An escalating battle over beliefs has erupted in the closely watched trial of 23-year old Zoe Rosenberg, who rescued 4 chickens from a Northern California slaughterhouse. As prosecutors try to paint Zoe’s defense witnesses as radical extremists, Zoe’s defense attorneys try to focus on the condition of the birds Zoe rescued, which Vet Tech Carla Cabral described as caked in feces, listless, unable to stand, missing feathers, with diarrhea and lacking appetite. That witness also said one had an injured toe and another had evidence of a bacterial infection.

It’s the defense’s turn to present its case but, on cross-examination, prosecutors honed in on vet tech Cabral’s social media posts as an animal rights activist with the organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). The prosecutor tried to paint her as a radical with extreme beliefs who has participated in protests, glued her hand to a table at a government meeting and rescued a goat from a factory farm.

This strategy is highlighting the cultural divide. Is it extreme to be a vegan animal rights activist? Or is it extreme for humans to kill more than 80-billion land animals every year to eat them? Is it extreme to want to rescue animals who are suffering or is it extreme to create industrialized systems where animals are processed like products? These and many other issues are being brought to the surface in this case, leading some to wonder who is really in trial here, just Zoe Rosenberg or Zoe and industrialized animal agriculture… aka factory farming.

The chicken company in this case denies all allegations of animal cruelty echoing prosecutors in calling the defendant and DxE extremists with a radical agenda to end animal agriculture. DxE agrees its goal is to end animal agriculture, which it describes not as an essential industry but - rather - a destructive one causing unnecessary animal suffering as well as a host of environmental ills. The company is invited on any time to respond further.

Now, UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez-Mitchell hosts the network’s team of attorneys and analysts with reporter Matthew Zirbel LIVE at the Sonoma County courthouse for the very latest.