Country Music Star Praises Animal Activist Defendant in Chicken Rescue Trial

California’s Chicken Rescue Trial has turned into a national tug of war over whether a woman who rescued four chickens from a slaughter truck is a criminal or a hero.

Hollywood, California, September 30th, 2025 – The chicken rescue trial of animal cruelty investigator Zoe Rosenberg is in week three, meaning it’s already lasted longer than some human murder trials. It’s so controversial they still haven’t gotten to opening statements as the voir dire process drags on in an attempt to find impartial jurors in the agricultural community 55 miles north of San Francisco.

Redefining American Culture to Include Compassion to Animals

The 23-year old defendant is facing almost half a decade behind bars for rescuing 4 chickens. Rosenberg is charged with felony conspiracy and several misdemeanors for a June 2023 rescue of 4 chickens from a Perdue-owned slaughterhouse. It’s a case that’s already stirring headlines and emotions far beyond Sonoma County, California.

Over the weekend, a country music star performing in Hollywood praised the defendant while on stage. Simone Reyes interrupted her concert to explain that she had visited the defendant’s farmed animal sanctuary, called Happy Hen, and called it heaven.  Reyes spoke with UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez-Mitchell during the network’s daily coverage of the trial stressing that she is tired of people equating animal agriculture with patriotism and asserting compassion to animals is genuinely patriotic. You can watch the entire conversation here:

Will Rosenberg’s Supporters Flip the Script and Put Animal Ag on Trial?

Dozens of supporters of Zoe Rosenberg, many of them members of the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, have converged on Santa Rosa to watch the trial. And, on weekends and Wednesdays – when court is not in session – these activists are busy demonstrating, marching and chanting in supermarkets and in caravans across the community. This past weekend, DxE – as it is known – staged a factory farm caravan tour, with a large assembly of cars and vans driving from one factory farm to the next, covering hundreds of miles. Their hope is that Zoe Rosenberg is acquitted and their dream is to legally cement what they call “the right to rescue.”

Animal Bill of Rights

The right of animals to be rescued from situations in which they are sick and suffering is just one tenet of “The Animal Bill of Rights” named Rose’s Law in honor of the one chicken authorities allowed activists to take home after a massive “open rescue” – which is a rescue done in the open as opposed to undercover – at a factory farm in 2018. The proposed law would enshrine the following rights for all animals:

• The right to be free – not owned – or to have a guardian acting in their best interest.

• The right to not be exploited, abused, or killed by humans.

• The right to have their interests represented in court and protected by the law.

• The right to a protected home, habitat, or ecosystem.

• The right to be rescued from situations of distress and exploitation.

Many Sonoma County Citizens Already Have Opinions on This Case

Jury selection, known as voir dire, where potential jurors are questioned to determine if they can be fair and impartial, has dragged on.  Already, hundreds of Sonoma County residents have been summoned, and many have claimed hardship, given that the trial could stretch on for several more weeks.

Much of the courtroom activity thus far has been marked by heated exchanges over what evidence the jury will actually be allowed to hear. One particularly fierce battle centers on bird condemnation records photographed by another animal cruelty investigator while she was inside the very slaughterhouse where Rosenberg carried out her rescue. The defense has implied that these condemnation records will show the number of chickens that enter the slaughterhouse dead on arrival as well as those arriving with serious illnesses making them unfit for human consumption. The defense insists this condemnation evidence is vital, as it shows the conditions the defendant was responding to. Rosenberg maintains she repeatedly tried to get authorities to investigate her allegations of sick and dying birds arriving for slaughter and it was law enforcement’s refusal to act that directly influenced her decision to go in and get those four birds out herself.  Prosecutors, on the other hand, are pushing hard to limit that narrative.

The stakes are high: prosecutors want to lock up Zoe for nearly five years, while her supporters say this case could flip the script and put industrial animal agriculture itself on trial. Perdue continues to deny all allegations of cruelty, saying it has high animal welfare standards and calling Direct Action Everywhere an extremist group with a radical agenda to end animal agriculture. UnchainedTV has an open invitation to the company to further present its perspective.

Watch the Entire Trial Unfold

UnchainedTV has committed to live coverage every day court is in session during this trial. You can watch the network’s coverage of the entire trial here.