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The Disturbing Truth Behind Poultry Factory Farms 🐔 | Zoe Rosenberg DSH #872
00:23:57
Step into the eye-opening world of poultry factory farms with "The Disturbing Truth Behind Poultry Factory Farms 🐔" on the Digital Social Hour. 🌟 Join Sean Kelly and his courageous guest, Zoe Rosenberg, as they uncover shocking realities of animal c
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- [00:01]
A
People will just disregard health completely because also people are eating these chickens of toxins. Who knows what they're putting.
- [00:06]
B
We've found so many diseases and bacteria spreading at these facilities. I conducted testing myself, collected deceased birds for necropsy fecal samples and we found multi drug resistant zoonotic bacteria. I reported this to the usda. The head of the USDA office in Sonoma county, she told me that this wasn't her area of expertise. The United States Department of Agriculture can't do with this than you can.
- [00:36]
A
All right, guys, Zoe Rosenberg here, showing up on the ankle monitor. First time on the show.
- [00:41]
B
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
- [00:43]
A
Yeah, yeah. It's an honor to be the presence of you.
- [00:46]
B
Thank you.
- [00:47]
A
I mean, I. I actually believe in what you're doing. So let's, let's dive right in the story. I thought you have the monitor on.
- [00:51]
B
Thank you. Yeah. So I've been wearing an ankle monitor for over 200 days now, since December of 2023. And what I did was rescue four chickens from Purdue's Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. We had investigated the company over the several months prior to the rescue and exposed them for pretty horrendous criminal animal cruelty. And when we reported what they were doing to law enforcement, all I received really was a dismissive email from the district attorney's office. So. So I kind of felt in a way that I had no choice but to take action into my own hands to stop what was happening and to help some of these animals. And so I rescued four of those chickens from the slaughterhouse. Their names are Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea. And several months after that rescue, I was arrested on seven felonies and five misdemeanors, which at the time totaled up to over 20 years in prison. And I've been on an ankle monitor since then as well. Some of the charges have now kind of moved around or been condensed, but I'm currently facing up to eight years in prison.
- [02:02]
A
That's insane. So did you have to get provision to go there?
- [02:06]
B
I'm allowed to travel within the state of California. I have to tell my pretrial officer when I'm leaving my home county. But I don't need permission. If I'm going to leave the state of California, then I do need permission from a judge.
- [02:17]
A
Wow. So you're going to have that on until the trial then?
- [02:20]
B
Yeah, it's a pretrial condition, so that's the idea. It's possible I could get it off before, but we don't necessarily Expect that. And my trial hasn't been scheduled, so it's kind of just like, I don't know how long I'm going to be wearing this thing.
- [02:33]
A
Yeah. Well, the courts are still back up a while, right?
- [02:35]
B
Yeah. Things are moving very slowly. So, I mean, most likely my trial will be early next year, but we really don't know.
- [02:43]
A
Wow. So talk to everyone about the conditions you witnessed, and how did you even know the conditions were that bad in the first place?
- [02:48]
B
Yeah. So direct action Everywhere, which is the animal rights group I primarily work with, first investigated Petaluma poultry back in 2018. And on one of their factory farms called McCoy's Poultry, found chickens who were debilitated, unable to get to food and water, slowly dying of starvation and dehydration. And when they reported that to law enforcement, just kind of the same story as what happened to me last year, just no action was taken. People were kind of shocked because it was just such severe abuse that people really thought they would want to do something about that. So, once again, people rescued chickens back in 2018, and that was kind of my first introduction to pedaling with poultry as well. What happened that day was horrible. The animal rescuers with direct action everywhere tried to rescue 10 chickens, and they called the police and asked if they would come and help the other chickens because there were just so many who needed help. And the police came and stopped people from leaving with the chickens. And one officer, in kind of what seemed like an act of compassion, said the sickest chicken could go. And that chicken was Rose. And Rose came to live with me at my animal sanctuary that I run called Happy hen animal sanctuary. And all of the other nine chickens were killed by law enforcement.
