(KRON) — Joaquin Phoenix has leapt to the defense of a UC Berkeley student who was convicted of felony conspiracy last month after taking four chickens from a slaughterhouse in Petaluma. The Hollywood A-lister issued a statement through animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DAE) condemning the prosecution of 23-year-old Zoe Rosenberg.

In the statement, Phoenix urged the Sonoma County District Attorney to instead, prosecute Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse for animal cruelty. The DA, according to Phoenix, has ignored documented reports of animal abuse and disease at the facility. He also defended Rosenberg for what the statement called “her rescue of four suffering chickens.”

“Criminalizing people for rescuing suffering animals is a moral failure,” said Phoenix. “Compassion is not a crime. When individuals step in to save a life because the system has looked the other way, they should be supported — not prosecuted.”

“We have to decide who we are us a society: one that protects the vulnerable, or one that punishes those who try,” continued Phoenix, who won an Oscar in 2020 for the title role in “Joker,” and is an outspoken animal rights activist. “I urge the Sonoma County District Attorney to prosecute the years of documented animal cruelty at Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse; not the people trying to stop it.”

Rosenberg, an activist with Direct Action Everywhere, was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors in connection to the incident. She is due to be sentenced on Dec. 3 and faces up to four and a half years behind bars.

The birds Rosenberg rescued from the facility, which have been named Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, “are alive and well at a sanctuary for rescued farm animals,” according to DAE.