When saving a life is a crime…
You lock eyes with her. You can see she’s in pain and she’s trapped. You know that if you don’t get help, she’ll most likely die. So you…
You lock eyes with her. You can see she’s in pain and she’s trapped. You know that if you don’t get help, she’ll most likely die. So you contact the authorities, sharing photos and videos, so they understand the urgency of the situation. But they refuse to help.
What do you do? Do you walk away? Or do you help free her?
This was the moral dilemma that Wayne Hsiung was faced with on May 29, 2018 in Sonoma County, California. When law enforcement refused to help, Wayne felt compelled to. And now he’s in prison for that single act of compassion.
Most people would rush to help someone in need. It’s in our nature, as social animals, to care about each other. Yet in the US, as in so many other countries around the world, compassion is often considered a crime.
The individual Wayne Hsuing saved is called Qing. If she was human, Wayne wouldn’t be in jail and we wouldn’t be writing this piece. If Qing was a dog, Wayne would be protected by the Good Samaritan law (which allows individuals to break into a vehicle to rescue an animal in distress without facing legal repercussions). But because Qing is a chicken, rescued from a factory farm, she is not seen as ‘someone’ in the eyes of the law. She is seen as ‘something’, a piece of property. And because of that, Wayne Hsuing is not seen as a hero. He’s seen as a ‘criminal’ and a ‘thief’.
At Animal Think Tank, we’ve been following Wayne’s story for over a year now. This isn’t the first time he’s been in court. Last year, he was acquitted for openly rescuing (or, as the prosecution tried to claim, ‘stealing’) Lily and Lizzie, two dying piglets, from a factory farm in rural Utah. Even there, where the local economy is heavily tied to animal agricultural giants, the jury could see this was an issue of morality, not illegality.
Yet Wayne’s Sonoma County trial faced greater hurdles than having jury members from the agricultural community. The judge, Laura Passaglia, ruled that nearly all photo and video evidence was to be withheld from the jury. This meant Wayne was unable to provide the very same evidence that had repeatedly been given to law enforcement, which showed why he was compelled to rescue Qing, and he was unable to disprove the prosecution witness testimonies that the treatment of the animals at their facilities was ‘humane’. The judge also issued a gag order, barring Wayne from speaking with the media about the case, even though this was a clear violation of his First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.
This case, like many others, is indicative of large farming corporations lobbying for ‘ag-gag’ laws, which would criminalise taking videos and photos on animal farms — a clear and aggressive attempt to prevent undercover investigators and whistle-blowers revealing the truth about what is really going on behind closed barn doors. These are becoming common legal manoeuvrings by powerful farming corporations to maintain a harmful industry that is increasingly struggling to shield the widespread cruelty behind its marketing lies of ‘high welfare’ and ‘free range’.
After multiple investigations at Sunrise Farms and Reichardt Duck Farm showed criminal animal cruelty (including starvation, allowing cannibalism and scalding birds alive), evidence was repeatedly presented to law enforcement, who did nothing. To highlight and publicise the criminality of the case, animal lovers took it upon themselves to openly rescue some of the animals who were in clear need of emergency medical care, in the hope that law enforcement would do their job and finally take action against the farms.
But instead of investigating and prosecuting these violations of animal cruelty laws, the government has jailed Hsiung for exposing these crimes. This is now a common pattern: US prosecutors have charged more people with penalties for revealing animal mistreatment than they have charged factory farms for committing it. This isn’t justice — it’s a cover-up.
No one should be prosecuted for exposing something illegal. And no one should be prosecuted for aiding someone who is suffering after law enforcement have failed to act.
This is more than a story about a freed chicken and an animal rescuer behind bars. It’s a story about whistle-blowers and everyday people standing up for what is moral and legal. And most of all, it’s a story about the kind of society we want to live in — one that respects the law and respects animals.
These harmful corporations want to make an example out of Wayne, and prevent future ‘open rescues’ that continue to expose the reality of factory farming. Because the truth is, this is an industry that could not exist if animal cruelty laws were actually enforced. Yet their efforts could well backfire, as it poses a moral dilemma to the public: do we continue to live in a system where the government ignores animal cruelty laws and allows harmful corporations to operate above the law — or do we support those who save the animals those laws were meant to protect?
We’ve all seen how a ‘backfire effect’ can work for a cause: Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment became a symbol of struggle and international attention; King’s imprisonment highlighted injustices faced by African Americans and garnered public support for civil rights; force-feeding hunger-striking suffragettes caused public outrage and helped sway public opinion; Rosa Park’s imprisonment catalysed the successful Montgomery bus boycott; Gandhi’s arrests, Chicago Seven, Preston 3… Backfire can lead to victory.
On November 30, Wayne Hsuing was sentenced to three months in prison and two years’ probation for trying to rescue sick chickens like Qing. On the very same day, three of his friends (Zoe Rosenberg, Conrad de Jesus, and Rocky Chau) were arrested by undercover police while they were taking further evidence to authorities of criminal neglect on factory farms. They too have been charged with ‘felony conspiracy’ and ‘misdemeanour trespass’ for providing emergency medical care to animals in factory farms.
If history is anything to go by, Wayne’s incarceration and Zoe, Conrad and Rocky’s arrests may not be this story’s conclusion — it could well be its start.
To follow Wayne Hsiung’s story, you can subscribe to his blog The Simple Heart.
To stay updated on Zoe, Conrad and Rocky’s arrest, and the movement that is building for the right to rescue, you can follow Direct Action Everywhere.