Chickens are seen inside a barn in 2024 at Sunrise Farms in Petaluma. In 2018, Wayne Hsiung and other animal rights activists rescued three dozen sick chickens from the farm and were prosecuted on trespass charges. 

When Wayne Hsiung and other animal rights activists entered Sunrise Farms, a giant egg facility in Petaluma, on May 29, 2018, to provide aid to suffering chickens, they thought their right to rescue these birds would be protected from criminal liability by California’s “necessity defense,” which justifies breaking the law to prevent a “significant evil.”

The necessity defense helps to ensure that people do not hesitate to intervene to prevent harm out of fear that they will be prosecuted for breaking the law in order to do so. After all, isn’t the prevention of animal cruelty more important than prohibiting trespass at a commercial warehouse? 

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Confident in this belief, Hsiung and other activists rescued three dozen sick chickens from Sunrise, got them emergency veterinary care and placed them at animal sanctuaries. Hsiung was arrested that day and was eventually convicted of two counts of misdemeanor trespass (one of which stemmed from a protest and action at a separate facility, Reichardt Duck Farm) and one count of felony conspiracy to commit trespass.

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But in April, Hsiung won big at the California Court of Appeal, where two of his three convictions — including the felony — were reversed. As the court put it, while Hsiung was mistaken that the necessity defense applied, he should have been able to........

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