January 29, 2025 • 44 mins
At just 22 years old, Zoe Rosenberg is facing multiple felony charges for rescuing four sick and injured chickens from a California slaughterhouse. But an ankle monitor, an upcoming trial, and the threat of prison won’t stop her fight for animal rights. In this episode, Zoe takes us inside her latest arrest, her fight for the voiceless, and why she believes civil disobedience is essential for change. Get ready for an eye-opening conversation that challenges everything we think we know about justice, how we can take action for animals, and the price of activism. Zoe is proof that one person can make a difference. Tune in for a wild ride.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was arrested on seven felonies and six misdemeanors.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It really does sound ridiculous if nobody's told you that yet, Zoe,
let me be the first. This is all so ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Chickens in the egg industry are bread to lay over
three hundred eggs a year when naturally has only lay
eight to twelve and this cause a reproductive disease that
was causing all the eggs to enter her abdomen and
not exit out of her vent and this ultimately cost
her her life. At the time that I did this rescue,
(00:35):
it had been five years of them ignoring criminal animal cruelty,
and now it has been almost seven. It's just like
this has gone on for an absurd amount of time
and there just still aren't doing anything.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ready for lunch, Welcome back to our own world, where
we like to amplify bold voices and tackle things we
care about. Today's guest is a remarkable young activist who
has dedicated her life to animal rights and compassion. Zoe Rosenberg,
(01:12):
now twenty two years old, founded the Happy Hen Animal
Sanctuary when she was just eleven years old and has
since become a powerful voice for animal welfare. Across the
United States. Zoe is our first guest in three seasons
not to be on our spaceship. She is tuning in
from California, where she has an ankle monitor. Zoe is
(01:33):
currently facing multiple criminal charges for rescuing four sick and
injured chickens from Purdue's Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in Sonoma County
Say that four times fast. A UC Berkeley student a
national activist, Zoe has already achieved extraordinary milestones. She's been
named Youth Activist of the Year by the National Animal
Rights Conference, received the Pau McCartney veg Advocate Award, and
(01:56):
has even given her own TED talk. Her activism is
loud and fearless, from chating herself to slaughterhouse gates to
protesting it high profile events like the NCAA Football Championship,
Zoe is not afraid to draw national attention to animal
rights issues. Join us in welcoming Zoe to the Mothership.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Woo Thank you Zoe.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Happy to be here, which I could be there in
real life.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're so happy to meet you. We came across your
story on social media. Social media really is incredible at
sharing important news sometimes and I'm grateful for that, and
I was blown away by what it is that I
was seeing. So for anybody who doesn't know, why don't
you share your story with us?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah? Well, I have been an animal rescuer since I
was eleven years old, like you said, And in fact,
I have in the past who worked with authorities to
rescue animals from situations where they're facing criminal abuse. I've
worked with authorities to rescue cock fighting roosters and animals
and other situations and Insinoma County, I faced a very
(03:01):
different situation where the authorities, in fact were not willing
to help me. In fact, the authorities were ignoring me
when I was reporting criminal animal cruelty at Produce pedalingal
Poultry that I had documented, and when I rescued four
chickens from Produce pedalingal Poultry slaughter house myself and shared
their stories to call in the public to join me
(03:23):
in pressuring authorities to prosecute this company. They arrested me
on felony charges and put me on an ankle monitor
and I go on trial on May sixteenth, or starting
on May sixteenth, facing up to five and a half
years in prison.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Wow, that's a very long time and correct me if
I'm wrong. There was a certain point in your process
that you were facing much longer sentence. Yes, so, how
did that happen? How did it get brought down?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes? So I was first arrested at the end of
twenty twenty three. I was arrested on seven felonies and
six misdemeanors. Two of those felonies were for an investigation
and rescue that I did at a company called bry
Cart Duck Farm, which is the largest factory duck farm
in the state of California. They confine over two hundred
(04:12):
thousand ducks in horrific conditions at any one time. I
have investigated factory farms across the United States, and bright
Cart has to be the worst facility I have ever
been to. I mean, I don't even like to think
about that place. And throughout the course of that investigation,
(04:33):
I rescued two dying ducks from the flour of the
facility who were on the verge of death. Their names
River and Oakleigh. When I brought them to a veterinarian,
the veterinarian literally said to me, I cannot even imagine
the conditions where something like this could have happened. I
mean they had just gaping wounds covering their bodies. It
(04:55):
was really appalling, and I shared their stories in the
fall of twenty twenty three, and I led a group
of people to the Sonoma County Sheriff's office, where together
we reported this company for criminal animal cruelty to show
that there was a lot of public support for prosecuting this,
and of course they did not prosecute it. Oh, and
(05:17):
then I went back to the Sheriff's office about a
month later to re report by KRT dot Farm and
also to re report Pedaluma Poultry. I had conducted this
investigation at Pedaluma Poultry in the spring of twenty twenty
three and done the rescue in June of twenty twenty three,
(05:38):
and so we were re reporting both of the companies.
I was on my way to the Sheriff's office with
the folder of evidence and an officer came up to me,
and that's when I was arrested. So I was arrested
while reporting. Wow and yeah, so originally, so the five
other felonies were for Pedaluma Poultry, two were for right cart,
(06:00):
and two of the misdemeanors were for right Cart. And
four of the misdemeanors were for pedaling of poultry, so
it's a little bit complicated. The two felonies for a
right cart duc farm were never filed. They never filed
those charges. They still could the statute limitations is not
up that it's about three years, so they could still
file them in the next two years. I don't know
(06:21):
what their calculations are on that. They did file the
pedaling of poultry charges. So they filed five felonies and
four misdemeanors against me. So originally with the right cart charges,
it was over twenty years in prison, and then when
they didn't file the right cart charges, it went down
a little bit, and five felonies and four mist demeanors
(06:42):
was still a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, that's still a lot. Especially how old were you
when this all started?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I was I actually So the rescue that I did
at Pedalduma Poultry was on my twenty first birthday. Wow,
And I actually had court on my twenty second birthday.
And on my twenty second birthday they filed another felony
against me. So that was my birthday present from the
Samola County District Attorney's office. But that felony was also
(07:08):
ultimately dropped. So the judge after my preliminary Well, first off,
the judge early on ruled that they charged me with
a charge that literally does not exist. So that was theist.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Tell us about that, what do you mean it doesn't
exist like by law.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, the charge just literally wasn't even a thing.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
They were trying to slap another felony on you.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes, they were just trying to charge me with anything
that they could. So that was dropped. And then after
I had my preliminary hearing, which is essentially a hearing
where the prosecution has to present enough evidence to the
judge to prove that there is a possibility of crime
is committed. It's a very low threshold that they just
have to prove enough there's a possibility of crime is
(07:52):
committed so that the case can proceed to trial. Wow.