- [04:15]
A
Whoa. Because they were nasted.
- [04:17]
B
Yeah. And at that time, the animal control department in Sonoma county actually recommended this Petaluma poultry factory farm as a suspect for animal cruelty. So they referred them to the sheriff's office, and the sheriff's office never did anything about it. Gee. So years later, you know, I kind of wanted to go back and see if anything had been done, if anything had been improved. A Petaluma poultry, and I really just found that it hadn't been improved at all. In one of the barns I investigated, over 10% of the birds had died by the time they were just five weeks old because disease and injury was just so rampant at this facility and the slaughterhouse. You know, evidence was uncovered of chickens who had been boiled alive because of the slaughter lines moving too quickly. And again, yeah. Just. It's so disturbing to Me that law enforcement is not focusing on. That is not focusing on stopping that violence and instead wants to put animal rescuers in prison.
- [05:22]
A
I wonder how much pull they have, though, like a regular police officer.
- [05:26]
B
Yeah.
- [05:26]
A
I feel like there needs to be. Is there like an organization that oversees us?
- [05:29]
B
Yeah, there's the Sonoma County District Attorney's office, and they kind of decide what does and doesn't get prosecuted in Sonoma County. We've reported cruelty to them for many, many years, and they're also the ones who are prosecuting me.
- [05:43]
A
Wow. Well, from a business point of view, these guys are probably bringing the county so much money, they're just going to defend them. You know what I mean?
- [05:51]
B
Yeah, yeah. I mean, Petaluma Poultry is owned by Purdue. It's the fourth largest poultry producer in the nation. This is a massive company that has.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah. There are so many jobs to the area that they're going to want to keep them there. Right. Because they probably provide thousands of jobs to that county.
- [06:04]
B
Yeah. And, yeah, it's just sickening that that's a priority over. Over the lives of these animals, over even just telling these companies that they have to have better standards.
- [06:15]
A
Yeah, yeah. People will just disregard health completely because also people are eating these chickens. So all the stress, all the toxins, who knows what they're putting.
- [06:23]
B
Yeah. And we found, you know, so many diseases and bacteria spreading at these facilities. I conducted testing myself, collected deceased birds for necropsy fecal samples, and we found, you know, multidrug resistant zoonotic bacteria. Other zoonotic bacteria that are very dangerous can cause, you know, people's intestines to rot if they're eating these chickens. And when I reported this to the usda, the head of the USDA office in Sonoma county, she told me that this wasn't her area of expertise. Like, you know, if the United States Department of Agriculture can't deal with this, then who can?
- [07:00]
A
Wow. She should at least pass it along to someone that can. Right?
- [07:03]
B
Yeah, absolutely. It shouldn't be my responsibility to make sure this gets home worse. It's their responsibility to protect public health.
- [07:10]
A
Crazy. And people are eating this, and then we wonder why everyone's sick right now.
- [07:13]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [07:15]
A
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'm a firm believer, like the. The food you consume, you're also consuming the energy.
- [07:21]
B
Yeah.
- [07:21]
A
So think about the stressful lives. Because now these chickens, they're selling them at what, like five weeks now?
- [07:26]
B
Six weeks.
- [07:27]
A
Six weeks. When I used to be 40, when we were growing up.
- [07:29]
B
Yeah.
- [07:30]
A
Chicken doesn't Taste the same anymore. Tastes terrible. I'm sure you're vegan, but. No.
- [07:35]
B
Yeah, no. Yeah. It's a huge problem this, the way we've industrialized agriculture.
- [07:41]
A
Yeah.
- [07:41]
B
It's just, it's bad for humans, it's bad for the animals. Nobody is winning except for these companies.
- [07:48]
A
Right. They're printing money.
- [07:50]
B
Yeah.
- [07:50]
A
Yeah. Chickens are being sold quicker and cows too. Right. Have you invested in cow farms?
