The investigators rescued 2 sick piglets, Lily, who had a severe leg injury, and Lizzie, who was malnourished and nursing on a shredded nipple.
In 2017, DxE investigators infiltrated a massive pig farm in the
Utah desert, a facility owned by Smithfield/WH Group, the world’s
largest pig killing company. This one Smithfield farm is 20 miles
long with over 300 barns on site. The investigators filmed the
conditions inside in 360 degree virtual reality footage. Their
footage, titled "Operation Deathstar," documented row after row of
mother pigs crammed inside gestation crates barely bigger than their
bodies and piles of dead piglets covered in their mothers' feces.
The investigators rescued 2 sick piglets, Lily, who had a severe leg
injury, and Lizzie, who was malnourished and nursing on a shredded
nipple. They took Lily and Lizzie to a sanctuary to receive care.
Then, they published the whole investigation and rescue online and
in the New York Times to show the world the nightmarish cruelty
happening inside Smithfield’s farms. The story went viral when the
FBI started hunting for the piglets, raiding sanctuaries and even
cutting off part of a pig’s ear to do DNA testing.
DxE investigators Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer went to
trial October 3-7, 2022 in Washington County, Utah. On Saturday,
October 8, after a full day of deliberations, the jury of 8 people
unanimously found Wayne and Paul NOT GUILTY on all charges for
rescuing Lily and Lizzie from Smithfield. Together, we have just set
a powerful precedent for the legal right to rescue animals from
abuse.
Excerpts from NYT article, Oct. 8, 2022:
The Utah trial highlighted what the defendants argued is a lack of
transparency for the treatment of animals at large corporate farms.
Wayne Hsiung, one of the defendants [Paul Darwin Picklesimer was the
other defendant], said he was stunned by the verdict, given that the
judge had not let the jury consider any testimony explaining why the
activists had targeted the farm, filmed their incursion and then
taken two sick piglets on their way out.
“This is a resounding message about accountability and
transparency,” Mr. Hsiung, 41, said in an interview after the jury’s
decision. “Every company that is mistreating its animals and
expecting that government and local elected officials will just go
along with them because they have them in their pockets will now
realize that the public will hold them accountable, even in places
like Southern Utah.”
“Instead of trying to put us in prison,” he added, “The better thing
to do is just take care of your animals.”