And after that hearing, the judge, while she did say
that the case could proceed to trial, she ruled that
they had pretty severely overcharged me. So four of the
five felaties were ultimately dismissed and that's why they tried
to file another one which also got dismissed because it
(08:14):
was not applicable to this case in any way. So
now I'm facing one felony and four misdemeanors.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I love how you say like small stones.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I'm so used to talking about it now, I'm sure
you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And just point of clarity, who who's they? Who's the
one that is giving these charges? Who is it you're
fighting against? Essentially?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, So the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office is the
agency that is prosecuting me, produced Pedaluma Poultry is the
company involved. And you know, while they're not themselves the
ones prosecuting me, they could likely influence whether or not
this prosecution happens, and they seem to want it to
(08:59):
happen as far as we can tell. Yeah, And the
Sinoma County descript Orney's Office is also the agency that
would be prosecuting Pedaluma Poultry for animal cruelty if they
decided that they believed that that should be dealt with
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Is so, are they not looking at both cases at
the same time, or they're considering your case kind of
like a rule out of the other.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
They are just ignoring animal cruelty completely as far as
I can tell. Every time I have emailed them a
report of criminal animal cruelty. They have just sent me
a dismissed email in response, and they've made it pretty
clear that they're not particularly concerned.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mentioned you encountered criminal animal abuse. As far as
you know, what are the current laws in place to
protect something like poultry, right, animals like ducks and chickens,
just to use as an example, in these slaughterhouses, in
these farms, is there anything that protects them from the
essential horrendous quality of life that they end up having.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
There's not very much that protects them. And I mean
on a federal level, there's just about nothing protecting birds
in particular, birds have very few legal protections in the
United States. In California. California is one of the states
with the strongest animal welfare laws, and even here it's
not that great. There have been two, i mean, relatively
(10:23):
strong animal welfare laws passed in the state of California
in recent years. The most recent one was Proposition twelve,
and that basically set some standards for how much space
animals are required to have and a few other things
like chickens on certain facilities are not required to have
access to a place where they can dust bathe, but
(10:44):
it's very, very minimal, and we find that these laws
are very very rarely enforced. And I mean there's there
are some laws in California, you know, for example, you're
not supposed to cause unnecessary pain to an animal. How
do you prove that something's unnecessary? And what body is
(11:05):
going to actually enforce this law sure and make sure
that that's not happening. I mean at Pedaluma Poultry, they're
boiling chickens.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Alive, and I heard of that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It's clearly unnecessary. There's nothing necessary about boiling chickens alive
during this water process, and yet the Pedaluma Police Department
is unwilling to do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Well, also, let's be real, like, how are you able
to put yourself out there for the animals and be
able to deal with the fact that we're dealing with
the pain and everything. How do you balance that?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, that's a good question. It's been hard in a
lot of ways and including ways. I really didn't anticipate, No,
when I went to court the day I got my
ankle monitor, I was not mentally prepared to leave facing
exactly what I was facing, and all my past court
hearings and I mean the fact that's the animal rights
(11:59):
group I'm working with. Every past hearing that any activists
in our organization has ever went to they have been
released on their own recognizance. No one's ever been put
on an ankle monitor, had any pre trial, And so
I was not mentally prepared for this at all. And
when I left, I felt chwo things simultaneously which we're
(12:21):
at conflict with one another, and one was that this
is a really important moment and that I couldn't that
this determine, that I had to make as much noise
about this as possible because it's just so unjust. And
also for one of the first times in my career
as an activist, just like desperately feeling like I just
(12:42):
wanted to be invisible, and those I kind of had
to to reconit that a bit. And when I have
like those moments where I feel any sort of like
doubt or insecurity or fear, I really go back to
the animals who I've rescued, and in particular the animals
(13:04):
who I've watched suffer or who I've watched die, or
who I've loved and who have ultimately died. There was
one hen in particular who very early on, when I
was eleven, we rescued her. She came from a factory
egg farm. She had never been outside. Her name was Georgia.
She had never been outside before. She spent her entire
(13:25):
life on a factory farm. And because she had been
bred to lay so many eggs, chickens in the egg
industry are bread to lay over three hundred eggs a year,
when naturally it is only lay eight to twelve and
this caused a reproductive disease that was causing all the
eggs to enter her abdomen and not exit out of
(13:47):
her vent and this ultimately cost her her life. And
when she was dying, I made a promise to her
that I would fight for her, and then I would
fight for a world more animals ever had to go
through what she went through. And so in these moments
of fear, I remind myself of that promise that I
(14:07):
made to her, and I know that I can never
give up, but I can never stop fighting.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I think that you are definitely a beacon of strength.
Even in the short time that I've been aware of
your story, anything that I encounter of you, I just
see a level of certainty and of confidence, and I
think you really emulate to the world around you and us.
You know, we're basically on the other side of the
country in Miami. What it maybe takes to do really
(14:49):
hard things in order to see small changes that will
hopefully lead to big changes around the world. So I
really commend you not only for your strength, but just
at your perseverance and your willpower in all of this,
because I can imagine it's not easy. What what was
the purpose of the house arrest just to keep you
in California.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well, so I'm on an ankle monitor. I'm not actually
on house arrest, but I do, gotcha, I do have
some travel restrictions, so I can't leave the state without
court permission. So it's like a whole thing to be
able to leave the state. And I have to notify
the authorities essentially every time I move between counties gotta
(15:30):
which it just feels because they know where I am
the whole time on an ankle monitor. Why do I
have to call you? But yeah, So the the reasoning
behind it was, I mean, essentially, the court said that
I said that I was not going to stop rescuing animals,
(15:50):
and to the prosecutors, you know, I got to see
says she's not going to stop. An ankle monitor is
the only way to stop her.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, right, I heard you. I heard you say in
a video that you were you also aren't allowed to
rescue any more animals right now?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yes, so I currently am prohibited from possessing chickens, ducks,
and other foul because they particularly do not want me
to rescue anymore birds.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So that's I mean, it's just like you hear about
people being prohibited from possessing drugs or like fr right,
you really don't hear about people not being allowed to
possess birds.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It is very strange. And yeah, so like if I
came across a chicken on the side of the road
who someone had abandoned, I would not be allowed to
pick them up and help them. If I did, I
would be grown in jail. I would have my release revoked.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Wow, that's that's definitely extreme.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So what would you say would be the way that
we could really truly in the next year help advocate
for animals or you know, advocacy for what's going on
with how we're misinterpreting how to take care of animals.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I think. I mean, the number one thing I
think is to take nonviolent direct action in any way
that you can. I would encourage people to get involved
with the local group if you know you're interested in
attending my trial. It's actually going to be open to
the public. People are going to be flying out from
(17:26):
all over the country to attend and show the court
that they support animal rescue and that they don't support
animal cruelty. And people can register it dxt io slash
register if they're interested in coming out. It starts May sixteenth,
and it'll last a few weeks most likely. Yeah, So
that's one thing people can definitely do for this specifically,
(17:47):
but just in general speaking up for animals in any
way you can. I personally work with Direct Action Everywhere
and you know this whiz on our website for people
to define avenues to get plugged in and to get
involved with this work.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And what is a direct Action Everywhere?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Direct Action Everywhere is an international animal rights network taking
nonviolent direct action to create systemic change for animals in
one generation. And we believe that through non violent direct
action we'll be able to, you know, not just one
by one change how people think about animals, but create
like wide scale change that will drastically change what is
(18:27):
happening in the day to day lives of animals.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I mean that's that's huge question. Can you tell
me a little bit about your experience with Corey Jorger. Yes,
she's become a villain in my book, she says, a.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Bit of a villain. So, yes, Corey Jurger is the
a detective at the Pedaluma Police Department.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
My story with her begins in fall of twenty twenty three.
I had reported criminal animal cruelty the pedal in the
poultry slaughterhouse to the pedal in the police department, and
after a months I get an email from them saying,
we're interested in having a call with you hm, And
so I gave them my phone number and I agreed
(19:15):
to have a call with Detective Corey Jurger. So she
calls me out of the blue one day and I
answer and she's telling me that she's, you know, wants
to learn more about what's going on at the slaughterhouse.
And you know, I was a little bit skeptical at
the time, like are you just trying? Like I was
(19:36):
always skeptical of the police, like I was like, are
you trying to trick me? But I was also, you know, hopeful,
I'm gonna tell you about the animal cruelty, and I
really hope you do something, yeah, because it's I mean,
it's been going on for way too long. And so
she's telling me that, like she's been to the slaughterhouse
before to look into things, but that there have never
(19:58):
been chickens there while she was at the slaughter house.
I'm like, Okay, so you clearly didn't try that hard
if there were no chickens there, because if you really
cared about this, you would have made sure you went
while there were chickens there, like chickens are there most
of the time, in fact, so you very easily could
have gone while there were chickens there. And you know,
I was telling her about how, you know, we have
(20:18):
evidence that animals are being boiled alive, that we have
evidence of very high rates of disease, including diseases that
not only of course, are threatening these chickens, but are
threatening public health.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right and because people consume these animals yesterwords.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, And many of these diseases are zoonotic, which means
that they can be transmitted between non human, animals and humans.
So I was telling her about this and she wanted
more information, or she said she did, so I had
my attorney reach out to her, and my attorney was
going to work with her to provide her with video evidence,
(20:56):
and she just ghosted, never got back to us, and
then she so she's the primary detective. Okay. So when
I was arrested on the seven felonies and miss this
is just not what a sentence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
When I was arrested, I'm so happy you find the community.
