Wayne Hsiung

Wayne Hsiung (born June 18, 1981) is an American attorney, activist, and 2020 candidate for Mayor of Berkeley.[1][2] Hsiung is a co-founder and organizer with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE).[3] Prior to founding DxE, Wayne was a lawyer with the law firms DLA Piper and Steptoe & Johnson, a Searle Fellow and visiting assistant professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, and a NSF Graduate Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4][5][6]

Wayne Hsiung
Born (1981-06-18) June 18, 1981
Indiana, United States
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
OccupationAnimal Rights Activist, Environmental Activist, Lawyer
Websitewww.wayneformayor.com

Hsiung grew up in Indiana. His parents emigrated from China in the 1970s.[7] His father did work involving vivisection for several years, which left a lasting impact on Hsiung and motivated him to become an animal rights activist. He also was influenced by Patty Mark, an Australian animal rights activist.[8]

Hsiung has two dogs, Lisa and Oliver, and a cat named Joan. He rescued Oliver from Yulin, China, where Oliver was to be slaughtered at the Yulin dog meat festival.[9]

Hsiung is on the Board of Directors of the Climate Defense Project, which represents environmental activists and pursues environmental impact litigation.[10]

Due to his activism, and history of entering factory farms without the permission of the owners to investigate animal cruelty, he is facing charges of up to 60 years in prison.[11] In the most serious case, Hsiung was offered resolution that involved no prison time, on condition that he refrain from criticizing the company he had investigated (agribusiness giant Smithfield Foods); he and co-defendant Paul Picklesimer refused the offer and plan to go to trial.[12]

Education

Hsiung graduated from the University of Chicago in 2001 and received a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship to study economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but went on leave after his first year to pursue a JD/PhD.[13] He attended the University of Chicago law school with a focus on behavioral law and economics.[14] After graduating, Hsiung taught at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law as a visiting assistant professor for one year.

As a lawyer, Hsiung was involved in environmental advocacy and studied behavioral economics, studying with economics scholars including Eric Posner and Mark Duggan.[15] He partnered with behavioral law and economics scholar Cass Sunstein to write an analysis of the effect of climate change on nonhuman animals.[5]

Direct Action Everywhere

In January 2015, Hsiung organized an "open rescue/investigation" on a certified humane egg farm in Petaluma, California. Hsiung and Direct Action Everywhere protesters climbed over a barbed wire fence to enter an egg farm and extensively recorded video of alleged animal abuses such as confines that were far too small, preening from stress, and lack of water.[16] In January 2015, DxE released a video narrated by Hsiung and showing him rescuing a hen with the help of several other activists.[17] In the video there are birds with blisters and missing feathers.[18] These hens were from a "cage-free" egg farm at Petaluma Farms, a major west-coast supplier to Whole Foods and Organic Valley. Hsiung, as the narrator, uses words like “stench,” “filth,” and “misery” to describe the scene; and shows several birds that appear to have blisters, missing feathers, one apparently caked with feces, as well as birds that appear to be in decent shape.[17] The crew dramatically rescues one injured bird, handing her over the fence, one activist to another, and whisking her to a vet in Berkeley, who declares her in dismal shape.[17]

In April 2016, Hsiung and two other members of DxE went to Yulin, China, home of the Yulin dog meat festival, to document the upcoming preparations of the festival.[19][20] Two of the activists with DxE recorded video of claimed abuses. In one of the videos, dogs were screaming as they were beaten to death.[21] Hsiung and two other DxE activists removed three dogs bound for slaughter from the facility.[19] Hsiung was beaten and arrested in China for the theft of the three dogs. Hsiung was held for two days and then deported.[22][23]

In 2017, Hsiung, along with four other DxE activists, investigated a pig farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Utah and removed two piglets from the facility. FBI agents were dispatched to look for these piglets and raided two animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado. Witnesses of the raids said the FBI agents sought DNA samples from pigs at the facilities as part of a search for the missing piglets.[24][25] Hsiung was indicted in Utah on multiple charges including felonies (burglary, livestock theft, and engaging in a pattern of illegal activity) and a misdemeanor riot charge relating to a break-in "investigation of animal cruelty" at this Smithfield Foods farm. Journalist Glenn Greenwald reported that the prosecution was politically motivated, as attorneys prosecuting the case had financial ties to Smithfield.[26]

On April 24, 2018, Hsiung was arrested and charged with "threatening bodily injury" in Boulder, Colorado, at Whole Foods after asking questions at the store about the source of its meat products. Musician Moby posted a video questioning whether Whole Foods was "support[ing] an unconstitutional police state wherein people aren’t allowed to ask questions."[27]

In May 2018, Hsiung and a large number of Direct Action Everywhere protesters walked into a Santa Rosa Egg Farms facility, seized chickens, and recorded extensive video that they claimed illustrated systemic animal abuses.[28] Hsiung claimed that his actions and those of Direct Action Everywhere were legal, providing a legal opinion to the owners and the employees of the facility when they demanded he and the protesters leave.[29] The opinion asserts that California Penal Code Section 597e and the common law doctrine of necessity permit the removal of sick and dying animals in certain situations, including from commercial facilities DxE investigated.[30] The opinion has been untested in court. Hsiung and Direct Action Everywhere have labeled this, and numerous other actions, as "open rescues."

