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Graduating with an Ankle Monitor

May 13, 2025

The Daily Californian

When I walk across the stage to graduate from UC Berkeley this month, an ankle monitor will track my every step. I am facing up to five and a half years in prison for rescuing four criminally abused chickens, Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. Throughout my four years of university, I’ve lived a double life. There have been many evenings where I have rushed home from school to gear up and prepare for a long, sleepless night of investigating factory farms and slaughterhouses.

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Graduating with an Ankle Monitor

May 13, 2025

The Daily Californian

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Disrupt Trader Joe's in Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Part of Nationwide Weekend of Action

May 4, 2025

Direct Action Everywhere activists protest dozens of Trader Joe’s stores across the country asking the retailer to cut ties with Perdue’s California subsidiary, Petaluma Poultry, given documented animal abuse

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Disrupt Trader Joe's in Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Part of Nationwide Weekend of Action

May 4, 2025

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PRESS

Billboard Highlighting Animal Rights Activist’s Sonoma County Criminal Case Goes Up in Petaluma

May 2, 2025

Press Democrat

The billboard, which went up in April along southbound Highway 101 near the East Washington Street exit in Petaluma, features an illustration of Zoe Rosenberg holding a chicken accompanied by the text: “Should she go to prison for rescuing a chicken?”

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Billboard Highlighting Animal Rights Activist’s Sonoma County Criminal Case Goes Up in Petaluma

May 2, 2025

Press Democrat

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PRESS

Bay Area Animal Rights Activist Faces Up to 5 1/2 Years in Prison for Chicken Rescue

May 2, 2025

KCRA 3

In one video shared by Direct Action Everywhere, Rosenberg is seen crouching on dirt while holding a chicken with another chicken lying in front of her. It is not the first time Rosenberg has participated in what she and Berkeley-based organization Direct Action Everywhere call an "open rescue." Before taking the chickens, Direct Action Everywhere investigated Petaluma Poultry, and Rosenberg said she tried to report animal abuse to Sonoma County law enforcement.

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PRESS

Bay Area Animal Rights Activist Faces Up to 5 1/2 Years in Prison for Chicken Rescue

May 2, 2025

KCRA 3

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TOP PRESS

This California Student Could Go to Prison for Taking Four Chickens. Was It a Crime or a ‘Rescue’?

May 1, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Just four months after she graduates on May 17 with a bachelor’s degree in social movement strategy, the straight-A student will stand trial in a Sonoma County courtroom for her June 2023 incursion into Petaluma Poultry, a processing facility owned by agribusiness giant Perdue Farms. If convicted for taking four chickens Perdue valued at around $24, she faces up to 5½ years in prison.

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TOP PRESS

This California Student Could Go to Prison for Taking Four Chickens. Was It a Crime or a ‘Rescue’?

May 1, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

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PRESS

Going to Prison for Rescuing Hens?!? Animal Activism on Trial with Zoe Rosenberg

April 18, 2025

Our Hen House

Despite facing harsh pretrial conditions, including an ankle monitor and travel restrictions, Zoe remains steadfast in her commitment to the power of open rescue and animal rights activism.

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PRESS

Going to Prison for Rescuing Hens?!? Animal Activism on Trial with Zoe Rosenberg

April 18, 2025

Our Hen House

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BLOG

Resistance in 2025

April 17, 2025

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BLOG

Resistance in 2025

April 17, 2025

The resistance of 2025 might not look like the resistance of 2017. That’s okay. In fact, sociologist Doug McAdam has demonstrated that tactical innovation was critical for the continued success of the civil rights movement. As organizers introduced new tactics, movement activity (‘insurgency’) rose dramatically.

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BLOG

Perdue Just Sued DxE in an Attempt to Silence Free Speech

April 5, 2025

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BLOG

Perdue Just Sued DxE in an Attempt to Silence Free Speech

April 5, 2025

Perdue's legal complaint is riddled with false accusations meant to malign nonviolent activists and keep the attention off its abuse of animals.

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PRESS

Perdue Foods Files Court Action to Block DxE Animal Rights Activists from Protesting at Poultry Exec’s Home

April 4, 2025

Press Democrat

Agribusiness giant Perdue Foods and a director of operations at one of the company’s brands, Petaluma Poultry, have filed an injunction against the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere seeking to protect the executive from what they allege is “a campaign of terror.”

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PRESS

Perdue Foods Files Court Action to Block DxE Animal Rights Activists from Protesting at Poultry Exec’s Home

April 4, 2025

Press Democrat

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

California Activist Gets Jail Time for Taking Chickens from Perdue Farms Plant

December 4, 2025

The Associated Press

Zoe Rosenberg, 23, did not deny taking the animals from Petaluma Poultry but argued she wasn’t breaking the law because she was rescuing the birds from a cruel situation.

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist to Serve Jail Time After ‘Chicken Rescue’ Conviction

December 3, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

“They’re denying that any of this suffering is happening,” she said. “We have been calling on the California Attorney General to take action, because the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office has made it abundantly clear that they do not care about these animals whatsoever.” Her supporters cheered and yelled out promises to not give up defending animals.

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TOP PRESS

She Said She Was Rescuing Chickens. A Jury Convicted Her of Conspiracy.

October 29, 2025

The New York Times

The four chickens she took with her — whom she named Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea — are alive at a sanctuary for rescued farm animals, she said. “I will not apologize for taking sick, neglected animals to get medical care,” Ms. Rosenberg said in a statement. “When we see cruelty and violence, we can choose to ignore it or to intervene and try to make the world a better place.”

