(Beth Clifton collage)
Activist couple also get year on probation. Factory farmers get apoplexy.
ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia, Canada––Convicted by jury on July 12, 2022 on charges of breaking and entering and mischief for their part in exposing alleged animal abuse at the Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia in April 2019, husband-and-wife vegan activists Nick Schafer and Amy Soranno were on October 12, 2022 sentenced to each serve 30 days in prison, followed by one year on probation.
Soranno and Schafer are also required to submit personal DNA samples to the Canadian national forensic data base on criminal offenders.
The outcome of the Soranno and Schafer case contrasted with the October 8, 2022 acquittal by jury of Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung and co-defendant Paul Darwin Picklesimer for allegedly stealing two piglets from Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, in 2017.
(See Acquittal of “open rescue” activists rattles factory farms from Utah to China.)
Nick Schafer & Amy Soranno.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Locked up for Halloween
“Soranno and Schafer will begin their sentence on October 21, 2022 at the Okanagan Corrections Centre,” said their spokesperson, Kris Hermes.
“Both were also sentenced to a year on probation and a prohibition on making contact with Excelsior, its owners, or any animal farm during this period,” Hermes said.
“Soranno and Schafer are appealing their conviction and sentence,” Hermes added. “Their legal counsel will also be filing an application for bail pending appeal. If the bail application is granted by the British Columbia Court of Appeal, Soranno and Schafer may have their sentence deferred until after the appeal is heard.”
Pigs in stocks. (Facebook photo)
“Breaking the laws for political purposes in unacceptable” says judge
Schafer, 36, and Soranno, 29, both of Kelowna, British Columbia, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive northeast of Abbotsford, potentially faced 10 years in prison apiece, but the prosecution asked only that they be given 90 days prison time each.
“Breaking the laws for political purposes is unacceptable,” declared British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven in his sentencing statement.
Nick Schafer. (Beth Clifton collage)
“Meat the Victims”
Verhoeven denounced what he termed a “carefully planned and orchestrated mass invasion” led by Soranno and Schafter, whom Verhoeven said “incited and encouraged many others to break the law” when they “recruited and organized” about 200 other supporters from a group called “Meat the Victims “ group to visit the Excelsior Hog Farm with them on April 28, 2019.
Approximately 50 of the demonstrators joined Soranno and Schafer in entering the Excelsior pig barns, Verhoeven said.
Soranno directed the demonstration, Verhoeven recounted, while Schafer videotaped the proceedings.
Amy Soranno during arrest at Excelsior Pig Farm. (Amy Sorrano Facebook photo)
“Polite & cooperative”
Verhoeven acknowledged receiving letters describing Soranno and Schafer as “intelligent, compassionate and kind,” caring deeply and sincerely about animal rights and welfare, and “dedicated to non-violent activism on behalf of the animals.”
Verhoeven also acknowledged some mitigating factors favoring Soranno and Schafer, including that they have no prior criminal records and were “polite and cooperative” in dealing with the police who arrested them.
But Verhoeven alleged that Soranno and Schafer had engaged in activities with potential for violence, including “repeated refusal to leave the [Excelsior] property upon demand,” had caused harm to Excelsior Hog Farm and the owners’ families, and had caused expenditure of police resources.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Fritz Verhoeven.
“Offenders have not disavowed belief that their conduct was morally right”
Verhoeven denied a defense recommendation that Soranno and Schafer should receive an absolute or conditional discharge.
“I know that the offenders have not disavowed the belief that their conduct was morally right or indicated that they would never again engage in illegal behavior,” Verhoeven concluded, but ended up giving Soranno and Schafer only a third of the prison time that the prosecution wanted.
At that, the case and the sentencing appeared likely to be appealed even before spokesperson Hermes confirmed that it would be.
Soranno and Schafer objected that Justice Verhoeven did not allow them to show the jury any of their video footage of alleged animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm, and prohibited them from presenting a “defense of necessity” argument that their actions were undertaken to try to prevent illegal animal abuse.
