Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old University of California, Berkeley student, is standing trial in Santa Rosa, California, after removing four chickens from a slaughterhouse in June 2023. She faces two misdemeanour counts of trespassing, one count of tampering with a vehicle, and one felony conspiracy charge. If convicted on all counts, she could face up to four and a half years in prison.
The facts of the case are not in dispute. Shortly after midnight on 13 June 2023, Rosenberg and other members of the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) entered Petaluma Poultry, a slaughterhouse north of San Francisco. Disguised as workers, they took four chickens from a truck and drove away. The group later released video footage of the act, which Rosenberg’s lawyer Chris Carraway described as “not a whodunit, but a whydunit.”
Rosenberg says the chickens—named Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea—were covered in diarrhoea and suffering from injuries. Her legal team argues that her intent was not theft but animal rescue. The jury must determine whether her actions constitute compassion or criminality.
Rosenberg grew up on a 40-acre property in San Luis Obispo county, the daughter of a veterinarian. After keeping backyard chickens at age nine, she says she recognised their intelligence and unique personalities. At 11, she watched an online video of activists removing chickens from an Australian egg farm, which introduced her to the concept of “open rescue”. The following year, she founded the San Luis Obispo chapter of DxE.
DxE is known for its confrontational tactics, including “die-ins” and “open rescues”, where activists remove animals from farms and slaughterhouses while filming the operations. The group argues the tactic exposes hidden animal suffering and corrects injustice, though critics view it as a threat to food supply systems. The trial continues to examine how far compassion can extend before it becomes a crime.