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Animal Rights Activist Found Guilty in ‘Chicken Rescue’ Trial

October 29, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

But even if the appellate court doesn’t reverse Rosenberg’s conviction, she likely won’t regret having risked prison time to force a trial. Her trial, by some measures, was still a success. Several national publications — including The New York Times and the Associated Press — covered it, raising awareness of DxE’s goal to eradicate America’s factory-farming industry by 2040.

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TOP PRESS

California Woman on Trial for Taking Chickens from Perdue Farms' Plant Says She Was Rescuing Them

October 28, 2025

The Associated Press

A California animal rights activist on trial for taking four chickens from one of Perdue Farms’ major poultry plants said Tuesday that she was rescuing Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea from abuse while prosecutors say she broke the law.

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TOP PRESS

She Took Chickens from a Slaughterhouse. Was It a Rescue or a Crime?

October 24, 2025

The Guardian

I asked Rosenberg what outcome she was hoping for. “My ideal outcome is honestly just whatever is best for the animals,” she said. “An acquittal wouldn’t set an actual legal precedent, but it would set a social precedent, to some extent, and send an important message.”

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Activist Testifies She Saved Sick Birds, Not Stole Them, in Chicken Rescue Trial

October 17, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Before a jury in a Sonoma County courthouse, Rosenberg testified that she believed at the time that her actions, often called “open rescue,” were “lawfully justified” to prevent what she considered “criminal animal abuse” by Petaluma Poultry, a Sonoma-based operation owned by Perdue Farms, a major poultry supplier nationwide.

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TOP PRESS

Berkeley Grad’s Chicken ‘Rescue’ Trial Begins in Sonoma County with Question of Intent vs. Crime

October 6, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Though Rosenberg is technically the one on trial, they plan to force a deep review of the often-unsavory practices occurring at meat-processing facilities across the country.

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TOP PRESS

How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists

June 3, 2025

Wired Magazine

Hundreds of emails and internal documents reviewed by WIRED reveal top lobbyists and representatives of America’s agricultural industry led a persistent and often covert campaign to surveil, discredit, and suppress animal rights organizations for nearly a decade, while relying on corporate spies to infiltrate meetings and functionally serve as an informant for the FBI.

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

An Update from Zoe in Jail

December 11, 2025

My cell is small, but I can stand up and take a few steps. In many parts of the US, animals can legally be housed in such tight confinement that they can't even spread their limbs or turn around.

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BLOG

My Impending Incarceration and the Urgency of Animal Rescue

December 10, 2025

My prosecutors are hoping my jail sentence will scare you. They’re hoping you’ll consider rescuing an animal and then think of me and change your mind. No. Think of me if you will, but then do it.

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BLOG

Animal Rescuer Zoe Rosenberg Read This Powerful Statement at Her Sentencing Hearing

December 4, 2025

This is the statement defendant Zoe Rosenberg read in court at her sentencing hearing on Dec. 3, 2025, before she was sentenced to 90 days in jail for rescuing Poppy, Aster, Ivy, and Azalea from Perdue's Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse.

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 7: Oct 27th-29th 2025

October 27, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 7 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 6: Oct 20th-24th, 2025

October 20, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 6 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 5: Oct 13th-17th, 2025

October 13, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 5 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 4: Oct 6th-10th, 2025

October 6, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 4 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 3: Sept 29th-Oct 3rd, 2025

September 29, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 3 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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BLOG

Perdue Rescue Trial Court Watch - Week 2: Sept 22nd-27th, 2025

September 22, 2025

Updates and summaries from Week 2 of the Perdue Rescue Trial

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

SF Giants MLB Game DISRUPTED By Animal Activists in YODA and DARTH VADER Costumes

July 31, 2022

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PRESS RELEASE

Supporters at “Vigil at Yosemiteville Horror” Event to Comfort Pigs Outside Slaughterhouse

July 14, 2022

Animal rights advocates gathered to mark the two-year anniversary of the release of Unseen, an undercover mini-documentary exposing extreme cruelty inside this facility, and to bear witness and spread compassion for its victims.

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PRESS RELEASE

Joey Chestnut HEADLOCKS Animal Activist in Darth Vader Costume During Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 4, 2022

Investigators with same animal rights group face felony trial in September after rescuing piglets from a Smithfield Foods factory pig farm

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PRESS RELEASE

After Judge Rules to Exclude Animal Cruelty Evidence In Trial, Bay Area Felony Defendants March with Photos from Farm

June 18, 2022

Over 70 activists, including two Bay Area residents facing felony charges for rescuing piglets from a Smithfield factory farm in Milford, Utah, marched through the streets of San Francisco Saturday.

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PRESS RELEASE

Former Baywatch star enters “Not Guilty” plea in Foster Farms chicken rescue case

June 16, 2022

Alexandra Paul and Alicia Santurio, two members of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), have been charged with theft in conjunction with a dramatic rescue of two chickens from a Foster Farms slaughter truck.

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PRESS RELEASE

Utah Capitol Protest Targets Attorney General After Judge Gags Evidence of Smithfield Foods’ Cruelty, Disease

May 23, 2022

Two defendants face years in prison after removing sick piglets from the largest factory pig farm in the U.S.

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PRESS RELEASE

Protesters Pursue and Loudly “Shame” CA Ag Committee Members on Streets of Sacramento Wednesday Afternoon

April 26, 2022

Bill for moratorium against new factory farms was killed by first Assembly committee set to consider it

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PRESS RELEASE

Protester Dressed as NBA Ref Runs on Court, Attempts to “Eject” and “Fine” Timberwolves Owner

April 22, 2022

Third disruption by animal rights activists this month follows exposé of chickens being “roasted alive” at team owner Glen Taylor’s factory farm

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Animal Activist Disrupts Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Play-in Game

April 15, 2022

Footage from Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s factory farm reveals chickens fully conscious after being “roasted alive” en masse

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