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 ...
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