Digital Social Hour - The Disturbing Truth Behind Poultry Factory Farms 🐔 | Zoe Rosenberg DSH #873

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

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: [e-mail] 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

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People will just disregard health completely because also people are eating these chickens, off 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 multi-drug resistant zoonotic bacteria. I reported this to the USDA, the head of the USDA office in Sonoma County. She told me that this wasn't her area of expertise. The United States Department of Agriculture can't deal with this, and who can? United States Department of Agriculture can't deal with this than you can. All right guys, Zoe Rosenberg here showing up on the ankle monitor. First time on the show. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, yeah, it's an honor to be the president, so do you.

I mean, I actually believe in what you're doing. So let's dive right into the story about 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. 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, you know, 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 go there? 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 gonna 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. Yeah, it's a pre-trial condition. So that's the idea. It's, it's possible I could get it off before, but we, you know, 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 have still backed 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 Petal Luma poultry back in 2018. And on one of their factory farms called McCoy's Poultry found chickens who were debilitated, unable to get to food and water, slowly dying of starvation and dehydration. And when they reported that to law enforcement, just kind of the same story as what happened to me last year, just no action was taken.

People were kind of shocked because it was just such severe abuse that people really thought they would want to do something about that. So once again, people rescued chickens back in 2018. And that was kind of my first introduction to Petaluma poultry as well. One of the, what happened that day was horrible. And that was kind of my first introduction to peddling with poultry as well. One of the, what happened that day was horrible.

The animal rescuers with direct action everywhere tried to rescue 10 chickens and they called the police and asked if they would come and help the other chickens because there were just so many who needed help. And the police came and stopped people from leaving with the chickens. And one officer in kind of what seemed like an act of compassion said the sickest chicken could go. And that chicken was Rose. And Rose came to live with me at my animal sanctuary that I run called Happy Hen Animal

Sanctuary. And all the other nine chickens were killed by law enforcement. Whoa, because they were in that sit? Yeah. And at that time, the animal patrol department in Sonoma County actually recommended this petal of a 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 I kind of wanted to go back and see if anything had been done, if anything had been improved, a pedilemapulcher 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 of disease and injury was just so rampant. Dwayne Johnson. We got snowmen! Chris Evans. I might just go back to the car. Let's save Christmas. I'm not gonna say that. Say it. All right. Let's save Christmas. There it is.

All-Main theaters November 15th. Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. 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. 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 does and doesn't get prosecuted in Sonoma County.

We've reported cruelty to them for many, many years. And they're also the ones who are prosecuting me. 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 jobs to the area that they're going to want to keep them there. Right. Cause they probably provide thousands of jobs to that county. Yeah. And yeah, it's just sickening that that's a priority over, over the lives of being the animal. Even just telling these companies that they have to have better standards. Yeah. Yeah. People will just disregard health completely.

Cause also people are eating these chickens. Yes. So all the stress of toxins who knows what they're putting in them. Yeah and we've found it 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 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 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 the worst. 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 Oh six weeks six weeks when you speak 40 when we were growing up. Yeah chicken those days the same anymore

taste terrible, I'm sure you're vegan, but Yeah, I'm but it's a huge problem This the way we've industrialized agriculture. 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. Chickens are being sold quicker at cows too, right? Have you invested in cow farms? A little bit. Direct action everywhere, investigators have more. I've done some investigatory work at dairy facilities.

But we've also gotten hidden cameras in cow slaughterhouses and just exposed to how stressful it is for these animals coming on the slaughter line, just struggle to escape. And yeah, just so much fear. Yeah. So is your issue just stopping us entirely? Like where do you want to see this?

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, my hope in all of this is for animals to be kind of given legal personhood, which I know to a lot of people it sounds like a very radical idea. And you know, I think a lot of people probably associate personhood with things like the right to vote and very human things. You know, I do realize that non-human animals probably will never be able to vote in human elections, and I don't expect that.

But I think they should be treated as individuals with basic rights. They should have the right to their own lives. They should have bodily autonomy, just basic things that they currently don't have. I mean, something like the right to live is something that we take so for granted that non-human animals don't even have. Got it.

So you want to get rid of slaughterhouses? It's hard, aren't we? Yeah. 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'd love to see slaughterhouses, factory farms replaced with animal sanctuaries at 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, someone out 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, an industry would have to phase out and definitely adjust to as a society. What do you think about those synthetic meats that are the bush and not? I mean, I think it's definitely a great alternative to industrial agriculture and a labra-bulger. I don't think anyone has to eat those vetting meats.

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 Peddlingopoultry Slaughterhouse, which is obviously where I rescued these four chickens from, they hang the chickens upside down in shackles and they move rapidly along up in there. The first step is that the chickens are supposed to be submerged in an electric stun bath. That's supposed to stun them. In theory, they're not conscious for the remainder of the slaughter process.

