Activists Protest at Home of Perdue Slaughterhouse Director

January 29, 2025, Santa Rosa, CA – On Tuesday evening, animal rights activists held a home demonstration in Northeast Santa Rosa outside the home of Jason Arnold, Director of Operations for Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. The protestors delivered speeches with a megaphone, asking Arnold to meet with them to discuss findings of criminal animal cruelty at Petaluma Poultry, saying that emails sent to him requesting a meeting have gone unanswered.

The protest was organized by the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), whose investigators have documented systemic animal abuse at Petaluma Poultry factory farms and its slaughterhouse. Their findings include birds collapsed on the floor and unable to walk to food or water; birds with splayed legs; birds with open wounds; birds who entered the slaughterhouse scalder while still conscious and were boiled alive; and birds suffering from infectious diseases that threaten public health. DxE says the findings demonstrate clear violations of California Penal Code Section 597, which prohibits subjecting an animal to “needless suffering” or inflicting “unnecessary cruelty upon the animal.”

DxE investigator Zoe Rosenberg is currently facing criminal charges in Sonoma County for rescuing sick birds from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Her trial is set to start May 16, 2025 in Santa Rosa.

Petaluma Poultry is a wholly owned subsidiary of Perdue Farms, the fourth largest poultry producer in the United States. It supplies to major grocery chains including Trader Joe’s and Safeway. DxE is also calling on retailers that sell Petaluma Poultry chickens to cut ties with the company. Last week, Paris Hilton added her voice to the effort, commenting on a DxE Instagram video tagging Trader Joe’s and saying, “Trader Joe’s please do the right thing and cut ties with Petaluma Poultry.”

Protestors outside Arnold’s home on Tuesday held a large banner reading “Jason Arnold, Cut Ties with Perdue.” They say if he is not going to address the animal abuse at Petaluma Poultry, he should resign from his position and find a job that doesn’t involve cruelty to animals. Protestors also handed out information to some of Arnold’s neighbors explaining the reason for their demonstration and describing the findings at Petaluma Poultry.

Multiple police cars arrived at the protest shortly after 6 PM. The police said Jason Arnold had contacted them, but they left soon after checking out the situation, and the protest continued.

“We’re asking Jason Arnold to follow his moral compass and stop boiling animals alive, but he refuses to even speak with us,” said Kristina Garfinkel. “If he’s not proud of what he’s doing to animals, he should make a change and stop directing Perdue’s cruel operations.”

Last year, celebrity chef Tyler Florence and all of his San Francisco restaurants cut ties with Petaluma Poultry after protests brought these findings to their attention. A representative from Florence’s team said, “This action reflects Tyler’s ongoing commitment to exploring partnerships that align with his values and the betterment of the culinary community at large.”

See photos here.