You deserve it. You deserve it. It really does sound
ridiculous if nobody's told you that yet, Zoe, let me
be the first. This is all so ridiculous. I mean,
people over profit, Okay, so please continue the seven felonies.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So when I was arrested, I didn't know at first
how many charges as being arrested on. I didn't have
any information.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
What did they tell you you were? What was I
just said that.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
They had a warrant for my arrest, so I didn't
know anything other than that. So they bring me into
interrogation room like out of a movie, and they have
me sat down at a table and active comes in
and issues me a warrant for Brightkart dot FM. So
this was a detective from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department
(22:08):
because bright Cart is on County Land. So at that point,
I'm thinking, okay, I'm facing two felonies, two misdemeanors for
bright Krt for that rescue. And that detective leaves like
that's it right. No, Then Detective Corey Jurger comes, no
(22:28):
warrants for my arrest, two warrants, Like I, oh my god. Yeah.
So she comes in and then she she says, I
have another warrant for your arrest, and this one's for
five felonies and for misdemeanors for the rescue a pedal
in a poultry. So I immediately recognized her name when
(22:51):
she came in because I had that call with her,
and so I was like, okay, well that confirms that
that was the real reason.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Sane. Oh, clearly she did not.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Care about the animals. You cared about arresting me. Wow.
So yeah, so she's the primary detective on my case,
and so that means she was called to testify at
my preliminary hearing. And during my preliminary hearing, she basically
admitted on the stand that she was aware of reports
(23:24):
that chickens were being boiled alive at Pedalmal Poultry, that
she agrees that boiling animals alive is criminal animal cruelty, yes,
and that she did not do anything about it, and
that she did not look into my reports.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
That has to be like negligence of some sort.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Absolutely it is. And of course, you know, because she's
a police officer, she will probably never be held accountable
for that. I hope some day she will be. I
hope someday the entire Pedalma Police department will be held
accountable for ignoring what is happening at this place. I mean,
just for some added context this company. It has been
(24:03):
seven years now of reporting this company for criminal animal cruelty.
The first investigation that Direct Action Everywhere ever did a
Pedalmic Poultry was in twenty eighteen. And at that time
that factory farm, based on what d X uncovered, that
farm was actually referred to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
as a suspect for criminal animal cruelty by the Sonoma
(24:24):
County Animal Services Office. Wow, and they never did anything Ohn.
And so you know, it's at the time that I
did this rescue. It had been five years of them
ignoring criminal animal cruelty, and now it has been almost seven.
It's just like this has gone on for an absurd
amount of time and they're just still aren't doing anything.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
That's insanity. It's so unfortunate, you know, to think that
there's people out there like you and I know other
organizations that are working to make basically the world a
better place. And it sucks to hear how much time
has passed and still nothing is done. But you continue
to do the good work. You continue to do the
(25:08):
good work, and that's why we're here today.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
You've been an activist. I would say maybe your whole
your whole applicable life. I mean, eleven is so young,
is so young, but I bet that you cared about
animals before that. Is that something that you share with
your family or or you just born this way?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So yeah, I mean, I've always loved animals so much.
My mom's actually a veterinarian, oh wow, around animals, and
just like people were always showing up to our house
when I was little with the animals they found on
the side of the road who are sick and wanting
my mom to look at them and take care of them.
And we always had animals. We had you know, dogs,
(25:51):
cats and guinea pigs, rabbits, goats. As a kid, Wow,
so I was a huge animal lover and surrounded by
animals at all time, and I kind of had this
dream of some day starting a dog and cat rescue,
and I definitely, I think, kind of had that perception
that I think a lot of people have, which is
(26:13):
that dogs and cats are maybe more deserving of our
consideration than other animals. You know. I thought maybe chickens
were stupid, and I didn't think about chickens very much.
But my family bought chickens when I was nine years old,
and that's when my life completely changed and I just
(26:37):
we had there were seven chickens, and I fell in
love with them and they became like my whole world.
I was just obsessed with these chickens. I loved them
so much, and that just basically led me down a
rabbit hole on the Internet until I eventually stumbled across
NSW Hen Rescue in North South Wales, Australia. What and
(27:01):
I saw a video on their website where they were
entering a factory egg farm and they were taking hens
out of the cages and bringing them back to the rescue.
And that was both the first time I'd ever seen
people rescue chickens and the first time I had ever
seen inside of a factory farm. I just remember having
tears in my eyes and thinking, this is what I
have to do with my life. And I emailed them.
(27:23):
I didn't tell them I was eleven. They had no
idea that. I asked them how do I start a
chicken rescue? And they told they gave me a bunch
of advice. And it's actually Catherine Kellahar who runs Enslbhind Rescue.
And now today I'm actually in her book that she
published a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh man, that's a faz congratulations on that. Is that
what birthed the Happy Hand Animal Sanctuary? Yes, correct me
if I'm wrong, But you run that with your mom.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yes, so my mom and my mom and I run
the sanctuary. So when I was eleven, I asked my mom,
can we start a chicken rescue? After I had been
talking to nslu Hen Rescue, and I was expecting her
to just be.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Like, no, no, you're crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That's what most parents would say when he asked such
a question, but she said maybe, And I was pretty
excited because.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Maybe it's not a no.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
It is not a no, And I was like, this
is the best I'm going to get. It's not going
to get better than maybe. So I ran with it,
and I originally I called it Happy Hand Chicken Rescue,
and I started building a website and a Facebook and
I saw everything. She agreed we could rescue twelve hens
from a factory far in San Luis Obispo, And so
(28:39):
we rescued those twelve hens, and she was very clear,
like very very clear, just twelve. We're not going to
rescue any any more chickens after this. But I think
both of us went when we saw these hens go
outside for the first time and see the sun for
the first time and feel dirt beneath their feet and
just experience the world, they both kind of knew that
(29:00):
we had to keep doing this and keep rescuing animals.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
How do you find out about animals needing to be rescued?
You know, like if for a regular person like us,
who I don't know, maybe have the time or the
space or the availability, or maybe it's just the curiosity,
how do you go about rescuing an animal and one
of these awful conditions.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
First of all, I think usually you can assume that
animals on factory farms or and slaughterhouses are in horrible conditions.
That's consistently the case. And you know there are ways
that you can find out about these places, and you
know you can obviously, you know, what I have done
(29:54):
in the past often has been open rescue, which is
where I go in either it broad daylight or in
the middle of the night, and if I see an
animal in need, I'll take them out, particularly as authorities
are failing to do so themselves. There's also in the
past we've been able to negotiate the release of animals
with owners of factory farms or owners of slaughterhouses and
(30:19):
have them, you know, transferred into our custody. But you know,
there's other ways to help adopt or or rescue animals,
sometimes animal sanctuaries.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
For example, something we often see is when apes so
every year and a half to two years, egg farms
kill all their birds wow, because they have a small
drop in egg production and they're considered no longer profitable.
So then these hens become what is known as spent
hens in the egg industry.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
And what's the normal life expectancy for a hen out
of factory farm.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I should spend out of a factory farm. It depends
a lot on the type of chicken, how they've been bred,
but from a from a factory egg farm, depending on
you know, whether or not they develop reproductive disease, they
could live up to twelve years wow about so they're
killed very very young in the egg industry, and occasionally
(31:15):
egg farms will work with animal sanctuaries and transfer some
of the animals into an animal sanctorious custody. And you know,
we've at times had animal sancturies be able to save
a few thousand chickens at a time from these places.
But then of course they need adopters. So if you,
you know, are someone who wants to maybe have chickens
(31:38):
be a part of your family, I would definitely recommend
reaching out to animal sancturies in your area to see
if they might have an opportunity like that to help
some birds.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So tell me what's a day like in the happy
hen animal sanctuary? What does it look like to be
to be a chicken on your farm?
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Chicken?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Well, when you know it's time, when it's the sun
comes up, all of the birds are let out of
their coops or their barns and allowed to go outside
and explore and spend time with their friends in the sunshine.
