To get their point across, its members stage “actions” in restaurants, shouting at the patrons, reminding them that they are eating corpses.įor many, the image of animal rights activism involves wide-eyed ladies leafleting on the sidewalk. It considers eating animals to be a serious act of violence. While DXE opposes all animal cruelty, the primary target of its campaigns is the production and consumption of meat. The funeral was organized by Direct Action Everywhere-DXE, as it is known-a newly formed animal rights network. Quite the opposite: their mission was to eulogize the food. They would line up beside the tables, amid the din of clinking cutlery and conversation snatched between bites. Their procession would take them through downtown New Haven and into several restaurants. “If we refuse to leave, they can say, ‘You’re trespassing, we’re going to have you arrested.’ Before they tell us to leave, it’s perfectly legal.” He was officiating the funeral, and he spoke with the gravitas of a priest in the confessional. “If we’re getting heckled, we stay focused, centered, serious,” said Zach Groff. Another woman asked what would happen if the funeral was interrupted by hecklers. With nightfall, the mist had turned to cold pinpricks of rain. Bianca shuffled around the flagpole, trying to get warm. The procession was going to begin at the New Haven Green. “I haven’t memorized my speech,” a young woman named Bianca told me. None of them had been to this kind of funeral before, and they were nervous. They came dressed all in black except for their sneakers. The funeral was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m., but the mourners didn’t show up until closer to 8.

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