Three Bay Area activists are being prosecuted for rescuing sick and dying animals from two industrial farming facilities in Sonoma, CA. Both of the facilities continue to violate animal cruelty laws. The activists’ trial starts on Friday – and they face up to several years in prison.
What happened?
In 2008, Prop 2 banned the use of hen cages in California. Yet, when activists investigated Sunrise Farms in Sonoma, what did they see? Yup! Cages. Sunrise Farms has been wholesale violating the law by using these profoundly inhumane cages for years.
From Sunrise Farms and Reichardt Duck Farm – also a Sonoma-based operation – the activists managed to rescue ducks and chickens that were in dire condition.
Is rescuing stealing?
Enacted in 1872, California Penal Code 597e made it LEGAL to provide care for an animal that is suffering needlessly. The animals these activists rescued were being left to slowly die of infected wounds, thirst, starvation, disease, and other extreme examples of maltreatment.
In Reichardt Duck Farm, ducks had collapsed on their backs, unable to turn over. Other ducks had wounds so severe, their intestines were exposed. In Sunrise Farms, the feet of hens were mangled and deformed, due to the wire cage bottoms they are forced to stand on their entire lives, without relief. In any factory farm, you will quickly see animals that have died in recent hours. Workers do daily morning walk-throughs to collect the bodies of those who have died in the night.
I don’t know about you, but I’d count this as needless suffering. After being taken from these farms, the lucky chickens and ducks immediately received life-saving measures. They’re now living out their days in local animal sanctuaries.
Not only is it legal for activists to tend to suffering animals, but it is illegal, according to CPC 597e, to inflict needless suffering on an animal (which includes water and food deprivation, wounds, and disease). Both farms were in obvious violation of this. I would argue that every single animal in every single factory farm is needlessly suffering, but in this case, the evidence is clear.
If an animal’s life is in peril, is it an emergency?
California’s Good Samaritan Law protects individuals from liability if they help others in an emergency situation. The legal concept of “necessity” safeguards those who engage in a criminal act in order to prevent greater harm from happening. A common example is breaking the window of a hot car to rescue a baby.
The defendants in the Sonoma rescue trial are being charged with trespass and conspiracy to trespass. This is the offense that the Good Samaritan Law and the necessity defense say should NOT lead to charges when acting in the case of emergency.
The necessity defense has never yet been used in an animal rescue case, and has been, since the 1800’s, restricted to cases involving human emergencies. But, there has been progress made in expanding its application: The necessity defense has recently been used to justify action taken on behalf of the environment.
So, does it count as an emergency situation if an animal, not a person, is in extreme anguish? If they’ll die without treatment or care?
In my opinion, yes – and I believe Prop 2 and 597e hint at the answer.
This trial is about the value of animal life, and that is why it is such a big deal. We are legally determining whether the life of an animal is worth more the sacrilege of stepping onto an illegally-operated factory farm.
So why #prosecuteme?
The state is spending tens of thousands of our tax dollars over animals that literally held zero monetary value for these farms.
We want to underscore the ridiculousness of prosecuting good samaritans for rescuing animals that needed immediate help. These animals would never have received help or survived their maladies without intervention.
Are you an animal rescuer? Without people like you that adopt furred and feathered companions, many of them would not be alive today. You might even think, “if the State is prosecuting people for rescuing animals, why not #prosecuteme?”
Here’s your call to action:
If you’ve rescued an animal or support the rescue of animals, please join the #prosecuteme campaign to rally support and awareness for this case. With cases like these, we are setting a precedent for the right to rescue. Just take a picture with or without your rescue animal, and #prosecuteme written on any sheet of paper. OR, simply post an existing picture of you and your rescue animal, and add the hashtag #prosecuteme in your caption.
See more detailed instructions here.
Hope to see your hashtag!
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