Animal rights activists acquitted on all counts
Animal rights activists were acquitted on all counts. The verdict strengthens the right to expose animal cruelty in factory farming operations.
A jury in Utah has acquitted two animal rights activists of charges of burglary and theft after they allegedly removed two sick piglets from an industrial pig farm.
The activists Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer of the California-based group Direct Action Everywhere had argued during their trial that nothing of value was stolen, as the three-week-old piglets were in poor condition and likely to die. The acquittal came after a week-long trial.
The group filmed a 360-degree virtual reality video of the March 2017 incident at Smithfield Food's Circle Four Farms near Milford and published it online as part of a tactic known as «open rescue», intended to expose abusive agricultural practices.
Investigators used the video to identify the defendants and three other activists who were charged and accepted a plea deal rather than going to trial. Hsiung and Picklesimer faced up to five and a half years in prison if convicted, reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
In 2017, a federal court struck down a Utah law prohibiting covert filming on farms and livestock operations, ruling it an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech.
