Dozens of animal rights activists stormed a Trader Joe’s store in Oakland over the weekend to protest the grocery chain purchasing chicken from a Bay Area farm accused of animal rights violations.
Protesters from Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights activism group, on Saturday dressed in white biosecurity suits and held up yellow caution tape in front of the store’s meat section to try and inform shoppers about alleged animal cruelty the group says it has documented at Petaluma Poultry farms in Sonoma County.
Petaluma Poultry is a subsidiary of Perdue Farms, one of the biggest poultry producers in the country. Direct Action Everywhere is urging Trader Joe’s to stop selling chicken purchased from Petaluma Poultry.
“I want to know why Trader Joe’s is continuing to support Perdue’s animal cruelty,” said Conrad De Jesus in the release, an Oakland resident who participated in the protest.
“They’ve seen the evidence of sick and injured animals languishing without medical care at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry,” De Jesus said. “It’s time they cut ties with this awful company.”
The store sells chicken from Petaluma Poultry in its own Trader Joe’s packaging. It is marked with code “P-2882,” which is the establishment code of Perdue Farms.
Zoe Rosenberg, an activist with Direct Action Everywhere and student at University of California, Berkeley is facing a felony trial in May for taking four chickens from Petaluma Poultry in June 2023.