Despite the calf left for dead in a pile of cows meant to be discarded, providing no economic value as the pile is not intended for use in the production of animal products, the women were charged with grand theft felonies.
MICHAEL SAINATO: ‘Three women were charged with a grand theft felony each for attempting to rescue a dying calf found in a pile of dead cows on at Ray-Mar Ranches, a factory farm in Oakdale, California which supplies calves to Harris Ranch, and beef to companies like Costco and In-N-Out Burger. Despite the calf left for dead in a pile of cows meant to be discarded, providing no economic value as the pile is not intended for use in the production of animal products, the women were charged with grand theft felonies. Under California’s Penal Code, grand theft is defined as property valued at $950 or greater or any type of farm animal no matter the estimated economic value.
“They saw this calf was dying and they didn’t do anything, rather, they were very interested in criminalizing us. The workers came to take away the calf. I don’t know anything that happened to the calf after that,” Priya Sawhney, one of the women arrested, told us in an interview. “The officers spent a good ten minutes scrolling through a list, it looked like they were going to settle on petty theft, but they changed the charge to grand theft”… The three women were later released on October 21 with bail set at $10,000 each…
The three animal rights activists with the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) were video documenting conditions on the farm after participating in a protest vigil outside the farm property to highlight the abuses of the industry. A previous investigation uncovered the ranch exploiting a loophole in existing California animal welfare legislation to keep calves and cows in small, confined wooden hatches… Last month, 58 activists were arrested and charged with felonies for attempting to rescue chickens at a Petaluma, California based poultry farm and to expose the living conditions of animals being sold to the public as free-range and organic’. SOURCE…
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