(Beth Clifton collage)
Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung & co-defendant Paul Picklesimer were prosecuted for “stealing” two piglets left to die
ST. GEORGE, Utah––Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung, defending himself, and co-defendant Paul Darwin Picklesimer, represented by veteran Salt Lake City lawyer Mary Corporon, were on October 8, 2022 acquitted by jury on all charges pertaining to the alleged theft of two piglets from Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, in 2017.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Jury deliberated for seven hours
The jury deliberated the theft and burglary charges for seven hours on the morning after hearing closing statements from the prosecution and defense, before unanimously discarding a prosecution case five years in the making.
Circle Four Farms is owned by Smithfield Foods, which has in turn been owned since 2013 by the Hong Kong-based WH Group.
That fact alone ensures that the jury verdict against the interests of the biggest firm in the pig-raising and slaughter business will reverberate from the remote southern Utah desert to China and back.
Wayne Hsiung.
(Direct Action Everywhere photo)
If a fool won acquittal, what did that make of the charges?
Advised William De Britaine in 1682, and jurists have mostly agreed in the 340 years since, “He who will be his own counselor, shall be sure to have a fool for his client.”
If Hsiung was a fool, what does that make of Beaver County prosecuting attorney Von Christiansen, representing the State of Utah, and the Smithfield and WH Group decision-makers who pushed the case?
The case began several weeks after Direct Action Everywhere posted an online video showing what Hsiung, videographer Picklesimer, and three other Direct Action Everywhere members saw during a night infiltration of the purportedly ultra-secure farrowing barn on the Circle Four Farms premises in Beaver County, Utah.
Direct Action Everywhere called the raid “Operation Deathstar.”
Paul Darwin Picklesimer and Wayne Hsiung. (Beth Clifton collage)
Feds declined to press charges
“Local and federal law enforcement officials began a multistate investigation,” summarized Salt Lake Tribune reporters Leto Sapunar and Jordan Miller.
“FBI agents raided animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado, and at one of them government veterinarians sliced off part of a piglet’s ear in their search for DNA evidence of the crime,” Sapunar and Miller recounted.
That maimed piglet turned out to have nothing to do with the Circle Four Farms intrusion.
“The authorities never recovered the stolen piglets, and the federal government declined to press charges,” Sapunar and Miller continued.
“But prosecutors in Utah pursued felony burglary and theft charges against the activists,” Sapunar and Miller reported.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Faced five-and-a-half years
Hsiung and Picklesimer potentially faced five-and-a half-year prison sentences, steep fines, and restitution orders.
Three other activists who were indicted with Hsiung and Picklesimer pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges “in exchange for an agreement that they would not trespass on Smithfield properties in Utah nor criticize the corporation online for three years,” The New York Times mentioned.
Though Hsiung and Picklesimer were charged in Beaver County, their trial was moved to Washington County after Judge Jeffrey C. Wilcox expressed “concern” about the limited jury pool in the community of under 7,000 people.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Smithfield blames layoffs on animal advocates
Further, observed Sapunar and Miller, “Smithfield told its employees in June that it would be cutting its operations in Beaver County to a third, threatening the jobs of a quarter of the county’s workforce,” blaming the layoffs on California legislation requiring that pork sold within the state must meet the California requirement that sows and piglets not be kept in gestation stalls.
Hsiung and defense attorney Corporon argued that the Smithfield cutbacks might bias a Beaver County jury against Hsiung and Picklesimer.
“During the trial,” Judge Wilcox “dismissed one count of burglary against each of the men, who had been accused of also entering a different building,” Sapunar and Miller added.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Judge did Hsiung & Picklesimer no favors
Beyond moving the trial and dropping the extra burglary counts, Wilcox did Hsiung and Picklesimer no favors, and indeed appeared to favor the prosecution in pre-trial rulings that the jurors would not be shown the “Operation Deathstar”video, that Hsiung would not be allowed to present a “defense of necessity,” meaning that he violated the law to avoid a greater harm, and that as Wilcox framed the case, it would be about burglary, not animal rights, with no testimony to be offered as to the defendants’ motives.
