Behind the scenes at “Ryding Regency” slaughterhouse in Toronto. This is the “holding pen” where they leave the cows to wait, anywhere from a few seconds, to a few hours, to over the period of an entire night (without food, and as far as we can tell, without water either), no matter how crowded and/or filthy the pen is, and no matter how cold/hot it may be outside, for their death. While you cannot see the “kill-floor” from this area due to the angles of the chutes that are used to squeeze the cows forward one-by-one, you can most definitely smell it and hear it, meaning that the cows can most definitely smell it and hear it; the gag-worthy, headache-inducing fumes emitted by the putrid mix of sitting blood and feces, and the at-times-extremely-loud mechanical clinking and grinding noises that would be scary-enough on their own, but in combination with the panicked bellowing of the soon-to-die and dying cows inside is utterly terrifying. These are their last moments, whether those moments last mere seconds or stretch over the entirety of a freezing Toronto winter night. If this isn’t torture, what is?
After literally years the Pig Trial will finally be coming to a close this Thursday March 9th 2017. Throughout the trial we have heard that Anita Krajnc, who has been criminally charged for giving water to a pig suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration in the summer of 2015, acted out of concern for the animals, as well as the environment, and the health of her fellow humans. Experts upon experts have testified on topics ranging from the environmental devastation of a non-vegan diet to the incredible emotional and cognitive intelligence of farmed animals such as pigs. This trial, which stemmed from an attempt to silence Toronto Pig Save, has brought international attention to the fight for animal rights, and since the first court date years ago, hundreds of groups have been created in countries all over the world and have joined The Save Movement. It is for these reasons that we can confidently say, though we do not yet know the legal outcomes of this trial, that we have won, for any advancement in the world’s compassion for nonhuman animals is a victory in our eyes.
Please join us outside of the Burlington courthouse one last time to show the world that you know that giving water to a suffering being, to show them compassion, is not a crime!!
Schedule: 8:00 am: Vigil at Fearmans slaughterhouse at the corner of Harvester Road and Appleby Line (821 Appleby Line, Burlington)
9:00-10:00 am: Vigil at the Burlington courthouse at 2051 Plains Rd E, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 5A5
10:00 am: Concluding arguments
A simultaneous slaughterhouse vigil will take place at Fearmans pig slaughterhouse, 10 minute drive from the courthouse.
If you are unable to attend, you can still follow! There will be live feed from both the courthouse and from the vigil on the Toronto Pig Savepage.
Even though there are technically laws to “protect” pigs and cows (chicken, fish, and turkeys have no protection whatsoever), these laws are so paper thin and so rarely enforced that they almost might as well not exist. Animals that are too sick or injured to support their own weight/cannot stand up are not supposed to be forced onto transport trucks and used for slaughter, and yet, it happens every day. St. Helen’s Meatpackers (which promotes itself as “local”, “humane” meat) is particularly notorious for breaking this law. Indeed, they have sick and injured animals coming in so often that they actually have been cited (a consequence that is essentially like a warning and does nothing to help the animals) multiple times for this offence. This gentle baby cow (about 2 years old when they can naturally live to be over 20) was lying on his side, and despite being obviously exhausted and in extreme pain, he would occasionally try and get up by flailing his legs about. His friends did their best not to step on him, despite the floor of the truck being slick with feces and urine, and even spent time trying to comfort him, Cows are herd animals who grow particularly strong bonds with one another and are scientifically known to have best friends within their herds. The injured one’s best friend spent time softly licking his face, and it was only during this time that the “downed” cow would close his eyes for a moment.
Cows, and all farmed animals, are emotional creatures who have relationships with one another. This is not merely the musings of an animal rights organisation, it has been scientifically proven. Indeed lots of research (which can easily be found on google) has come out in the past few years regarding the emotional and cognitive intelligence of animals society generally deems, “dumb”. And the results? The species we eat (including fish and crustaceans) are just as intelligent, just as sentient, as the dogs and cats we have as family members. If imaging your dog/cat lying at the bottom of a filthy truck, only to later be dragged into a slaughterhouse with chains, bothers you, then this should bother you too. All animals want, and fight, to live..
