Joey Chestnut body slams animal-rights protester, wins hot dog eating contest

Grayson Quay, Weekend editor
·1 min read
Joey Chestnut
Joey Chestnut Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images

Joey Chestnut racked up his 15th victory in the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Monday, but only after he put an animal-rights protester in a headlock and slammed the interloper to the ground.

Chestnut, who competed with one foot in a medical boot due to an injury, was briefly shoved off balance as the protester attempted to position himself in front of the news cameras covering the contest, The New York Post reported. Thanks to Chestnut's aggressive response, however, the protester was quickly removed from the stage and led away in handcuffs. The gobbling resumed almost immediately.

Chestnut went on to win the competition by consuming 63 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Runner-up Geoffrey Esper finished just 43 dogs.

The protester wore a Darth Vader mask and carried a sign that read "Expose Smithfield's Deathstar." The animal rights activist group Direct Action Everywhere, which claimed responsibility for the disruption, said in a press release that the sign was meant to compare "the villainous megaweapon from the Star Wars film series to the largest factory pig farm in the country," namely Smithfield's Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah.

Circle Four Farms slaughters around one million pigs per year, according to The Intercept. The population of the planet Alderaan at the time of its destruction by the Death Star was approximately two billion.

You may also like

The turning point

7 cartoons about Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive Trump testimony

Joe Rogan says he's declined interviews with Trump because 'I don't want to help him'

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Rwanda bill live - Rishi Sunak warned asylum plan faces more legal challenges

    Human rights organisations have criticised the new legislation, which could see asylum seekers sent to Rwanda in 10-12 weeks.

  • Ozzy Osbourne 'more than honoured' by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction

    The rocker was inducted into the famed institution as a member of Black Sabbath in 2006 and he will be inducted for a second time in honour of his solo career in October. After this year's inductees were unveiled on Sunday, Ozzy told Billboard via email that becoming one of the Rock Hall's multiple inductees "feels big. I'm more than honoured." He added that this induction "feels different" because his solo career has "been a much larger part of my overall music career as a whole".

  • UPDATE 1-Ukraine's farm minister named as suspect in corruption case, Kyiv media reports

    Ukraine's anti-corruption agency is treating Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky as a suspect in an investigation into the illegal acquisition of state-owned land worth about $7 million, Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday. The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine said in a statement that it had uncovered a scheme led by a current minister to illegally acquire state-owned land worth 291 million hryvnia ($7.35 million). The statement did not name Solsky, but said the suspect was the former chairman of the parliamentary agrarian committee, a post Solsky held before becoming agriculture minister in March 2022.

  • Why the Magnificent 7's 'momentum is collapsing'

    Six of the largest tech companies are expected to see earnings growth slow over the next year, leaving room for other companies to lead the next leg of the stock market rally, UBS analysts say.

  • More large cables planned - National Grid

    Two cables would travel on the sea floor from Scotland to England, coming ashore in Lincolnshire.

  • Government borrowing higher than forecast as doubts raised over pre-election tax cuts

    Doubts have been raised over the government's ability to unveil tax cuts ahead of the next general election after official figures revealed borrowing was higher than expected in the past year. Overall, government debt was around 98.3% of the UK's annual gross domestic product (GDP) in March - up 2.6 percentage points from the previous year and at levels not seen since the early 1960s. "Just based on the larger-than-expected 2023/24 budget deficit and the recent shift up in market interest rates, he may have even less fiscal 'headroom' (perhaps about £5bn) for tax cuts than the £8.9bn left over in March."

  • Primark booms as Rita Ora deal pays off

    Inflation has all but gone, says Primark boss

  • Australia and Papua New Guinea leaders trek toward WWII South Pacific battleground

    Australia and Papua New Guinea’s prime ministers on Tuesday began trekking into the South Pacific island nation’s mountainous interior to commemorate a pivotal World War II campaign and to underscore their current security alliance, which faces challenges from China's growing regional influence. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received an elaborate traditional welcome when he arrived by helicopter at Kokoda Village with his Papua New Guinean counterpart James Marape. The pair will walk 15 kilometers (9 miles) over two days along the rugged Kokoda Track where the Japanese army’s advance toward what is now the national capital, Port Moresby, was halted in 1942 in the wilds of the Owen Stanley Range.

