She Took Chickens Destined for Slaughter in a Industrial Farm. Did It Constitute a Rescue or a Criminal Act?
During a September afternoon in late September, Zoe Rosenberg left a courtroom in the city of Santa Rosa. Flanked by her lawyers, she walked quickly through the courthouse corridors, beyond dozens of prospective jurors.
Pinned to her dark jacket was a tiny silver chicken, shining on her collar.
It was one of the last days of choosing the jury for her legal proceedings. She stood accused of two lesser charges for illegal access and a charge related to meddling with a truck, as well as a serious conspiracy allegation. If convicted on all charges, she could receive up to 54 months in jail.
This isn't about who did it … It’s a whydunit.
The central events of the case were agreed upon. Shortly after midnight on 13 June 2023, Rosenberg and several other members of the organization DxE headed to a poultry processing plant, a slaughterhouse about a short drive north of San Francisco. Posing as employees, they found a transport truck filled with thousands of live chickens packed into crates. They rescued four hens, placed them in buckets and departed.
The events were uncontested because Zoe and her companions had subsequently released video footage of the incident. “This isn't about the perpetrator,” Rosenberg’s lawyer, Chris Carraway, often states. “It's about the motivation.”
After leaving the slaughterhouse, the group inspected the poultry – whom they named the rescued birds - in greater detail. Zoe claims they were splattered with diarrhea and suffering from wounds and abrasions.
Her attorney clarified in legal proceedings that her aim was not to steal but to aid them. The jury members would be required to judge, in effect, how far compassion can go before it crosses into criminality.
As the child of an animal doctor, Rosenberg grew up on 40 acres in California's San Luis Obispo, California, living with various pets and farm animals.
During her childhood, the household acquired back-yard chickens. She can still rattle off their names without pausing: Eddie, Chirp, Olive, Herki, Red, Daisy and Popcorn. Previously, Zoe believed the widespread belief that birds lacked smarts, but interacting with them shifted her opinion. “I discovered they have unique personalities and that they are intelligent and inquisitive, and that their lives are really, really valuable.”
Two years later, Zoe viewed an online video of rescuers infiltrating a major egg producer in Australia and rescuing hens. It was the first time witnessed a factory farm, and she was shocked by the conditions: countless birds packed tightly into cages. It served as her first encounter to the idea of open rescue, the term activists use to explain actions in which they enter agricultural facilities or labs and remove animals they deem to be in distress. They publicize their actions, regularly releasing recordings of their operations.
After watching the video, She quickly decided that this was her calling, and she emailed the director of the group behind it. (“They didn't know my age,” Rosenberg recalled.) Subsequently, in 2015, she started the local branch of Direct Action Everywhere, a recently formed advocacy group.
In recent history, advocacy organizations have developed an image for using aggressive methods – like efforts from the group linking animal products to tragic events or dramatic acts with simulated gore. The logic is simple: it takes shock to jolt people out of complacency about livestock pain. However, it frequently backfires: turning people off. In a society where eating meat is the norm, many see such protests as a individual insult – and experience condemnation, not conversion.
The group continues this approach; they have organized demonstrations near a meat market in Berkeley and interrupted a meal at the renowned dining spot Chez Panisse.
However, their hallmark action has been “open rescues”. From the activists’ perspective, a benefit of this method is that it not only highlights to an wrongdoing – it tries, modestly, to remedy the situation. It focuses on the agricultural sector rather than faulting purchasers, and provides a view into the hidden world of meat production.
“Our legal battles are kind of a vehicle to pose the question to a randomly selected jury of our peers, and to the public via news outlets,” said a group representative, DxE’s communications lead. “Is it wrong, or is it justified, to save a creature who’s dying in a industrial facility?”
Already, the group points out, there are “right to rescue” laws in CA and multiple jurisdictions providing legal safeguards if they forcibly enter a motor vehicle to remove an endangered animal. They contend that the identical logic should apply to all animals in need.
Since 2014, according to King, members of the group have conducted numerous missions. In recent times, activists have taken small hogs from a commercial operation; two chickens from a company truck at a facility in the county; and canines from a scientific site in WI. After removing the animals, the activists provide them with veterinary care and place them in new homes.
The proprietor operates his family's farm with his sibling in the area. The farm has been in his family for over a century, he told me. They produce eggs with nearly a million birds, kept in multiple structures. The business, which is energized by solar power, also recycles droppings for soil.
Back in 2018, the group conducted a significant event on the property. Several hundred activists gathered to object. Some of them stormed on to the property and {broke into a chicken house|accessed a poultry building|entered a coop
