https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/vegans-animal-rights-dxe-activists-chickens/674411/

Subscribe to Listen to this Article

00:00

28:18

Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic*, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.*

A few hens lay on the ground, unmoving, ill or dead. Many were injured, with festering sores on their feet. Some bled from their posteriors—they were likely suffering from a [prolapsed cloaca](https://lbah.com/avian/prolapsed-cloaca/#:~:text=A cloacal (vent) prolapse is,has lost its blood supply.), a painful, potentially fatal condition often caused by repeated egg-laying. Others looked dirty and ragged, though chickens, given a choice in the matter, tend to be fastidious. Everything, everywhere in this farm for “free-range” chickens was covered in excrement. The industrial hangar was so enormous, filled with so many clone-birds, that I felt like I was staring into an infinity mirror.

Enjoy a year of unlimited access to The Atlantic—including every story on our site and app, subscriber newsletters, and more.

It was a moonless night not long ago in Northern California. With me were Alicia Santurio and Lewis Bernier, two activists from an animal-rights group called Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE. We had met a few hours earlier in a supermarket parking lot, where I wrote a lawyer’s phone number on my ankle and slipped my cellphone into a Faraday bag, which blocks wireless signals. The three of us got into a car; its driver stubbed out a cigarette and drove us to an unlit lane amid acres of paddocks and fields.

Never miss a story. Start your free trial.

Uncompromising quality. Enduring impact.

Your support ensures a bright future for independent journalism.