Hi John,

I recently woke up to find that seven new criminal charges had been added against me for the rescue of four chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse last June. This came after last week’s hearing where the judge dismissed three of the four felonies I was facing because the prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence for them to proceed to trial.

Obviously, the prosecutors weren’t happy about this, and they quickly added new charges against me, but the charges appeared to be a total mess. Some were literal duplicates of pre-existing charges. And by the time they sent my attorney the formal amended complaint, there were only two new charges on it. This morning, I appeared in court to be arraigned on these new charges, but the charges weren’t able to be filed because of a litany of errors. It seems like they’re just throwing charges at me to see what sticks, ignoring normal protocols and rules.

They were attempting to file felony burglary and misdemeanor trespass of an agriculture operation. They’re also attempting to modify my felony conspiracy charge to allege that the conspiracy began on April 23, 2023, nearly two months before the chickens were rescued.

I will be returning to court on June 13 - my birthday - to get more clarity on the amended complaint.

While all of this back-and-forth is happening in court, chickens are suffering criminal abuse at Petaluma Poultry facilities across Sonoma County and the District Attorney’s Office can’t be bothered to do anything about it. The resources being spent on my prosecution would be much better spent enforcing California’s animal welfare laws but, unfortunately, they’re more interested in protecting corporate profit.

I’ll send you an update after court on June 13th. Thanks for supporting me through this journey and defending the chickens abused by Petaluma Poultry.

Zoe

PS: This week, activists disrupted celebrity chef Tyler Florence, a brand ambassador for Petaluma Poultry, at two of his book signing events. They called on him to cut ties with Petaluma Poultry. Check out the videos here and here. 

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