An animal welfare protester just leapt onstage at Amazon's big tech event, coming within feet of CEO Jeff Bezos

Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was being interviewed during a company event in Las Vegas on Thursday when a protester rushed the stage.
• The protestor was there to bring attention to factory farms. Her name is Priya Sawhney, and she made it within feet of Bezos before being stopped by security.
• As she was escorted from the stage, Bezos quipped to the interviewer, "Do you have a response to that?" as the audience laughed.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A woman named Priya Sawhney rushed the stage during a live interview with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday in Las Vegas.

Sawhney got within feet of Bezos before being stopped by security and escorted from the stage.

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The interview took place during Amazon's new artificial intelligence and robotics conference, re:MARS.

Julie Bort/Business Insider

In videos of the event, it's difficult to hear everything Sawhney said when she reached the stage, but it's clear she was there to protest animal cruelty.

A press release from Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group, revealed that the protest was planned as a means of highlighting, "animal cruelty at an Amazon chicken supplier, as well as the felony prosecution of whistleblowers exposing animal abuse at that supplier."

The supplier in question is a chicken farm in Petaluma, California named Petaluma Poultry.

The group says that Sawhney's goal was to be to reach Bezos, give him a flower, and bring the allegations of animal cruelty at the Petaluma farm to his attention.

Direct Action Everywhere

Direct Action Everywhere protester Priya Sawhney.

Amazon operates the Prime Pantry grocery delivery service, which sells chicken, and it owns the Whole Foods grocery chain, which also sells chicken.

As she was escorted from the stage, Bezos quipped to the interviewer, "Do you have a response to that?" as the audience laughed.

It's not clear if Amazon intends to press charges; an Amazon representative didn't respond to a request for comment.