Animal rights activists convicted of stealing King Charles's lambs from Sandringham estate Three Animal Rising activists were convicted of stealing three lambs from King Charles's Sandringham estate. The court heard they took the lambs in an open rescue. Three animal rights activists were convicted of theft on [date] at Norwich Crown Court for taking three lambs from the King's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Rose Patterson, 37, Rosa Sharkey and Sarah Foy, both 26, removed the lambs from Appleton Farm during an early morning visit on May 24, 2023. The women, wearing pink t-shirts bearing the name of pressure group Animal Rising, were filmed and photographed during the incident. Footage released online showed them outside Windsor Castle with signs stating they had taken the sheep before handing themselves in to police.Open rescue claims and trial defenseDuring the trial, the defendants said they wanted to provoke a discussion about animal farming and its environmental impact. They targeted the monarch because he says he is an environmentalist and an animal lover.Their defense rested on the claim that they had saved the animals from poor welfare conditions and slaughter. They argued there was no dishonesty in what they did as the so-called open rescue was morally right and the King would have consented.Prior to the hearing, Animal Rising said: The open rescue tactic is an attempt to create strong case law foundations to give a legal basis for the rescue of animals from animal testing, farms or other industries.The case follows other trials where activists have been cleared of alleged offences, leading MPs to warn such verdicts provide a green light for people to commit crime. But a jury took just three hours and 48 minutes to find the defendants guilty of the charge.Judge Anthony Bate told the defendants, who showed no emotion as the verdict was returned, that he hoped to sentence them later today. He indicated he was thinking of imposing a community order with unpaid work.Political and farming industry reactionsConservative MP Sir John Hayes, the founder of the Common Sense Group of parliamentarians, condemned the defendants actions. He told the Mail: Anyone who keeps animals needs the protection of the law. The distorted understanding of the relationship between humans and animals is evident in the fact that they carelessly took these babies from their mothers.He also branded the claim that Charles would have supported the lambs rescue as impertinent, adding: It is hard to think the King would want anyone to steal animals.Immediately after the theft on May 24, 2023, livestock experts and farmers condemned the stunt. A National Sheep Association spokeswoman said the distressed ewes would have been scouring the field for their lambs, bleating endlessly with no hope of finding them.Gareth Wyn Jones, a sheep farmer for over five decades, added: These people are absolutely bonkers. It is distressing for these animals to be handled wrongly by amateur strangers.Lambs taken to sanctuary as sentencing loomsThe lambs have never been recovered as they were taken to an undisclosed sanctuary where, Norwich Crown Court was told, they had begun socialising with other animals and had made friends with goats.Animal Rising director Ms Patterson said outside court: We are of course disappointed by the verdict today but it does not change how I feel about rescuing Sammy, Sunny and Sooty. We rescued them because we believed they deserved the chance of a long life, rather than having their lives cut short simply because they were being farmed for food. I do not regret for a moment giving them that chance.Ms Sharkey added: I hope that the rescue of these lambs helps open the King's eyes to the reality of farming sheep.During the trial, jurors were told that the King was the official owner of the lambs, which were worth £400-500, but they were in the care of head stockman Gordon Robinson.Giving evidence, the defendants said the farming of livestock was having a devastating impact on the environment. Food distribution worker Ms Sharkey, of Brighton, said: We discussed wanting to save sheep and the best way to do that. One of the things we were considering was the impact it would have on the farmer and knowing that farming lives are not easy. That was the key reason why we went for the King's farm as it is not his primary source of income. And we wanted to do it in a way that would have a wider impact and produce a discussion in the country. The King says he is an environmentalist and an animal lover and I do think that the reality of sheep farming is quite hidden away, and what they face in the slaughterhouse and the impact on the land are not actually things that he would agree with.