Another large-scale action occurred on September 29, 2018, when activists, including Hsiung, walked into Petaluma Poultry in Petaluma, CA and provided water to chickens that they claimed were injured and dying and who could no longer walk to reach water on their own.[31] The police allowed the activists to take one hen off the property of the farm and to be provided with veterinary care, but then arrested 58 other activists and booked them on felony conspiracy, felony burglary, and misdemeanor trespass charges.[32][33]

Hsiung has also been a part of several other high-profile protests and incidents, most notably a disruption of a San Francisco Giants-LA Dodgers baseball game in September 2016 that led to him being tackled by Giants player Angel Pagan on national TV.[34] He was also a high-profile spokesman for a series of protests at Bernie Sanders rallies during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary over the candidate's support for the dairy industry and refusal to support animal rights against the interests of animal agriculture.[35]

Hsiung has also given various talks at various universities about social activism and animal rights. In November 2014, Wayne Hsiung was a guest speaker at UC Berkeley, where he gave a talk titled "What if everything we think we know about social change is wrong?"[36] In January 2019, Hsiung gave a talk at Stanford University Law School titled "Changing the Law by Breaking It: a Conversation on Activism, Animal Welfare, and the Law with DxE Founder, Wayne Hsiung."[37]

Berkeley Animal Rights Center

In 2017, Hsiung was involved in the founding of the Berkeley Animal Rights Center, the first community center in the United States dedicated to animal rights.[38] Hsiung is also a speaker at the annual Animal Liberation Conference that takes place in Berkeley, California.[39]

2020 Berkeley Mayor Race

On April 3, 2020, Hsiung announced he was running for Mayor of Berkeley.[40] His platform includes converting under-utilized corporate property into permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness; accelerating Berkeley’s carbon-neutral timeline to 2025; creating a plant-based, pedestrian-only, and fossil fuel-free “Green District”; and transitioning the Berkeley Police Department away from aggressive law enforcement to community health and support.[41]

References
  1. "Wayne Hsiung for Berkeley, CA Mayor 2020". Wayne Hsiung for Mayor. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  2. Khan, Zara; Kapoor, Tarunika (2020-06-04). "'A force for change': Prominent activist Wayne Hsiung runs for mayor". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  3. Colman, Zack (2016-04-16). "The Fight for Cage-Free Eggs". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  4. "In Re: Allstate Life Insurance Company Litigation". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  5. Sunstein, Cass R.; Hsiung, Wayne (2007). "Climate Change and Animals". John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper (324). University of Chicago Law School
  6. "Wayne Hsiung | The Huffington Post". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  7. "Is there a place in the animal rights movement for a kid from China?". directactioneverywhere.com.
  8. "The Animals Voice | A Conversation with Animal Rights Activist Wayne Hsiung".
  9. "The Dog I Took a Beating For (Animal Rights Series)". medium.com. 5 July 2016.
  10. "Wayne Hsiung". Climate Defense Project. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  11. Klein, Ezra (5 December 2019). "When doing the right thing makes you a criminal". Vox. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  12. "Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  13. "Graduate, undergraduate students awarded with numerous scholarships, grants, fellowships". The University of Chicago Chronicle. 2001-06-07. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  14. "Our Attorneys". Current Law Group. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  15. Jack L. Goldsmith; Eric A. Posner (February 3, 2005). The Limits of International Law. Oxford University Press. p. 227. ISBN 9780198037668.
  16. Strom, Stephanie; Tavernise, Sabrina (2015-01-08). "Animal Rights Group's Video of Hens Raises Questions, but Not Just for Farms". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  17. "What does "cage-free" even mean?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  18. "What does "cage-free" even mean?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  19. "Celebrities Square Off Against Chinese Dog Meat Festival". ABC News. 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  20. Spotswood, Beth (2016-09-21). "Berkeley City Council passed a resolution against eating dogs last night". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  21. Hsiung, Wayne (2016-07-05). "The Dog I Took a Beating For". Medium. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  22. "The Animals Voice | A Conversation With Animal Rights Activist Wayne Hsiung". Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  23. Hsiung, Wayne (2016-07-05). "The Dog I Took a Beating For". Medium. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  24. "Animal rights activists who removed two piglets from factory farm charged after FBI raids". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  25. Moyer, Justin (September 14, 2017). "FBI raids animal shelters, searching for piglets rescued from factory farm, activists say". The Washington Post.
  26. Greenwald, Glenn; Fang, Lee; Woodhouse, Leighton Akio (2018-06-07). "Animal Rights Activists Face Multiple Felony Charges, Brought by Prosecutors With Ties to Smithfield Foods". The Intercept. Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  27. "moby xⓋx auf Instagram: "Dear @wholefoods what do you think about this? When one of your employees was asked a few simple questions she called the police to have…"". Instagram (in German). Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  28. Direct Action Everywhere - DxE on Facebook Watch, retrieved 2020-06-23
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  30. "combinepdf.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  31. Direct Action Everywhere - DxE on Facebook Watch, retrieved 2020-06-23
  32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp8-rYqCAnM
  33. "Animal welfare activists face felony charges in Petaluma farm protests". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 2019-01-18. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  34. Gafni, Matthias (2016-10-01). "Angel Pagan slam: Why the protester ran on field". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  35. Woodruff, Betsy (2016-06-02). "Animal Activists Go Apesh*t on Bernie Sanders, While Hillary Clinton Panders". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
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  38. "Berkeley Animal Rights Center".
  39. McWilliams, James. "How Chicken Activists in California Broke the Law to Start a Reasonable Debate About Animal Cruelty". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
  40. "Wayne Hsiung". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  41. "Issues | Wayne Hsiung for Mayor". Wayne Hsiung for Mayor. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
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