Soranno posted to https://excelsior4.org/amystatement a statement that she was prevented from reading in court at her sentencing hearing on August 26, 2022.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Rife with official negligence & misconduct”
“The Excelsior 4 case is rife with official negligence and misconduct,” charged Hermes on behalf of Soranno and Schafer. “The Abbotsford police lost important video evidence and destroyed multiple cameras found inside the hog farm, which formed the basis of the breaking-and-entering charges.
“Instead of recommending charges against Excelsior after being provided ample video evidence of animal cruelty, the British Columbia SPCA turned [videographer] Geoff Regier—a whistleblower—over to police, in violation of its confidentiality policy. And, the Crown withheld key evidence until the trial, putting the defense at a considerable disadvantage.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Certainly grounds for appeal exist”
“Certainly grounds for appeal exist,” offered veteran animal rights lawyer Adam Karp, of Bellingham, Washington, a keen observer of the proceedings.
Meat the Victims demonstrators rallied at Excelsior Hog Farm soon after Soranno and Schafer were sentenced, dozens “to keep attention on the animal cruelty that activists argue should have been the focus of this case,” Hermes said.
While Schafer and Soranno were convicted, and may serve the 30 days each to which they were sentenced, the ham-fisted Crown prosecution at behest of the pig industry has already lost in the court of public opinion a farce rivaling in absurdity the 1995 Michael Moore film Canadian Bacon.
(Tosha Lobsinger photo)
British Colombia SPCA speaks out of both sides of mouth
The British Columbia SPCA appeared to recognize that on July 14, 2022.
Having initiated the prosecution in the first place by breaking confidentiality with undercover videographer Regier, the British Columbia SPCA––only two days after Soranno and Schafer were tried––“released a petition calling for mandatory video surveillance in slaughterhouse facilities,” reported Coast Mountain News freelance Jacqueline Gelineau.
“Video surveillance is a powerful monitoring tool that can ensure accountability and transparency in the slaughter process,” the British Columbia SPCA said.
Clockwise from top left: Amy Soranno, Roy Sasano, Geoff Regier, Nick Shafer.
Charges against co-defendants dropped
Charged with Schafer and Soranno were fellow activists Regier and Roy Sasano, 39, of Vancouver.
“Activists named us The Excelsior 4,” Sasano recounted. “Our charges were surprisingly serious – a combined total of 21 indictable felony breaking and entering charges, and indictable mischief charges.”
All charges against Regier were dropped, Sasano said, “after our lawyers revealed what the British Columbia SPCA did [in revealing his identity], arguing that it was an ‘abuse of process.’”
All charges against Sasano were dropped on July 6, 2022, Sasano announced then, “after we showed a video of my entry into Excelsior Hog Farm’s barn, which involved a cop escorting me in.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Crown “failed to disclose 78 gigabytes of video”
The video was shown to the jury, Sasano said, after “we discovered that the Crown [prosecutor] failed to disclose 78 gigabytes of video footage to us. It contained three other angles of this cop coming out to find me, and then bringing me into the barn. The Abbotsford police department had this footage for about three years. We had it for about three minutes, and we found those video clips.”
The Regier video, Sasano summarized, “showed injured and distressed pigs packed in filthy pens, including dead pigs being eaten by other live pigs. In other areas of the facility, mother pigs were confined in steel farrowing crates, which are barely the size of the animals’ bodies, rendering them unable to take more than one step forward or backward, or even turn around. Dead and dying piglets were scattered about.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“We guide them with our feet”
Despite the video, which the court did not allow to be posted to social media until after Soranno and Schafer went to trial, Excelsior Hog Farm owner Calvin Binnendyk contended in courtroom testimony that he and his family were “just the victims really.”
Under cross-examination, Binnendyk claimed to “follow Canadian Quality Assurance policy” in pig care and handling, but admitted he did not know “the specifics of the laws.”
(Beth & Merritt Clifton)
Denying that Excelsior Hog Farm workers roughly handle pigs, Binnendyk said, “We will guide them with our feet, but we don’t kick them.”
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Maybe the “P” in British Columbia SPCA stands for “Promotion”, not Prevention. Shame on them and the police for not ensuring that justice was done by shoddy follow-up.
The legal system should be in search of the truth. It blocked it here.