“For instance,” described Sapunar and Miller, Wilcox “ordered that the defense cut in half an image of one of the piglets that showed the bloody teat of the mother pig.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Tossing “defense of necessity” might have helped
Ironically, excluding the “defense of necessity” might have helped Hsiung, as the case developed.
Hsiung previously used a “defense of necessity” in defending himself against felony charges of breaking and entering and larceny, brought against him for taking a baby goat from the Sospiro Goat Ranch in Pisgah Forest, Transylvania County, North Carolina in June 2018.
Hsiung alleged that the goat was suffering from pneumonia and lice.
Convicted by jury, Hsiung in the North Carolina case received a suspended prison sentence, plus 24 months on probation.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Prosecution case contracted precedents
The Utah prosecution contended that while the allegedly stolen piglets were worth no more than $42 apiece, Smithfield Foods’ reputation was materially harmed by the “Operation Deathstar” video, and by Direct Action Everywhere protests targeting Costco, a major Smithfield.
The Utah prosecution further alleged that Direct Action Everywhere had used the purportedly illegally obtained “Operation Deathstar” video to raise $50,000 in donations.
However, a long string of precedents, many of them won in civil rights cases, decades ago established that within the U.S., alleged defamation must be tried as a civil rather than criminal matter; the individual choices of consumers in response to a boycott may not be considered material losses attributable to a boycott campaign; and likewise the individual choices of donors may not be considered material losses to the opposing side of a public issue.
(Beth Clifton photo)
“Clear case of government overreach”
Hsiung won a critical admission from a Smithfield witness that the one or two veterinarians on duty at Circle Four Farms employee could not provide individual care to as many as 1,600 pigs seen per day.
Corporon successfully objected that the prosecution wrongly implied to the jury that the piglets Hsiung and Picklesimer took were about to get veterinary case.
“This is a clear case of government overreach,” summarized Corporon, representing Picklesimer.
“Let’s face it,” Corporon said. “Joe Sixpack citizen can’t get the F.B.I. to try to solve the burglary of their TV or their grandmother’s ring because they’re not a major multinational corporation with immense political pull.”
Wayne Hsiung. (Direct Action Everywhere photo)
“I was there”
Admitted Hsiung in his closing statement, “I was there on the night of March 7, 2017. I did remove two piglets from Smithfield Foods.”
But Hsiung contended that he had taken nothing of value from Circle Four Farms, an essential element for the prosecution to prove theft and burglary charges, because Circle Four Farms itself had discarded the still living but sickly piglets as refuse.
Hsiung further testified that Picklesimer was present only to document whether Smithfield was continuing to house mother pigs in gestation stalls, prior to previous corporate promises.
Picklesimer did not testify in his own defense.
Corporon asked the jury to consider whether Picklesimer could have simultaneously operated the video camera and carried a squirming pig.
Lily and Lizzie, identified as the rescued pigs by Direct Action Everywhere, reside at the Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary in Colorado.
(Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary photo)
“Just take care of your animals”
Concluded Hsiung after the unexpected jury verdict, “This is a resounding message about accountability and transparency. Every company that is mistreating animals and expecting that government and local elected officials will just go along with them because they have them in their pockets will now realize that the public will hold them accountable, even in places like southern Utah.
“Instead of trying to put us in prison,” said Hsiung, speaking directly to Circle Four Farms, Smithfield Foods, the WH Group, and other factory farmers, “the better thing to do is just take care of your animals.”
The piglets whom Hsiung and Picklesimer were charged with stealing, long since fully grown, have been identified by Direct Action Everywhere as having been named Lily and Lizzie, now residents of the Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary in Erie, Colorado.
The FBI and The New York Times, however, identified the piglets as Lucy and Ethel, said to be now living at an animal sanctuary in Utah.
Protest at Circle Four Farms.
(Direct Action Everywhere photo)
Who is Wayne Hsiung?