“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life” - Walt Whitman
“In these eyes, it was clear to see the intelligence and fear, and all the dimensions of individuality possessed too by any human being. They were dog eyes. They were cat eyes.They were the eyes of the planet herself. Their eyes were our reminder never to stop fighting for them. There was no longer an, “I”, there was an, “us”, there was a, “them”. An activist went home grieved, and he picked up his pencils and he drew for the first time in four years. He wanted to remember her. He wanted to etch her on the inside of his eyelids and forever be haunted by her, just as it haunted me to want others to know her, to understand her.”
Go vegan for Hope. For although she could not be saved, maybe one day her sisters can.
In an agricultural system, as well as an entire culture, where so much emphasis is placed on hiding what is unpleasant, even if that means hiding the truth, it can be easy to forget that for them, for the innocent, intelligent, emotional, beautiful animal persyns who are caught in the system, the truth is their lives. They don’t get to “just stop thinking about it” when the pain becomes too much; for them there is no escape. At least not while we continue to hide from the truth, to avoid non-graphic videos such as these, and hide our heads in the sand. Knowledge is power. Knowledge of the truth is ultimate power. By bearing witness and making yourself aware of their lived experiences, you make yourself aware of both the truth, and your truth: the truth about the animal-loving, compassionate person you know yourself to be. So take a few minutes to watch this video and learn what the truth means for them. And then live according to your truth, by showing the animals that love and compassion you have inside yourself by living vegan.
On November 1st, neuroscientist Lori Marino, who has a PhD in biopsychology, testified before Justice David Harris at the Pigtrial.
Marino discussed the cognitive and emotional abilities, and the behavior, of pigs.
“Pigs usually form social groups of several females and their offspring” — but can’t do that in a factory farm setting, said Marino, who has testified about a half-dozen times in the U.S. as an expert in animal psychology, but never before in Canada.
“Pigs certainly have personalities,” she said, noting they exhibit human traits such as curiosity, shyness and bullying.
“They have a sense of themselves in terms of a social community. Pigs and dogs are very similar in terms of sociability.
“They (pigs) seem to have the ability to tell time, and (exhibit) negative anticipatory behaviours when they have to go into confinement for a long time,” said Marino, executive director of the U.S.-based The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy.
She said pigs experience fear, joy and happiness and have “very good” long and short-term memories.
“They are at least as emotionally complex as dogs and as psychologically complex as primates.”
Marino said it’s unclear how to equate a pig with humans but that “it sells pigs short to say they are as sophisticated as a human toddler — they are more complex than that…. They are at least as cognitively advanced as monkeys.”
“Yes, they (pigs) are persons,” she said, noting that not just a human is a person. …………………………………………………………….
The next court session will be happening this Thursday from 9-5 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Burlington. While court is in session, a vigil will be held outside of “Fearman’s Pork” slaughterhouse where Toronto Pig Save and other Save Movement activists will give the pigs water and love in their final moments, just as we have been doing for years, and will continue to do. Please join us for the peaceful rally that will take place outside the courthouse (meet at 8:45am) and/or in bearing witness to the beautiful baby pigs. In the meantime, please share the #pigtrial story far and wide along with the message that compassion is never a crime.
