Trader Joe's Disrupted Over Sale of “Criminally Abused” Chickens from Perdue Farms

Photos and Videos:Direct Action Everywhere

(March 1, 2025, BERKELEY, CA) -- On Saturday afternoon, animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) disrupted the Trader Joe's store on University Avenue in Berkeley, urging the grocery chain to stop purchasing chickens from Petaluma Poultry, a subsidiary of national poultry giant Perdue Farms. Similar protests took place last weekend at Trader Joe’s stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco organized by DxE activists in those cities.

The protestors stood in front of the store’s meat section which contains chicken bodies marked with plant code 2882 , indicating the animals were slaughtered at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in Petaluma, CA. They held signs that read “Drop Petaluma Poultry” and “PerdueAbuse.com” and delivered speeches about the animal cruelty DxE investigators have documented at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry. Then the protest continued outside the store, where activists set up a “human meat” display with an activist covered in fake blood and lying on a tray wrapped in plastic to represent the abused chickens whose plastic-wrapped bodies are sold at Trader Joe’s.

Since 2018, DxE investigators have documented and reported routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at Petaluma Poultry factory farms and its slaughterhouse, including birds collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to access food or water. Additionally, USDA reports from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse show it has four times the national rate of campylobacter and four times the state rate of salmonella, two pathogens that commonly cause illness in humans.

“Chickens and other animals experience pain just like we do,” said Berkeley resident Yasirah Vaughn who joined the protest. “It is wrong to deny them medical treatment when they are sick or injured, but Perdue is letting them suffer for the sake of profit even when it violates California's animal cruelty laws. We're calling on Trader Joe's to do the right thing and cut ties with Perdue's 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.”

In February, the Michelin Guide restaurant Playa in Mill Valley officially cut ties with Perdue’s 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.

DxE investigator and UC Berkeley student Zoe Rosenberg is currently facing a felony prosecution for rescuing four sick birds from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in June 2023. Her trial begins May 16, 2025.

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 onFacebook, Instagram, Twitter and at directactioneverywhere.com.