Hsiung, 41, an attorney with a background in political organization, left Direct Action Everywhere in 2019 to unsuccessfully seek a seat on the city council in Berkeley, California, where Direct Action Everywhere is headquartered and where both Hsiung and Picklesimer , 31, are longtime residents.
Wrote Berkeleyside editor Frances Dinkelspiel, in an extensive October 7, 2020 profile of Hsiung, “In 2016, Wayne Hsiung moved to Berkeley with the explicit intent of using the city as a lever for the liberation of animals.
Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung.
(Direct Action Everywhere photo)
Direct Action Everywhere
“From a home shared with others in Berkeley’s tony Claremont district, Hsiung and organizers in Direct Action Everywhere, the group he co-founded in 2013, worked to build a social movement that would expose the cruel living conditions for animals in industrial farms around the nation.”
Under Hsiung, Direct Action Everywhere increased annual donations from $47,000 in 2017 to nearly $500,000 in both 2018 and 2019.
A support group, Friends of Direct Action Everywhere, run by Hsiung’s sister Amy, has raised more than $4.2 million since 2014, including one 2019 contribution of $567,725.
Direct Action Everywhere, headed since 2019 by vegan activist Priya Sawhney, now claims more than 50 active chapters in 20 nations.
(See Animal advocates have races to watch in NYC, Denver, & Berkeley, too.)
Nick Schafer & Amy Soranno.
(Beth Clifton collage)
British Columbia verdict pending
Vegan activists Nick Schafer, 36. and Amy Soranno , 39, of Kelowna, British Columbia, are meanwhile now due to be sentenced on October 12, 2022, facing up to ten years in prison apiece.
Beth & Merritt Clifton
Schafer and Soranno were on July 12, 2022 convicted by jury on charges of breaking and entering and mischief for their part in exposing alleged animal abuse in April 2019 at the Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
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Thank you Animals 24-7 for your hot-off-the-press coverage of this historic jury verdict. It’s wonderful that the jurors refused to succumb to the trial judge’s effort to hide the facts of Smithfield’s tortured mother pigs and their piglets and reduce DxE’s rescue of the piglets to mere “stealing” of “property.”
I am proud of the fact that our organization, United Poultry Concerns, introduced the concept and practice of Open Rescue to U.S. animal activists at our historic Forum on Direct Action for Animals, June 26-27, 1999, when we brought Australian animal rights activist Patty Mark to speak. It was the brilliant, passionate strategist Patty Mark and her team who pioneered the concept and practice of Open Rescue as opposed to rescues by anonymous masked rescuers.
Here is my article on our historic Forum and its contribution to the Open Rescue strategy in the United States exemplified by the Open Rescues conducted by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and other U.S. and Canadian animal advocacy organizations:
“Open Rescues: How UPC Introduced This Strategy to U.S. Activists”:
https://upc-nline.org/activism/150807_open_rescues_how_upc_introduced_this_strategy_to_activists.html
“When I first started writing this essay on Open Rescues I thought I would discuss the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) practice of concealment versus disclosure of personal identity as a strategy for achieving animal liberation through appeals to public perception and public conscience. But as I sifted through my files looking at the faces of animal liberators both masked and unmasked, as well as at undercover rescue scenes in both video format and verbal evocation, I decided that, important as the mask question may be from the standpoint of public perception, of equal and perhaps more fundamental importance is that of the rescuers’ overall body language and the expression of their hands in a videotaped rescue intended for general audiences. When it comes to faces, it seems that the most important ones to be shown in a rescue operation taped for public viewing are the faces of the animals themselves. Those faces and the suffering they express tell the story of their terrible lives.”
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns. http://www.upc-online.org
“’Instead of trying to put us in prison,’ said Hsiung, speaking directly to Circle Four Farms, Smithfield Foods, the WH Group, and other factory farmers, ‘the better thing to do is just take care of your animals.’”
That would be the better thing but the best thing would be for them to stop exploiting them.