And that's pretty much what they do for the rest
of the day. I mean, we you know, try to
(32:16):
let our animals have as much freedom as possible and
you know, respect their boundaries to you know, some of
our animals love attention. They love to cuddle. You know,
our turkeys, for example, a lot of them really love
to get hugs and scratches under their way. They're really
really friendly. But some of our animals prefer their space,
and we try to respect that because you know, we
(32:38):
feel very strongly that Happy Hand Animal Sanctuary is it's
their organization, it's not our organization, and we're there to
serve them and meet their needs, and so you know,
whatever they're trying to tell us, we try to respect
that as much as possible. And so you know, they
they mostly just get to chill and do what they
(32:59):
want to do with their friends.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's that's amazing. How do you balance all of this
with your the fact that you're a student at you see, Berkeley.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, so and you see, Berkeley's actually about four hours
north of the sanctuary, so I'm not always there anymore,
which is really sad, and I miss the animals a lot.
But I go home as often as I can to
spend time with the animals and help with animal care.
But we have obviously my mom is there and we
have a full time staff too taking care of these
(33:27):
animals every day. So you know, it's it's a lot,
a lot's going on, but yeah, it all happens.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Well. We appreciate you penciling us in because I know
that I know that you you're extremely busy.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Of course, now thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
What would you say, Zoe, is in your experience the
most effective form of protest? Is it writing to a representatives?
Is it doing the bold thing and running out into
the field or chaining your you know what have you
seen actually bring you the results and you can be
completely out this year?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, I mean it depends. I think there are different
things can be more effective in different situations, depending on
you know a lot of different factors like who are
you targeting, what are you asking of them? You know,
and if you're trying to get legislative change, sometimes you know,
going and trying to meet with a representative could be
(34:23):
the most impactful thing. If you're trying to put pressure
on a company, then sometimes being more disruptive is more effective.
You know, we last year did a pressure campaign against
Tyler Florence, who is was the celebrity ambassador for produced
pedaling the poultry. He was over the course of this
campaign disrupted at over a dozen times. He was on
(34:46):
a book tour last year and just about every stop
of his book tour we had activists disrupting him and
asking him to cut ties with pedal in the poultry,
and he ended up duck cutting ties and he no
longer works a pedal in the poultry. And then shortly
after that we were able to get their other celebrity
ambassador to cut ties. So now Peba Wimbal Poultry doesn't
(35:08):
have any ambassadors. Everyone has all of their ambassadors have
cut ties. So I think, you know, being disruptive is
sometimes is necessary, and I'm a huge advocate for disruptive activism.
I think, you know, obviously, I believe people should be nonviolent.
I don't think that anyone should ever try to harm
someone else. And I think we should target systems and
(35:30):
not individuals. But I think that doesn't mean that we
can't be disruptive, because disruptive activism is what brings change.
And right now, what is happening to animals. It's normalized.
It's considered very, very normal in our society to abuse
and kill animals every single day. And to disrupt this norm,
(35:51):
we're going to have to be loud. We're going to
have to make some noise. We're maybe even sometimes going
to have to be a bit of an inconvenience. And
that can, you know, look like a lot of things.
That can look like yelling at a restaurant, I can
look like chaining yourself to a slaughterhouse. Yeah, there are
a lot of ways to be disruptive, but I think
it's necessary.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Oh, you guys as absolutely.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I'm thirty years old. This girl is way younger than
all of us, and she is doing way better than
all of us. We have to take a second to
see how much she's willing to put what she cares
about out there. And I care about that shit too,
including chickens.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I know you're also inviting people to be present physically
at your trial, and what do you think that that's
going to do? How do you think that might influence
is Is it just to have some moral support or
just make people aware of how ridiculous America can be sometimes,
you know, let your story be an emblem, a symbol,
(36:58):
because I'm sure you're not the only one. What's your
goal in kind of sharing this with the world, what
are you hoping to achieve?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important that we
show the prosecution and that we show Purdue and I
mean other prosecutors, other government agencies, and other corporations like Purdue,
that we're not just going to sit down and quietly
(37:25):
let them try to destroy the animal rights movement that
I mean. I mean, this is a political prosecution. I mean,
if you think about it, like if I had stolen
for chickens wrapped in plastic at a grocery store, I
probably would not be in the situation that I'm in
right now. This isn't about the value of the animals,
(37:46):
This isn't about deft. This is about scaring people, making
about sending a message to the public that if you
rescue animals, we will come for you, and so don't
do it. And we cannot let them think that it's
going to work. We can't let them think that, you know,
if they just make an example out of somebody, we're
(38:07):
going to stop speaking up and stop taking action because
the animals they can't afford for that to happen when
what they're facing is so much bigger than all of this.
And so I think it's really to me, it's about
making sure that this is not the end, that everyone
knows that this is not the end.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well, you're definitely a hero in my book, and I'm
sure that you will be in a lot of others
if you aren't already.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
It will be watching from afar and sharing as much
as we can in the process, and of course hoping
for the absolute best outcome for you. No matter what,
We'll still be here.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Well, I mean this honestly, I'm grateful to this platform.
I think, you know, just as much as we can
amplify this message in general and make sure that this
story gets shared, really is so important to me, and
not just for people to know what's happening to me,
but for people to also hear the story of these animals,
for people to know River and Oakley's names and know
(39:04):
what happened to them at Rye cart doc Farm, and
for people to know what happened to Poppy and I
and Azalea.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah you've got it the ivy, which, by the way,
you are an incredible namer. Yeah, you're really good at that.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
She really cares and I want to help, Like how
can we help for real?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, I mean, and and people helping to just share
those stories on social media and people you know, have
podcasts like this one, if if people have connections with
journalists any way that we can get this message out there.
That's I think really important, and I think it's it's
really important to people. People know what's happening so that
we can keep public pressure and and you know, public
(39:47):
attention on this issue.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Absolutely share Zoe's story.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Please listen to this and you're welcome, and thank you Zoe,
and thank you jem No for real, Like, the reason
why we have this platform, like you said, is to
share stories that we really fucking care about. We have
something that has like knocked on our doors since the
moment that we heard this story, Like you're an icon.
(40:13):
This is something that really people need to focus on.
They need to know what the fuck is going on
right here for real? Because I bet you don't have
the balls to do with the.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
She's shaming people, shaming you included, you included.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Okay, there you go. We're gonna indoctor Nate Zoe in
the best and and it's called spaces all right, Zoe.
So I know this is in poor taste, but we
are going to report the news and buy the news.
I mean, not the news at all. It's half the news,
(40:52):
half the news, half not the news. Here we go.
You'll see when you hear right now, all right. Redwire
expand into defensive with nine and twenty five million purchases
of Edge of Autonomy, not to be confused with a
nine hundred and eighty million purchase of I'm on me,
I'm glory, I'm hanging out the moment with you. Okay, no,
(41:18):
poor Zoee, sorry sorry, Edge of Autonomy.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Only I see it Autonomy, Edge of Glory. Yeah, I
got the joke, I got.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I got.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
A rare and spectacular alignment of six planets is about
to appear in the sky, proving that when you look
through the telescope you'll see the Marvelocks sixty sixty six.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
No bad.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Sound effect. You can't hear it, but it's there. It's good,
it's good, it's good, horrible bad?
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, all right. Among three experiments heading towards the Moon
as part of the Crude Artemist three three to three
mission will be a plant growth study. NASA has announced
that the plant is p L A N T A
k A.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Wait this news how do we have this station goings?
And this has been on our podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Every other word is false basically.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
All right, listen. I know that Jem has been doing
a lot of research for Zoe this week, but I
will have to say this. This is a big example
of what it means to be to put yourself out there.
Don't give us about what people say. You have to
know for real, you have to care about what you
want to care about. Zoe has been somebody who has
(42:54):
put herself out there, has been literally waiting for people
to go against her, and you know what, She's still there.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I really would encourage people to just kind of change
the way that they think about change and the way
they think about their role in creating change. And like
literal studies that show that people like that social change
relies on people believing that they can create it, and
that's I mean, that's why you don't believe it. You
don't believe it because the government and our system is
(43:26):
set up to make sure that you don't believe it,
but you can make change.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Well, thanks to you, we have some faith in the future.