- [07:56]
B
A little bit. Direct action everywhere. Investigators have more. I've done some investigatory work at dairy facilities, but, you know, we've also gotten hidden cameras in, you know, cow slaughterhouses and just exposed to how stressful it is for these animals coming, you know, on the, on the slaughter line, just struggle to escape and. Yeah, so much fear.
- [08:19]
A
Yeah. So is your issue just stopping this entirely? Like where, where do you want to see this?
- [08:24]
B
Yeah, that's a good question. You know, my, my hope in all of this is for animals to be kind of given legal personhood, which I know to a lot of people sounds like a very radical idea. And, you know, I think a lot of people probably associate personhood with things like the right to vote and very human things. You know, I do realize that non human animals probably will never be able to vote in human elections, and I don't expect that. But I think they should be treated as individuals with basic rights. They should have the right to their own lives. They should have bodily autonomy. Just basic things that they currently don't have. I mean, something like the right to live is something that we take so for granted that non human animals don't even have.
- [09:10]
A
Got it. So you want to get rid of slaughterhouses far away?
- [09:13]
B
Yeah, I think, you know, I'd love to see slaughterhouses, factory farms replaced with animal sanctuaries. Places where these animals can live out the rest of their lives.
- [09:21]
A
Yeah, I would love more sanctuaries. It's just a lot of people you meet, so I don't know how that would work. You know what I mean?
- [09:27]
B
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it's something that would be a process and you know, in industry we'd have to phase out and definitely adjust to as a society.
- [09:36]
A
What do you think about those synthetic meats? They're the bush and mop.
- [09:40]
B
I mean, I think it's definitely a great alternative to industrial agriculture to analyzer. I don't think anyone has to eat those that it needs. If people just want to eat plants as they are, that's great too. But I think for people who want them, they're a great alternative.
- [09:58]
A
So how Are these slaughterhouses killing the animals? Exactly. Because there's mass kill methods, apparently.
- [10:05]
B
Yeah. Well, at the Petaluma poultry slaughterhouse, which is obviously where I rescue these four chickens from, they hang the chickens upside down in shackles, and they move rapidly along a conveyor. And the first step is that the chickens are supposed to be submerged in an electric stun bath. So that's supposed to stun them. So in theory, they're not conscious for the remainder of the slaughter process. But as you can imagine, you know, these chickens are very afraid. They don't want to be electrocuted. They don't want to go into this bath. So when where their heads are supposed to be submerged in the water, many of the chickens will lift their heads up because that's how they avoid going in it. And so a lot of chickens enter the kill floor fully conscious. A house chickens, you know, we've seen with our hidden cameras, they're struggling, they're flailing, and then when it's time for their necks to go over the blade, they lift their necks up, they lift up their head so that they don't get their throat slit.
- [11:11]
A
Wow. So they're very conscious and aware of what's going on.
- [11:14]
B
And there's a worker on the kill floor who's supposed to manually slit those chickens. Yeah.
- [11:21]
A
What a job. I don't know.
- [11:22]
B
But, yeah. And understandably, the worker often doesn't do it right. Which I. I totally understand. I wouldn't want to do it either. But unfortunately, that means that a lot of those chickens enter the scalding tank alive.
- [11:36]
A
Oh, my God. So they're boiled alive. Holy crap. I didn't know it was like that. I thought it was like a gas saver or something.
- [11:44]
B
Yeah, we've definitely seen, you know, chickens gassed to death in various stages of the industry. Generally, it's not done at slaughterhouses, but if there's a disease outbreak, they will often gas chickens to death or kill them through something called ventilation shutdown, which is when they shut all the ventilation off in a barn and they raise up the temperatures, and chickens and other animals essentially die from heat stroke atoms. And that's obviously totally inhumane way to kill an animal. Yeah, yeah.
- [12:21]
A
Because there's a few big players in the meat company. Right. There's like four of them.
- [12:25]
B
Yeah, there's some big companies. Tyson, Purdue, Smithfield. Yeah.
