Animal Rights activist commits multiple felonies to plant listening devices and cameras in a slaughterhouse. United States Attorney and District Attorney made the following announcement.
Oh, right there is no announcement.
By her own admission an animal rights terrorist entered a slaughterhouse without the effective consent of the owner/manager. She did this by disguising herself as a security guard. Once in the facility, she entered a “gas chamber”, an area not open to the public. She then installed both audio and video transmitters to record the operation of the gas chamber. Not to be nitpicky but the chamber and its operation probably falls under the umbrella of “trade secrets.” Exposing these is a separate offense.
https://www.wired.com/story/dex-pig-slaughterhouse-gas-chambers-videos/
How did she violate the law? Let’s count the ways.
- Planting an illegal listening device, a felony offense under both state and federal law.
- Theft of trade secrets
- Burglary of a commercial building
Here are excerpts of the relevant statutes and regulations.
PC 632 states that “a person who, intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication, uses an electronic amplifying or recording device to eavesdrop upon or record the confidential communication, whether the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another or by means of a telegraph, telephone, or other device, except a radio, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per violation, or imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment.”
California Penal Code
Except for the operations of law enforcement officers conducted under lawful authority, no person shall use, either directly or indirectly, a device operated pursuant to the provisions of this part for the purpose of overhearing or recording the private conversations of others unless such use is authorized by all of the parties engaging in the conversation.
Title 47 CFR 15.9
PC 459: Every person who enters any house, room, apartment, tenement, shop, warehouse, store, mill, barn, stable, outhouse or other building, tent, vessel, railroad car, locked or sealed cargo container, trailer coach, house car, inhabited camper, locked vehicle, or mine, with intent to commit grand or petit larceny, or any felony therein, is guilty of burglary.
California Penal Code
Since the audio and video were illegally obtained, they cannot be used in any legal proceeding. The work product is useless as evidence. As it happens, the use of carbon monoxide in slaughterhouse operations is an approved and accepted methodology. This removes the excuse that the eco-terrorist was attempting to expose illegal activities.
What will be missed is that these videos were captured in October of 2022. If these animals were subjected to such horrific treatment, why wasn’t there an immediate outcry? How many hogs were slaughtered between October 2022 and mid-January 2023? Call me cynical, but I attribute the delay to suit the needs of the eco-terrorists, rather than the hogs.
Had she limited herself to just video, the eavesdropping laws would not apply. Course viewers would have missed the opportunity to hear pigs scream. It is disconcerting to hear. However, people who are around pigs will tell you pigs scream whenever things aren’t to their liking. Late to lunch, scream, herd them, scream, and for the pure hell of it, you got it more screaming.
The next sound you hear should be the sound of handcuffs ratcheting around this terrorist’s wrists. Instead, it will probably be mealy mouthed apologies from the processor. From the state and federal prosecutors.
