Hsiung and many of his supporters see the verdict as disproportionate punishment for someone who they say just wanted to help animals, especially when the animal agriculture industry is responsible for immense acts of animal cruelty.
ALEX PERRI: Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung received a suspended sentence and supervised probation after being found guilty by a Transylvania County jury of stealing a baby goat from Sospiro Ranch in Pisgah Forest. The jury found Hsiung guilty of two felony counts – breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering – for the February 2018 incident. He also must pay for the cost of the baby goat.
Hsiung’s trial in Transylvania County Superior Court has received national and international attention from news outlets, such as The Intercept and The Guardian, as it is the first time Hsiung has been convicted of a crime. The jury found Hsiung broke into the Sospiro Ranch on the morning of Feb. 11, 2018, and stole a newborn goat in part due to evidence prosecution introduced, which included the live video the activists posted to Facebook of Hsiung and three other activists narrating their operation, which they called an “open rescue”…
“This is the only open rescue I’ve ever been convicted on,” Hsiung said in an interview with the Times after his trial. “It’s not surprising. It’s also the only open rescue I’ve ever done on a smaller scale farm. And, you know, I can see the criticism. I hear that, and I understand it. I nonetheless think we did the right thing.” Hsiung and other animal rights activists hoped this case would establish a legal precedent for the “right to rescue,” and Hsiung said he planned to appeal. Much of Hsiung’s defense focused on his intent in stealing the goat, which he said relies upon his prior knowledge of animal cruelty on Sospiro Ranch and much of which was inadmissible in court.
In 2017, Hsiung also went to Sospiro Ranch and took a goat, though he did not film it and post it to social media, and rushed the goat to medical care. The ranch’s owner, Curtis Burnside, has written in a post on his website that the goat in 2017 was in the middle of a round of antibiotics at the time, which was administered by a veterinarian.
Hsiung said he saved the goat’s life, and that Burnside’s care was inadequate and causing the animal suffering. Hsiung was never arrested for taking the first goat. Similarly, in the 2018 goat theft, Hsiung said the goat would have died from pneumonia had he not taken it that February night. Burnside said the goat was healthy at the time it was stolen and became sick due to Hsiung’s improper care, some of which was also posted in a Facebook Live video, where Burnside said Hsiung’s improper feeding led to aspiration and pneumonia…
At Hsiung’s sentencing hearing, he asked for an active sentence and said he believes in the criminal justice system and in facing the consequences of his actions. Hsiung and many of his supporters, though, see the verdict as disproportionate punishment for someone who they say just wanted to help animals, especially when the animal agriculture industry is responsible for immense acts of animal cruelty.
“An interesting thing about American law is that in every state in the nation killing an animal is defined as animal cruelty in the law and even federal law… but there are exceptions when it comes to farm animals, when it comes to animals in laboratories, when it comes to animals in hunting,” Hsiung said…
Hsiung is one of the founders of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE.) DxE has amassed an international following for the group’s attention-grabbing style of protests, including stunts like: marching into restaurants full of diners eating meat with sirens and posters calling for justice for all animals; chaining them-selves together to block the entrance of a chicken processing plant; spilling fake blood on the steps of a U.C. Berkeley admin-istration building to protest the university serving Tyson Foods meat; and, perhaps most notably, filming what they call “open rescues” to post on social media…
Hsiung said DxE’s goals are to stop animal cruelty while they are alive in the farm environment, but, ultimately, the group members, who describe themselves as animal liberationists, aim to stop meat consumption and animal agriculture all together. Several of Hsiung’s supporters came from all over the country to watch the trial, and many hoped this would be a win for the animal liberation movement. SOURCE…
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