WATCH: Activists interrupt first NFL game to protest arrest of animal rights advocates

Two activists interrupted the first game of the NFL season Thursday night in an apparent protest against the arrest of two animal rights advocates who were charged in 2017 for “rescuing” piglets from a factory farm.

Katia Shokrai and Emek Echo, two activists with Direct Action Everywhere, stormed the field during the football game as the Buffalo Bills faced the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in California. The pair ran across the field with smoke flares in their hands before being tackled by security guards.

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The activists were protesting the arrest of two of the group’s investigators, Paul Darwin Picklesimer and Wayne Hsiung, who were charged with burglary and theft in 2017. Picklesimer and Hsiung broke into a farm located in Milford, Utah, to film the living conditions of the animals and took two piglets from Circle Four Farms, operated by Smithfield Foods, during the incident.

“Smithfield, like the animal agriculture industry itself, is a barbaric house of cards — built on unconscionable, systemic abuse, and desperate attempts to shield that abuse from the public eye,” Shokrai said in a statement. “I want the world to know that animal rescuers are facing years in prison because of this company’s undue influence on our democracy.”

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Five activists were arrested in relation to the incident, with the other three entering into plea deals. However, Picklesimer and Hsiung declined similar deals, noting they want to use the trial to establish a legal precedent limiting torture at animal farms, according to New Republic. 

Their trial is set for October, and the two face up to $332,000 in fines and several years in prison.