Wayne Hsiung

On April 24, 2018, he was arrested and charged with "threatening bodily injury" in Boulder, CO at Whole Foods after asking questions at the store about the source of its meat products. Musician Moby posted a video questioning whether Whole Foods was "support[ing] an unconstitutional police state wherein people aren’t allowed to ask questions."

In May 2018, Hsiung, and a large number of Direct Action Everywhere protesters broke into a Santa Rosa Egg Farms facility, seized chickens, and recorded extensive video that they claimed illustrated systematic animal abuses. Hsiung claimed that his actions and those of Direct Action Everywhere were legal, carrying a folder with the "opinion of a scholar" inside, which he showed to the owners and the employees of the facility when they demanded he and the protesters leave. The opinion asserts that a portion of California law which allows people to rescue animals that are trapped in a dangerous environment (such as a dog or cat in a burning building), also allows Hsiung to legally break into farms that Direct Action Everywhere believes are mistreating animals. The opinion has been untested in court. Hsiung and Direct Action Everywhere have labeled this, and numerous other break-ins they have participated in, as "open rescues".

Another large-scale break in occurred on September 29, 2018, when activists, including Hsiung, broke into Petaluma Poultry in Petaluma, CA and provided water to chickens that they claimed were injured and dying and who could no longer walk to reach water on their own. The police allowed the activists to take one hen off the property of the farm and to be provided with veterinary care. Nonetheless, when activists attempted to re-enter the farm, 58 of the activists were arrested for trespasing on farm property, jailed, and charged with felony conspiracy, felony burglary and misdemeanor trespass.

In 2017, Hsiung along with 4 other DxE activists had investigated a pig farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Utah and removed two piglets from the facility. However, FBI agents were dispatched to look for these piglets and raided two animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado. Witnesses of the raids said the FBI agents sought DNA samples from pigs at the facilities as part of a search for the missing piglets. Hsiung was indicted in Utah on multiple charges including felonies (burglary, livestock theft, and engaging in a pattern of illegal activity) and a misdemeanor riot charge relating to a break-in "investigation of animal cruelty" at this Smithfield Foods farm.[1] Journalist Glenn Greenwald reported that the prosecution was politically motivated, as attorneys prosecuting the case had financial ties to Smithfield.

In 2017, Hsiung was involved in the founding of the Berkeley Animal Rights Center, the first community center in the United States dedicated to animal rights. Hsiung is also a speaker at the annual Animal Liberation Conference that takes place in Berkeley, California.

In April 2016, Hsiung and two other members of DxE went to Yulin, China, home of the Yulin dog meat festival, to document the upcoming preparations of the festival. Two of the activists with DxE recorded video of claimed abuses. In one of the videos, dogs were screaming as they were beaten to death. Hsiung and two other DxE activists removed three dogs bound for slaughter from the facility. Hsiung was beaten and arrested in China for the theft of the three dogs. Hsiung was held for two days and then deported.

Hsiung has also been a part of several other high-profile protests and incidents, most notably a disruption of a San Francisco Giants-LA Dodgers baseball game in September 2016 that led to him being tackled by Giants player Angel Pagan on national TV. He was also a high-profile spokesman for a series of protests at Bernie Sanders rallies during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary over the candidate's support for the dairy industry and refusal to support animal rights against the interests of animal agriculture.

In January 2015, Hsiung organized an "open rescue/investigation" on a certified humane egg farm in Petaluma, California. Hsiung and Direct Action Everywhere protesters climbed over a barbed wire fence to enter an egg farm and extensively recorded video of alleged animal abuses such as confines that were far too small, preening from stress, and lack of water. In January 2015, DxE released a video narrated by Hsiung and showing him rescuing a hen with the help of several other activists. In the video there are birds with blisters and missing feathers. These hens were from a "cage-free" egg farm at Petaluma Farms, a major west-coast supplier to Whole Foods and Organic Valley. Hsiung, as the narrator, uses words like “stench,” “filth,” and “misery” to describe the scene; and shows several birds that appear to have blisters, missing feathers, one apparently caked with feces, as well as birds that appear to be in decent shape. The crew dramatically rescues one injured bird, handing her over the fence, one activist to another, and whisking her to a vet in Berkeley, who declares her in dismal shape.

Hsiung has also given various talks at various universities about social activism and animal rights. In November 2014, Wayne Hsiung was a guest speaker at UC Berkeley, where he gave a talk titled "What if everything we think we know about social change is wrong?" In January 2019, Hsiung gave a talk at Stanford University Law School titled "Changing the Law by Breaking It: a Conversation on Activism, Animal Welfare, and the Law with DxE Founder, Wayne Hsiung."

Hsiung graduated from the University of Chicago in 2001 and received a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship to study economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but went on leave after his first year to pursue a JD/PhD. He attended the University of Chicago law school with a focus on behavioral law and economics. After graduating, Hsiung taught at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law as a visiting assistant professor for one year.

Wayne Hsiung (born June 18, 1981) is a co-founder and organizer with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). Prior to founding DxE, Wayne was a lawyer with the law firm DLA Piper, a Searle Fellow and visiting assistant professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, and a NSF Graduate Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hsiung grew up in Indiana. His parents emigrated from China in the 1970s. His father did work involving vivisection for several years, which left a lasting impact on Hsiung and motivated him to become an animal rights activist. He also was influenced by Patty Mark, an Australian animal rights activist.