{"id":779646,"date":"2025-10-30T08:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779646"},"modified":"2025-10-30T09:17:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:17:31","slug":"injustice-for-all-animal-rights-activist-found-guilty-in-chicken-rescue-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779646","title":{"rendered":"INJUSTICE FOR ALL: Animal rights activist found guilty in \u2018chicken rescue\u2019 trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoe Rosenberg\u2019s defense team is expected to appeal her conviction. As part of the defense team\u2019s expected appeal, they plan to ask the court to allow the “necessity defense”. The big question is whether Rosenberg\u2019s conviction will galvanize\u00a0 DxE\u2019s “Open Rescue” cause. As she stated after the verdict: \u201cA lot of times, we see the most mobilization in movements during moments of loss, in moments when people have been arrested or sentenced to serve time in jail. As a movement, we will similarly come back stronger in this moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, October 29, after about 3\u00bd hours of deliberation, jurors convicted animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg on all charges: felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors. The 23-year-old San Luis Obispo native faces up to five years in jail when she returns for sentencing on Dec. 3, though probation remains a possibility…<\/em><\/p>\n

In his closing remarks, Deputy District Attorney Matt Hobson portrayed Rosenberg as an activist so committed to spreading her message that she took those four chickens from Petaluma Poultry on June 13, 2023 more for fame than for the chickens\u2019 wellbeing… He also raised doubts about the timing of the open rescue, which coincided with DxE\u2019s annual \u201cAnimal Liberation Conference”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s decision represents a significant blow for Rosenberg\u2019s controversial Berkeley-based group, Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, which has a stated mission of \u201ctotal animal liberation.\u201d By spurning a plea agreement in favor of a high-stakes trial, Rosenberg had hoped to make DxE\u2019s most compelling case yet that the organization\u2019s brazen tactics known as \u201copen rescues\u201d are justifiable. Instead, she now faces the prospect of years behind bars for her role in a June 2023 incursion at Perdue subsidiary Petaluma Poultry…<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though DxE activists have landed not-guilty verdicts in \u201copen rescue\u201d trials held in other jurisdictions, they have now been found guilty in two such trials in Sonoma County, an agriculturally rich region known as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Provence\u201d where more than 130 DxE activists have been arrested since 2018. Two years ago, in the same Santa Rosa courthouse where Rosenberg learned her fate Wednesday, DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for his role in two factory farm protests in Petaluma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Complicating matters for the defense in both cases: DxE\u2019s lawyers weren\u2019t allowed to mount a \u201cnecessity defense,\u201d which deems that a person\u2019s actions were justified if they had exhausted every other option before breaking the law. This left defense attorneys appealing to jurors\u2019 sentimentality. For the same reason a bystander is legally allowed to break a window to rescue a dog trapped in a hot car, they argued, their clients\u2019 actions were justifiable…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed,\u201d Chris Carraway, one of Zoe Rosenberg\u2019s attorneys, told the Chronicle. \u201cBut even if the verdict had been all \u2018not guilty,\u2019 I still would\u2019ve been disappointed by the fact that no one is bothering to investigate Petaluma Poultry”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout his closing statement Tuesday, Carraway stressed that Rosenberg couldn\u2019t be found guilty of felony conspiracy because she believed that what she was doing was legal. The jury, however, didn\u2019t need long to side with the prosecution. The three-plus hours jurors spent deliberating on Wednesday represented a small fraction of the six days they needed after the Hsiung trial.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rosenberg\u2019s defense team is expected to appeal her conviction… As part of the defense team\u2019s expected appeal, Rosenberg\u2019s attorneys plan to ask the court to allow the necessity defense. \u201cIt would have helped tremendously because this was a necessary act,\u201d Carraway said. \u201cIt would have allowed us to introduce all the evidence that Petaluma Poultry is not only abusing animals, but putting people\u2019s health at risk”…<\/em><\/p>\n

The big question now is whether Rosenberg\u2019s conviction will galvanize \u2014 or hinder \u2014 DxE\u2019s cause. \u201cA lot of times, we see the most mobilization in movements during moments of loss, in moments when people have been arrested or sentenced to serve time in jail,\u201d Rosenberg, who will have to wear a GPS ankle monitor until her sentencing, told the Chronicle after Wednesday\u2019s verdict. \u201cAs a movement, we will similarly come back stronger in this moment”. CONNOR LETOURNEAU<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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