{"id":110570,"date":"2018-05-07T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=110570"},"modified":"2018-05-14T09:34:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T08:34:31","slug":"six-animal-rights-activists-charged-with-felonies-for-investigation-and-rescue-that-led-to-punishment-of-a-utah-turkey-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/six-animal-rights-activists-charged-with-felonies-for-investigation-and-rescue-that-led-to-punishment-of-a-utah-turkey-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Animal Rights Activists Charged with Felonies for Investigation and Rescue That Led to Punishment of a Utah Turkey Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article includes graphic images and video some readers may find disturbing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Image taken from the Norbest-supplying turkey farm in Moroni, Utah by DxE activists, January 2017.
Photo: DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

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4 May 2018 – <\/em>Six animal rights\u00a0activists are facing felony charges, filed on Wednesday by a Utah prosecutor, stemming from an undercover investigation into abusive conditions on a large turkey farm. The criminal complaint\u00a0includes two felony theft charges that carry possible prison terms of\u00a0five years<\/a> each.<\/p>\n

The six defendants include Diane Gandee\u00a0Sordi, 62, a retiree who spends most of her time volunteering at animal shelters; Andrew Sharo, 24, a Ph.D. student in the biophysics program at Berkeley; and\u00a0Wayne Hsiung, a lawyer and lead investigator.<\/p>\n

In January 2017, the six activists entered a farm in Moroni, Utah, that supplies turkeys to Norbest,\u00a0a large company that aggressively\u00a0markets itself<\/a>\u00a0to the public as selling \u201cmountain-grown\u201d turkeys who are treated with\u00a0particularly humane care. Its\u00a0marketing\u00a0materials\u00a0feature<\/a>\u00a0bucolic photographs of Utah nature, designed to create an image that its turkeys are raised in fresh and healthy natural settings, accompanied by\u00a0assurances<\/a> that its \u201cpractices are humane\u201d and ethical, \u201cwith the health and comfort of the birds of paramount importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the activists found at the farm was\u00a0something radically different: tens of thousands of turkeys crammed inside filthy industrial barns, virtually on top of one another. The activists say the animals were\u00a0suffering from diseases, infections, open wounds, and injuries sustained by pecking and trampling one another. Countless chicks and adult\u00a0turkeys\u00a0were barely able to stand, or were lying in their own waste, close to death.<\/p>\n

They also\u00a0say that, as a result of the filth in these barns, hepatitis and other viral diseases were rampant and spreading throughout the flock, which in turn caused the farm to put various antibiotics, including penicillin, into the barns\u2019 water supply.<\/p>\n

The mass or indiscriminate use of antibiotics by industrial farms poses a severe danger to the public health, since it breeds\u00a0antibiotic-resistant bacteria<\/a>\u00a0into the human food supply. Between 70 to 80 percent<\/a>\u00a0of all antibiotics administered in the United States are given to farm animals as part of the agricultural industry.<\/p>\n

Norbest expressly promises that its farms do \u201cnot use, nor does our drug policy permit, the routine use of medically important antibiotics.\u201d (While the company admits that conditions at the farm were abusive and unacceptable, it denies that hepatitis was rampant and that antibiotics were indiscriminately administered.)<\/p>\n

The activists, all volunteers\u00a0with the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, filmed and photographed the conditions inside the farm. \u201cIn my 20 years of investigating animal abuse, I\u2019ve never seen conditions this horrifying at a corporate farm,\u201d Hsiung told the Intercept. \u201cWe saw animals that looked dead but were still breathing; animals, languishing, who had virtually been pecked to death; many animals collapsed on the ground in their own feces and filth. It was as bad as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G7aPw7bM9OY<\/p>\n

The activists also rescued\u00a0three turkeys who were clearly suffering from extreme disease and injury and on the brink of death, part of a tactic known as \u201copen rescue<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0in which activists choose a symbolic handful of animals\u00a0from industrial farms who are close to death, provide them with veterinarian care, and then publicly post film of their recovery at a shelter.<\/p>\n

The three birds removed from the farm have no commercial value, because they were virtually certain to die within days, if not hours.\u00a0DxE activists estimate that up to 25 percent of\u00a0animals at industrial farms die before they can make it to the slaughterhouse due to the conditions in which they are kept.<\/p>\n

In November 2017, DxE published\u00a0video and photographic findings from its investigation of the Norbest-supplying farm. The publishing of the investigation was highly embarrassing to Norbest, as the materials\u00a0received substantial\u00a0local\u00a0press coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Salt Lake Tribune, the largest paper in Utah, published a\u00a0large article<\/a> with a horrific photograph at the top, describing the conditions shown in the facility as \u201cshocking.\u201d It noted that \u201cNorbest is one of the largest marketing cooperatives in the United States, selling turkeys raised by some 40 Utah farmers. Combined, it produces 5 million turkeys annually.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Local Fox\u00a0stations from around the country broadcast a dramatic story from its Utah affiliate, which documented the abuses at the farm. \u201cVideo shows \u2018horrific\u2019 conditions at farm that sold turkeys\u00a0nationwide,\u201d the local Fox affiliate\u00a0headline<\/a> in Cleveland said, featuring the highly incriminating story that was broadcast on the nightly news program in Utah, in which a reporter stood outside one of the barns, pointing at it and describing how the turkeys found\u00a0inside were \u201csick, disfigured, and even dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The DxE investigation received national media coverage as well.\u00a0One\u00a0CBS News<\/a>\u00a0report, for instance, featured DxE\u2019s findings that the turkeys were \u201cpacked shoulder-to-shoulder in \u2018filthy industrial sheds,’\u201d and that \u201cmany were diseased or suffering from injuries inflicted by other birds.\u201d About DxE\u2019s claim of mass antibiotic use, CBS noted: \u201cMedical experts have said that practice may lead to people contracting antibiotic-resistant diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CBS report also linked to a video, produced and published by DxE,\u00a0which showed\u00a0the conditions inside the facility as well as the rescue of the three turkeys. One of the rescued turkeys appeared to have a broken neck, but turned out instead to be suffering from a severe bacterial infection in her brain. Another was one-tenth the size of the average turkey, due to being severely malnourished and diseased. The third\u00a0had open, untreated wounds all over her face from having been pecked.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8SwweXKDSlk<\/p>\n

