The theft of two piglets from a farm in Utah that is owned by the world's largest pork producer was not a big deal for the company.
Local and federal law enforcement officials began a multistate investigation after a group of animal rights activists posted a video online of their incursion into the Circle Four farms. F.B.I. agents raided animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado, and at one of them, government veterinarians sliced off a part of a piglets ear in their search for evidence of the crime.
The federal government didn't pursue any charges after the piglets were stolen. Three of the activists pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for agreeing not to criticize the company online for three years.
The fate of the two others, Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer, will be decided by a jury on Saturday.
The trial has become a showcase of corporate power, testing whether the meat industry can prevent the public from seeing the darker side of mass food production.
Circle Four Farm, which processes more than one million pigs a year and is one of the largest hog-production facilities in the country, is not accessible to the jury. In a series of rulings, the judge has removed testimony about animal welfare, banned the jury from viewing the footage that the defendants filmed and even banned them from mentioning why they were in the first place.
Mary Corporon is a lawyer for Mr. Picklesimer who filmed the raid. Joe Sixpack can't get the F.B.I. to solve their tv or grandmother's ring crimes because they're not a big multinational corporation.
The company did not comment on the case.
A state official testified that the piglets were worth $42 each.
The prosecutors said that a crime is a crime and that investigators acted only after the defendants publicized footage of their raid, which they had dubbed "Operation Deathstar."
According to court documents, prosecutors argued that the company's reputation was harmed by the footage and other videos, including one that was published by The New York Times.
Public image damage has been caused by the defamation campaign.
The prosecution was an attempt to chill the growing movement of activists who use subterfuge and hidden cameras to document conditions on factory farms.
The use of undercover footage by activists and whistle-blowers has been quashed by agricultural- producing states. Courts have struck down some of the so-calledag-gag laws that criminalize the taking of unauthorized video or photos on animal farms. The legal effort to overturn Utah's law was led by ProfessorMarceau.
The case is about whether people can rescue animals in dire conditions that are now commonplace in our food system. I can't think of a more significant animal law case recently.
The group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, was trying to document the use of metal enclosures for pregnant sows that critics say are cramped and cruel. Mr. Hsiung said the group encountered many of them at Circle Four farms.
Mr. Hsiung said that the screams of the pigs were so loud that they couldn't hear each other. He said that the two piglets they took on their way out were sick and likely to end up in a dumpster.
Jim Monroe said that the company was committed to improving the welfare of the tens of millions of pigs it raises each year. He said in an email that any deviation from high standards for animal care is counter productive.
Richard Piatt is a spokesman for the Utah attorney general. There is an obligation for prosecutors to acknowledge a theft.
Mr. Hsiung, a lawyer and founder of DxE, has long embraced the kind of guerilla tactics he knows can garner public attention. He has been arrested more than a dozen times in the last few years, and he said he viewed the current trial as a chance to teach.
He wants Americans to be able to see how their food is produced.
It is not known whether the defendants have the support of the people of Beaver County, which is located in the high desert along the Nevada border. The company announced last summer that it would be shutting down most of its operations there. Many of its pigs are processed in California and executives blame that on the downsizing.
The trial was moved to a larger county after the defense requested it.
The fate of the piglets won't be decided by the jury. The piglets are living at an animal sanctuary in Utah. Activists say they are doing well.
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