Animal rights activist at Timberwolves game

On Saturday, Sasha Zemmel of St. Louis, Missouri dressed as a ref and tried to enter the court. Her idea was to stop play and approach Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s seat to issue a “technical foul and ejection,” along with a “fine.” She is protesting the Timberwolves majority owner for an incident involving chickens at an egg farm he owns.

From people watching the game, she didn’t get very far. She was immediately stopped by security and arrested.

Direct Action Everywhere released a press release that gave more details on Zemmel’s makeshift referee jersey. The jersey had the number 5.3 displayed on the back, in honor of more than 5.3 million chickens killed following an outbreak of “highly pathogenic avian influenza” (HPAI) at the facility.

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The group said they were killed using “ventilation shutdown plus” (VSD+), a mass killing method whereby ventilation openings in the industrial sheds full of birds are closed, and some combination of heat, steam and/or carbon dioxide gas are introduced to suffocate them.

This is the third disruption by animal rights activists. On April 12, a woman attempted to glue herself to the floor during the Clippers-Timberwolves play-in game. On April 16, a woman chained herself to the basket during Game 1 of the

First it was "Glue Girl" who tried to superglue her hand to the court during the play-in game between the Wolves and Clippers Tuesday night in Minneapolis. And during the second quarter of Game 1 of the best-of-seven playoff series between the Wolves and Grizzlies featured a protestor chain herself to the basketball hoop. 

The protest delayed the game for a few minutes while authorities removed the chain and carried the woman out of the arena. 

Both protestors are associated with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), which has claimed credit for both stunts. DxE identified the woman from the superglue stunt as Alicia Santurio, and the woman who chained herself to the goal Saturday as Zoe Rosenberg. 

The first activist from the Tuesday game was searing a t-shirt that stated "Glen Taylor roasts animals alive." It's unclear if the second activist was wearing same shirt. 

DxE says the protests were carried out to raise awareness of DxE's investigation into Rembrandt Enterprises in Iowa, a company owned by Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor. 

It has been confirmed by the Iowa Department of Agriculture that 5.3 million birds had to be destroyed in Buena Vista County – where Rembrandt Enterprises has a facility – in response to the outbreak of avian flu that has forced the culling of millions of poultry birds in the Midwest in an attempt to prevent further spread.

DxE alleges that Rembrandt used the controversial practice of "ventilation shutdown," where barns are closed and all ventilation sealed and fans turned off. Heaters, steam, or gas is then pumped into the barn to raise the temperature to the point the animals die either from overheating or suffocation.

DxE released footage that it claims to show the aftermath of a cull at Rembrandt Farm, which shows a handful of disheveled birds that survived, and at one point shows a conveyor belt seemingly transporting dead birds from one of the barns onto the back of a semi-truck with an open trailer.

The practice has spawned a protest movement including a group called , which describes it as a "brutal, painful method of animal depopulation."

USA Today reports the practice is approved by the USDA but "in extreme cases only," such as when an infected population "is too large."

Bring Me The News has reached out to Rembrandt Enterprises for comment.

DxE has demanded Taylor expedite the sale of the Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx to minority owners Mark Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who are set to take over majority ownership in 2023. 

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