The SPCA should have done everything in its power to help these animals and the individuals who wanted to expose the truth of the crimes committed against animals. It did not.
Society as a whole has turned a blind eye to its own behavior as the source of this cruelty with its ongoing demand for slaughtered animal products. It does not want to change its behavior.
These people have risked so much because they care so deeply. They are the heroes in this story.
They probably don’t even feel it as a risk but as just something they must do. For them, there is no other option. They see evil and must take action.
What is wrong with the British Columbia S”P”CA? The “P” stand for prevention, not promotion of animal cruelty. .The last I knew, pigs are animals, just like dogs and cats.
Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see any mention of the fact that these trespasses by animal rights radicals can introduce diseases into any kind of facility housing animals or poultry. In addition, these animal rights radicals are NOT trained or educated about agricultural activities as are many farmers who take college courses on appropriate housing and care for different types of animals AND education on growing crops, maintaining orchards, etc.
During my years at university I met individuals who were enrolled in agricultural courses. Most farmers and ranchers make a point of taking proper care of their animals. To do otherwise would be very stupid as well as economically destructive to the overall farm projects.
I grew up on a farm. Our family enjoyed working with the animals. During harsh cold winters, baby animals would be brought into the farm house if there were no other means for keeping them warm! These radicals simply want to disrupt farms and ranches and do not even know anything about animal husbandry!!! They are not educated, trained or experienced in appropriate animal care.
Thus they trespass, turn off electricity, and harm animals while claiming to save them!!! As an animal lover, I do not believe animal rights radicals have any business trespassing on farms because the animals end up harmed because these people are ignorant ideologues.
The above comment from Laurella Desborough, a nationally respected lifelong parrot breeder, born in 1933, is of value chiefly because it illustrates the extent to which not only her perceptions of animal agriculture, but also the perceptions of much of the general public, remain shaped by hazy recollections of the “family farms” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The traditional “family farm,” however, ceased to be a major part of agribusiness more than 50 years ago, by which time about 80% of all “family farms” had already been absorbed by corporate conglomerates, who introduced the intensive confinement “factory farming” methods of today. Though the “family farm” continues to be memorialized in brand names and advertising, and factory farmers continue to try to hide behind the “family farm” image, farming as Laurella Desborough remembers it accounts for only a tiny fraction of animal agribusiness as it exists today.
Concerning the purported threat of disease, factory farmers in the first decades of the 21st century have been responsible for the global spread of African swine fever, the H5N1 avian influenza, SARS, mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, bluetongue, Newcastle, and a host of other diseases responsible for killing farmed animals by the multi-million. “Animal rights radicals” have yet to be implicated in the transmission of any farmed animal disease outbreak whatever, but have in many instances documented and exposed factory farm practices which are directly responsible for causing and transmitting disease.
Desborough overlooks that among the so-called “animal rights radicals” she decries are a considerable number of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, microbiologists, and other people with extensive scientific educations, many of whom worked in agribusiness and food safety before concluding that they could not adequately reform animal agriculture from within, and so turned to protest.
Desborough also overlooks that in more than 30 years of undercover videography of conditions inside factory farms and slaughterhouses, no investigation by “animal rights radicals,” or journalists either, has failed to turn up animal abuses which would be illegal if factory farmers hiding behind the “family farm” image had not won exemptions from the humane laws, often on the books for a century or longer, which apply to everyone else keeping or using animals.
Finally, Desborough wrongly attributes to “animal rights radicals” the practice of turning off electricity to barns which is, in truth, standard operating practice on factory farms now in response to disease outbreaks. See Iowa belongs to Boss Hogg now. The stench? That’s money. Rembrandt Foods alone killed 5.3 million chickens by so-called “ventilation shutdown” in Iowa in March 2022 alone.
No “animal rights radical” has ever been charged with such an offense, but one former pig farm manager, Elana Laber, 34, was recently convicted of killing 1,000 pigs in this manner for what appear to have been personal reasons.
