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Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
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Toronto activists protest pig slaughter January 15, 2012 - Toronto Sun Animal rights activist Anita Krajnc feels for the thousands of pigs she claims are inhumanely slaughtered daily at Quality Meat Packers’ abattoir in Toronto’s west end. Krajnc was just one of about 20 members of Toronto Pig Save that picketed outside the slaughterhouse located in the King St. W-Strachan Ave. area. During the protest, which ran from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at least four livestock haulers arrived carrying hundreds of pigs slotted to meet their maker. With the trucks backed against the kill-house’s loading docks, the pigs were not visible. But at points, squeals and high-pitched bawling could be heard as they were led off the trucks. Krajnc said with the cold finally here, many pigs delivered to the building suffer from frostbite and hypothermia after being exposed to the frigid wind that comes with travelling at high speeds in a transport-truck carrier with air holes. This, she argued, goes against codes set out by the Canadian Agri-food Research Council and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. Krajnc said she became an activist after hearing the screaming of the pigs while walking her dog in the area of the plant. According to Krajnc, pigs are slaughtered in the building from Monday to Friday, but the deliveries of the live animals take place on the weekends. There was nobody at the plant available for comment on Sunday. “I think it’s important people start to realize just how badly these animals are treated,” said protester Marlene Fraser, 67. “My family, they were farmers, and the animals were treated with respect...I think it’s really sad.” Comment: Pigs are a highly intelligent species, and yet they’ve have been subjected to extreme cruelty by the barbaric and vile human race. The Canadian government seems unconcerned and oblivious to animal cruelty and suffering, choosing instead economic gain at the expense of all else. Keeping corporations and the powerful agriculture powerful and wealthy, while disregarding the voices of those advocating for change. The frustration is growing, so one shouldn’t be surprised if there’s more direct and forceful action anytime now. May 4, 2017 update: Not Guilty! Justice David Harris acquitted Anita Krajnc on the charge of mischief laid in connection with giving pigs headed to slaughter water in June 2015. It's considered criminal mischief to "obstruct, interrupt, or interfere" with the "lawful use, enjoyment, or operation of property." October 6, 2016 Pig Slaughterhouse Should be Charged with Criminal Animal Cruelty: Animal Rights Lawyers Comment: Fearmans should definitely be charged. Politicians are expected to implement legislation to protect animals and they've failed in their duties, as well, putting industry interests and the economy over all else. Meanwhile, citizens are becoming increasingly fed up with the corrosive influence of money in our government and are rising up against it. The CFIA gets regular complaints and concerns over farm animal transport says Michelle Groleau in a 2015 news story in Western Producer. Canada's animal cruelty laws evolve around the concerns of the agriculture lobby, mired in 19th C. thinking, and we’ve seen just how hard it is trying to get decision-makers to act. Comment: No mercy. Money trumps all. The best thing we can do for the animals, our health, and the environment is to align our values with our actions by boycotting such a heartless industry. “For all our ideals and morality, those of us who eat meat are undeniably mass killers, even if we hire hit men to do the job, and others to carve the bodies up, and yet others to transport the chunks around in refrigerated trucks. It’s like a snuff flick. No one makes one if there are no buyers. Everyone involved is guilty." Bob Hunter, Vancouver Sun columnist, deceased 2005 March 9, 2017 Defence lawyer compares woman who gave water to pigs to Gandhi, Mandela BURLINGTON - A Toronto woman who gave water to pigs on a truck headed to slaughter committed an act of kindness similar to when people gave water to Jews transported on cattle trains during the Holocaust, her lawyer said in closing arguments at her trial Thursday. Defence lawyer Gary Grill also compared Anita Krajnc's actions — and the resulting legal battle — to the experiences of historic rights activists such as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Susan B. Anthony. "Anita is acting in the public good," Grill told a packed courtroom in Burlington. He added that "even if we found a solution to fix our health and environmental problems caused by farming and eating animals….there are still the pigs. They are persons." The farmers in the room laughed. Judge Harris replied by saying "well you know, less than a century ago women were also not considered people". This judge gets it. Around the globe, activists mobilized and began holding solidarity vigils in support of Krajnc. Well-known organizations like PETA are standing with her, as are celebrities like Jane Velez-Mitchell and Moby. People from all walks of life have come together, united in this fight for justice, and the media can’t get enough. It is history in the making! Read more on our Factory Farm & Ethics Pages |