  • 90210 stars Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling recall how friendship broke down

    Doherty said on her podcast: ‘One minute we were friends and one minute we weren’t.’

  • German EU lawmaker's aide is arrested on suspicion of spying for China

    A man who works for a German lawmaker in the European Parliament was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said Tuesday. The suspect, identified only as Jian G. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested Monday in Dresden, federal prosecutors said in a statement. News of the arrest came a day after three Germans suspected of spying for China and arranging to transfer information on technology with potential military uses were arrested in a separate case.

  • Is Fortnite down? Players brace for server issues before v29.30 update

    There is usually a few hours of server downtime before major updates to the game

  • World Snooker Championship schedule, results and order of play from the Crucible

    Ronnie O’Sullivan is gunning for a record eighth world title at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre with Luca Brecel entering as defending champion and the likes of Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Mark Allen all in contention

  • Ncuti Gatwa shares advice received from former Doctor Who stars

    ‘Barbie’ star will soon take up the Time Lord role full-time

  • Stock market today: Asian stocks track Wall Street gains ahead of earnings reports

    HONG KONG (AP) — Asian share benchmarks were mostly higher Tuesday after U.S. stocks clawed back a chunk of their losses from the week before. U.S. futures were mixed and oil prices rose. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 37,552.16, despite the country's manufacturing activity contracting for 11 straight months while approaching the break-even point in April. A purchasing managers survey showed sentiment at 49.9, on a scale of up to 100 where 50 marks the break between expansion and cont

  • Swiss report large drop in frozen Russian assets

    Switzerland has frozen Russian assets worth 5.8 billion Swiss francs ($6.36 billion), the government said on Tuesday, a big drop that could intensify international pressure on the neutral country to do more to sanction Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The main reason was a decrease in the market value of the shares and other financial assets which have been blocked, said the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), which oversees sanctions. Still, the decline is likely to spark criticism from abroad that Switzerland is not doing enough to impose sanctions designed to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

  • Rwanda Bill – latest: Rishi Sunak’s asylum plan becomes law after late night row between government and Lords

    Lords cave to pressure and withdraw final amendment to the Rwanda bill

  • OOPS! Eric Trump Freaks Out Over Dad’s Trial But Gets 1 Very Awkward Thing Wrong

    A rant on Fox News from Donald Trump's son contained one glaring error.

  • LeBron James rants at NBA's replay center for calls, Lakers lose on buzzer-beater, trail Denver 2-0

    DENVER (AP) — LeBron James was seeing red after the Los Angeles Lakers watched a golden opportunity slip away. His frustration wasn't so much centered on blowing a 20-point lead. Or his late missed 3-pointer that rimmed out with the game tied. Or Jamal Murray’s fadeaway buzzer-beater that gave the Denver Nuggets a 101-99 win over the Lakers in Game 2 of their first-round series Monday night. James' anger was more distant — the NBA's replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey. At the heart of his wrat

  • FTSE 100 Live 22 April: Index closes at record high, Asda sales rise, Hipgnosis bid war

    London’s FTSE 100 index closed at a record high as sentiment shows signs of improvement after Friday’s tech sector sell-off on Wall Street. Today’s session saw further dealmaking action after FTSE 250-listed Tyman backed a US firm’s takeover worth £788 million.

  • Truce crumbles in Sudanese army's last Darfur holdout

    Attacks around the Sudanese city of al-Fashir have shattered a truce that protected it from a year-old war, leading to warnings of a new wave of inter-communal violence and humanitarian risks for 1.6 million residents crammed into the North Darfur capital. Al-Fashir is the last major city in the vast, western Darfur region not under control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF and its allies swept through four other Darfur state capitals last year, and were blamed for a campaign of ethnically driven killings against non-Arab groups and other abuses in West Darfur.