Fortunately for the animals and true animal lovers, the truth about any type of animal agriculture has been extensively covered by hardcore vegan activists/filmmakers James LaVeck and Jenny Stein. They have deconstructed the humane myth that animal exploiters such as Whole Foods use to dupe consumers to buy “humane meat and dairy products”. Here is their profile on Harold Brown, an ex-animal farmer who educates the public about the terrible suffering of farm animals. http://humanemyth.org/haroldbrown.htm
Thank you for sharing this link to Harold Brown’s testimony about his personal experience of what he had considered himself to be, growing up: a “humane” farmer. His personal experience ultimately enlightened his perception of the grim reality of animal farming. From “humane” to Merciful. Everyone should read this.
Harold is a wonderful guy. I heard him give a talk at a conference. He is very down-to-earth and practical, always championing no animal use while other advocates often focus only on “humane treatment”. He was so remorseful at having participated in the injustice of animal agriculture. But that is also what makes his perspective trustworthy and valuable. He’s one of the people whose story inspired my relatives and me to live vegan.
Did you ignore the following paragraph, Ms. Desborough? Is this how you treated the pigs on your farm? If you were nicer to your own pigs and other animals, then why are you hostile to people who reveal how these pigs were/are forced to live? I think you need to take a deep dive into your own moral core and see what, if anything, remains. Here is the paragraph I mean:
The Regier video, Sasano summarized, “showed injured and distressed pigs packed in filthy pens, including dead pigs being eaten by other live pigs. In other areas of the facility, mother pigs were confined in steel farrowing crates, which are barely the size of the animals’ bodies, rendering them unable to take more than one step forward or backward, or even turn around. Dead and dying piglets were scattered about.”
So in your view, creatures should suffer through their whole life in squalid imprisonment with injuries and pain and fear and documented physical abuse, unrevealed to the public, so human beings can eat bacon and ham sandwiches unaware, and animal-abusing corporations can reap billions of dollars with no accountability? All this is acceptable to you, but a peaceful protest and video exposure of the suffering, abuse, and neglect of animals isn’t?
Desborough has no excuse for the willful ignorance she displays in her comment about “animal rights radicals” and the conditions they have revealed inside these terrible places. First of all, the pre-factory farm family farm was never the romantic place she paints it as. There is plenty of historical documentation of the cruelties that led to modern factory farming. Debeaking of chickens and turkeys, for example, is credited by industry sources as dating to regular farmers in the 1940s in San Diego, CA. Many more examples are cited in well-documented books such as Man and the Natural World by Keith Thomas, The Animal Estate by Harriet Ritvo, manuals on poultry slaughter in the U.S from the 1930s. So let’s be quiet right now about the lovely old family farm.
Desborough presumably read the article on which she comments, so she is informed of the difference that exists, to some extent, between her farm and what has been documented over and over for two decades revealing the Hell of human-generated filth, misery and disease in which pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, cows and others are forcibly confined by the Billions in their malignant prisons.
I don’t know who “respects” a parrot breeder or any other type of animal “breeder” (so obscene is that word, so utterly demeaning to animals forced to endure human sexual abuse of their natural mating behavior) except for people in that business and others who are ignorant of the suffering and humiliation of parrots bred to be “pets.”
As for Desborough’s claim to care about farmed animals, her comments showing NO COMPASSION for the tormented pigs, falsifies her claim. She is no different than a 19th-century slaveholder or human slavery supporter, irate at revelations of the realities on a Plantation and pitiless toward the enslaved.
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns. http://www.upc-online.org
Yet another example of moral bankruptcy on and misguided *lack of* values on the part of the “justice” system. Reprehensible.
Sharing with gratitude and memories of my own days as an activist.
To the person who is quick to defend animal agribusiness over animal advocacy, may I suggest she read this recent article on the subject of pig welfare on modern farms?
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/a-brief-for-the-pigs-the-case-of-national-pork-producers-council-v-ross/
It doesn’t come from an animal advocacy source–in fact, it originates from the conservative side of the popular press, which perhaps she may appreciate. Pay special attention, please, to the descriptions of what mother pigs go through in gestation stalls, and ask yourself if this is truly the right way we should be behaving toward the animals in our care–and also why you are always quick to condemn animal activists, but do not seem to have any harsh words for the industries that cause so much more widespread harm?