Chicken-Stealing Activist's Trial Puts Spotlight on Slaughterhouses

A California woman on trial for taking four chickens from one of Perdue Farms' major poultry plants has put animal treatment at slaughterhouses in the national spotlight as her defense team argues she rescued the birds from abuse, the AP reports. Closing statements are scheduled for Tuesday in a case that could land Zoe Rosenberg, 23, in prison for more than five years. During the seven-week trial, her defense hasn't focused on if she took the chickens from Petaluma Poultry in 2023—Rosenberg shared the video of the theft online and has posted on social media to hundreds of thousands of followers throughout the trial—but rather the justification for doing so. Meanwhile, prosecutors have argued the case isn't about why she took the chickens, but that she committed an illegal act.

"This is not a whodunit. This is a why-dunit," said Kevin Little, one of Rosenberg's lawyers, during his opening statement. He said Rosenberg, who has been 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 images that appeared to show animals being boiled alive. Chris Carraway, her other attorney, 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, which is known for animal rescues and protests that often garner national attention. Perdue Farms is one of the largest poultry producers in the country and supplies such major grocery chains as Safeway.

"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. In California's Sonoma County, where agriculture is one of the main industries, Rosenberg faces an uphill battle.