Sanders interrupted by anti-dairy industry protesters during Nevada rally

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was interrupted by anti-dairy industry protesters at a presidential campaign rally in Nevada on Sunday. 

“Bernie, I’m your biggest supporter and I’m here to ask you to stop propping up the dairy industry and stop propping up animal agriculture,” one protester, Priya Sawhney, said after taking the microphone from Sanders. 

Bernie supporter pleads to #LetDairyDie in his rally live stream! Gets in a few sentences before audio is cut, & the banners from the rest of the group are visible for quite a while before the video feed is itself cut. Thank you for such a brave action @priyadxe27 @DxEverywhere!! pic.twitter.com/tyVFsFEUoJ

— AJ Jivdaya (@bunnydad_aj) February 16, 2020

Sawhney was part of a demonstration by the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere. 

Three other topless women also crashed the stage with the words “let dairy die” written on their chests, before pouring milk cartons full of fake blood on themselves. The women who were topless were arrested for indecent exposure and are being held on $2,500 bond each, according to Direct Action Everywhere. 

Sawhney was not arrested, the group said. 

“If Bernie truly cares about justice, he will stop propping up the dairy industry, which relies on the abuse of female cows,” Sawhney said in a statement shared by Direct Action Everywhere. 

“I love Bernie, but we must hold abusive industries accountable, not shield and subsidize them. Animal farming is an industry which gives welfare payments to millionaires,” Sawhney added. “People are fed up. Like the Sanders campaign itself, animal rights is a burgeoning mass movement.”

The animal rights group claims “the dairy industry remains notably absent from” Sanders’s “condemnation” of factory farms.

A spokesperson for the Sanders campaign was not immediately available for comment.