California Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) weighed in on the Chicken Rescue Trial of Zoe Rosenberg as the courtroom confrontation headed into its 7th week. The extraordinary length of this trial is a testament to what’s at stake. This trial has turned into a culture war over industrialized animal agriculture and the potential consequences faced by those desperate to expose what’s happening behind the closed doors of factory farms and slaughterhouses.

The 23-year old defendant faces half a decade behind bars for rescuing 4 chickens she described as sick and suffering from a slaughterhouse truck. The UC Berkeley undergrad said she was moved to action after law enforcement ignored her repeated requests to investigate what she calls “criminal animal cruelty” happening inside the slaughterhouse, where she maintains birds sometimes flail on the kill line and some are scalded alive.

The company denies the animal cruelty allegations insisting it maintains the highest animal welfare standards, calling the defendant and the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) extremists and denouncing Rosenberg’s rescue as bordering on “agro terrorism.”

This Thursday, at The California Assembly Select Committee on Alternative Protein Innovation, chaired by Assemblyman Ash Kalra, UnchainedTV President Jane Velez-Mitchell brought up the trial, asking the assemblymember what he thought of UnchainedTV’s editorial calling for LIVE, public cameras in all California slaughterhouses and factory farms. Assemblymember Kalra offered a lengthy response saying he “…personally supports the ability for us to have more transparency”and adding, “It’s something I’m certainly willing to look into and it’s something that would require a movement. I think that it would require a lot of folks to be able to speak out on behalf of the animals beyond those who are already doing it.” Now, you’ll get to watch his entire comment on this crucial issue as UnchainedTV’s expert panel and LIVE reporter at the scene bring you the latest.