Trial of a California woman who took chickens puts slaughter houses in national spotlight

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California animal rights activist on trial for taking four chickens from one of Perdue Farms’ major poultry plants said Tuesday that she was rescuing Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea from abuse while prosecutors say she broke the law.

Zoe Rosenberg, 23, faces more than five years in prison if convicted of a felony conspiracy charge and two misdemeanor counts of trespassing and a misdemeanor count of tampering with a vehicle.

During the seven-week trial, her defense hasn’t focused on if she took the chickens from Petaluma Poultry in 2023 that supplies chickens to Perdue Farms, one of the United States’ largest poultry providers for major grocery chains — but rather the justification for doing so.

How the chickens were taken

Rosenberg testified she disguised herself as a Petaluma Poultry worker using a fake badge and earpiece, according to The Press Democrat, a newspaper in Santa Rosa where the trial is being held. She shared a videotape on social media that showed what she did. She said she was acting out of concern about animal cruelty, not as part of a criminal conspiracy.

She said she was initially charged with theft but prosecutors dropped the charge because it would have meant telling the jury the chickens were worth $24 and were sick.

“These chickens were incredibly ill and they needed care and I think that when an animal is in distress, when an animal is being abused and the authorities aren’t stepping in, and they aren’t helping those animals that we do have the legal right to help them ourselves,” Rosenberg told The Associated Press in an interview before Tuesday’s closing arguments in the trial.

“My intent was to help animals and to do so legally, not to break the law,” she added.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors clash on if it was theft

Kevin Little, one of Rosenberg’s lawyers, told the court when the trial began that “this is not a whodunit. This is a why-dunit.”

Prosecutors argue that what she did was illegal.

Perdue has said Rosenberg and her organization Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, is an extremist group that is intent on destroying the animal agriculture industry. They say the animals were not mistreated.

DxE is known for animal rescues and protests that often garner national attention. Prosecutors say Rosenberg entered Petaluma Poultry without authorization four times and attached GPS devices to 12 delivery vehicles before taking the chickens from a trailer and leaving with them, while about 50 DxE members demonstrated outside, the Press Democrat reported.

Rosenberg’s lawyers said she spent months looking into the alleged abuse and she consulted a veterinarian who was concerned about images that appeared to show animals being boiled alive. One of her attorneys, Chris Carraway, said in a statement that this “was a rescue, not a crime.”

Sonoma County has been tough on animal rights activists

In recent years, similar cases involving animal rights activists have gone to court with mixed results in front of juries across the U.S. But in California’s Sonoma County, where agriculture is one of the main industries, Rosenberg faces an especially uphill battle.

Sonoma County just two years ago successfully prosecuted DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung for his role in two factory farm protests in Petaluma. Hsiung was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The county is believed to have prosecuted more cases against animal rights activists than any other in the country.

Another DxE member, Raven Deerbrook, faced similar charges to Rosenberg before reaching a plea agreement in June 2024. She described herself as a former DxE member and testified for Rosenberg last week, saying she launched an investigation into Petaluma Poultry and notified Rosenberg about possible animal cruelty, the Press Democrat reported.

As a condition to stay out of custody, Rosenberg, a University of California, Berkeley student, had to wear an ankle monitor until around the beginning of the trial last month.

“An immense amount of government resources have been spent prosecuting me for the alleged ‘crime’ of rescuing four abused chickens from a Perdue slaughterhouse,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Monday.

“Most distressing, however, is the fact that these resources are not being spent on stopping the criminal animal cruelty at Perdue’s facilities. Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea are safe but so many others are not,” she said, referencing the names her group gave to the chickens she took.

Prosecutors say the break-ins to the processing plant fit a pattern of Rosenberg’s activism and were part of a coordinated campaign.

“You want open rescue to be something that happens everywhere?” Deputy District Attorney Matt Hobson asked Rosenberg during cross-examination last week.

“Yes,” Rosenberg replied.

Rosenberg was previously arrested in April 2022 for chaining herself to a basketball post during an NBA playoff game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves. She was protesting Rembrandt Farms, which houses millions of chickens and is owned by then Timberwolves’ owner Glen Taylor, for alleged animal abuse.

DxE says on its website that its mission is to shut down slaughterhouses everywhere.

“We will achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in one generation,” the group says.

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Golden reported from Seattle.