Local prosecutors reportedly have dismissed all charges against an animal rights activist who filmed and released footage of healthy pigs being killed en masse by “ventilation shutdown” which essentially cooked the animals to death with heat and steam generators. The pig production facility was one of many that engaged in such “depopulation” practices when COVID-19 reduced slaughter capacity in 2020. The activist, Matt Johnson, was facing up to eight year in prison for charges that included burglary, electronic eavesdropping, and violating the state’s latest ag-gag law: “food operation trespass.” Johnson is affiliated with the organization Direct Action Everywhere (aka DxE) and reportedly filed an objection to the dismissal, arguing that he should be allowed “to have the ‘right to rescue’ tested in a court of law.” In December 2020, Johnson also appeared on Fox Business posing as the CEO of Smithfield Foods and claiming factory farms were “petri dishes for new diseases.”