And I hope that that incredible affectious energy and that
optimism and that willingness to do the hard things spreads everywhere,
and that sprinkle some of that fairy dust in the
lives of everybody who listens to your story, because it
really is inspiring.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Oh, thank you so much. That really really means the
world to me, truly, And.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
You have two friends in Miami, so just so rooting
on for you from here once to get that ankle
bracelet up. Yeah, all head over to the East coast.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Thank you, Zoey launch.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
This podcast is brought to you by Moonflower Productions in
partnership with IHEARTSMI podcast Network. For more podcasts, visit the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
I was arrested on seven felonies and six misdemeanors.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It really does sound ridiculous if nobody's told you that yet, Zoe,
let me be the first. This is all so ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Chickens in the egg industry are bread to lay over
three hundred eggs a year when naturally has only lay
eight to twelve and this cause a reproductive disease that
was causing all the eggs to enter her abdomen and
not exit out of her vent and this ultimately cost
her her life. At the time that I did this rescue,
(00:35):
it had been five years of them ignoring criminal animal cruelty,
and now it has been almost seven. It's just like
this has gone on for an absurd amount of time
and there just still aren't doing anything.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ready for lunch, Welcome back to our own world, where
we like to amplify bold voices and tackle things we
care about. Today's guest is a remarkable young activist who
has dedicated her life to animal rights and compassion. Zoe Rosenberg,
(01:12):
now twenty two years old, founded the Happy Hen Animal
Sanctuary when she was just eleven years old and has
since become a powerful voice for animal welfare. Across the
United States. Zoe is our first guest in three seasons
not to be on our spaceship. She is tuning in
from California, where she has an ankle monitor. Zoe is
(01:33):
currently facing multiple criminal charges for rescuing four sick and
injured chickens from Purdue's Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in Sonoma County
Say that four times fast. A UC Berkeley student a
national activist, Zoe has already achieved extraordinary milestones. She's been
named Youth Activist of the Year by the National Animal
Rights Conference, received the Pau McCartney veg Advocate Award, and
(01:56):
has even given her own TED talk. Her activism is
loud and fearless, from chating herself to slaughterhouse gates to
protesting it high profile events like the NCAA Football Championship,
Zoe is not afraid to draw national attention to animal
rights issues. Join us in welcoming Zoe to the Mothership.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Woo Thank you Zoe.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Happy to be here, which I could be there in
real life.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're so happy to meet you. We came across your
story on social media. Social media really is incredible at
sharing important news sometimes and I'm grateful for that, and
I was blown away by what it is that I
was seeing. So for anybody who doesn't know, why don't
you share your story with us?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah? Well, I have been an animal rescuer since I
was eleven years old, like you said, And in fact,
I have in the past who worked with authorities to
rescue animals from situations where they're facing criminal abuse. I've
worked with authorities to rescue cock fighting roosters and animals
and other situations and Insinoma County, I faced a very
(03:01):
different situation where the authorities, in fact were not willing
to help me. In fact, the authorities were ignoring me
when I was reporting criminal animal cruelty at Produce pedalingal
Poultry that I had documented, and when I rescued four
chickens from Produce pedalingal Poultry slaughter house myself and shared
their stories to call in the public to join me
(03:23):
in pressuring authorities to prosecute this company. They arrested me
on felony charges and put me on an ankle monitor
and I go on trial on May sixteenth, or starting
on May sixteenth, facing up to five and a half
years in prison.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Wow, that's a very long time and correct me if
I'm wrong. There was a certain point in your process
that you were facing much longer sentence. Yes, so, how
did that happen? How did it get brought down?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes? So I was first arrested at the end of
twenty twenty three. I was arrested on seven felonies and
six misdemeanors. Two of those felonies were for an investigation
and rescue that I did at a company called bry
Cart Duck Farm, which is the largest factory duck farm
in the state of California. They confine over two hundred
(04:12):
thousand ducks in horrific conditions at any one time. I
have investigated factory farms across the United States, and bright
Cart has to be the worst facility I have ever
been to. I mean, I don't even like to think
about that place. And throughout the course of that investigation,
(04:33):
I rescued two dying ducks from the flour of the
facility who were on the verge of death. Their names
River and Oakleigh. When I brought them to a veterinarian,
the veterinarian literally said to me, I cannot even imagine
the conditions where something like this could have happened. I
mean they had just gaping wounds covering their bodies. It
(04:55):
was really appalling, and I shared their stories in the
fall of twenty twenty three, and I led a group
of people to the Sonoma County Sheriff's office, where together
we reported this company for criminal animal cruelty to show
that there was a lot of public support for prosecuting this,
and of course they did not prosecute it. Oh, and
(05:17):
then I went back to the Sheriff's office about a
month later to re report by KRT dot Farm and
also to re report Pedaluma Poultry. I had conducted this
investigation at Pedaluma Poultry in the spring of twenty twenty
three and done the rescue in June of twenty twenty three,
(05:38):
and so we were re reporting both of the companies.
I was on my way to the Sheriff's office with
the folder of evidence and an officer came up to me,
and that's when I was arrested. So I was arrested
while reporting. Wow and yeah, so originally, so the five
other felonies were for Pedaluma Poultry, two were for right cart,
(06:00):
and two of the misdemeanors were for right Cart. And
four of the misdemeanors were for pedaling of poultry, so
it's a little bit complicated. The two felonies for a
right cart duc farm were never filed. They never filed
those charges. They still could the statute limitations is not
up that it's about three years, so they could still
file them in the next two years. I don't know
(06:21):
what their calculations are on that. They did file the
pedaling of poultry charges. So they filed five felonies and
four misdemeanors against me. So originally with the right cart charges,
it was over twenty years in prison, and then when
they didn't file the right cart charges, it went down
a little bit, and five felonies and four mist demeanors
(06:42):
was still a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, that's still a lot. Especially how old were you
when this all started?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I was I actually So the rescue that I did
at Pedalduma Poultry was on my twenty first birthday. Wow,
And I actually had court on my twenty second birthday.
And on my twenty second birthday they filed another felony
against me. So that was my birthday present from the
Samola County District Attorney's office. But that felony was also
(07:08):
ultimately dropped. So the judge after my preliminary Well, first off,
the judge early on ruled that they charged me with
a charge that literally does not exist. So that was theist.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Tell us about that, what do you mean it doesn't
exist like by law.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, the charge just literally wasn't even a thing.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
They were trying to slap another felony on you.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes, they were just trying to charge me with anything
that they could. So that was dropped. And then after
I had my preliminary hearing, which is essentially a hearing
where the prosecution has to present enough evidence to the
judge to prove that there is a possibility of crime
is committed. It's a very low threshold that they just
have to prove enough there's a possibility of crime is
(07:52):
committed so that the case can proceed to trial. Wow.