So severe and<\/u> horrifying was the abuse and disease documented by DxE that Norbest executives proclaimed themselves highly \u201cdisturbed\u201d by what they saw. The Fox report filmed Norbest CEO and President Matthew Cook watching the video for the first time. Cook said he felt \u201cdeep disappointment\u201d at what he saw, adding: \u201cThis just shouldn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook, while denying that hepatitis was rampant at the farm, also claimed that this facility had been cited by corporate executives for abuse in the past, and had been told that \u201cunless they fix these things,\u201d their operations would be suspended. After watching the video, the CEO said the company was considering \u201cterminating the contract\u201d with this facility.<\/p>\n

The company then issued a\u00a0formal statement<\/a>\u00a0on its site, proclaiming itself \u201cdeeply disappointed that our standards were not upheld by the farmer in question.\u201d It also vowed that it \u201cwill re-examine every step in our training and inspection process to determine whether there is more we can do to guarantee our animal care standards are met.\u201d<\/p>\n

But DxE vehemently denies that there is anything aberrational about what they saw \u2014 other than the fact that, in this case, it was publicly exposed. Indeed, investigations of turkey farms by\u00a0other groups<\/a>, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, have found that these are standard conditions throughout the U.S.:<\/p>\n

These gentle, intelligent birds spend five to six months on factory farms, where thousands of them are packed into dark sheds with no more than 3.5 square feet of space per bird. Turkeys are genetically bred to grow as fast as possible, and they often become crippled under their own weight.<\/em><\/p>\n

To keep the crowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, workers cut off portions of the birds\u2019 toes and upper beaks with hot blades and de-snood the males (the snood is the flap of skin that runs from the beak to the chest). No pain relievers are used during any of these procedures.<\/em><\/p>\n

A PETA investigator videotaped one\u00a0turkey-farm operator beating sick and injured birds to death with a pole, a killing method deemed \u201cstandard industry practice.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given that Norbest itself admits that the conditions revealed by DxE were horrifying, and given that it led to reforms, why would the activists be\u00a0prosecuted for their investigation? And given that they took nothing of commercial value, why would they be prosecuted for felony theft charges that, aggregated,\u00a0carry a possible punishment of 10 years in prison?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The answer almost certainly lies in recent rulings from federal courts that have killed the agricultural industry\u2019s preferred weapon for both suppressing evidence of abuse and also silencing journalists and activists with criminal law: the so-called ag-gag laws, which made publishing videos of farm conditions that are taken as part of undercover operations a felony, punishable by years in prison.<\/p>\n

In July 2017, a federal court struck down<\/a>\u00a0Utah\u2019s \u201cag-gag\u201d law\u00a0as a violation of the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment; the law, said the court, was designed solely to \u201crestrict speech related to agricultural operations.\u201d When Utah decided not to appeal the ruling, the Salt Lake Tribune declared in its\u00a0headline<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cUtah\u2019s \u2018ag-gag\u2019 law \u2014 which banned secret filming at farms \u2014 is dead.\u201d Earlier this year, the\u00a09th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down<\/a> Idaho\u2019s \u201cag-gag\u201d law on similar grounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Those rulings left Utah \u2014 whose state government is notoriously dominated by its agricultural industry \u2014 without its most menacing weapon to punish people who expose abuses on factory farms. Charging them with felony theft instead appears crafted to perform the same function. \u201cThis new prosecution seems to be a clear attempt to perform an end run around the death of the \u2018ag-gag\u2019 law,\u201d said\u00a0Hsiung.<\/p>\n

In February of this year, Norbest was purchased by<\/a> Pitman Farms of California, a supplier of Whole Foods. As The Intercept reported<\/a>\u00a0last September, Pitman itself has its own struggles with accusations of abuse of animals at its farms.<\/p>\n

But now that Norbest is part of Pitman, this appears to be a case where a corporate supplier of Whole Foods \u2014 which touts itself as selling the healthiest and most organic products \u2014 is pressing charges against people who exposed animal abuse and threats to the public health. Requests for comment submitted to Utah state\u2019s attorneys office and Norbest were unanswered as of publication of this article.<\/p>\n

All of this takes place in the context of a state whose government has been almost entirely captured and co-opted by the industry it is supposed to regulate. \u201cThis is not an area where the government merely fails to do its job to stop abuse, violence, and unethical behavior,\u201d said Hsuing. \u201cThe government is in active collaboration with the industry that commits these crimes, forcing citizens to expose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their successful efforts to expose these abuses and force reforms,\u00a0Hsuing and his five fellow activists now face prosecution and the possibility of prison terms. Thus\u00a0appears the same dynamic seen in so many other American realms, from torture to illegal spying to Wall Street fraud: The most powerful actors responsible for the most egregious acts are immunized from consequences, while the only ones punished are the ones who expose them.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Glenn Greenwald<\/a> – glenn.greenwald@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 May 2018 – With the agricultural industry\u2019s \u201cag-gag\u201d laws dying in court, it appears to be turning to new tactics to silence activists and journalists who expose its abuses. This article includes graphic images and video some readers may find disturbing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,65,139,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-anglo-america","category-justice","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}