- [12:33]
A
So are they all using flutterholes like this?
- [12:35]
B
Yes. Yeah.
- [12:36]
A
They don't want to do it in, like, a more humane away or.
- [12:39]
B
No. And that's something, you know We've definitely investigated a lot over the last few years as there's kind of been this shift to humane meat and ethical consumption, which in theory is great and I'm so glad people care about animal welfare and want these animals to be treated better. Unfortunately, these companies have kind of taken advantage of people's concern and people's compassion for animals and they have essentially have as animals in the exact same or very, very similar conditions as before, slaughtered them in the same slaughterhouse as before and just added humane labels and sold meat for twice the price.
- [13:16]
A
Formula free.
- [13:17]
B
Yeah.
- [13:18]
A
Yeah. Grass fed. Yeah. Apparently there's a lot of with the chicken eggs, they say like free range and stuff.
- [13:23]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I have investigated free range egg farms and it's literally just thousands and thousands and thousands of chickens packed tightly into a shed. We never get to go outside.
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A
Totally triple the price.
- [13:37]
B
Yeah. And they put these pictures of these chickens out in grassy fields that that's what the consumer is expecting. That's what they're imagining when they're buying these eggs. But that's not the reality is so manipulative, you see.
- [13:48]
A
And they're rejecting them too with hormones and vaccines now.
- [13:50]
B
Yeah.
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A
You're consuming that also and people don't even know that.
- [13:54]
B
Yeah. And. And it's kind of this impossible situation where like, you know, you're the antibiotic free chicken, but then those chickens are dying of higher rates of disease because they're not getting the antibiotics. But then if they are getting the antibiotics, you know, we're brewing antibiotic resistant bacteria. It's just as long as we're raising animals in this condition in these conditions, no one's going to win.
- [14:15]
A
Yeah. So do you think there is like a humane way to consume an animal or are you just totally against consuming animals?
- [14:21]
B
I mean, I don't think personally that there's a humane way to kill an animal because I think that, you know, they want to live just like we do. You know, even if it was done in a, a way where they didn't feel it, where they weren't afraid, you'd still be taking someone's life.
- [14:36]
A
Fair. So you see them as like a spear and a light.
- [14:38]
B
Yeah.
- [14:38]
A
That's why you have your sanctuary. How many animals you have?
- [14:41]
B
We have a little over 100 animals who are permanent residents at the sanctuary. We've saved over a thousand animals over the years, mostly from factory farms and slaughterhouses and some other abusive situations like cock fighting.
- [14:55]
A
Cock fighting?
- [14:56]
B
Yeah. It's a very horrible sport where two roosters are put in A fighting ring and they're basically forced to fight to the death. And roosters have been bred to be extremely aggressive and just, you know, not walk away. Like normally a rooster, if they're fighting with another rooster, one of them eventually will kind of submit and walk away and leave the fight. These roosters have been granted never back down. They will fight to the death.
- [15:25]
A
And that happens.
- [15:26]
B
It's illegal in the United States, but it happens illegally.
- [15:30]
A
Yeah, I've heard of dog fighting, but cop fighting, that's. That's crazy. Yeah. You got any dogs?
- [15:35]
B
Yeah, we do. We have a few dogs or.
- [15:37]
A
Yeah, I'd love to stop by one then.
- [15:39]
B
Yeah, that'd be great. We'd love to have you.
- [15:41]
A
I'm a big animal lover. I actually want to start a sanctuary one.
- [15:43]
B
Amazing.
- [15:44]
A
I just feel like, I mean, it's got to be expensive, right?
- [15:46]
B
Yes, definitely expensive.
- [15:48]
A
I don't know if I'm ready to take on that. That's a full time job too, feeding them. And you need a lot of land out of that, right?
- [15:54]
B
Yeah.
- [15:55]
A
How many acres you got?
- [15:56]
B
We have 40 acres.
- [15:57]
A
Holy crap, you're balling out here. 40 acres?
- [16:00]
B
Yeah.
