WATCH: 3 Arrested As Demonstrations Continue Outside Poultry Plant

PETALUMA, CA -- For the second time in two weeks, demonstrators with a Bay Area animal rights group were arrested outside a Petaluma poultry plant. Three activists, all Berkeley residents, were taken into custody by police just after 1 a.m. Monday when they stepped in front of a moving semi truck as it approached to deliver live chickens to Petaluma Poultry on Lakeville Highway, the group and Petaluma police confirmed.

Bay Area Animal Save identified those arrested as Rachel Ziegler, Chai Masala Canaglia and Lewis Bernier. The trio was attempting to “bear witness to the suffering and exploitation of the birds” and “stepped out into the road holding up large reflective signs that read, ‘Stop – Please allow Us To Bear Witness’ and ‘5 Minutes Please,’” the group stated in a news release.

According to the Petaluma Police Department, the demonstrators were arrested and booked into a Sonoma County jail on suspicion of two misdemeanors: obstructing traffic and disobeying a peace officer.

Petaluma police Lt. Brian Miller told Patch the group has been gathering on Sunday nights outside the plant for about two months in what were initially non-permitted but peaceful demonstrations. However, after the poultry plant reached out to police and expressed concern for safety of their staff and the public, the Petaluma Police Department has been assigning officers overtime in order to have a presence at the protest site while not affecting the number of patrol officers on duty throughout the rest of the city, Miller said.

“We have no issue with them wanting to go and demonstrate but they have got to do it lawfully but when they are running out at the last minute in front of a tractor trailer …well, I would hate for another motorist to not see the truck and stop abruptly,” Miller said.

ALSO SEE: Poultry Plant Denies Activists' Animal Cruelty Claims

Last week, demonstrator Jonathan Frohmayer, an attorney and Berkeley resident, was arrested when he allegedly sat down in front of a delivery truck in the plant’s driveway and refused to move.

Miller said Frohmayer’s arrest was after police had just left the scene after being there for four hours.

“It is unfortunate we are in this position that we need to be there and that there can’t be a responsible, respectable demonstration,” Miller said. “What is disheartening is that we have tried quite a bit of engagement with the group and had a lengthy conversation with the organizer for almost two hours last Sunday.”

According to its news release, Bay Area Animal Save is part of the international Save network and "holds vigils at Bay Area slaughterhouses to expose the cruelty and suffering endured by innocent animals exploited for food. The group strives to help the public understand that these animals killed for food are no different from the cats and dogs in our homes and that these animals feel pain and love just like humans."

Bay Area Animal Save claims that in the latest incident, “the truck slowed but kept driving into the three activists, forcing them to back away from it until it came to a stop.”

“After the truck stopped, other activists stepped into the road and walked toward the truck … where the chickens, crowded into crates, instead of being visible to the outside, were obscured by metal sheeting placed on the outside walls of the crates,” the group said in its news release.

The group says security guards from Petaluma Poultry “tried to prevent them from doing so by yelling and attempting to place themselves between the truck and the activists.”

The metal barricades prevented the nearly two dozen activists from witnessing the condition of the birds and honoring them before their deaths, the group says.

“They were prevented from even a look at the world around them or to experience the compassion offered by the activists before being killed,” said demonstrator Leslie Goldberg.

Alicia Santurio, the founder of Bay Area Animal Save, was in attendance at the gathering intended as a vigil for the birds.

“It's a disgrace that we live in a world where activists trying to give animals 5 minutes of love and compassion are the ones being arrested and charged with a crime,” Santurio said. “The real crime is the mass killing of sentient beings at Perdue's Petaluma Poultry. I want to live in a world where the animal abusers are punished not the peaceful protesters.”

Photos and video courtesy of Michael Goldberg for Bay Area Animal Save