The remaining 3 of The Excelsior 4 went on trial by jury in the BC Supreme Court, and used that opportunity to further expose the rampant violence and suffering in animal agriculture, and the complicity of our justice and enforcement systems. As a result, Roy was acquitted. Amy and Nick were convicted.
UPDATED: October 11, 2022: "This coming Wednesday morning, the two Excelsior 4 animal rights activists who were found guilty of two counts on July 9, 2022, will be sentenced. The Crown is seeking 90 days in jail for both Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer, but BC Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven has the final say."
Animal activists Amy Soranno, Nick Schafer, Roy Sasano and Geoff
Regier - known as the Excelsior 4 - faced 21 indictable offences
(the highest criminal level in Canadian court), for revealing what
happens to animals inside factory farms.
In the spring of 2019, video footage taken from inside Excelsior Hog
Farm (and released by PETA) showed crowded pens full of thousands of
pigs suffering from hernias, bloody lacerations, and golf-ball sized
growths. Some couldn’t even walk, so they languished and slowly died
on the filthy concrete floor. Dead pigs were found rotting in pens
with other live pigs who were eating their dead bodies, and others
had been thrown into garbage bins.
On April 28, 2019, the Excelsior 4 and nearly 200 other activists
descended on Excelsior Hog Farm, conducting a ‘Meat the Victims’
action. Approximately 130 activists staged a protest outside of the
farm property, while 65 others occupied the farm and live-streamed
what they saw - row upon row of pregnant pigs crammed inside metal
crates the size of their own bodies, unable to even turn around or
move for months on end. So many pigs were severely neglected,
frothing at the mouth, crippled, left to suffer and die from
sickness and injuries. As a result, they generated mass National and
International media attention. Amy, Nick and Roy were arrested at
this event; however, Amy was the only activist taken into custody
and charged. [See
video here.]
A few months later, video footage from a hidden camera was released,
showing the owners and operators of Excelsior Hog Farm conducting
criminal animal cruelty, including electric prodding the pigs in the
face, repeatedly hitting and kicking the animals, and cutting off
the tails and testicles of screaming piglets with no pain relief.
Amy’s initial court proceedings were postponed while an intensive
investigation took place.
As a result of the investigation, the other 3 activists - Nick
Schafer, Roy Sasano and Geoff Regier - were also charged. The
Excelsior 4 faced a combined 21 indictable offences of Break and
Enter and Mischief, with each Break and Enter holding the potential
of up to 10 years in jail.
After pre-trial hearings, Geoff’s case was dropped.
The remaining 3 of The Excelsior 4 went on trial by jury in the BC
Supreme Court, and used that opportunity to further expose the
rampant violence and suffering in animal agriculture, and the
complicity of our justice and enforcement systems. As a result, Roy
was acquitted. Amy and Nick were convicted.