Activists Disrupt Berkeley Restaurant for Selling “Criminally Abused” Chickens
Activists protest inside the Berkeley restaurant Skates on the Bay on Friday night, urging the restaurant to stop supplying from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry.
PHOTOS/VIDEOS (Credit: Direct Action Everywhere)
Saturday, February 8, 2025, Berkeley, CA-- On Friday evening, animal rights activists disrupted the dinner service at the Berkeley restaurant Skates on the Bay, asking the restaurant to commit to never again supplying from Perdue’s California subsidiary, Petaluma Poultry, due to documented animal cruelty. The activists delivered speeches inside and outside the restaurant. They displayed signs and a large banner that read “Drop Perdue's Petaluma Poultry.”
The protest was organized by the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), whose investigators have documented routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at several Petaluma Poultry factory farms in Northern California and at the company's slaughterhouse. Their findings include birds collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to walk to food or water, left to slowly starve to death; birds with splayed legs; birds with open wounds; and infectious diseases that threaten public health. DxE says the findings demonstrate clear violations of California Penal Code Section 597 . In particular, birds who are collapsed and unable to walk cannot access food and water and it is a crime to deprive animals of "necessary sustenance, drink, or shelter."
On Wednesday, the Michelin Guide restaurant Playa in Mill Valley officially cut ties with Petaluma Poultry after a similar protest was organized there. Last year, Food Network chef Tyler Florence and all of his San Francisco restaurants cut ties with Petaluma Poultry after DxE activists brought these findings to their attention.
In addition to restaurants, Perdue's Petaluma Poultry supplies to major grocery chains including Trader Joe’s and Safeway. DxE is also calling on these grocery stores to drop Petaluma Poultry. As reported by the San Francisco Standard , Paris Hilton recently added her voice to the effort, commenting on a DxE Instagram video tagging Trader Joe’s and asking them to “please do the right thing and cut ties with Petaluma Poultry.”
“Birds at Perdue's Petaluma Poultry suffer unimaginable pain,” said DxE Lead Organizer Almira Tanner. “Their short lives are marked by injury, illness, and neglect, and the only time many of them get to go outside is when they are driven to the slaughterhouse. On top of that, the cramped conditions inside the facilities lead to the rapid spread of diseases like avian flu, which just recently caused the death of a human in the US. It's shameful that businesses in Berkeley are selling criminally abused animals from factory farms that endanger public health.”
DxE investigator Zoe Rosenberg is currently facing felony charges in Sonoma County for rescuing sick birds from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Her trial is set to start May 16, 2025 in Santa Rosa.
Investigators with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) enter farms, slaughterhouses, and other facilities to document abuses and rescue sick and injured animals. DxE’s investigatory work has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED , and Vox . DxE activists have been subjected to FBI raids and felony prosecutions for their investigative work. In 2022, DxE activists won the first-ever acquittal in an open rescue case. Visit DxE on Facebook , Instagram, Twitter and at directactioneverywhere.com .
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