people’s nonprofit property through public records, detail the secret and long-term collaboration between the FBI’s Mass Destruction Bureau (WMDD) – today’s scope includes Palestinian rights activists and the most recent Arson Tarting Taginaling Teslas’ Insurgent ranchers, veterinarians, and others in the U.S. food supply chain.
The documents show that since at least 2018, the AAA has provided federal agents with intelligence on the activities of animal rights groups, such as the Omnipresent Action (DXE), and recorded records of emails and meetings to reflect the industry’s broader mission to show that the industry’s authorities are activists as the most prominent “bioterrorism” threat to the United States. The spy worked for the AAA during his partnership with the FBI and took secrets at the activist conference, obtaining photos, recordings and other strategic material. The organization’s links with law enforcement were exploited to help block public scrutiny from industry participants, urging investigations of its most powerful critics and reconstitute the purpose and efforts of animal rights protesters as a single national security threat.
Records further suggest that state authorities view the protests as justification for covering up public information about disease outbreaks on factory farms.
Zoe Rosenberg, a student and animal abuse investigator at DXE, said she was not surprised that powerful private sector groups were working to monitor the organization, but she found their collaboration with the police paradox. “If anyone should have law enforcement ears, it’s that animal cruel investigators have exposed serious violations of the law, resulting in the real animal suffering and dying deaths,” she told Wade.
DXE was introduced by Wiried in 2019, is a grassroots animal rights organization dedicated to direct non-violent actions, including covert operations, often involving rescue of animals and documenting practices in factory farms that the group considers inhumane.
Rosenberg, 22, is facing charges in California for removing four chickens from a slaughterhouse in Sonoma County in 2023. In addition to minor charges such as trespassing, she was also hit with a felon count of conspiracy to commit those misdemeanors—a discretionary charge that Sonoma County’s prosecutor justified by portraying Rosenberg as a “biosecurity risk” in light of avian flu.
According to Rosenberg, DXE relies on biosafety protocols that “beyond” industry standards, including investigators who are isolating birds from birds for a full week before and after entering the farm. “All of our investigators showered with hot water and soap before entering the facility shower and put on freshly washed clothes that have been thoroughly washed and dried over high heat to kill viruses and bacteria,” she said. “Everything was sterilized after leaving the facility and then sterilized again.”
Rosenberg did not deny the removal of chickens, she named them Poppy, Aster, Ivy and Azalea. “Usually, if we feel that animals will die from neglect or abuse, then if we don’t remove them from the facility, then we feel it’s reasonable and it’s necessary to step in to save their lives,” she said. Her attorney Chris Carraway said DXE tried to report allegations of health violations in agencies in the “futal point”. Reporting suspected offenses often lead to bounces between offices, Rosenberg said. “No one wants to take responsibility and enforce the never-ending cycle of animal welfare laws”.
