Jury Finds Two Activists ‘Not Guilty’ For Rescuing Two Sick Chickens From Slaughter Truck
The case is a significant development for the ‘right to rescue’ movement, which seeks to expand the law so that any animal in need of rescue - regardless of species - can be legally rescued.
Alexandra with the ‘stolen’ chicken during the rescue. Credit: DxE
Two activists have been found ‘not guilty’ after they rescued two sick chickens from a truck destined for the slaughterhouse.
Alexandra Paul and Alicia Santurio were on trial for theft charges after the pair took two sick chickens from a slaughter truck that was heading to a Foster Farms slaughterhouse in Livingstone, CA.
Footage of the rescue.
Paul and Santurio are activists from the protest group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), and on the same day that the incident took place in September 2021, DxE released hidden camera footage that it had previously filmed inside the slaughterhouse. The graphic footage shows chickens routinely missing both the stun bath and a device designed to cut their necks, leaving it to workers to identify conscious birds before their evisceration, at a speed of 140 birds per minute.
The defendants admitted to the alleged crime, and faced up to six months in jail if convicted. However, at the trial’s conclusion on March 17th, a 12-person California jury acquitted the pair of all charges after six hours of deliberation.
“Today’s verdict represents an important, legal affirmation of the right to rescue farmed animals who are suffering, diseased, or otherwise in danger of an inhumane death,” explained law professor and civil rights attorney Justin Marceau in a statement. “Common sense and basic decency dictate that when another being is suffering, we should provide aid or care for them when we are able to do so.”
The two chickens, which Foster Farms valued at $8.16 per bird, were named Ethan and Jax and both were severely ill when rescued. Ethan died from his poor condition shortly after the rescue, while Jax received urgent medical care and now lives on a farm sanctuary.
Alexandra and Alicia after the trial. Credit: DxE
The Right To Rescue
The legal case is part of the wider Right to Rescue campaign led by DxE, which aims to legalize the rescue of any animal in need of rescue. Fourteen US states currently have laws that allow the rescue of dogs from hot cars, and the group wants these laws extended to apply to animals in need of rescue, regardless of species. This would establish a legal right to rescue animals from distress and exploitation, including those in factory farms and animal experimentation facilities.
And this latest ruling has caught the media’s attention, and sparked a collective conversation about how farmed animals should be treated in the U.S. “Rescuing farm animals from cruelty should be legal”, declared an article by the New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo last month. Among many other news outlets, Vox covered the case and summed up what the two activists had achieved with the landmark trial:
“DxE’s theory — that when you show a jury of ordinary citizens what happens to animals in the meat industry, they’ll agree that they deserve rescue — turned out to be true, challenging the idea that the animal rights agenda is radical or unpopular.”
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.