Crime & Safety

Animal Rights Activist Zoe Rosenberg Released From Jail: Watch

Activist Zoe Rosenberg was released today, half-way through a jail sentence but the cause she represents continues to be divisive.

Activist Zoe Rosenberg was released today, half-way through a 30-day jail sentence.The cause she represents continues to be divisive.
Activist Zoe Rosenberg was released today, half-way through a 30-day jail sentence.The cause she represents continues to be divisive. (Angela Woodall/Patch)

HEALDSBURG, CA — Animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg was released today from the Sonoma County jail halfway through a 30-day jail sentence.

"After two weeks in solitary confinement, I will get to spend the holidays out of custody before beginning house arrest in mid-January," she wrote on Facebook.

The jail allowed Rosenberg to keep her medical equipment needed as a result of diabetes and gastroparesis, which requires her to carry an insulin pump and to wear a feeding tube, but restricted her to remaining alone in her cell because of it.

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"It is truly hard to explain how slowly time passed. Some days I only got of my cell for 45 minutes just to make a phone called," she said in a video recorded after she walked out the Sonoma County jail.

Rosenberg will serve the remaining days of the sentence on house arrest instead of jail, according to the Berkeley protest group, Direct Action Everywhere.

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She was released on California's half-time, good-behavior credits, the organization’s spokesperson, Cassie King, said in an email.

A jury found Rosenberg guilty of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors for taking four chickens from the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. On Dec. 3, a judge ordered her to serve 30 days in jail, then complete 60 days in a jail-alternative program, followed by two years of probation.

Rosenberg, a 23-year-old student at the University of California, Berkeley, turned herself in on Dec. 10 to begin serving the 30-day sentence at the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility.

The release comes a week after Direct Action Everywhere organized marches and a campaign calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to release Rosenberg early.

King said Rosenberg will not be allowed visitors during her house arrest and will be restricted to her apartment, except for two hours every week, strictly for grocery shopping.

READ MORE:

Early Release For Jailed Animal Rights Activist Zoe Rosenberg

Animal Rights Activist Says She Is Held In Cell 23 Hours A Day

Prosecutors Seek Six Months Behind Bars For Activist Zoe Rosenberg In Petaluma Poultry Case

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