The Greatest Farm Animal Protection Law is Under Attack! | Shmuly Yanklowitz | The Blogs (timesofisrael.com)

While the fight to create sweeping change on the justice issues we care about can sometimes seem hopeless, California’s Prop 12, which prevents animals from being held in “a cruel manner” has been a source of optimism in the realm of animal rights.

“Prop 12 is the strongest farm animal protection law in the United States and possibly in the world,” according to The Human League. “When it goes into full effect on January 1, 2022, it outlaws the use of cages — and stands to free millions of animals from the cruelest forms of confinement.”

However, big agriculture — in this case the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation — has been fighting this law, bringing a case to the U.S. Supreme Court claiming Prop 12 “overstepped its bounds by placing regulations on other states over how they raise their animals.”

For those concerned about animal welfare, there is a great deal at stake with this court case as the battle between impactful lawmaking and the big-agriculture lobby comes to a head.

For me, the matter of preventing animal cruelty is a moral and religious one. Even the Mishnah, the earliest rabbinic text, articulates how badly confined animals want freedom of movement.

“If a man brought his flock into a pen and shut it in properly and it went out and caused damage, he is exempt,” it says in Tractate Bava Kamma, 6:1. “If he had not shut it in properly and it went out and caused damage, he is liable. If the pen was broken through at night, or bandits broke through it, and the flock came out and caused damage, he is not liable. If the bandits brought out the flock, the bandits are liable.”

The assumption here is that animals inherently don’t want to be kept locked up. It goes against their natural state of being. All life yearns for freedom.

Further, according to Karen M. Morin of Bucknell University, the confinement of animals, while a morally distinct problem from human incarceration, shares commonalities with the inhumanity involved in the imprisonment of people. These include:

Emotional and physical harm

Tightly restricted movement

Removal of dignity

Disregard for life

Despite all of the challenges to the protections we try to enact for the liberation of animals and human beings, we must continue to stand up for the abused among us. While I certainly don’t advocate for the end of all prisons, which are sometimes necessary to keep society safe from those who have a history of violence, the mass incarceration prison system absolutely must at least be seriously reformed, through the elimination of a level of confinement that strips people of mobility and is a form of physical and psychological torture.

Central to Kabbalah is the notion that the sparks of God are confined. A particularly grotesque instance of this is the way human souls and animal spirits are often literally trapped in human-made cages. A key takeaway we must learn from the Jewish tradition is our obligation to help free those in need of liberation from narrow places. We are called by Torah values to fight modern-day Pharoah in whatever form he takes.

The Maharal of Prague taught: “Love of all creatures is also love of God; for whoever loves the One, loves all the works that He has made.”

We must work to create a country in which big agriculture does not have the power to overturn animal protections. In the near term, we should educate others on Prop 12 and how much is at stake, so that, regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, we’ll be prepared to respond with clarity and action.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Shamayim: Jewish Animal Advocacy and is the author of 23 books on Jewish Ethics.

Regards Mark

Hidden camera footage captured workers shocking pigs in the face with electric prods and repeatedly hitting and kicking the animals

Two animal rights activists have been given 30-day jail sentences after exposing animal cruelty at a Canadian hog farm. 

Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer entered Excelsior Hog Farm in 2019. They were convicted on one count of break-and-enter and mischief.

Along with activists Roy Sasano and Geoff Regier, Soranna and Schafer were arrested after a mass protest at the farm. Together, they were known as the Excelsior 4, but Regier and Sasano were cleared of their charges. 

Speaking to Plant Based News (PBN), Soranno said that they found pregnant pigs crammed inside metal cages unable to move. They also found dead pigs rotting in pens with other live pigs who were eating their bodies. The dumpsters were full of dead pigs and piglets. 

Cruelty at the farm

The hidden camera footage also captured workers shocking pigs in the face with electric prods, repeatedly hitting and kicking the animals, and cutting off the tails and testicles of screaming piglets with no pain relief.

At the trial, the defense was blocked from showing footage of the animal cruelty at the farm. They were also prevented by the judge from arguing that the hog farm had engaged in unlawful animal abuse. 

“This case shows in stark terms the utter failure of the animal agriculture industry and law enforcement to protect farmed animals from abuse,” said acquitted Excelsior 4 defendant Roy Sasano. 

