Abbotsford – It went from 4 to three to 2 in the Excelsior Hog Farm trial. On July 9, Nick Shafer and Amy Soranno were convicted of break-and-enter and mischief. No word if there will be an appeal. Sentencing is expected on Tuesday July 12.
Roy Sasano, was acquitted.
The Crown dropped charges Friday April 30 against one of the animal rights activists who drew attention to Excelsior Hog Farm with alleged documented evidence of what activists describe as criminal animal cruelty. Geoff Regier’s indictable offences of Break and Enter and Criminal Mischief were dropped after lawyers argued ‘Abuse of Process’ by the BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BCSPCA). Regier is one of the Excelsior 4, four activists accused of exposing animal cruelty at the Abbotsford hog farm in April 2019.
Background on the trial and the proceedings can be found here.
FVN reached out to Excelsior 4 on social media for their comment. In a prepared media statement:
On Saturday, a jury convicted two animal activists—Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer—of break-and-enter and criminal mischief for their role in exposing animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, BC in April 2019. The jury acquitted a third activist, Roy Sasano, of his single mischief charge. A fourth activist, Geoff Regier, had his charges dropped in May, after a pretrial hearing. Together, the four activists have been dubbed the Excelsior 4.
While Soranno and Schafer have vowed to appeal their convictions, BC Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven is expected to schedule their sentencing hearing in the coming days.
The trial, which was expected to last four weeks, was shortened to two weeks as a result of court rulings that significantly curtailed the activists’ defence. In the first week of trial, Justice Verhoeven effectively blocked them from showing the jury any video footage of animal cruelty at Excelsior, including the footage the activists were being tried for exposing. The judge also prevented them from arguing that the hog farm had engaged in unlawful animal abuse, which foreclosing on testimony from expert witnesses the defence had intended to call to the stand.
After the verdict was announced, Soranno, Schafer, and Sasano made a statement that was captured on video: https://www.facebook.com/meatthevictimsofficial/videos/443222904071407 (at 8:00 minutes).
“We started with 21 charges for exposing criminal animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm here in Abbotsford, BC,” said Soranno. “Eight charges were dropped, and we were acquitted of an additional eight. When all was said and done, Nick and I were each convicted of two charges of break-and-enter and mischief, and Roy was fully acquitted.”
“This isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, but this isn’t about us and never has been,” continued Soranno. “We can’t lose sight of the true victims, the animals. This entire case is centred around the animals suffering inside Excelsior Hog Farm, and all animal farms. Right now in BC, farms are abusing animals with impunity, which is why we’re calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to implement mandatory CCTV cameras inside all farms and slaughterhouses across the province, and to change animal law enforcement from a private charity, the BC SPCA, to a more accountable and aggressive government agency.”
Today’s verdict comes more than three years after the exposure of animal cruelty at the Abbotsford hog farm, yet Excelsior has never had to answer for the video footage clearly depicting animal abuse. To learn more about the Excelsior 4 case—how industry has avoided accountability, how the police mishandled evidence, and how the Crown is criminalizing activists—watch this 7-minute video: https://youtu.be/FJGAI02SWzw. Additional information can also be found at the Excelsior 4 website: https://excelsior4.org.
