WAR ON THE ROSE’S: Animal rights activist sentenced to three months in jail and ‘gag’ probation; others arrested
Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for felony trespassing at chicken and duck farms in 2018 and 2019. The judge also ordered that during the probation period he cannot have any contact in any form with friends and named 'co-conspirators' in the case. Immediately after the sentencing hearing, after the media left, three activists were arrested on warrants outside the courthouse.
KATY ST. CLAIR: Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung was sentenced in Sonoma County on Thursday to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for felony trespassing at chicken and duck farms in 2018 and 2019… [The judge also ordered that during the probation period he cannot have any contact in any form with the other named “co-conspirators” in the case, a list including many of his closest friends and one of his co-defendants in a beagle rescue trial scheduled for March]…
Hsiung, 42, is a San Francisco attorney and co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE. The activist group supports causes such as the “right to rescue,” maintaining that it’s akin to the right to break into a car to rescue a dog in hot temperatures. The organization is hoping to make legal the right of people to enter places such as a factory farm to remove animals that are being “exploited” or are in distress.
The animal rights group said that Hsiung was doing just that when he and hundreds of others in DxE converged on Sunrise Farms in Petaluma on May 29, 2018 and removed chickens. Hsiung and others did the same thing on June 3, 2019 at the Reichardt Duck Farm, also in Petaluma.
DxE decided to remove birds from both locations after they discovered what they allege were abuses to the animals at both facilities. Though the group had footage of the conditions at the farms, the video was barred from being played for the jury because it was deemed prejudicial, the organization said.
The activists allege that “tens of thousands” of birds at Sunrise were packed into tall rows of cages that included sick, dead and dying chickens. DxE’s investigators also allegedly found injured birds that could not access food or water. At Reichardt, activists allege that ducks were mistreated and found stuck on their backs on wire mesh, unable to right themselves, among other things…
Hsiung and others maintain that they had repeatedly reported the facilities to Sonoma County officials but saw no action taken, “which led them to believe direct intervention was necessary to help the animals,” a spokesperson for the group said Thursday. Hsiung said he will appeal his verdict…
[Immediately after the sentencing hearing and press conference, after the media left, three activists were arrested on warrants outside the courthouse. Zoe Rosenberg, Conrad de Jesus, and Rocky Chau are all investigators and animal rescuers with Direct Action Everywhere. Officers with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department apprehended them as they were marching from the courthouse to the Sheriff’s Department to once again report evidence of criminal animal cruelty at factory farms in the county.
At this time, it is unknown what charges they are being arrested on. Zoe and Conrad have investigated Sunrise Farms and Reichardt Duck Farm as recently as a few months ago during Wayne’s trial]. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEOS: