The odds were stacked against us in the Foster Farms trial. The prosecution had in its possession a video that it felt was 100% proof of the defendants’ crime: a video showing Alicia Santurio and Alexandra Paul removing two chickens from a slaughterhouse truck.
Foster Farms, moreover, is the largest poultry processor in the Western United States, with immense political and economic influence. And, on the first day of trial, our strongest defense – the argument that it was necessary to take the birds due to their brutal mistreatment – was undercut before we could even make it. The judge ruled that, because chickens are animals and not human beings, the necessity defense simply would not apply.
One of the attorneys on our defense team predicted we had a 10% chance of avoiding conviction.
Yet somehow, we won. And we won despite the fact that the prosecution, led by an experienced deputy district attorney who normally prosecutes felony cases, engaged in a number of unethical and blatantly unconstitutional dirty tricks – including attempting a last minute effort to introduce misleading evidence after the trial was already over, when we would have no chance to respond.
This conversation with Alicia Santurio, one of the defendants in the Foster Farms trial, and attorney Jon Frohnmayer, who has been deeply embedded in our cases for the last five years, shows how we won. But, even more importantly, it shows why we fight in the first place. Because, win or lose, these cases have tremendous stakes And not just for the defendants, who are risking their own freedom to defend animals from abuse – but for the entire animal rights movement.
