san francisco — A California woman on trial for allegedly taking four chickens from one of Perdue Farms’ main poultry plants has highlighted the treatment of animals at slaughterhouses nationwide, where her defense team says she saved the birds from abuse.
Closing statements are scheduled for Tuesday in a case that could send Zoe Rosenberg, 23, to prison for more than five years. During the seven-week trial, her defense focused not on whether she took the chickens from Petaluma Poultry in 2023 – Rosenberg shared the video of the theft online and posted it on social media to her hundreds of thousands of followers throughout the trial – but on the justification for doing so.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said the case was not about why she took the chickens, but that she had committed an illegal act.
“This is not a murder. This is a murder,” Kevin Little, one of Rosenberg’s attorneys, said during his opening statement.
He said Rosenberg, who was charged with three misdemeanors and felony conspiracy, investigated the plant for two months before taking the birds and consulted a veterinarian who was concerned about photos showing animals being boiled alive. Her other lawyer, Chris Carraway, said in a statement that this “was a rescue, not a crime.”
Rosenberg is an animal rights activist with the group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, known for animal rescues and protests that often garner national attention. Perdue Farms is one of the nation’s largest poultry producers and supplies major grocery chains like Safeway.
In recent years, similar cases involving animal rights activists have had mixed results before juries across the United States. But in Sonoma County, California, where agriculture is one of the main industries, Rosenberg faces a particularly uphill battle. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the county is believed to have filed more animal rights cases than any other in the country.
As a condition of staying out of prison, Rosenberg had to wear an ankle monitor while attending classes at the University of California, Berkeley, until the start of the trial last month.
“An enormous amount of government resources have been spent prosecuting me for the alleged ‘crime’ of rescuing four abused chickens from the Perdue slaughterhouse,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Monday.
But even more troubling is the fact that these resources are not being spent on stopping criminal animal cruelty at Purdue facilities. “Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea are safe but a lot of the others are not,” she said, referring to the names her group gave to the chickens it took in.
Prosecutors say Rosenberg entered Petaluma Poultry without permission four times and attached GPS devices to 12 delivery vehicles before taking chickens from a trailer and leaving with them, while about 50 DxE members demonstrated outside, the Press Democrat reported.
Another DxE member, Raven Deerbrook, faced similar charges before reaching a plea agreement in June 2024. She described herself as a former DxE member and testified for Rosenberg last week, saying she had initiated an investigation into the Petaluma Poultry case and informed Rosenberg about possible animal cruelty, the newspaper reported. Press Deerbrook.
The Press Democrat reported that Rosenberg testified that she disguised herself as a Petaluma Poultry Company employee using a fake badge and earpiece. She and other members of the group filmed and shared the event. She said she was acting out of concern for animal cruelty, not as part of a criminal conspiracy.
Prosecutors say the processing plant break-ins fit Rosenberg’s pattern of activity and were part of a coordinated campaign.
“Do you want open rescue to be something that happens everywhere?” Deputy District Attorney Matt Hobson asked Rosenberg during questioning last week, the newspaper reported.
“Yes,” Rosenberg replied.
Rosenberg was previously arrested in April 2022 for handcuffing herself to a basketball pole during an NBA playoff game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves. She was protesting Rembrandt Farms, the multi-million chicken farm owned by Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor, over alleged animal abuse.
DxE says on its website that its mission is to close slaughterhouses everywhere.
“We will achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in a single generation,” the group says.
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Golden reported from Seattle.