- [16:01]
A
Was that like a family inheritance?
- [16:03]
B
Yeah, it's. It's my parents property, so they had a sanctuary. Well, I started the sanctuary myself when I was growing up, when I was 11 years old. Wow. I started the rescue. My mom was a veterinarian so having her help has been very, very nice. Nice.
- [16:20]
A
So you've been harsh about this your whole life?
- [16:23]
B
Yeah, yeah. Growing up, I definitely always loved animals. I was kind of an annoying kid. I think about it. I would put up like posters all around school, like profiling dogs who needed homes at local shelters. You know, other first graders were going to go and follow these dogs. Wasn't the most effective? Probably.
- [16:45]
A
I've been seeing a lot of. I don't like how there's still shelter for dogs. I've been seeing a lot of those on my social media. It's so sad.
- [16:51]
B
It's really sad.
- [16:52]
A
I wonder if there's a better system because these dogs are so smart.
- [16:56]
B
Yeah.
- [16:56]
A
You know what I mean?
- [16:57]
B
Yeah. I mean, I think these shelters need more funding and the government should be giving them resources so they can just, you know, house the dogs until they find homes instead of killing them. That's not a solution. Yeah.
- [17:09]
A
We're killing so many. Yeah. I don't know the exact numbers, but it seems like a large amount.
- [17:14]
B
Yeah, definitely.
- [17:16]
A
Yeah. We need to figure out how to just have sanctuaries in every county. Somewhere where dog could just roam.
- [17:21]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That would be a much better alternative than taking their lives.
- [17:25]
A
I love that. Yeah. Cats too, right?
- [17:28]
B
Yeah, definitely.
- [17:29]
A
New cat lady.
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B
We have cats. Yeah. I'm an all animals lady, I guess.
- [17:36]
A
Yeah. How many different types of animals do you know? Probably don't even know.
- [17:39]
B
I don't know. We have most species that are used for food, plus dogs and cats.
- [17:46]
A
Wow. Rabbits.
- [17:47]
B
We don't have rabbits.
- [17:49]
A
Squirrels.
- [17:50]
B
No, squirrels. We have a lot of squirrels who live wild on the property. Most all of our neighbors kill the ground squirrels, but we don't. So we've got, like, that.
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A
Kill them?
- [17:59]
B
Yeah.
- [18:00]
A
Why?
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B
Because they. They kind of like gophers. They burrow in the ground and people don't like that, so they poison them.
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A
What?
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B
Yeah.
- [18:07]
A
Do that legally. You could just poison the squirrel right now.
- [18:09]
B
Yeah. No, not a sadly.
- [18:12]
A
Wow. I get. I'm in Vegas. We get, like, coyotes sometimes.
- [18:16]
B
Oh.
- [18:17]
A
But I wouldn't kill it unless it was, like, attacking me. You know what I mean? Some people. I mean, you're probably against hunting.
- [18:22]
B
Yeah, yeah. But. But yeah, I mean, is. It's totally absurd to me to kill these squirrels when they're just burrowing and doing their thing.
- [18:31]
A
Yeah. I'm not a fan of killing just for fun.
- [18:34]
B
Yeah. Yeah. And some people do do it for fun. Like I watched, you know, driving on a. On a country road, and this truck, like, sped up to try to hit this ground squirrel and did end up hitting them. Killing them.
- [18:47]
A
That's terrible.
- [18:48]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Some people kind of see it as a sport. We'll hear, like, gunshots and in the area as people are, like, shooting. Shooting at the squirrels.
- [18:56]
A
Wow.
- [18:56]
B
Yeah.
- [18:56]
A
These are living creatures that people just think it's like a game, I guess.
- [19:00]
B
Yeah. You know.
- [19:03]
A
You feeling good about the trial, though? You feeling like you're going to win?
