Don't Cancel Your Cable Yet

We know times are hard unless you were skeevy enough to have Madoff with a shit-ton of loot last year. Pay thru March, Tor(rent) up, or just boot off the neighbors for a few days. You must. not. miss. the HBO premiere of Death on a Factory Farm on March 16.

The Jury Is Out

Literally, for Wiles Farm defendants. All three charged individuals, owner Ken Wiles, his son Joe Wiles, and employee Dusty Stroud, waived their right to a jury trial and instead will appear before Judge Stuart Miller only in Wayne County Municipal Court on Tuesday, June 19, 9:00 AM.

Better off with 3–on-1 rather than 3–on-12? Couldn’t seat an acceptable jury? Pressed for time, or just going with the flow? Sometime after 9:00 AM on June 19—exactly how much time after we cannot speculate—we will see how precisely balanced those iconic scales really are and whether or not the origin of Lady Justice’s blindfold is indeed founded on the impartial treatment of parties or just the cartoonish cynicism of a 400–year-old pissed-off German artist.

Update 06-20: The verdict(s) are in. Ken Wiles, charged with two counts of animal cruelty: not guilty on both counts. Joe Wiles, charged with six counts of animal cruelty: guilty on one count, not guilty on four counts, one count dismissed. Dusty Stroud, charged with two counts of animal cruelty: not guilty on one count, one count dismissed. More as we get it.

Judge Stuart Miller may be in, but we're still out on the origins of dear Lady Justice's blindfold. One point, though, of which we are most assuredly and unwaveringly certain: there were fine legal minds in the courtroom -- yes, at least one, plus three-quarters of another. Mammalian anatomy and physiology -- specifically and particularly, swine anatomy and physiology, or even basic, undergraduate general physics -- not so much.

Update: June Trial Date for Wiles Farm Defendants

Wiles Farm owner Ken Wiles (middle), his son Joe Wiles (left), and employee Dusty Stroud (not pictured) have another 2-1/2 months to sort out their collective defense to 10 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. A jury trial for the trio is now scheduled to begin on June 19, 2007.

Rep. Mervyn Dymally, a senior member of the CA Legislature, former Lt. Governor, and member of the House Committee on Agriculture, has introduced a bill to amend the Health and Safety Code that would prohibit the keeping of any mammal or bird used for the production of food or fiber in conditions that do not allow "sufficient space for each animal to stand, lie down, get up, move his or her head freely, rest, turn around completely, and extend all limbs and wings without touching any part of the enclosure or other animals." Thirty-six years of "you can’t make us" on the part of CA industrial animal production interests is about enough, but $1000 a day in fines ain’t nowhere near enough. You’re encouraged to write in support of AB 594.

In totally unrelated geek news, we’re supposed to say something nice about c0demonkey’s efforts of late with regard to the overall look and feel of our various joints:

"Thanks!"

Screechy little twit Greybox'd the Pierce College Farm Property Map so it magically fades in ala beautifulness, and built us a Google Earth flyover of the known animal-holding areas, complete with groovy, red binocular icons. There may be some issues with our Greybox implementation if you’re using Firefox on MacOS (or so said Greybox/Orangoo Labs developer Amir S. when we finally got around to showing it off to him …), so if it doesn’t work for you, let us know. ‘m0nkey can’t really test on MacOS until the new toy arrives. So try the flyover. As far as we can tell, it works just dandy.

Tuesday Three-fer

Wiles Farm owner Ken Wiles, his son Joe Wiles, and Wiles Farm employee Dusty Stroud were arraigned this afternoon in Wayne County Municipal court on 10 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. All defendants have entered pleas of not guilty and are free on their own recognizance. Defendant Joe Wiles, charged with six of the ten counts of animal cruelty including “mutilating and killing animals by hangings, using inappropriate gun shots ... depriving pigs of basic veterinary care, food, and water ... beating animals to death with hammers,” entered a not guilty plea on January 25th with a trail date set for March 14th.

“Striving for justice,” huh? In an unpublished opinion, CA’s 2nd Appellate has affirmed the trial court’s decision to deny Farm Sanctuary standing to sue CorcPork under the Business and Professions Code section of the Unfair Competition Law. As you may remember, the decision in the original case hinged upon the applicability of an amended version of Proposition 64. In a nutshell, Prop 64 + no person showing actual monetary or property damage = you can’t sue CorcPork. Unpublished opinions only hang around the web site for 60 days after they’ve been…put up there (we were gonna say “published” but that didn’t make any sense). Grab it from us if the drive-thru window is closed.

Neither down nor out, the ALDF/EBAA v. Clougherty Packing/Farmer John/CorcPork action, with plaintiffs alleging actual monetary damages, moves forward as Case Number SCV-240050 in the Superior Court of Sonoma County. Plaintiffs are represented by Evans & Page in San Francisco. We’ve got $ on this one.

We wonder—will CorcPorkers again allege that plaintiffs lack standing because CorcPork has been confining pigs in crates since 1989 and the statute of limitations has run out, and that Penal Code section 597t is “unconstitutionally vague,” and that even it if is constitutional, it doesn’t apply to them anyways? Somebody take a swat at those last two, puh-lease.

Wiles Farm Prosecutor Files Charges

WKYC Evening News anchors acknowledge the worldwide reaction to their story in this follow-up report and interview with Special Prosecutor Frank Forchione. More than 30,000 viewers have seen the story that aired in November as a result of investigative efforts by the Humane Farming Association.

Owner Ken Wiles faces arraignment on two second-degree misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty later this month. His son, Joe Wiles, is charged with six misdemeanor counts and Wiles employee Dusty Stroud, previously seen mugging for the camera as a helpless sow is strangled by hanging, will face two counts as well. Jail time is a possibility if they are convicted, 150 90 days per misdemeanor, as well as fines of $750 per count and the mandatory surrender of the remaining animals housed at the facility.

Do the sentencing guidelines seem like paltry, cost-of-doing-business annoyances to you? We think so, too. Felony indictments and convictions for cruelty in industrial animal production facilities are far too few. The value of an innocent life, spared by the selfless acts of one brave person, is a price above rubies.

We’ll keep you apprised of developments in the Wiles Farm case as they unfold.

Inside Wiles Farm

HFA Takes Action Against Ohio Hog Factory

This is an abridged copy of the full 77–page complaint to Canton, Ohio criminal prosecutor Frank Forchione regarding conditions at Wiles Farm.

Beaten, bludgeoned to death, repeatedly shocked with an electric prod, strangled by hanging, starved, shot, drowned in their own urine and feces, cannibalized. The rescued animals we showed you yesterday survived in these unconscionable torture chambers for years.

These are the least graphic photos from the HFA petition we’re showing you here.

It’s our understanding that after the original airing of this investigation by WKYC reporter Bill Safos and the follow-up story that aired yesterday with Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the station has been swamped with calls and emails from horrified viewers around the country asking what people can do to help. We have a few suggestions:

• Make sure HFA has the resources they need to pursue this criminal case through the courts.


• Let Rep. Kucinich speak for YOU, these animals, and millions more like them once again. You don’t have to be a 10th District resident to say “enough is enough.”
  
  
• Thank WKYC for their commitment in bringing this investigation to you.