Justice triumphs! Cheers to Wayne Hsiung, Paul Picklesimer, and Mary Corporon, and thank you to the jury for the sage decisions. Thanks also to Animals 24-7 for helping elucidate this case. The best of success to Nick Schafer and Amy Soranno.
Worth noting that here in the U.S. alone, we annually consume some TEN BILLION animals (not counting fish), most of whom never see the light of day or touch foot to earth, and pumped full of pharmaceuticals….a true “Crime Against Nature.” Some serious legislation is long overdue, both state and federal.
A red letter for animals.
This acquittal is a step in the right direction as an antidote to the Green Scare. But the idea of “better treatment” or “improvements” to animal agriculture is complete nonsense–due to its massive scale and the fact that animals are viewed as property, not individuals. As a society, the question that needs to be asked is: why do humans believe we have a right to *use* animals in the first place…for food, clothing, labor, animal testing subjects, sport, and entertainment.
Discussions that don’t originate from there are ultimately meaningless and hinder real changes that can end the misery of animals and greatly reduce climate change, zoonotic disease transmission, ocean dead zones, and destruction of the Amazon rainforest and other habitats.
Definitely a step in the right direction, and one that sends a strong message to the industry. But more importantly, it hopefully opens a few more eyes and prompts the public to realize that the only way to reduce the suffering is via our dietary choices. We still have a long way to go.
Terrific comment by Zack Porter. Exactly on target.
This rescue was wonderful on so many levels. — for the rescued animals, the legal/political implications, the message it sends, the viewed compassion, nurturance, empathy clearly expressed to living beings, and for the courage and grit of the rescuers.
My only disappointment was there was no direct statement promoting veganism. It was an opportunity not taken.
To say people should take care of farm animals ignores the fact that billions of farm animals can never be taken care of–whatever that means. More fundamentally, these animals should not be
“farmed” to begin with. These are sentient beings and they are not here for people to brutalize and eat.
They are here for themselves.
When people promote the concept of ‘caring’ for slaves, it promotes the idea that if the slaves were a little less brutalized, everything would be OK. No, it would not be OK.
These ‘welfare’ ideas offer comfort and opportunities for rationalizing and denying to those individuals who want to continue to abuse animals by consuming them.
David Daleiden is a hero to conservatives for his undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood trafficking in human body parts, but many of these conservatives support “Ag-gag” legislation preventing animal activists from doing likewise on factory farms, fur farms, rodeos, vivisection labs, etc. Unless an issue is brought out into the open, as was the case with the civil rights movement bringing racism, Jim Crow, peaceful protesters being set upon with dogs and water cannons into the homes of American living rooms, or Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame spotlighting the plight of migrant farm workers, change is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Our country is so cruel to animals that I can’t even read about it or think about it. Millions of innocent but very intelligent animals suffer from the moment of birth to the last moment of life. That any decent human being can eat a bite of factory farmed pork or beef is a national outrage. People make so much money on the extreme suffering of these creatures. People say they are religious, and yet all religions will see in the Bible many things about treating all animals and living things with kindness––the word can’t even be written. There are no words to express the life of these pigs, the 5th leading creature of intelligence in the world. They are in cages, often can’t sit, and definitely cannot lie down. Cows are tremendously loyal mothers and yet they have their babies taken from them at birth. For 24 hours they do not stop crying out loud. These are only some of the beyond cruel facts of their lives.
PLEASE!!!!!!!! STOP EATING MEAT !!!!!!!!!!! Humans do NOT need animal protein to live!!!!! I am a healthy 73 year old woman and I stopped eating all meat and fish after I saw the inside of a fish slaughter factory. It was horrific how live fish were channeled from water onto a rolling factory conveyor belt and clubbed on the head with baseball bats until supposedly unconscious and then immediately had their bodies sliced apart with large knives while still wiggling on the moving conveyor belt in the factory. The animals were obviously still alive while being dissected!!! After that day, I never ate fish or animal meat again. That was 31 years ago. I eat all organic foods and cheeses but nothing with animal meat or fish meat in it.