Digital Social Hour
The Disturbing Truth Behind Poultry Factory Farms 🐔 | Zoe Rosenberg DSH #872
Sat, 09 Nov
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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 cruelty and public health risks within these facilities. Did you know these farms could be harboring multi-drug resistant zoonotic bacteria? 🦠 Zoe shares her brave journey, from rescuing four chickens to facing potential prison time, all while wearing an ankle monitor. Her story is packed with valuable insights and an urgent call to action. 📢 Don't miss out on this powerful conversation that challenges the status quo. Tune in now and join the conversation! Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 #news #animalcrueltyinvestigation #animalcrueltycase #usnews #peta CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Introduction to the Topic 00:40 - DxE Investigation Overview 02:40 - Conditions in Poultry Farms 07:50 - Legal Personhood for Animals Explained 09:35 - The Future of Synthetic Meat 12:20 - Humane Consumption of Animal Products 19:05 - Trial Proceedings and Expectations 22:41 - Getting Involved in Animal Advocacy 23:35 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Zoe Rosenberg https://www.instagram.com/zoe_rooster/ https://linktr.ee/zoerooster LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the shocking truths about poultry factory farms?
People will just disregard health completely because all of a sudden people are eating these shit and all the toxins, who knows what they're for.
We've 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, multi-drug resistant zoonotic bacteria. I recorded this to the USDA, the head of the USDA office in Sonoma County. She told me that this wasn't her area of expertise.
Chapter 2: What diseases are spreading in poultry facilities?
The United States Department of Agriculture can't deal with this, then who can? All right, guys, Zoe Rosenberg here showing up on the Angle Monitor. First time on the show. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, yeah, it's an honor to be the presence of you. Thank you. I mean, I actually believe in what you're doing. So let's dive right into the story of how you have the monitor on.
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 a pretty horrendous criminal animal cruelty case.
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 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.
That's insane. So did you have to get permission to come here? 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. Wow. So you're going to have that on until the trial, though.
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. Yeah, well, the courts are still back up a while, right?
Yeah, things are moving very slowly. So, I mean, most likely my trial will be early next year, but we really don't know. 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?
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 horrible. such severe abuse that people really thought they would want to do something about that. So once again, people rescued chickens back in 2018.
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Chapter 3: What is the story behind Zoe's ankle monitor?
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 in.
Yeah, and we've 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, multi-drug 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? Wow. She should at least pass it along to someone like that, right?
Yeah, absolutely. It shouldn't be my responsibility to make sure this gets hoarse. It's their responsibility to protect public health. Crazy. And people are eating this and then we wonder why everyone's sick right now. Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I'm a firm believer. Like the food you consume, you're also consuming the energy. Yeah.
So think about the stressful lives because now these chickens, they're selling them a lot, like five weeks now. Six weeks. Six weeks. It used to be 40 when we were growing up. Yeah. Chicken doesn't taste the same anymore. It tastes terrible. I'm sure you're vegan, but it did not.
Yeah, it's a huge problem. The way we've industrialized agriculture, it's just, it's bad for humans. It's bad for the animals. Nobody is winning except for these companies. Right. They're printing money. Yeah. Chickens are being sold quicker and cows too, right? Have you hesitated at cow farms?
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 how stressful it is for these animals coming, you know, on the slaughter line, just struggle to escape. And yeah, it's so much fear.
Yeah. So is your issue just stopping this entirely? Like, where do you want to see this?
Yeah, that's a good question. You know, my hope in all 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 radical. human things.
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Chapter 4: How were the conditions at Petaluma Poultry?
Chapter 5: What legal challenges does Zoe face for rescuing chickens?
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. Scott, if you want to get rid of slaughterhouses, it's all right with you. 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.
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? 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. What do you think about those synthetic meats they're brushing up?
I mean, I think it's definitely a great alternative to industrial agri-vulture and agri-vulture. I don't think anyone has to eat those vetting 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. So how are these slaughterhouses killing the animals exactly? Because there's mass kill methods apparently.
Yeah, well, at the Petaluma Poultry Slaughterhouse, which is obviously where I rescue these poor 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, 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. 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 heads so that they don't get their throats slit. Wow, so they're very conscious and aware of what's going on.
And there's a worker on the kill floor who's supposed to manually slit those chickens' throats. Oh, wow.
yeah what a job i don't know but yeah and understandably the worker off it 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 um the scalding tank alive 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 chamber or something
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of synthetic meat?
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 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.
That's insane. So did you have to get permission to come here? 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. Wow. So you're going to have that on until the trial, though.
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. Yeah, well, the courts are still back up a while, right?
Yeah, things are moving very slowly. So, I mean, most likely my trial will be early next year, but we really don't know. 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?
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 horrible. 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 peddling with poultry as well. One of the what happened that day was 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. I guess there were just so many who needed help.
And the police came and stopped people from leaving with the chickens. And one officer and 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 the other nine chickens were killed by law enforcement.
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Chapter 8: How can listeners get involved in animal advocacy?
Whoa, because they were an asset?
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. So years later, you know, I kind of wanted to go back and see if anything had been done, if anything had been improved at 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 in the slaughterhouse, no 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. It's not focusing on stopping that violence and instead wants to put animal rescuers in prison. I wonder how much pull they have though, like a regular police officer. Yeah. I feel like there needs to be, is there like an organization that oversees this?
Yeah, there's the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, and they kind of decide what 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. Wow. Well, from a business point of view, these guys are probably bringing the county so much money. Probably.
They're just going to defend them, you know what I mean? 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 a lot of 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.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just sickening that that's a priority over the lives of the animals. Even just telling these companies that they have to have better standards. 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 in.
Yeah, and we've 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, multi-drug 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? Wow. She should at least pass it along to someone like that, right?
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