- [19:06]
B
We'll see. I think if we can show the jury evidence of the animal cruelty at Petalino Poultry and share the stories of these animals that I feel confident in order to win. If the judge and the prosecutors make it so that we're not able to show that evidence, then I'm less certain. Another activist faced trial in the same county last year for rescuing animals, and he basically was not allowed to talk about any of the animal cruelty he had documented. And honestly, it was just a serving. It really felt like he just wasn't allowed to present a defense, and he was ultimately convicted.
- [19:52]
A
That's concerning. Why wouldn't you be allowed to say your face? So I thought in trial, you're allowed to get time to say your face.
- [19:58]
B
Yeah. And you are. And the issue has been that, you know, the prosecutors have tried to argue effectively that this evidence, the animal cruelty evidence, will bias the jury by making it kind of an emotional decision for them, which. Sure, yeah, it's very emotional to see animal cruelty, but it's also just the truth. It's just the reality.
- [20:20]
A
Right. And also since the cameras were hidden, you're probably not allowed to use that as evidence. Right?
- [20:26]
B
I'm not sure. We haven't had that issue necessarily. A lot of it comes down to, you know, like, what was the defendant's intent? So if the defendant's intent was based on, you know, this footage and that was documented, then that could be admissible.
- [20:42]
A
Yeah. I just hope you get a fair trial.
- [20:45]
B
I hope so too, because seeing what.
- [20:46]
A
Happened with Trump and like, other examples, it's like, who knows if that's even a fair system exist.
- [20:52]
B
Yeah. Our legal system is not fair. Don't have much faith in it.
- [20:57]
A
Yeah. I'm rooting for you, though. But if you go to prison for this, that's crazy. I know fortunes. I mean, what, what damage did you do?
- [21:06]
B
They didn't even know I was there. They only knew about it because I posted about self sniff. Yeah. Well, what we do is called open rescue. So we have a philosophy that we're open about rescuing these animals and we feel it's really important to share their stories, tell their stories out to the world, even if sometimes that might mean taking some legal risks.
- [21:29]
A
Then you've got a ton of times floor. So you probably didn't even think this was a possibility.
- [21:34]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I always know it is a possibility to get prosecuted. I certainly didn't think this would happen. I didn't think I'd be wearing an ankle monitor, you know, and for four. Four chickens. Yeah. Up to eight years in prison is just obviously.
- [21:52]
A
So I would have understood if it was a bunch and like they lost money or something. But you didn't cause any financial damage. Well, your video did go viral, but that might have, but I don't know. I think that's probably why they did it. Because your, your video went viral, right?
- [22:05]
B
Well, so the videos got some views after the fact immediately, like 100,000 views. But I really went viral because of the prosecution. They kind of, they kind of made me go viral because people were so shocked that I got an angel monitor that, you know, tens of millions of people have been watching my videos to find out what happened. And a lot of people just don't believe my story. They think I'm lying and that I must have done something else other than just rescue these four chickens. But I literally just rescued four chickens.
- [22:36]
A
Well, hopefully this made them finally shaved at least. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see a trial with discovery.
- [22:41]
B
Yeah.
- [22:42]
A
So how can I like to be actionable with this show? How can ordinary people watching this get involved with helping out?
- [22:48]
B
Yeah. Well, definitely the most impactful thing I think anyone can do is joining the animal rights movement. And I'm a strong advocate of nonviolent direct action. Protesting, marching, rescuing animals, investigating these facilities. And if there's an animal rights group in anyone's area, I think the most effective thing someone could do is get involved with those groups and take action with them. But we also just terms of this case, in this trial, we have a petition at right to rescue.com that people can sign. It's an open letter to the Sonoma county district attorney's office, basically asking them to, you know, use the resources they're spending on my prosecution to instead investigate the animal cruelty at these facilities.
- [23:34]
A
Nice. We'll link that in the description.
- [23:37]
B
Yeah. And obviously, you know, once my trial scheduled, we definitely would love if people can come out and support and help share the stories of the these animals.
- [23:44]
A
Powerful. Thanks so much for coming on, Zoe. We'll link everything below. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys. Check everything out in the description below. See you next time.