Activists Convicted of Break and Enter, Mischief for Exposing Animal Cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm to Be Sentenced on October 12

Abbotsford, BC – Two animal activists convicted in July of break-and-enter and mischief for their role in exposing animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in 2019 will be sentenced on Wednesday, October 12 at 10am. The Crown is seeking a 90-day jail sentence for both activists—Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer. A press conference will be held outside the BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford at 9am.

BC Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven is expected to read his reasons for sentence and, if Soranno and Schafer are sentenced to jail time, they could be immediately taken into custody. Defence lawyers have vowed to appeal and are prepared to file an application for bail pending appeal which, if granted, means that Soranno and Schafer would be released at least until the Court of Appeal issues its ruling.

During the trial, Justice Verhoeven blocked the defence from showing the jury any of the video footage showing animal cruelty at Excelsior, including the footage the activists were tried for exposing. The judge also prevented them from arguing that the hog farm had engaged in unlawful animal abuse, which foreclosed on testimony from expert witnesses the defence had intended to call to the stand.

At the August 26 sentencing hearing for Soranno and Schafer—normally a time when defendants can make statements to the court—Justice Verhoeven refused to allow Soranno to talk about the animals inside the hog farm or to make a statement explaining why she engaged in civil disobedience that day. You can read the statement that Soranno was prevented from making in court here: https://excelsior4.org/amystatement.
 
Although Soranno and Schafer were found guilty for their role in exposing criminal animal abuse at the Abbotsford hog farm in 2019, the jury acquitted a third activist, Roy Sasano. A fourth activist, Geoff Regier, had his charges dropped in May. Together, the four activists have been dubbed the Excelsior 4.

Soranno, Schafer, Sasano, and Regier are all available for interviews—as is Soranno’s trial lawyer Leo Salloum—to discuss the details of their case, and the malfeasance of police, the BCSPCA, and the commercial farming industry. Contact Kris Hermes at 604-228-9993 or [email protected] to arrange an interview.

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.