“The Crown is more interested in criminalizing and jailing nonviolent activists than holding animal abusers accountable. Excelsior Hog Farm has never had to answer for its well-documented criminal animal cruelty.”

A hidden industry

Despite the fact that the majority of the public buys animal products, most are unaware of how they are produced. 

“As it stands right now, the public does not have the right to know what the conditions inside any animal farm in British Columbia looks like,” Schafer told PBN.

“There is a severe lack of transparency within the animal agriculture industry, and they continue to propagate misinformation of quaint, happy, clean farms. We hope that this case has shed some light on exactly what these farms look like and how animals are housed and treated within this industry.

Ag-gag laws, which make it illegal to expose conditions in farms, are being passed in a number of provinces in Canada. British Columbia, where this protest took place, doesn’t have any such legislation, but the activists were prosecuted nevertheless. 

“This demonstrates just how much the animal agriculture industry has to hide, which should be of concern to everyone,” said Sorrano. 

Soranno and Schafter’s sentence will begin on October 21 at the Okanagan Corrections Centre. They are both appealing their convictions. 

Animal Activists Given 30-Day Jail Sentence After Exposing Pig Farm Cruelty (plantbasednews.org)

Regards Mark

Animal Rebellion protesters ‘may have caused £100k in damage after pouring 20 bottles of milk on Fortnum & Mason carpet’

WAV Comment – F&M, buy carpet tiles !

The animal rights protesters are also accused of causing damage at Selfridges

Animal Rebellion protesters accused of pouring 20 bottles of milk on to the carpet of Fortnum & Mason may have cost it £100,000, a court has heard. Steve Bone, 40, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, stands accused of targeting Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges on Friday along with Sofia Fernandes Pontes, 26.

He pleaded not guilty to a charge of criminal damage in relation to the alleged Fortnum & Mason incident at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Monday afternoon (October 10). Prosecutors told the court the alleged incident took place at 11.30am.

Allegedly, the animal rights protesters took a basket with 20 bottles of milk to a value of £38 and emptied its contents on to goods and the carpet at the store, reports MyLondon. The carpet which was only laid a year ago would cost at least £5,000 to fix. Should it need replacing in its entirety then the total cost would be £100,000, the court heard.

Bone also indicated a not guilty plea for a charge of theft at the store as well as one count of theft and one count of criminal damage in relation to the alleged incident a Selfridges. He is accused of causing £273 of damage in that particular incident.

Bone, was granted conditional bail with conditions which include not being allowed to visit the two stores and will appear at Southwark Crown Court on November 7. His alleged accomplice, Fernandes Pontes, 26, of Copenhagen Street, Islington, North London, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 7.

Regards Mark

Animal Rebellion protesters ‘may have caused £100k in damage after pouring 20 bottles of milk on Fortnum & Mason carpet’ – Wales Online

Animal rights whistleblowers stand trial as supporters rally outside Utah courthouse

Two Direct Action Everywhere activists face felony charges and imprisonment for rescuing factory farm piglets from “nightmarish cruelty.”

More than 70 animal rights activists stood outside a courtroom in St. George, Utah on Tuesday holding up a giant image of Utah Attorney Gen. Sean Reyes. A word bubble hovered above his head saying “I cover up animal cruelty.”

The group had gathered in support of whistleblowers Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer of Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, a global network of activists working to achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in one generation. Both currently face felony burglary and theft charges that could amount to over 10 years in prison. 

In March 2017 Hsiung, Picklesimer and three other DxE investigators infiltrated Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farms in Utah to document the conditions of its pregnant pigs. They were greeted with “nightmarish cruelty,” which included piles of dead piglets covered in feces and pregnant pigs crammed inside cages barely larger than their bodies. 

Despite Smithfield announcing that it had shifted from confining pregnant pigs in gestation crates in January of that year, DxE investigators documented sows in confinement. The footage, dubbed Operation Deathstar, was used in 2021 as evidence by the Humane Society of the United States in its misrepresentation lawsuit against Smithfield. 

During the Circle Four Farms investigation, the activists rescued two sick piglets, which were named Lily and Lizzie and brought to animal sanctuaries. Their rescue triggered a multistate search by federal law enforcement and led to FBI raids at the animal sanctuaries that took in the piglets. A year after the investigation, the DxE investigators were hit with felony charges. 

