Protest at Berkeley Trader Joe's Over Purchase of Chickens from Perdue's Petaluma Poultry

Animal rights activists protest outside the Trader Joe’s on University Avenue in Berkeley on Saturday, August 16, 2025. (Credit: Direct Action Everywhere)

Saturday, August 16, 2025, BERKELEY, CA -- Dozens of activists with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) protested outside the Trader Joe's store at 1885 University Avenue in Berkeley, after an Alameda County judge partially denied Trader Joe's requested temporary restraining order against DxE on Tuesday. Trader Joe’s had sought to prohibit protests inside and outside all 205 of their California stores, but Judge Keith Fong denied the request with regards to protests outside Trader Joe’s stores, and he admonished Trader Joe's for completely refusing to engage with the activists.

For years, DxE activists have been urging Trader Joe's to stop purchasing chickens from Petaluma Poultry, a subsidiary of poultry giant Perdue Foods, because of animal cruelty and conditions posing health risks to humans. Despite Trader Joe’s suing DxE, the campaign is continuing. Around a dozen protests are taking place this weekend at Trader Joe’s locations across the country.

At the protest in Berkeley, activists played audio recordings of chickens screaming during slaughter while large LED panels showed videos of ill and injured chickens at Petaluma Poultry facilities. Some activists wore large chicken masks that appeared to be dripping in blood.

Protesters delivered speeches to inform customers about animal cruelty and health risks at Petaluma Poultry and handed out their own version of Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, titled “Fearless Liar,” to customers exiting and entering the store. In addition, activists held photos of animals inside Petaluma Poultry's facilities and signs reading “Trader Joe's Sells Animal Cruelty. They also displayed a large banner reading “Trader Joe’s, Drop Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry.”

Berkeley resident and DxE organizer Paul Darwin Picklesimer noted, "Trader Joe’s wants to stop us from telling its customers that it sells Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry (Plant code 2882) branded as Trader Joe’s Organic Free Range Chicken but this Temporary Restraining Order only motivates us to get the message out more. When shoppers see “Trader Joe’s Organic Free Range Chicken” on the label, the picture in their head is very different than if the label said, “Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry”… one of the worst slaughterhouses on Turtle Island (the Continent).”

DxE investigators have documented systemic animal cruelty at Petaluma Poultry factory farms and its slaughterhouse, including sick and injured birds left without access to food or water and evidence of birds who entered the slaughterhouse scalding tank while still conscious and were boiled alive. 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.”

Additionally, as reported by The Press Democrat, USDA reports from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse show it has four times the national rate of campylobacter and four times the state rate of salmonella, two pathogens that commonly cause illness in humans. 

DxE investigator Zoe Rosenberg is facing one felony and three misdemeanors for openly rescuing four suffering birds from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Her trial begins September 15, 2025 in Santa Rosa.