By Vanguard Staff
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Animal rescuer and activist Zoe Rosenberg was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in custody for taking four chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse, a case that has drawn national attention from animal protection groups and concerns from her supporters about her medical safety in jail. Rosenberg will be eligible for alternative custody for the final 60 days of the sentence but must serve the first 30 days in the Sonoma County Main Adult Facility beginning Dec. 10.
Rosenberg, who was convicted in October of three misdemeanors and one felony conspiracy count after a six-week trial, was prosecuted for what she and supporters describe as an “open rescue,” a form of civil disobedience in which activists enter farms or slaughterhouses, remove animals they believe to be in distress, and publicly claim responsibility. Court records describe the four birds she removed as having a combined value of about $24.
During her sentencing hearing, Rosenberg told the court she did not regret saving the animals. “I am filled with remorse for every animal I have failed to save,” she said. “To the little baby chick who is currently writhing in pain on the floor of a Perdue factory farm, the young rooster being violently slammed into a Perdue transport crate, and the terrified hen about to enter Perdue’s scalding tank while fully conscious, I am sorry.”
Supporters argue that Rosenberg’s medical condition makes incarceration dangerous. She has Type 1 diabetes and relies on an insulin pump, which supporters said the jail previously threatened to take away during an earlier arrest. She was hospitalized in September with gastroparesis, a complication that has left her dependent on a feeding tube, and she is also taking an experimental medication. Despite her medical status and nearly two years of complying with pretrial release conditions, prosecutors urged immediate custody following the verdict. Her attorney called the sentence excessive and unjust.
“Jailing Ms. Rosenberg for the nonviolent rescue of chickens worth less than $25 is unconscionable,” said Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project. “Sonoma County has put Ms. Rosenberg’s life at risk all to protect a violent, multibillion dollar industry from the idea conveyed by Ms. Rosenberg’s actions: that farmed animals deserve to live peacefully at sanctuaries rather than have their throats slit to satisfy our tastebuds.”
Petaluma Poultry, owned by Perdue Foods, is one of the largest poultry suppliers in the country and the parent company of the ROCKY and ROSIE brands sold as “free-range” and “organic.” For years, investigations by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), the organization with which Rosenberg is affiliated, have documented conditions on Petaluma Poultry-connected farms that they say violate California’s animal cruelty laws. Video and reports submitted to authorities have described birds unable to stand, collapsed on their backs, or trapped without access to food or water. The group has also reported the presence of infectious diseases, injuries, and animals living among decomposing bodies.
In a 2023 investigatory report, DxE alleged “routine violations” at six Petaluma Poultry-associated farms, including at a facility on Hunter Lane in Santa Rosa, where investigators documented birds “collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to walk to food or water, left to slowly starve to death.” Rosenberg herself was documented carrying sick and injured birds during a 2023 investigation at the same facility. Authorities have not taken action against Petaluma Poultry in response to these reports.
Despite these investigations, both Sonoma County and the city of Petaluma have repeatedly declined to prosecute Petaluma Poultry for animal cruelty. Supporters noted that just two weeks ago, local authorities again declined to pursue charges against the company. During Rosenberg’s trial, the judge limited the evidence jurors could hear regarding previous cruelty findings at the facilities, though Rosenberg’s supporters say this information shaped her belief that the birds needed to be rescued.
Rosenberg received one day of credit toward her sentence for the nearly two years she wore an ankle monitor under pretrial supervision. Her legal team filed a notice of appeal immediately after sentencing.
The four chickens removed from the slaughterhouse — named Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea — survived and are now living at a farmed-animal sanctuary, supporters said.
Rosenberg’s case comes as prosecutors nationwide increasingly pursue felony-level charges against open-rescue activists, a shift animal rights advocates argue is intended to deter both investigations and public scrutiny of industrial farming practices. Her supporters say the sentence underscores longstanding tensions between local authorities and activists who have attempted to document conditions in Sonoma County’s animal agriculture industry.
Rosenberg is scheduled to begin serving her sentence Dec. 10 unless an appellate court intervenes.
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