DxE investigator and animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg is on trial in Sonoma County, California. She is facing years in jail for rescuing four sick and injured chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. All media requests to record the trial have been denied, but you can follow along through these Court Watch summaries, on our Perdue Rescue Trial X account, on our Instagram, and on UnchainedTV. Check back regularly for new updates. Want to take action? Sign the petition at RightToRescue.com and share the news with your friends and family.

Monday, October 13th

The defense began their case today, calling their first witness: Carla Cabral. Cabral is a trained vet tech who took care of the birds Rosenberg rescued for one month after their rescue. She testified about her background and vet tech experience and was qualified as an expert in animal caretaking. 

Cabral also testified about her observations of the four birds Rosenberg rescued, Poppy, Ivy, Aster, Azalea, and what she did to treat them. They had diarrhea, wounds and scratches, difficulty walking, and one had respiratory difficulties. She consulted with veterinarians and worked with veterinarians to take fecal, blood, mouth and throat swabs, administered antibiotics and pain medications as prescribed, and bandaged their feet. A few photographs and videos of the rescued birds getting care were shown to the jury. 

There was a lengthy discussion outside the presence of the jury before Cabral’s cross-examination. Shortly before court began today, DA Hobson disclosed to the defense that he was going to submit over a dozen social media posts made by Cabral as impeachment evidence - these posts include photos of Cabral protesting and doing civil disobedience, as well as statements she made or reshared about veganism. The defense objected vigorously, stating that they had only just received these posts and had no time to review and that the posts would be extremely prejudicial and repetitive, but Judge Gnoss ruled that the majority of them could be introduced and shown to the jury. He stated that the defense put Cabral on the stand as an expert and should expect that the prosecution would cross her on bias, interest, and motive. 

Over an hour later, Cabral re-took the stand and Hobson began his cross-examination. After a few basic questions, he asked whether any of the rescued birds had fevers and Cabral testified they did not. He asked her whether being transported in a bucket could cause stress and whether stress could cause diarrhea, implying that this was caused by the rescue. He confirmed she was not a vet and never went to vet school. Hobson then began asking Cabral a series of questions about DxE and animal rights - how long she was a member, if she was vegan, whether she has a vegan tattoo, what she believes about animal agriculture. He asked whether she was friends with Rosenberg, with Deerbrook, with Rocky Chau (another witness). He then began showing the series of social media posts and pictures, including a photo of Cabral gluing her hand in the State Capitol during an Agriculture Committee hearing. 

Cabral is excused for the day but Hobson is not done with his cross-examination. Cabral will return at 11am tomorrow to speak with court appointed counsel regarding her 5th Amendment rights, since Hobson intends to cross-examine her on her participation in protests and open rescues.