And after that hearing, the judge, while she did say
that the case could proceed to trial, she ruled that
they had pretty severely overcharged me. So four of the
five felaties were ultimately dismissed and that's why they tried
to file another one which also got dismissed because it
(08:14):
was not applicable to this case in any way. So
now I'm facing one felony and four misdemeanors.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I love how you say like small stones.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I'm so used to talking about it now, I'm sure
you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And just point of clarity, who who's they? Who's the
one that is giving these charges? Who is it you're
fighting against? Essentially?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, So the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office is the
agency that is prosecuting me, produced Pedaluma Poultry is the
company involved. And you know, while they're not themselves the
ones prosecuting me, they could likely influence whether or not
this prosecution happens, and they seem to want it to
(08:59):
happen as far as we can tell. Yeah, And the
Sinoma County descript Orney's Office is also the agency that
would be prosecuting Pedaluma Poultry for animal cruelty if they
decided that they believed that that should be dealt with
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Is so, are they not looking at both cases at
the same time, or they're considering your case kind of
like a rule out of the other.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
They are just ignoring animal cruelty completely as far as
I can tell. Every time I have emailed them a
report of criminal animal cruelty. They have just sent me
a dismissed email in response, and they've made it pretty
clear that they're not particularly concerned.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mentioned you encountered criminal animal abuse. As far as
you know, what are the current laws in place to
protect something like poultry, right, animals like ducks and chickens,
just to use as an example, in these slaughterhouses, in
these farms, is there anything that protects them from the
essential horrendous quality of life that they end up having.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
There's not very much that protects them. And I mean
on a federal level, there's just about nothing protecting birds
in particular, birds have very few legal protections in the
United States. In California. California is one of the states
with the strongest animal welfare laws, and even here it's
not that great. There have been two, i mean, relatively
(10:23):
strong animal welfare laws passed in the state of California
in recent years. The most recent one was Proposition twelve,
and that basically set some standards for how much space
animals are required to have and a few other things
like chickens on certain facilities are not required to have
access to a place where they can dust bathe, but
(10:44):
it's very, very minimal, and we find that these laws
are very very rarely enforced. And I mean there's there
are some laws in California, you know, for example, you're
not supposed to cause unnecessary pain to an animal. How
do you prove that something's unnecessary? And what body is
(11:05):
going to actually enforce this law sure and make sure
that that's not happening. I mean at Pedaluma Poultry, they're
boiling chickens.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Alive, and I heard of that.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It's clearly unnecessary. There's nothing necessary about boiling chickens alive
during this water process, and yet the Pedaluma Police Department
is unwilling to do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Well, also, let's be real, like, how are you able
to put yourself out there for the animals and be
able to deal with the fact that we're dealing with
the pain and everything. How do you balance that?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, that's a good question. It's been hard in a
lot of ways and including ways. I really didn't anticipate, No,
when I went to court the day I got my
ankle monitor, I was not mentally prepared to leave facing
exactly what I was facing, and all my past court
hearings and I mean the fact that's the animal rights
(11:59):
group I'm working with. Every past hearing that any activists
in our organization has ever went to they have been
released on their own recognizance. No one's ever been put
on an ankle monitor, had any pre trial, And so
I was not mentally prepared for this at all. And
when I left, I felt chwo things simultaneously which we're
(12:21):
at conflict with one another, and one was that this
is a really important moment and that I couldn't that
this determine, that I had to make as much noise
about this as possible because it's just so unjust. And
also for one of the first times in my career
as an activist, just like desperately feeling like I just
(12:42):
wanted to be invisible, and those I kind of had
to to reconit that a bit. And when I have
like those moments where I feel any sort of like
doubt or insecurity or fear, I really go back to
the animals who I've rescued, and in particular the animals
(13:04):
who I've watched suffer or who I've watched die, or
who I've loved and who have ultimately died. There was
one hen in particular who very early on, when I
was eleven, we rescued her. She came from a factory
egg farm. She had never been outside. Her name was Georgia.
She had never been outside before. She spent her entire
(13:25):
life on a factory farm. And because she had been
bred to lay so many eggs, chickens in the egg
industry are bread to lay over three hundred eggs a year,
when naturally it is only lay eight to twelve and
this caused a reproductive disease that was causing all the
eggs to enter her abdomen and not exit out of
(13:47):
her vent and this ultimately cost her her life. And
when she was dying, I made a promise to her
that I would fight for her, and then I would
fight for a world more animals ever had to go
through what she went through. And so in these moments
of fear, I remind myself of that promise that I
(14:07):
made to her, and I know that I can never
give up, but I can never stop fighting.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I think that you are definitely a beacon of strength.
Even in the short time that I've been aware of
your story, anything that I encounter of you, I just
see a level of certainty and of confidence, and I
think you really emulate to the world around you and us.
You know, we're basically on the other side of the
country in Miami. What it maybe takes to do really
(14:49):
hard things in order to see small changes that will
hopefully lead to big changes around the world. So I
really commend you not only for your strength, but just
at your perseverance and your willpower in all of this,
because I can imagine it's not easy. What what was
the purpose of the house arrest just to keep you
in California.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well, so I'm on an ankle monitor. I'm not actually
on house arrest, but I do, gotcha, I do have
some travel restrictions, so I can't leave the state without
court permission. So it's like a whole thing to be
able to leave the state. And I have to notify
the authorities essentially every time I move between counties gotta
(15:30):
which it just feels because they know where I am
the whole time on an ankle monitor. Why do I
have to call you? But yeah, So the the reasoning
behind it was, I mean, essentially, the court said that
I said that I was not going to stop rescuing animals,
(15:50):
and to the prosecutors, you know, I got to see
says she's not going to stop. An ankle monitor is
the only way to stop her.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, right, I heard you. I heard you say in
a video that you were you also aren't allowed to
rescue any more animals right now?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yes, so I currently am prohibited from possessing chickens, ducks,
and other foul because they particularly do not want me
to rescue anymore birds.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So that's I mean, it's just like you hear about
people being prohibited from possessing drugs or like fr right,
you really don't hear about people not being allowed to
possess birds.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It is very strange. And yeah, so like if I
came across a chicken on the side of the road
who someone had abandoned, I would not be allowed to
pick them up and help them. If I did, I
would be grown in jail. I would have my release revoked.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Wow, that's that's definitely extreme.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So what would you say would be the way that
we could really truly in the next year help advocate
for animals or you know, advocacy for what's going on
with how we're misinterpreting how to take care of animals.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I think. I mean, the number one thing I
think is to take nonviolent direct action in any way
that you can. I would encourage people to get involved
with the local group if you know you're interested in
attending my trial. It's actually going to be open to
the public. People are going to be flying out from
(17:26):
all over the country to attend and show the court
that they support animal rescue and that they don't support
animal cruelty. And people can register it dxt io slash
register if they're interested in coming out. It starts May sixteenth,
and it'll last a few weeks most likely. Yeah, So
that's one thing people can definitely do for this specifically,
(17:47):
but just in general speaking up for animals in any
way you can. I personally work with Direct Action Everywhere
and you know this whiz on our website for people
to define avenues to get plugged in and to get
involved with this work.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And what is a direct Action Everywhere?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Direct Action Everywhere is an international animal rights network taking
nonviolent direct action to create systemic change for animals in
one generation. And we believe that through non violent direct
action we'll be able to, you know, not just one
by one change how people think about animals, but create
like wide scale change that will drastically change what is
(18:27):
happening in the day to day lives of animals.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I mean that's that's huge question. Can you tell
me a little bit about your experience with Corey Jorger. Yes,
she's become a villain in my book, she says, a.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Bit of a villain. So, yes, Corey Jurger is the
a detective at the Pedaluma Police Department.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
My story with her begins in fall of twenty twenty three.
I had reported criminal animal cruelty the pedal in the
poultry slaughterhouse to the pedal in the police department, and
after a months I get an email from them saying,
we're interested in having a call with you hm, And
so I gave them my phone number and I agreed
(19:15):
to have a call with Detective Corey Jurger. So she
calls me out of the blue one day and I
answer and she's telling me that she's, you know, wants
to learn more about what's going on at the slaughterhouse.
And you know, I was a little bit skeptical at
the time, like are you just trying? Like I was
(19:36):
always skeptical of the police, like I was like, are
you trying to trick me? But I was also, you know, hopeful,
I'm gonna tell you about the animal cruelty, and I
really hope you do something, yeah, because it's I mean,
it's been going on for way too long. And so
she's telling me that, like she's been to the slaughterhouse
before to look into things, but that there have never
(19:58):
been chickens there while she was at the slaughter house.
I'm like, Okay, so you clearly didn't try that hard
if there were no chickens there, because if you really
cared about this, you would have made sure you went
while there were chickens there, like chickens are there most
of the time, in fact, so you very easily could
have gone while there were chickens there. And you know,
I was telling her about how, you know, we have
(20:18):
evidence that animals are being boiled alive, that we have
evidence of very high rates of disease, including diseases that
not only of course, are threatening these chickens, but are
threatening public health.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right and because people consume these animals yesterwords.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, And many of these diseases are zoonotic, which means
that they can be transmitted between non human, animals and humans.
So I was telling her about this and she wanted
more information, or she said she did, so I had
my attorney reach out to her, and my attorney was
going to work with her to provide her with video evidence,
(20:56):
and she just ghosted, never got back to us, and
then she so she's the primary detective. Okay. So when
I was arrested on the seven felonies and miss this
is just not what a sentence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
When I was arrested, I'm so happy you find the community.
