San Luis Obispo County animal activist facing five years in prison

October 29, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

An activist with an animal sanctuary in San Luis Obispo County is facing  more than five years in prison after she trespassed at a poultry plant and snatched four chickens.

Shortly after midnight on June 13, 2023, Zoe Rosenberg and several others disguised as workers entered a poultry slaughterhouse north of San Fransisco. They put four chickens into buckets, loaded them into a vehicle, and left Petaluma Poultry.

Prosecutors later charged now-23-year-old Rosenberg with one count of felony conspiracy, two misdemeanor counts of trespassing and a misdemeanor count of tampering with a vehicle.

Rosenberg grew up on a 40-acre property in San Luis Obispo County. When she was 9 years old, her parents put in a chicken coup.

After watching a documentary about activists “rescuing” chickens from an egg farm in Australia, at 12 years old, Rosenberg joined Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), an activist group focused on shutting down all slaughterhouses.

At 15 years old, Rosenberg chained herself to a gate outside the Cal Poly meat processing center in an attempt to stop the slaughter of a cow.

Rosenberg hopped a fence at Cal Poly along with a woman who was also participating in the animal rights activism event. The two females then chained themselves to the gate and livestreamed the incident, with Rosenberg doing much of the talking.

The teen activist said she was nicknaming the cow “Justice.” Rosenberg said she wanted to take the cow to live at her Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary.

University police arrested Rosenberg for trespassing, but it appears charges were never filed.

In April 2022, Rosenberg chained herself to a basketball post during an NBA playoff game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves. She was protesting Rembrandt Farms, which is owned by then Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor. Law enforcement again arrested Rosenberg, who was then a University of California, Berkeley student.

She is currently on trial for taking four chickens she named Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea. Rosenberg’s attorney said she was saving the animals from abuse. Both sides agree she took the chickens, but disagree on her motives.

Prosecutors argue Rosenberg took the chickens as part of a publicity stunt to promote DxE and gather information about the slaughterhouse. They said that Rosenberg snuck into Petaluma Poultry four times and attached GPS devices to 12 delivery vehicles before snatching the chickens.

“Direct Action Everywhere is a global network of activists working to achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in one generation,” according to the DxE website.