What’s most remarkable about Wayne Hsiung’s description of what he did is that he doesn’t wrap it up in a slurry of empty rhetoric. He basically concedes that he, along with a group of people who shared his views of animal rights, planned and then committed crimes.
We sneaked into the farm one night in March 2017. Inside, we found and documented sick and underweight piglets. One of them could not walk properly or reach food because of an infected wound to her foot, according to a veterinarian who testified on our behalf…Given their conditions, both piglets were likely to be killed and potentially tossed into a landfill outside of Circle Four Farms, in which millions of pounds of dead pigs and other waste are discarded every year.
After removing the piglets, our team nursed them back to health. We named them Lily and Lizzie. Some four months later, we shared a video of our actions with The Times. (Smithfield claimed that the video appeared staged. It was not.) In August, F.B.I. agents descended on animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado with search warrants for the two pigs. At the Colorado shelter, government veterinarians cut off part of Lizzie’s ear for DNA testing. Not long after, my four co-defendants and I were indicted by state enforcement officials.
They entered Smithfield’s property without permission, broke into a structure at night and took two piglets. That their purpose wasn’t to eat them or sell them is irrelevant. Their intent was to deny them to their owner. That their motive was pure, or at least not evil, makes no difference. Bad intentions aren’t an element of the crime. Of the five, three took no-jail pleas.
We knew that prosecution was a likely outcome of our rescue. Three of my co-defendants accepted plea deals with no prison or jail time. But Paul and I wanted a jury — and the public — to wrestle with the moral implications of how living beings end up in grocery stores as packages of meat.
This is the essence of civil disobedience, to engage in unlawful conduct and accept the consequences in return. Of course, we all know that the meat we buy at the grocery store was once a living creature, and whether it had a pleasant life on a farm, prancing about in lush open fields or raised in a factory where it couldn’t turn around, it ends up slaughtered so we can have our bacon and pork chops. Some find this too cruel and disgusting to suffer. Most prefer not to think about such things, as we like our bacon and pork chops, and consider the factory raising of meat an unfortunate but necessary aspect of modern life.
Others, like Wayne Hsiung, are prepared to go to prison to expose and, perhaps, stop it.
All this, despite the fact that a representative from the company testified at our trial that no one at the farm even noticed that the piglets were missing until a video appeared online. The piglets were, according to one of the prosecution’s own witnesses, worth at most $42.20 each.
To Smithfield, what were two piglets out of thousands, maybe millions? To a pork factory, pigs are widgets, made and sold, then made some more. It’s what they do.
The jury deliberated for about eight hours. Many jurors, according to a juror who spoke to me after the trial, believed at the outset that what we did was unlawful and we needed to be punished. But two issues influenced their decision to acquit, the juror said. First, the jurors concluded that we lacked the intent to steal. We were there to document the conditions, and to rescue an animal only if we found one in need. Second, the jurors felt that the piglets at issue had no value to Smithfield. The jury thus concluded they could not be the objects of a theft.
Some might characterize this as jury nullification, a case where the jury had no doubt that a crime was committed, but decided to acquit anyway. But then, intent to steal is an element of the crime and the jury found that stealing was not their intent, but documenting and rescuing. It’s a dubious distinction, but not an irrational one.
The second reason was largely a product of Smithfield’s testimony, that they didn’t even notice a piglet missing, reflecting how little they valued the property taken. No harm, no foul. But there was more.
The juror I spoke to also mentioned a third major factor that went beyond the legal issues: our appeal to conscience. During the closing statements in the trial, in which I represented myself, I told jurors that a not-guilty verdict would encourage corporations to treat animals under their care with more compassion and make governments more open to animal cruelty complaints.
It bears noting that Hsiung represented himself and delivered his own closing. It was likely filled with the sort of passion an attorney can’t muster. But his takeaway, that his acquittal would “encourage” meat producers to treat animals with “more compassion.” It’s hard to imagine anyone who would want any living creature, pigs included, to treated cruelly, though I’m sure there are some who either do or don’t care. Then again, there is a limit to how much they’ll pay for a rasher, and they do want their bacon.
Much conduct over the past few years both violates criminal laws and is done with what the passionate perpetrators believe to be good intentions. If there is no price to pay, then there is no incentive not to commit crimes, whether it involves stealing piglets, blocking highways or burning down buildings. It’s one thing to argue that the perpetrator had no nefarious intent, thus failing to prove a required element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s another to let crimes committed for favored reasons or by favored people slide while holding others to account.
The other takeaway, not argued in closing, is this could encourage every passionate animal rights activist to steal pigs in the dark of night. Or steal AR-15 “assault weapons” that “no one needs.” Or steal gas-guzzling cars. Or throw tomato soup on a Van Gogh which this time had glass to save it from damage, but might not the next time some unduly passionate person decides their cause is more important than not committing a crime.
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