You deserve it. You deserve it. It really does sound
ridiculous if nobody's told you that yet, Zoe, let me
be the first. This is all so ridiculous. I mean,
people over profit, Okay, so please continue the seven felonies.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So when I was arrested, I didn't know at first
how many charges as being arrested on. I didn't have
any information.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
What did they tell you you were? What was I
just said that.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
They had a warrant for my arrest, so I didn't
know anything other than that. So they bring me into
interrogation room like out of a movie, and they have
me sat down at a table and active comes in
and issues me a warrant for Brightkart dot FM. So
this was a detective from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department
(22:08):
because bright Cart is on County Land. So at that point,
I'm thinking, okay, I'm facing two felonies, two misdemeanors for
bright Krt for that rescue. And that detective leaves like
that's it right. No, Then Detective Corey Jurger comes, no
(22:28):
warrants for my arrest, two warrants, Like I, oh my god. Yeah.
So she comes in and then she she says, I
have another warrant for your arrest, and this one's for
five felonies and for misdemeanors for the rescue a pedal
in a poultry. So I immediately recognized her name when
(22:51):
she came in because I had that call with her,
and so I was like, okay, well that confirms that
that was the real reason.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Sane. Oh, clearly she did not.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Care about the animals. You cared about arresting me. Wow.
So yeah, so she's the primary detective on my case,
and so that means she was called to testify at
my preliminary hearing. And during my preliminary hearing, she basically
admitted on the stand that she was aware of reports
(23:24):
that chickens were being boiled alive at Pedalmal Poultry, that
she agrees that boiling animals alive is criminal animal cruelty, yes,
and that she did not do anything about it, and
that she did not look into my reports.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
That has to be like negligence of some sort.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Absolutely it is. And of course, you know, because she's
a police officer, she will probably never be held accountable
for that. I hope some day she will be. I
hope someday the entire Pedalma Police department will be held
accountable for ignoring what is happening at this place. I mean,
just for some added context this company. It has been
(24:03):
seven years now of reporting this company for criminal animal cruelty.
The first investigation that Direct Action Everywhere ever did a
Pedalmic Poultry was in twenty eighteen. And at that time
that factory farm, based on what d X uncovered, that
farm was actually referred to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
as a suspect for criminal animal cruelty by the Sonoma
(24:24):
County Animal Services Office. Wow, and they never did anything Ohn.
And so you know, it's at the time that I
did this rescue. It had been five years of them
ignoring criminal animal cruelty, and now it has been almost seven.
It's just like this has gone on for an absurd
amount of time and they're just still aren't doing anything.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
That's insanity. It's so unfortunate, you know, to think that
there's people out there like you and I know other
organizations that are working to make basically the world a
better place. And it sucks to hear how much time
has passed and still nothing is done. But you continue
to do the good work. You continue to do the
(25:08):
good work, and that's why we're here today.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
You've been an activist. I would say maybe your whole
your whole applicable life. I mean, eleven is so young,
is so young, but I bet that you cared about
animals before that. Is that something that you share with
your family or or you just born this way?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So yeah, I mean, I've always loved animals so much.
My mom's actually a veterinarian, oh wow, around animals, and
just like people were always showing up to our house
when I was little with the animals they found on
the side of the road who are sick and wanting
my mom to look at them and take care of them.
And we always had animals. We had you know, dogs,
(25:51):
cats and guinea pigs, rabbits, goats. As a kid, Wow,
so I was a huge animal lover and surrounded by
animals at all time, and I kind of had this
dream of some day starting a dog and cat rescue,
and I definitely, I think, kind of had that perception
that I think a lot of people have, which is
(26:13):
that dogs and cats are maybe more deserving of our
consideration than other animals. You know. I thought maybe chickens
were stupid, and I didn't think about chickens very much.
But my family bought chickens when I was nine years old,
and that's when my life completely changed and I just
(26:37):
we had there were seven chickens, and I fell in
love with them and they became like my whole world.
I was just obsessed with these chickens. I loved them
so much, and that just basically led me down a
rabbit hole on the Internet until I eventually stumbled across
NSW Hen Rescue in North South Wales, Australia. What and
(27:01):
I saw a video on their website where they were
entering a factory egg farm and they were taking hens
out of the cages and bringing them back to the rescue.
And that was both the first time I'd ever seen
people rescue chickens and the first time I had ever
seen inside of a factory farm. I just remember having
tears in my eyes and thinking, this is what I
have to do with my life. And I emailed them.
(27:23):
I didn't tell them I was eleven. They had no
idea that. I asked them how do I start a
chicken rescue? And they told they gave me a bunch
of advice. And it's actually Catherine Kellahar who runs Enslbhind Rescue.
And now today I'm actually in her book that she
published a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh man, that's a faz congratulations on that. Is that
what birthed the Happy Hand Animal Sanctuary? Yes, correct me
if I'm wrong, But you run that with your mom.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yes, so my mom and my mom and I run
the sanctuary. So when I was eleven, I asked my mom,
can we start a chicken rescue? After I had been
talking to nslu Hen Rescue, and I was expecting her
to just be.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Like, no, no, you're crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That's what most parents would say when he asked such
a question, but she said maybe, And I was pretty
excited because.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Maybe it's not a no.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
It is not a no, And I was like, this
is the best I'm going to get. It's not going
to get better than maybe. So I ran with it,
and I originally I called it Happy Hand Chicken Rescue,
and I started building a website and a Facebook and
I saw everything. She agreed we could rescue twelve hens
from a factory far in San Luis Obispo, And so
(28:39):
we rescued those twelve hens, and she was very clear,
like very very clear, just twelve. We're not going to
rescue any any more chickens after this. But I think
both of us went when we saw these hens go
outside for the first time and see the sun for
the first time and feel dirt beneath their feet and
just experience the world, they both kind of knew that
(29:00):
we had to keep doing this and keep rescuing animals.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
How do you find out about animals needing to be rescued?
You know, like if for a regular person like us,
who I don't know, maybe have the time or the
space or the availability, or maybe it's just the curiosity,
how do you go about rescuing an animal and one
of these awful conditions.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
First of all, I think usually you can assume that
animals on factory farms or and slaughterhouses are in horrible conditions.
That's consistently the case. And you know there are ways
that you can find out about these places, and you
know you can obviously, you know, what I have done
(29:54):
in the past often has been open rescue, which is
where I go in either it broad daylight or in
the middle of the night, and if I see an
animal in need, I'll take them out, particularly as authorities
are failing to do so themselves. There's also in the
past we've been able to negotiate the release of animals
with owners of factory farms or owners of slaughterhouses and
(30:19):
have them, you know, transferred into our custody. But you know,
there's other ways to help adopt or or rescue animals,
sometimes animal sanctuaries.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
For example, something we often see is when apes so
every year and a half to two years, egg farms
kill all their birds wow, because they have a small
drop in egg production and they're considered no longer profitable.
So then these hens become what is known as spent
hens in the egg industry.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
And what's the normal life expectancy for a hen out
of factory farm.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I should spend out of a factory farm. It depends
a lot on the type of chicken, how they've been bred,
but from a from a factory egg farm, depending on
you know, whether or not they develop reproductive disease, they
could live up to twelve years wow about so they're
killed very very young in the egg industry, and occasionally
(31:15):
egg farms will work with animal sanctuaries and transfer some
of the animals into an animal sanctorious custody. And you know,
we've at times had animal sancturies be able to save
a few thousand chickens at a time from these places.
But then of course they need adopters. So if you,
you know, are someone who wants to maybe have chickens
(31:38):
be a part of your family, I would definitely recommend
reaching out to animal sancturies in your area to see
if they might have an opportunity like that to help
some birds.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So tell me what's a day like in the happy
hen animal sanctuary? What does it look like to be
to be a chicken on your farm?
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Chicken?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Well, when you know it's time, when it's the sun
comes up, all of the birds are let out of
their coops or their barns and allowed to go outside
and explore and spend time with their friends in the sunshine.
And that's pretty much what they do for the rest
of the day. I mean, we you know, try to
(32:16):
let our animals have as much freedom as possible and
you know, respect their boundaries to you know, some of
our animals love attention. They love to cuddle. You know,
our turkeys, for example, a lot of them really love
to get hugs and scratches under their way. They're really
really friendly. But some of our animals prefer their space,
and we try to respect that because you know, we
(32:38):
feel very strongly that Happy Hand Animal Sanctuary is it's
their organization, it's not our organization, and we're there to
serve them and meet their needs, and so you know,
whatever they're trying to tell us, we try to respect
that as much as possible. And so you know, they
they mostly just get to chill and do what they
(32:59):
want to do with their friends.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's that's amazing. How do you balance all of this
with your the fact that you're a student at you see, Berkeley.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, so and you see, Berkeley's actually about four hours
north of the sanctuary, so I'm not always there anymore,
which is really sad, and I miss the animals a lot.
