Judge Refuses to Gag Animal Rescuer

Contact: Cassie King, DxE, (510) 507-8075, cassie@directactioneverywhere.com



Zoe Rosenberg (above) faces criminal charges for rescuing chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse on June 13, 2023. (Credit: Direct Action Everywhere)

June 4, 2025, Santa Rosa, CA - On Wednesday afternoon, Sonoma County Judge Kenneth Gnoss refused to issue a sweeping gag order, sought by prosecutors, barring animal cruelty investigator Zoe Rosenberg from speaking publicly about her high-profile case. Describing the requested gag order as “overbroad and vague by any constitutional standard,” Judge Gnoss noted that Ms. Rosenberg’s critics, too, had participated in public discussion about her case, pointing by way of example to a statement by Bill Matos, President of the California Poultry Federation, describing Ms. Rosenberg’s rescue of four chickens as a “terrorist act.”

“The District Attorney wants to silence me and send me to jail so that the public never hears about the horrid conditions at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse,” said Zoe Rosenberg. “I'm glad that I'll be able to continue telling the stories of Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, the four chickens who were suffering without care when I rescued them, and who today, are safe, loved, and thriving.”

“The State sought to restrict Ms. Rosenberg from discussing her case through a blatantly unconstitutional gag order. The Court rightly denied the request, citing her First Amendment right to speak,” said Ms. Rosenberg’s attorney, Chris Carraway, Staff Attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project .

In response to Ms. Rosenberg’s prosecution, more than 13,000 people have signed a letter to Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez urging her “to prosecute animal cruelty, not animal rescue.”

Also today, the district attorneys prosecuting Ms. Rosenberg dropped the theft charge against her, which activists say is a clear attempt to prevent the evidence of the condition of the rescued animals from being presented in the trial.

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. For years, Ms. Rosenberg and other activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) have reported to authorities unlawful animal cruelty at Petaluma Poultry and other county factory farms––as Ms. Rosenberg was doing when she was arrested. Additionally, a report from The Press Democrat found that the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse has four times the national average rate of salmonella and campylobacter, two pathogens that cause illness in humans.

Ms. Rosenberg, is a 22-year-old UC Berkeley student, and faces felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors, all stemming from a rescue of four ailing chickens at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Ms. Rosenberg’s trial will begin September 15, 2025 in Santa Rosa. She will appear in court next on June 13th for a hearing on pre-trial motions including defense’s motion to use the affirmative defense of necessity, which applies when someone acts in an emergency situation in order to prevent a harm from happening, in this case to protect animals in need of urgent medical care and to prevent potential public health impacts to consumers.

In 2023, Mr. Carraway successfully represented another animal rescuer who was acquitted of theft charges for rescuing a bird from a slaughter truck in Merced County.

Investigators with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) enter farms, slaughterhouses, and other facilities to document abuses and rescue sick and injured animals. DxE’s investigatory work has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED, and Vox . DxE activists have been subjected to FBI raids and felony prosecutions for their investigative work. In 2022, DxE activists won the first-ever acquittal in an open rescue case. Visit DxE on Facebook, Instagram , Twitter and at directactioneverywhere.com.

The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law works to empower and defend animal advocates through activist defense, affirmative litigation, and training law students to join and transform the field of Animal Law. Learn more at AALDP.com follow us at @AALDP_DU on Twitter/X , Instagram, and @AALDP-DU on Bluesky .

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