Four of the defendants accepted plea deals, which required that they consent to three years of probation and sign a gag order that required “no social media, website or other online criticism or derision of Smithfield on personal or otherwise” be posted by the defendants. Hsiung and Picklesimer did not accept the prosecutor’s offer and their trial began Oct. 3. 

Activists have flocked to Utah to support them during the trial, which began this week. Supporters have marched through St. George to raise awareness, and two DxE members even disrupted an NFL Monday Night Football game, running across the field with a smoke flair. They were arrested and have since been released from police custody. 

The judge in this criminal trial, Jeffrey Wilcox, has only allowed a handful of DxE supporters in the courtroom at one time, so activists have been gathering outside the court holding signs like “stop covering up animal cruelty” and “right to rescue.” Some activists were even told by county sheriffs that they could not be on the same side of the street as the courthouse and were ordered to move. 

Journalists covering the trial, such as Marina Bolotnikova, have voiced their concern over the court’s lack of transparency regarding the trial. Bolotnikova, who gained the court’s permission to record the trial remotely via video conferencing, had her permission revoked a few days before the trial. The court has also allegedly removed the ability to register for remote web access to the trial, while simultaneously revoking access to those who already signed up. 

Journalists and activists have also raised transparency issues over the withholding of evidence. Despite DxE having video of the rescue, depicting the condition of the piglets, the prosecution requested that the footage not be shown. The judge agreed and has withheld the footage, claiming that it could elicit an emotional response from the jury. 

“The most direct and extensive evidence of the alleged crimes has been barred from trial because it would be too disturbing to jurors,” Bolotnikova said. “This certainly says a lot about how far removed the laws being tried here are from a regular person’s common-sense view of right and wrong.”

According to science writer and ecologist Spencer Roberts, the withholding of evidence is “blatant corruption.” Roberts further argued that “there’s simply no way to justify censoring video of the act that jurors are supposed to evaluate whether to call a crime. What evidence could be more relevant to the case than a video of the alleged crime?”

Meanwhile, activists have also raised the issue of a potential of conflict of interest in the case, alleging that there is evidence of collusion between the prosecution and Smithfield. Public records uncovered by The Intercept show that the prosecutors involved in the case have fiscal connections with Smithfield and have received funding from the company and even represented them previously. 

Specifically, Bolotnikova contends that these public records show that there are “potential financial ties, including Smithfield’s donations to the Republican Attorneys General Association and a small donation directly to Sean Reyes.” Additionally, she explained that one of the case’s prosecutors, Janise Macanas, currently works for Reyes in the Utah AG’s office. 

Lead DxE organizer Almira Tanner has commented on this alleged corruption, contending that “Utah Attorney Gen. Sean Reyes has received campaign contributions from Smithfield Foods … It’s also absurd to think that Smithfield Foods has the power to mobilize the FBI across state lines searching for two missing piglets, which the company valued at under $100.”

The irony, which activists are quick to highlight, is that while the piglets themselves were relatively valueless to the company, they are now being weaponized to target activists who challenge industrial agriculture. 

Utah State Veterinarian Dean Taylor testified that each piglet rescued was valued at only $42.20 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Another witness, Richard Topham, a worker at the Circle Four Farms, stated that he did not realize that the piglets were gone until months later, when he saw the DxE investigation video on Facebook. 

Hsiung, representing himself, argued in court that sick piglets are often discarded by the industry, with more than 15 percent not making it to adolescence. In short, according to Hsiung, the company is alleging theft of a product they would have otherwise considered worthless. 

Nevertheless, the felony theft statute in Utah specifies that theft becomes a felony — no matter its commercial value — if the property taken are animals raised for commercial purposes. Additionally, defendants are subject to an enhanced penalty if the offense is intended to impede, obstruct or interfere with the operation of a factory farm.  Hsiung continues to stand behind his actions and has found strength in the outpouring of support he has received while facing potential conviction and imprisonment. Right before the trial began, he tweeted: “I received some great advice this week, on how to handle hardship, that I want to share with all of you: Remember love.”

Animal rights whistleblowers stand trial as supporters rally outside Utah courthouse – Waging Nonviolence | Waging Nonviolence

Regards Mark