Adam Durand, the animal-rights activist from the Compassionate Consumers local Rochester advocacy group, was arrested along with two others for trespassing on a Wayne County Wegmans egg farm two years ago. The sentence handed down on Tuesday, and can hardly be considered commensurate to the crime: six months in jail, one year probation and a $1,500 fine. Now his fellow advocates are staging a protest at the Pittsford Wegmans store on Sunday at 1:45pm.

I can say that, for myself, animal advocacy has never been concentration of mine. Perhaps that is short-sighted, but true, nonetheless. In this case, however, I am 100% in Adam’s corner on this issue. To start with, the penalty is outrageous. Tresspassing is a crime, but only a misdemenor, and no one should be so castigated by our society simply for doing what they believe is right. No one was injured, no property of value was destroyed; certainly, he didn’t do $1,500 worth of damages.

What the sentence is really about is local Rochester Big Money coming down on someone for daring to expose what may be uncomfortable truths about how they make thier money. The fact is that all farms such as the Wegmans egg farm are private property. The conditions under which these animals are kept is not just a concern for animal rights activists, but rather also affect health concerns as well, and there is no way for the consumer to be made aware of any public health issues that might arise on private property.

The Federal Government, for all thier scare tactics about the dreaded bird flu, are unambitious to say the least on this front. Most of us understand that close-quarters conditions make for unhealthy environments, as we have experienced in our own lives contracting flus and viruses from our family and coworkers. The same holds true for livestock, and birds most especially. In this case, the close proximity is so extreme as to be hardly imaginable:

FACTORY FARMING: AN ISSUE AFFECTING HUMAN HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT, WORKERS, AND ANIMALS:

The 300,000,000 factory farmed egg-laying hens in the U.S. typically spend their short lives in a small wire cage (”battery cage”) with 4 other hens. There is not enough room in these cages for a hen to ever stretch out her wings; and her feathers are often completely rubbed off, and her skin is likely to be bruised and swollen from continually scratching up against the metal wire. The hens are perpetually pregnant, laying up to 250 eggs per year — for each bird. The bodies of these hens are heavily taxed by constant impregnation, and as a result they often suffer osteoporosis and liver damage due to the abnormal reproductive demands. . . Some factory farms employ “forced molting,” where hens are starved of food and water for 18 days, thus induced into beginning a new breeding cycle. Predictably, most hens lose substantial body weight during this period, and many die outright from shock. . . If left to their own devices, the hens would begin to cannibalize each other, but it was discovered that if the hens were first “debeaked” (a process that can involve cutting into the hens’ bone, tissue, and cartilage), then the farmer’s “problem” would be solved.

These are animals we are eating, and thier health affects our health directly; even ignorning the overblown concerns about the bird flu, any number of other potential diseases and infestations can arise from what are obviously extraordinarily unhealthy environments. But since they’re being kept on private land, the consumer is largely ignorant of the dangers. Adam Durand, for whatever disagreement we might have with his tactics or politics, was doing what he believed was in the interests of our society and what be believed was right: he was shooting a video exposing the true nature of Wegmans egg farm factory. You can watch the video on Google Video here, or check out thier website here.

When consumer advocacy groups get treated as “vigalantes” by the court (the word applied to Adam’s actions by the judge in this case), and when the government fails to move our food industry into the 21st century because they are in bed with the monied interests of our country, there is every reason to protest. There is every reason for consumers to be upset, and there is every reason for concerned individuals to do what they can to inform the public.? I fully support this protest and axiously await the outcome.