As you can imagine, these chickens are very afraid. They don't want to be electrocuted. They don't want to be electrocuted. They don't want to go into this bath. So when 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 a kill floor fully conscious. It has chickens 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 out, they lift up their head so that they don't get their throat 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

Yeah Job, I don't know but yeah and understandably the worker off he doesn't do it Which I totally understand I wouldn't want to do it either But unfortunately that means that all of those chickens and their 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. Yeah, we've definitely seen chickens gas to death

in various stages of the industry. Generally, it's not done at slaughterhouses, but if there's a disease outbreak, they will often gas chickens to death or kill them through something called ventilations to shut down, which is when they shut all the ventilation off in a barn and they raise up the temperatures and chickens and other animals essentially die from heat stroke. And that's obviously a totally inhumane way to kill an animal. Yeah.

Yeah. Because there's a few big players in the meat company, right? There's like four of them. Yeah, there's some big companies. Tyson, Purdue, Smithfield. Yeah. So are they all using slaughterhouse like this? Yes.

Yeah. No one is doing it in in a more humane way? No. And that's something we've definitely investigated a lot over the last few years, as there's been this shift to humane meat and ethical consumption, which in theory is great. And I'm so glad people care about animal welfare

and want these animals to be treated better. Unfortunately, these companies have taken advantage of people's concern and people's compassion for animals. And they have essentially have as animals in the exact same or very, very similar conditions as before slaughtered them in the same slaughterhouse as before and just added humane labels and sold meat for twice the price. Formal food. Yeah.

Yeah. Cross three. Yeah. Yeah, grass-fed. Yeah. Apparently there's a lot of, with the chicken eggs, they say like free range and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and I have investigated free range egg farms and it's literally just thousands and thousands and thousands of chickens packed tightly into a shed

and never get to go outside. Totally. Yeah, yeah. And they put these pictures of these chickens out in grassy fields. That's what the consumer is expecting as what they're imagining when they're buying these eggs. But that's not the reality is so manipulative. And they're rejecting them too with hormones and vaccines.

Yeah. You're consuming that also. People don't even know that. Yeah. And it's kind of this impossible situation where like you know you're the antibiotic free chicken but then those chickens are dying of higher rates of disease because they're not getting the antibiotics but then if they are getting the antibiotics we know we're brewing antibiotic resistant bacteria. It's just as long as we're raising animals in this

condition in these conditions no one's going to win. Yeah so do you think there is like a humane way to consume an animal or you're just totally just consuming an animal? I mean, I don't think personally that there's a humane way to kill an animal because I think that they want to live just like we do. But you know, even if it was done in a way where they didn't do it, where they weren't a frenade,

it'd still be taking someone's life. Fair. So you see them as like a spear and a light. Yeah. That's why you have your sanctuary. How many animals do you have? We have a little over a hundred animals who are permanent residents at the sanctuary.

Well, we've saved over a thousand animals over the years, mostly from factory farms and slaughterhouses and some other abusive situations like cockfighting. Cockfighting? Yeah. What's that? It's a very horrible sport where two roosters are put in a fighting ring, and they're basically forced

to fight to the death. And roosters have been bred to be extremely aggressive and just not walk away. Normally, a rooster, if they're fighting with another rooster, one of them eventually will come and submit and walk away and leave the fight. These roosters have been bred to never back down. They will fight to the death. And that happens? It's illegal in the United States, but it happens illegally.

I've heard of dog fighting, but caught fighting most. That's crazy. You got any dogs? Yeah, we do. We have a few dogs. I'd love to sell that one one. Yeah, that'd be great We'd love to have you. I'm a big animal lover. I actually want to start a sanctuary. I just feel like I mean, it's not expensive Yeah Expensive. I don't know if I'm ready to say gone. That's a full-time job to us eating them and you need a lot of way That right. Yeah, how many acres you got? We have 40 acres. Holy crap, you're a ballin'

agar. 40 acres. Yeah. Was that like a family inheritance? Oh yeah, it's my parents' property. So they had a sanctuary? Well, I started the sanctuary myself when I was growing up, when I was 11 years old. Wow. I started the rescue. My mom was a veterinarian, so having her help has been very, very nice. Nice. So you've been harsh about this your whole life? Yeah. Yeah. And growing up, I definitely always loved animals.

I was kind of an annoying kid, I think, about it. I would put up posters all around school, profiling dogs who needed homes at local shelters. Wow. You know, other first graders were going to go and talk to these dogs. all around school like profiling dogs who needed homes at like local shelters as well. You know other first graders were going to go and talk to these dogs. Well it's the most effective probably. I uh I'm just seeing a lot of I don't like how there's still shelter for dogs. Let me say a lot of those on my social media it's so sad. It's really sad. I wonder if there's a better system because these dogs are so smart. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, I think

these shelters need more funding and the government should be giving them resources so that they can just, you know, house the dogs until they find homes instead of killing them. That's not a solution. Yeah, they're killing so many. I don't know the exact numbers, but it seems like a large amount. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we need to figure out how to just have sanctuaries in every county somewhere where dogs could just roam. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we need to figure out how to just have sanctuaries in every county somewhere. We're not could just roam. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, that would be a much better alternative than taking their lives. Yeah, cats too, right? Yeah, definitely. You a cat lady? We have cats Yeah, I'm an all animals lady I guess. Yeah. How many different types of animals do you know? Probably don't even know.

