The War on Compassion: In Conversation with Wayne Hsiung
Animal Justice Academy Live Event
7:00 - 8:30pm ET

Wayne Hsiung is an open rescue superhero. He's an animal rights lawyer who's represented himself at trial. He's an AR movement philosopher and strategist. He's even done animal advocacy from jail.

In this Animal Justice Academy event, we'll talk to Wayne about his journey leading investigations and rescues in factory farms and slaughterhouses across the U.S. with Direct Action Everywhere, serving as lead counsel for four “right to rescue” trials of activists being prosecuted, his own criminal prosecutions and time in jail, and his new organization The Simple Heart Initiative.

We'll discuss topics like:

• the attempted silencing of animal advocacy and what we do to fight it
• The Simple Heart Initiative's mission to build a mass movement for rescuing sick and dying animals in factory farms
• how protecting the most powerless in our society is the best way for us to protect democracy
• what he's learned from challenging ag-gag laws in the U.S.
• what he feels are the top things we need to focus on in the animal rights movement right now
• current trials he's been working on including the Ridglan Dog Trial and the King's Sheep Trial with Animal Rising in the UK
• how we, as an individuals, can help to build a world where compassion is celebrated instead of criminalized
  

We'll also be opening things up for a community Q&A during the event.

*We invite folks to have their video on during this event to enhance the sense of community, but it’s not mandatory

About Our Guest: 

Wayne Hsiung is an animal cruelty investigator, former faculty member at Northwestern School of Law, and co-founder and Executive Director of The Simple Heart Initiative. He has led teams that have investigated and rescued animals from factory farms and slaughterhouses across the nation – challenging unconstitutional “ag-gag” laws in the process – and has organized successful campaigns to ban fur in San Francisco and California. He served as lead counsel (and, sometimes, defendant) in four “right to rescue” trials in which activists were prosecuted after being charged for giving aid to sick and dying animals in factory farms, garnering media attention from The New York Times. He is also a co-founder and former lead organizer of the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere.

Wayne’s work has been covered by WIRED, ABC’s Nightline, and on The Ezra Klein Show.

He has published on the right to rescue in Harvard Law Review and climate change’s impact on animals in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Prior to his work as an animal advocate, Wayne practiced law at two national firms and studied law and economics at the University of Chicago, where he was an Olin Law and Economics Fellow, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. He is the proud parent of Oliver, who was rescued from the dog meat trade.