New York congresswoman demands FBI investigate threat posed by ‘vegan extremists’

Rep. Claudia Tenney on Thursday called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate alleged “criminal activity being promoted” by a vegan activist group in upstate New York. 

In her letter to Wray, the New York Republican alleges that California-based group Direct Action Everywhere has been using her home state to fundraise and recruit people to “actively disrupt farms” in rural communities in Empire State and elsewhere. 

​​“The threat of theft and trespassing posed by this vegan activist group is completely unacceptable. It is the absolute last thing our farmers should be facing right now as they struggle through a labor shortage and soaring costs,” Tenney said in a statement.

“Our local law enforcement agencies have responded swiftly to protect our farmers, and now it is time for federal authorities to do the same,” she said.

Tenney wrote that in the last year farms in Niagara County have reported several instances of animal theft and trespassing activity. She noted that recently the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office has asked farmers to be vigilant for trespassers on their property. 

“Basic constitutional rights must be upheld, and basic property rights must be protected. The promotion of organized criminal activity in our community by this out-of-state group or any other cannot be tolerated,” Tenney added in her statement. 

In her letter, Tenney urged the FBI to take swift action in response to Direct Action Everywhere’s alleged activities and she asked the bureau to assist local law enforcement in New York gather intelligence on the group and its members who may be violating the law. 

In a statement provided to The Post on Friday, Direct Action Everywhere argued that Tenney should focus her attention on combating the “abuse” of livestock in her state rather than on siccing the FBI on activists.

“Animals are routinely castrated without painkillers, driven to insanity by intensive confinement, and eviscerated alive on the slaughter line. Congresswoman Tenney would better serve her constituents by targeting this abuse rather than the growing movement for compassion,” the statement from the group read.

Last year activists tied with the group interrupted several sporting events to bring attention to alleged animal rights abuses. 

In September 2022, two female Direct Action Everywhere activists rushed the field during a NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams and unleashed pink smoke flares which spread across the field before security tackled and restrained the activists.

A woman linked to the group also stormed the court during an NBA playoff play-in game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers in April of last year and glued herself to the floor. 

Direct Action Everywhere said in a press release at the time that the woman was protesting Timberwolves’s owner Glen Taylor’s alleged inhumane killing of 5.3 million chickens in one of his Iowa egg farms.