A California animal rights activist has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of conspiracy and trespassing for taking four live chickens from a Perdue Farms facility in 2023, prosecutors said.

Zoe Rosenberg, 23, of Berkeley, California, was sentenced on Dec. 3 and ordered to turn herself in to the county jail by Dec. 10, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office said in a news release. She was sentenced to 90 days of county jail, but 60 of those days can be served through alternatives such as electronic home confinement.

Rosenberg was also ordered to serve two years of probation and pay restitution to Petaluma Poultry, which said it documented over $100,000 in losses from the incident, according to the district attorney's office. Petaluma Poultry is owned by Maryland-based Perdue Farms, one of the largest poultry producers in the country.

Prosecutors said Rosenberg initially faced a maximum sentence of four and a half years in jail after she was found guilty by a jury in late October following a seven-week trial in Sonoma County, a major wine-producing and agricultural region in Northern California. She was convicted of a felony charge of conspiracy, two misdemeanor counts of trespassing, and one count of tampering with a vehicle.

"This verdict affirms that no one is above the law," Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in a statement after Rosenberg's conviction. "While we respect everyone’s right to free expression, it is unlawful to trespass, disrupt legitimate businesses, and endanger workers and animals in pursuit of a political or social agenda."

Rosenberg is an activist with Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, a Berkeley-based animal welfare group. In response to her sentencing, the group said Rosenberg — who did not regret her actions — had saved the four chickens from a slaughterhouse and poor conditions.

"I am filled with remorse for every animal I have failed to save," Rosenberg said at her sentencing hearing, according to DxE. The group said in a news release on Dec. 3 that Rosenberg's attorneys have filed a notice of appeal.

Prosecutors say activist 'coordinated a series of unlawful entries' in 2023

Prosecutors accused Rosenberg of conspiring with other DxE members to "unlawfully enter the USDA-regulated facility, remove live chickens, steal business records, and interfere with commercial operations." According to the district attorney's office, Rosenberg and other DxE members had "coordinated a series of unlawful entries" into Petaluma Poultry in 2023.

Prosecutors argued that the entries were "not spontaneous," and involved disguises, breaking into the facility and secured areas through a cut fence, photographing and stealing internal business records, and placing tracking devices on all 12 of the facility's transport trailers.

DxE members had repeatedly entered the facility at night between April and May 2023 to plant hidden cameras, recover footage, and gather documents, according to prosecutors. Then, on June 13, 2023, prosecutors said Rosenberg and a team entered the facility while it was open and removed four live birds.

Another team had triggered the facility’s alarms, causing the front gate to open and allow other DxE members to "rush onto the property," prosecutors said. At the same time, prosecutors said a separate team stopped the Petaluma Poultry truck in a different county and took additional birds.

"Her conduct and that of her co-conspirators forced a shutdown of the processing line, caused more than $100,000 in losses and created significant biosecurity and sanitation risks inside a facility that processes food for consumers throughout Sonoma County and across the country," the district attorney's office said in the news release.

Animal rights activists argue birds live in cruel conditions

Rosenberg and DxE argued that they were rescuing the birds after allegedly finding that Petaluma Poultry facilities in Sonoma County had violated state animal cruelty laws, according to the group's news release.

Prosecutors said Rosenberg had claimed the birds she removed were "covered in feces, bruises, scratches, large wounds and parasites." But during the seven-week trial, prosecutors said only two photographs of two birds were shown as evidence, and did not show any of the conditions described.

Prosecutors added that Rosenberg and other DxE members also used an Airbnb as a "safe house" where the stolen birds were taken to be documented for social media.

"Rosenberg led the social media wing of (DxE)," the district attorney's office said. "Her own testimony confirmed that she helped craft media content surrounding the break-in to advance DxE’s public campaign against the facility."

Her TikTok posts about the case garnered millions of views, including from actor and social activist Joaquin Phoenix, who criticized Rosenberg's conviction and called on the district attorney to "prosecute the years of documented animal cruelty" at Petaluma Poultry.

Prosecutors said Rosenberg's social media posts caused "real-world consequences for employees and businesses," including two restraining orders that were issued to protect the families of Petaluma Poultry employees.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Activist sentenced to jail after stealing chickens from poultry plant

Reporting by Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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