I don't know. We have most species that are used for food, plus dogs and cats. Wow. Rabbits? We don't have rabbits. Squirrels? No squirrels. We have a lot of squirrels who live wild on the property.

Most all of our neighbors kill the ground squirrels. But we don't. So we've got like that. Just kill them? Yeah. Why? Because they kind of like go for it as they Most all of our neighbors that kill the ground squirrels. Yeah, but we don't so we've got like that Yeah, why cuz they they're kind of like gophers they burrow in the ground and people don't like that So they poison them what yeah, you can't do that. But you know, you could just poison the swirl right off it. Yeah I say no, not a very sadly. Wow, I get I'm in Vegas. We get like coyotes and tops no. But I wouldn't kill it unless it was attacking me. You know what I mean?

Some people, I mean, you're probably against hunting. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's totally absurd to me to kill these squirrels when they're just burrowing and doing their thing. Yeah, I'm not saying I'd kill it just for fun. Yeah. Yeah, and some people do do it for fun.

I once was driving on a country road and this truck like sped up to try to hit this ground squirrel and did end up hitting them, killing them. That's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Some people kind of see it as a sport. We'll hear like gunshots and in the areas people like shooting at the squirrels. Wow.

Yeah. These are living creatures that people just think of like a game or else. Yeah. You know, you feel good about the trial though? You feeling like you're going to win? We'll see. I think if we can show the jury evidence of of the animal cruelty at Petalino Poultry and share the stories of these animals that I feel confident they were to win. If the judge and the prosecutors make it

so that we're not able to show that evidence, then I'm less certain. Another activist faced trial in the same county last year for rescuing animals and he basically was not allowed to talk about any of the animal cruelty he had documented. And honestly, it was just disturbing. It really felt like he just wasn't allowed to present a defense and he was ultimately

convicted. Yeah, that's concerning. Why wouldn't you be allowed to say your face? So I thought in trial you're allowed to go with time to say your face. So I thought in trial, you're allowed to go away time. Yeah, to say your face. Yeah, and you are. And the issue has been that, you know, the prosecutors have tried to argue effectively that this evidence, the animal cruelty evidence will bias the jury by making it kind of an emotional decision for them. Which, sure, yeah, it's very emotional to see animal cruelty, but it's also just the truth.

It's just the reality. Right. And also, since the cameras were hidden, you're probably not allowed to use that as an answer. I'm not sure. We haven't had that issue necessarily. A lot of it comes down to what was the defendant's intent. So if the defendant's intent was based on this footage that was documented, then that could be admissible. Yeah. I just hope you get a fair trial.

I hope so too. Because seeing what happened with Trump and other examples of this site, who knows if that's even a fair system. Yeah, our legal system is not fair. I don't have much faith in it. I'm really afraid though. But if you go to prison for this, that's crazy. I know. I'm pretty fortunate. I mean, what damage did you do? They didn't even know I was there.

They only knew about it because I posted about it. Oh, soft snitch. Yeah, well, what we do is called open rescue. So we have a philosophy that we're open about rescuing these animals and we feel it's really important to share their stories, all those stories out to the world. Even if sometimes that might mean taking some legal risks. So then you've got a tongue to tie for so you probably didn't even think this was a possibility.

Yeah, I mean, I always know it is a possibility to get prosecuted. I certainly didn't think this would happen. I didn't think I'd be wearing an ankle monitor. You know, and for four chickens, up to eight years in prison is just obviously so. I would have understood if it was a bunch and like they lost money or something, but you didn't cause any financial damage. Well, your video did go viral, but because I might have but I don't know I think that's probably why they did it because your your video went viral right well so the videos got some views after the fact immediately like a

hundred thousand views but I really went viral because of the prosecution they kind of they kind of made me go viral because people were so shocked that I got an ancient monitor that you know, tens of millions of people have been watching my videos to find out what happened. And a lot of people just don't believe my story. They think I'm lying and that I must have done something else other than just rescue these four chickens, but I've literally just rescued four chickens. Well hopefully this made them find me shade that we've seen

I'm not we'll see it a trial with discover it. Yeah So how can I like to be actionable with this show? How can ordinary people watching this get involved with? Helping out. Yeah. Um, well definitely the most impactful thing I think anyone could do is joining the animal rights movement and I'm a strong advocate of nonviolent direct action, protesting, marching, rescuing animals, investigating these facilities.

And if there's an animal rights group in anyone's area, I think the most effective thing someone could do is get involved with those groups and take action with them. But we also, just in terms of this case and this trial, we have a petition at RightToRescue.com that people can sign. It's an open letter to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, basically asking them to use the resources they're spending on my prosecution to instead investigate the animal cruelty at these facilities.

Guys, we'll link that in the description. Yeah, and obviously once my trial's scheduled, we definitely would love if people can come out and support and help share the stories of these animals. Powerful, thank you so much for coming on, Zoe. We'll link everything below. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

Check everything out in the description below. See you next time. See you next time.