Here at DP, we have long proposed that human supremacism – treating all other life forms as objects for our use – is at the heart of all that ails us. Factory farms represent industrialized human supremacism in one of its most extreme and cruel forms.

This week, we are pleased to relay a recent post from the animal rights non-profit Right To Rescue:

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.

Next, excerpts from a recent interview with Wayne Hsuing following his acquittal on all charges:

Finally, a link to the video that documented the alleged “crimes” for which Pickelsimer and Hsuing were arrested:

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