But I go home as often as I can to
spend time with the animals and help with animal care.
But we have obviously my mom is there and we
have a full time staff too taking care of these
(33:27):
animals every day. So you know, it's it's a lot,
a lot's going on, but yeah, it all happens.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Well. We appreciate you penciling us in because I know
that I know that you you're extremely busy.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Of course, now thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
What would you say, Zoe, is in your experience the
most effective form of protest? Is it writing to a representatives?
Is it doing the bold thing and running out into
the field or chaining your you know what have you
seen actually bring you the results and you can be
completely out this year?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, I mean it depends. I think there are different
things can be more effective in different situations, depending on
you know a lot of different factors like who are
you targeting, what are you asking of them? You know,
and if you're trying to get legislative change, sometimes you know,
going and trying to meet with a representative could be
(34:23):
the most impactful thing. If you're trying to put pressure
on a company, then sometimes being more disruptive is more effective.
You know, we last year did a pressure campaign against
Tyler Florence, who is was the celebrity ambassador for produced
pedaling the poultry. He was over the course of this
campaign disrupted at over a dozen times. He was on
(34:46):
a book tour last year and just about every stop
of his book tour we had activists disrupting him and
asking him to cut ties with pedal in the poultry,
and he ended up duck cutting ties and he no
longer works a pedal in the poultry. And then shortly
after that we were able to get their other celebrity
ambassador to cut ties. So now Peba Wimbal Poultry doesn't
(35:08):
have any ambassadors. Everyone has all of their ambassadors have
cut ties. So I think, you know, being disruptive is
sometimes is necessary, and I'm a huge advocate for disruptive activism.
I think, you know, obviously, I believe people should be nonviolent.
I don't think that anyone should ever try to harm
someone else. And I think we should target systems and
(35:30):
not individuals. But I think that doesn't mean that we
can't be disruptive, because disruptive activism is what brings change.
And right now, what is happening to animals. It's normalized.
It's considered very, very normal in our society to abuse
and kill animals every single day. And to disrupt this norm,
(35:51):
we're going to have to be loud. We're going to
have to make some noise. We're maybe even sometimes going
to have to be a bit of an inconvenience. And
that can, you know, look like a lot of things.
That can look like yelling at a restaurant, I can
look like chaining yourself to a slaughterhouse. Yeah, there are
a lot of ways to be disruptive, but I think
it's necessary.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Oh, you guys as absolutely.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I'm thirty years old. This girl is way younger than
all of us, and she is doing way better than
all of us. We have to take a second to
see how much she's willing to put what she cares
about out there. And I care about that shit too,
including chickens.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I know you're also inviting people to be present physically
at your trial, and what do you think that that's
going to do? How do you think that might influence
is Is it just to have some moral support or
just make people aware of how ridiculous America can be sometimes,
you know, let your story be an emblem, a symbol,
(36:58):
because I'm sure you're not the only one. What's your
goal in kind of sharing this with the world, what
are you hoping to achieve?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important that we
show the prosecution and that we show Purdue and I
mean other prosecutors, other government agencies, and other corporations like Purdue,
that we're not just going to sit down and quietly
(37:25):
let them try to destroy the animal rights movement that
I mean. I mean, this is a political prosecution. I mean,
if you think about it, like if I had stolen
for chickens wrapped in plastic at a grocery store, I
probably would not be in the situation that I'm in
right now. This isn't about the value of the animals,
(37:46):
This isn't about deft. This is about scaring people, making
about sending a message to the public that if you
rescue animals, we will come for you, and so don't
do it. And we cannot let them think that it's
going to work. We can't let them think that, you know,
if they just make an example out of somebody, we're
(38:07):
going to stop speaking up and stop taking action because
the animals they can't afford for that to happen when
what they're facing is so much bigger than all of this.
And so I think it's really to me, it's about
making sure that this is not the end, that everyone
knows that this is not the end.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well, you're definitely a hero in my book, and I'm
sure that you will be in a lot of others
if you aren't already.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
It will be watching from afar and sharing as much
as we can in the process, and of course hoping
for the absolute best outcome for you. No matter what,
We'll still be here.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Well, I mean this honestly, I'm grateful to this platform.
I think, you know, just as much as we can
amplify this message in general and make sure that this
story gets shared, really is so important to me, and
not just for people to know what's happening to me,
but for people to also hear the story of these animals,
for people to know River and Oakley's names and know
(39:04):
what happened to them at Rye cart doc Farm, and
for people to know what happened to Poppy and I
and Azalea.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah you've got it the ivy, which, by the way,
you are an incredible namer. Yeah, you're really good at that.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
She really cares and I want to help, Like how
can we help for real?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, I mean, and and people helping to just share
those stories on social media and people you know, have
podcasts like this one, if if people have connections with
journalists any way that we can get this message out there.
That's I think really important, and I think it's it's
really important to people. People know what's happening so that
we can keep public pressure and and you know, public
(39:47):
attention on this issue.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Absolutely share Zoe's story.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Please listen to this and you're welcome, and thank you Zoe,
and thank you jem No for real, Like, the reason
why we have this platform, like you said, is to
share stories that we really fucking care about. We have
something that has like knocked on our doors since the
moment that we heard this story, Like you're an icon.
(40:13):
This is something that really people need to focus on.
They need to know what the fuck is going on
right here for real? Because I bet you don't have
the balls to do with the.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
She's shaming people, shaming you included, you included.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Okay, there you go. We're gonna indoctor Nate Zoe in
the best and and it's called spaces all right, Zoe.
So I know this is in poor taste, but we
are going to report the news and buy the news.
I mean, not the news at all. It's half the news,
(40:52):
half the news, half not the news. Here we go.
You'll see when you hear right now, all right. Redwire
expand into defensive with nine and twenty five million purchases
of Edge of Autonomy, not to be confused with a
nine hundred and eighty million purchase of I'm on me,
I'm glory, I'm hanging out the moment with you. Okay, no,
(41:18):
poor Zoee, sorry sorry, Edge of Autonomy.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Only I see it Autonomy, Edge of Glory. Yeah, I
got the joke, I got.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I got.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
A rare and spectacular alignment of six planets is about
to appear in the sky, proving that when you look
through the telescope you'll see the Marvelocks sixty sixty six.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
No bad.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Sound effect. You can't hear it, but it's there. It's good,
it's good, it's good, horrible bad?
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, all right. Among three experiments heading towards the Moon
as part of the Crude Artemist three three to three
mission will be a plant growth study. NASA has announced
that the plant is p L A N T A
k A.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Wait this news how do we have this station goings?
And this has been on our podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Every other word is false basically.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
All right, listen. I know that Jem has been doing
a lot of research for Zoe this week, but I
will have to say this. This is a big example
of what it means to be to put yourself out there.
Don't give us about what people say. You have to
know for real, you have to care about what you
want to care about. Zoe has been somebody who has
(42:54):
put herself out there, has been literally waiting for people
to go against her, and you know what, She's still there.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I really would encourage people to just kind of change
the way that they think about change and the way
they think about their role in creating change. And like
literal studies that show that people like that social change
relies on people believing that they can create it, and
that's I mean, that's why you don't believe it. You
don't believe it because the government and our system is
(43:26):
set up to make sure that you don't believe it,
but you can make change.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Well, thanks to you, we have some faith in the future.
And I hope that that incredible affectious energy and that
optimism and that willingness to do the hard things spreads everywhere,
and that sprinkle some of that fairy dust in the
lives of everybody who listens to your story, because it
really is inspiring.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Oh, thank you so much. That really really means the
world to me, truly, And.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
You have two friends in Miami, so just so rooting
on for you from here once to get that ankle
bracelet up. Yeah, all head over to the East coast.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Thank you, Zoey launch.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
This podcast is brought to you by Moonflower Productions in
partnership with IHEARTSMI podcast Network. For more podcasts, visit the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Gemeny Hernandez
Emily Estefan
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.