SANTA ROSA, CA — Jurors on Wednesday found animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg guilty of trespassing and conspiring to take four chickens from a Northern California processing plant, a spokesman for a group that represents her said.
Rosenberg, 23, did not deny that she took the animals, but said that she was saving them from a cruel situation. She faces a prison sentence of more than five years. Rosenberg and her attorney have said they will appeal the ruling if she is found guilty, said Lauren Gazzola, a spokeswoman for the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project.
“Sonoma County spent more than six weeks and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars protecting a multibillion-dollar company from rescuing four chickens worth less than $25,” Rosenberg’s attorney, Chris Carraway, said in a statement.
Rosenberg, an activist with Direct Action Everywhere, removed chickens from Petaluma Poultry in 2023. The company supplies chickens to Perdue Farms, one of the country’s largest poultry suppliers to major grocery chains.
Her lawyers said the case was not about whether or not she took the chickens, as her organization filmed and released footage, but why she did so. Meanwhile, prosecutors said she engaged in illegal behavior regardless of her motives.
She was charged with two misdemeanor counts of trespassing, one count of misdemeanor tampering with a motor vehicle and one count of felony conspiracy.
The experiment took place in Sonoma County, where agriculture is a major industry. The co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere was convicted two years ago for his role in factory farm protests in Petaluma.