Tensions are mounting and the mood at the Northern California courthouse grows more intense as the Chicken Rescue Trial of Zoe Rosenberg heads to its climax. Now, the 23-year old defendant has finally taken the witness stand to tell her side of the story.

There’s a lot at stake as this UC Berkeley undergraduate and member of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) makes the case to the jury that she rescued, not stole, 4 chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June of 2023.

Rosenberg has already told the jury of 7 men and 5 women that she believed her actions were “lawfully justified” to prevent what she described as “criminal animal abuse” at the slaughterhouse. Rosenberg faces half a decade in prison if convicted of felony conspiracy and misdemeanor trespass.

This lengthy and closely watched trial over 4 chickens valued at $24 has already cost taxpayers a huge amount of money. It has also turned into a battle over the ethics of industrialized animal agriculture that - globally - kills 200 million chickens every day and over 70-billion chickens every year. Indeed, if chickens were to no longer killed for food, the number of land animals killed for human consumption every year would drop by over 90%.

Defense witness Carla Cabral, an activist and vet tech who examined the 4 rescued chickens described them as listless, caked in feces, unable to stand, with one suffering an injured toe and the other showing signs of a bacterial infection. Rosenberg has publicly accused the company of boiling chickens alive and leaving them to die on the floor of their factory farms.

The company has denied these allegations, saying it has the highest animal welfare standards and calling DxE members, including the defendants, extremists with a radical agenda. The company is invited on any time to comment further.

Due to the wildly conflicting characterizations of conditions at Perdue factory farms and slaughterhouses, with the company calling itself a leader in animal welfare and the activists calling its treatment of the animals extreme cruelty, UnchainedTV is now publicly proposing a solution: LIVE cameras in all facilities, including factory farms and slaughterhouses, that contain animals with no blind spots and with the public able to view the live footage online. The network is hoping legislation at the state or federal level can be proposed. Globally, this approach is gaining traction. England, Scotland, Spain, and Israel already require CCTV cameras in all slaughterhouses.

Now, UnchainedTV host Jane Velez-Mitchell joins a team of legal analysts, experts and reporter Matthew Zirbel LIVE at the courthouse for this crucial day of testimony from the defendant.