In what ranks as an extremely unusual trial, the jury selection process continues for yet another day in the Chicken Rescue Trial with a process known as voir dire. The goal is to get to 12 impartial jurors and 4 alternates so the case can proceed to opening statements, likely next week. It’s already Week 3..so obviously this is a very tough case to seat. UnchainedTV has vowed to cover this trial start to finish.

The defendant, 23-year old Direct Action Everywhere animal cruelty investigator Zoe Rosenberg, is charged with 1 count of felony conspiracy and 3 misdemeanors and could go to jail for almost half a decade for rescuing 4 chickens she described as sick and suffering from a slaughterhouse truck.

This trial is happening 55 north of San Francisco in a heavily agricultural county and it’s a case that has turned into a giant tug of war for the hearts and minds of the people of Sonoma County.

Well-funded pro ag interests have sent out an expensive glossy flyer to many, if not most, county residents urging them to support the county’s poultry farmers. The slaughterhouse in question Perdue-owned Petaluma Poultry denies the defendants allegations of rampant cruelty with birds sometimes boiled alive. The company is invited on any time to respond further.

The animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere has a team of Zoe supporters in town marching, chanting and protesting what they describe as the unimaginable cruelties of industrialized animal agriculture where animals are mass produced for public consumption by the billions.

DxE says there is no nice way to kill 140-thousand chickens every minute which is how many are killed on this planet with 202 million chickens killed every day amounting to more than 74 billion chickens are slaughtered annually for meat.

Now UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez-Mitchell brings us the very latest with reporter Matthew Zirbel on scene and our commentators weighting in.