Judge Denies Necessity Defense in Trial of Animal Rescuer

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

JULY 1, 2025, SANTA ROSA, CA - Sonoma County Judge Kenneth Gnoss ruled on Monday that the necessity defense will not be allowed in the high-profile trial of Zoe Rosenberg . Ms. Rosenberg faces felony conspiracy, misdemeanor trespass, and up to five years in prison for rescuing four ailing chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Petaluma Poultry is owned by Perdue Foods, the fourth largest chicken producer in the country. Today’s ruling means that Ms. Rosenberg cannot argue her actions were lawful because they prevented a greater harm.

The necessity defense permits an individual to take actions that would ordinarily be criminal in order to prevent a “significant evil” from occurring. Ms. Rosenberg’s attorney, Chris Carraway with University of Denver’s Animal Activist Legal Defense Project , argued that cruelty to animals and dangers to public health both qualify as significant evils, and that Ms. Rosenberg should be permitted to present evidence that her alleged trespass was justified under the circumstances. For years, legal scholars have argued that the necessity defense should apply in situations like these, but the defense has not yet been allowed in any US criminal case where activists are charged for rescuing animals from cruelty.

Ms. Rosenberg’s open rescue was prompted by years of investigations exposing routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at Petaluma Poultry factory farms in Sonoma County, including birds collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to access food or water. Sonoma County’s own Animal Services Department referred a Petaluma Poultry factory farm as a suspect for animal cruelty, after examining birds from the farm and finding that they were emaciated, bruised, unable to walk, and had necrotic wounds so deep that muscle and bone were exposed. The factory farm was never prosecuted.

Activists are also concerned about Petaluma Poultry’s systemic issues with zoonotic bacteria that can be transmitted to humans. The Press Democrat and ProPublica have both reported on the abnormally high rates of pathogens at Petaluma Poultry’s slaughterhouse.

Despite the history of animal cruelty and endangerment to public health at Petaluma Poultry, Deputy District Attorneys Matthew Hobson and Jessalee Mills maintained that the necessity defense should not be available in Ms. Rosenberg’s case. In their filings, the prosecutors likened the sick chickens Ms. Rosenberg rescued to “bacteria” or “microscopic life,” and argued the necessity defense should not extend to actions taken to protect them.

Cheryl Leahy, an attorney who specializes in animal law, including the enforcement of California’s animal cruelty statute, submitted an opinion in support of Ms. Rosenberg’s motion to use the necessity defense. Leahy’s opinion makes clear that animal cruelty statutes are systematically underenforced across California, particularly when the cruelty takes place in a commercial setting. Before the rescue, Ms. Rosenberg and other activists reported animal cruelty and public health risks at Petaluma Poultry to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the Petaluma Animal Shelter, and the Petaluma Police Department, to no avail.

The case will proceed to trial on September 15th.

"The chickens I rescued were suffering and in imminent need of medical attention. They are alive today, more than two years later, because of the care I provided them. How did that not prevent a greater harm?" asked Ms. Rosenberg, "Despite the judge's ruling, I still believe my actions were legal and necessary."

Ms. Rosenberg is an animal cruelty investigator with the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). In the last two years, DxE activists have won the first two acquittals for open rescue in history, in trials in St. George, Utah and Merced, California . Activists believe that these court cases are critical steps toward establishing a “Right to Rescue” animals in distress and defining nonhuman animals as persons, not property, under the law.

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 WIRED, 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.

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