Nautical Protest to Trade Joe's Poultry Policy

Saturday, August 30, 2025, BERKELEY, CA -- Animal rights activists dressed in Trader Joe’s signature floral shirts embraced the company’s nautical theme in a creative protest against their “free-range” chicken supplier Petaluma Poultry. With a 16-foot-long boat construction complete with moving waves, the protesters set sail in front of the Trader Joe’s store on University Avenue. The boat read, “Trader Joe’s: Follow Your Moral Compass and Steer Away from Petaluma Poultry.”

The protest was organized by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), which has been calling on Trader Joe’s to cut ties with Petaluma Poultry over documented animal cruelty. Trader Joe’s sued DxE in an attempt to stop protests at their stores, but an Alameda County judge ruled that protests could continue outside of the stores. 

DxE investigators have documented systemic animal cruelty at Petaluma Poultry factory farms in Sonoma County and its Petaluma 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.”

Several activists behind the boat delivered nautical pun-filled speeches criticizing Trader Joe’s for its continued relationship with Petaluma Poultry.

“We are asking Trader Joe’s to follow a moral compass rather than be solely guided by the pursuit of profit,” said Berkeley resident Orion Sehn, one of the protesters. “Then they surely would cut ties with Petaluma Poultry’s animal cruelty.”

“Trader Joe's has sued us to stop us from coming inside their stores with our concerns, but we will keep protesting outside, trying any creative tactic we can to expose the truth about what is happening to these animals and to ask Trader Joe's to drop Petaluma Poultry,” said protester Cothron Theiss.

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.