A Woman Rescued Chickens Destined for Slaughter in a Commercial Farm. Did It Constitute a Rescue or a Crime?
One September afternoon in September's final days, the University of California, Berkeley attendee exited a court in California's Santa Rosa. Accompanied by her lawyers, she walked quickly through the court building's passages, by over a hundred prospective jurors.
Attached to her black blazer was a small metallic bird, shining on her collar.
These were the concluding moments of jury selection for the case against Rosenberg. She confronted two lesser charges for trespassing and one count of vehicle interference, as well as a serious conspiracy allegation. Should she be found guilty, she could face up to over four years in prison.
This isn't about who did it … It’s a whydunit.
The facts at the center of the trial were not in dispute. Shortly after midnight on a June night in 2023, Zoe and fellow activists of the group Direct Action Everywhere traveled to a poultry processing plant, a processing center about 64 kilometers north of San Francisco. Dressed like staff, they encountered a truck filled with thousands of live chickens packed into crates. They removed four chickens, secured them in pails and drove away.
These details were agreed because the group members had shared film clips of what they had done. “It’s not a whodunit,” the legal counsel, Carraway, likes to say. “It’s a whydunit.”
Following their exit, the activists examined the chickens – which they called Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea - carefully. She stated they were splattered with diarrhea and suffering from wounds and abrasions.
Carraway would explain in legal proceedings that Rosenberg’s intent was not to steal but to help the birds. The jury members would be asked to determine, in effect, how far compassion can go before it crosses into criminality.
Raised by a vet, Rosenberg grew up on a sizable property in San Luis Obispo county, California, surrounded by various pets and farm animals.
At age nine, the household acquired hens for the yard. She can still rattle off their monikers readily: her feathered friends. Until then, Rosenberg had shared the general view that poultry weren't intelligent, but getting to know them shifted her opinion. “I discovered they have distinct characters and that they’re so smart and curious, and that their lives are really, really valuable.”
Two years later, Rosenberg watched an digital recording of activists entering a large poultry operation in Australia and rescuing hens. This was her initial exposure seen inside a factory farm, and she was appalled at the situation: thousands upon thousands of hens packed tightly into cages. It served as her first encounter to the idea of open rescue, the phrase employed by advocates to detail missions in which they enter agricultural facilities or research facilities and take creatures in need. They make no secret of their work, frequently sharing videos of their operations.
Following the viewing, Zoe instantly realized that this was her calling, and she emailed the director of the group behind it. (“They didn't know my age,” she noted.) The next year, in that year, she started the regional group of Direct Action Everywhere, a recently formed advocacy group.
Throughout time, animal rights groups have gained a reputation for using confrontational tactics – such as efforts from the group comparing meat consumption to the Holocaust or stunts that involve splattering fur with fake blood. The reasoning is straightforward: a jolt is needed to shake societal indifference about animal suffering. Yet, it can lead to rejection: alienating the public. In cultures centered on animal products, many see such protests as a direct criticism – and experience condemnation, not conversion.
The group continues this approach; they have held “die-ins” near a meat market in the area and caused a disturbance at the beloved restaurant Chez Panisse.
But the group’s signature move has been “open rescues”. According to the group, an advantage of this approach is that it goes beyond raising awareness to an injustice – it seeks, to some extent, to correct it. It focuses on the agricultural sector rather than implicating individual consumers, and allows a look into the unseen environment of meat production.
“The trials we face are a method to pose the question to a diverse panel of our community members, and to others through the media,” said the communications lead, an activist. “Should it be illegal, or is it justified, to rescue an animal who’s dying in a commercial operation?”
Already, DxE activists note, there are “right to rescue” laws in CA and multiple jurisdictions granting people criminal and civil protection if they access a vehicle to rescue a threatened creature. Their argument is that the identical logic should apply to all animals in suffering.
Over the past decade, according to King, participants have conducted numerous missions. In recent times, rescuers have removed small hogs from a Utah factory farm; several hens from a company truck near a processing plant in the county; and three dogs from a scientific site in WI. After removing the animals, the rescuers ensure treatment and relocate them to safe environments.
The proprietor manages Weber Family Farms with his sibling in Petaluma. The property has been inherited for over a century, he stated. They produce eggs with a large flock, located in various coops. The operation, which is energized by solar power, also turns the chickens’ manure into organic fertilizer.
In May 2018, the group conducted a significant event on Weber's land. Numerous protesters showed up to protest. A subset invaded the farm and {broke into a chicken house|accessed a poultry building|entered a coop