Send out these ✨powerful✨ Tweets today to spread a message of hope, compassion, and redemption. Video post is coming. ft.@RowdyGirlSanctuary Share With Tweets: Why A Texas Cattle Rancher Went Vegan: http://ctt.ec/r7Ebb The Mama Cows Cried: http://ctt.ec/Zvabe Part of the System: http://ctt.ec/qxnT3 Something Broke In Me: http://ctt.ec/X2PiK
“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life” - Walt Whitman
“In these eyes, it was clear to see the intelligence and fear, and all the dimensions of individuality possessed too by any human being. They were dog eyes. They were cat eyes.They were the eyes of the planet herself. Their eyes were our reminder never to stop fighting for them. There was no longer an, “I”, there was an, “us”, there was a, “them”. An activist went home grieved, and he picked up his pencils and he drew for the first time in four years. He wanted to remember her. He wanted to etch her on the inside of his eyelids and forever be haunted by her, just as it haunted me to want others to know her, to understand her.”
Go vegan for Hope. For although she could not be saved, maybe one day her sisters can.
In an agricultural system, as well as an entire culture, where so much emphasis is placed on hiding what is unpleasant, even if that means hiding the truth, it can be easy to forget that for them, for the innocent, intelligent, emotional, beautiful animal persyns who are caught in the system, the truth is their lives. They don’t get to “just stop thinking about it” when the pain becomes too much; for them there is no escape. At least not while we continue to hide from the truth, to avoid non-graphic videos such as these, and hide our heads in the sand. Knowledge is power. Knowledge of the truth is ultimate power. By bearing witness and making yourself aware of their lived experiences, you make yourself aware of both the truth, and your truth: the truth about the animal-loving, compassionate person you know yourself to be. So take a few minutes to watch this video and learn what the truth means for them. And then live according to your truth, by showing the animals that love and compassion you have inside yourself by living vegan.
On November 1st, neuroscientist Lori Marino, who has a PhD in biopsychology, testified before Justice David Harris at the Pigtrial.
Marino discussed the cognitive and emotional abilities, and the behavior, of pigs.
“Pigs usually form social groups of several females and their offspring” — but can’t do that in a factory farm setting, said Marino, who has testified about a half-dozen times in the U.S. as an expert in animal psychology, but never before in Canada.
“Pigs certainly have personalities,” she said, noting they exhibit human traits such as curiosity, shyness and bullying.
“They have a sense of themselves in terms of a social community. Pigs and dogs are very similar in terms of sociability.
“They (pigs) seem to have the ability to tell time, and (exhibit) negative anticipatory behaviours when they have to go into confinement for a long time,” said Marino, executive director of the U.S.-based The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy.
She said pigs experience fear, joy and happiness and have “very good” long and short-term memories.
“They are at least as emotionally complex as dogs and as psychologically complex as primates.”
Marino said it’s unclear how to equate a pig with humans but that “it sells pigs short to say they are as sophisticated as a human toddler — they are more complex than that…. They are at least as cognitively advanced as monkeys.”
“Yes, they (pigs) are persons,” she said, noting that not just a human is a person. …………………………………………………………….
The next court session will be happening this Thursday from 9-5 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Burlington. While court is in session, a vigil will be held outside of “Fearman’s Pork” slaughterhouse where Toronto Pig Save and other Save Movement activists will give the pigs water and love in their final moments, just as we have been doing for years, and will continue to do. Please join us for the peaceful rally that will take place outside the courthouse (meet at 8:45am) and/or in bearing witness to the beautiful baby pigs. In the meantime, please share the #pigtrial story far and wide along with the message that compassion is never a crime.
Three Save Movement activists in North America have now had run-ins with police over giving water to suffering pigs who had only minutes left to live. What do you call a society that has laws which allow for, and even encourage, the horrific torture and death of billions of the gentle and innocent, while prohibiting simple acts of compassion, other than broken? Only when we treat all beings with kindness and respect will we experience peace amongst ourselves. On which side do you belong; that of callous indifference, or that of compassion towards all? Neutrality never helps the oppressed, so there is no middle-ground here. You either believe that an act of compassion can never be criminal, or you believe in the sanctioning of violence and killing.
Please show solidarity with these activists and the animals they are fighting for by sharing their cases, attending any protests/demonstrations that have been scheduled, and/or attending vigils with a Save group near you. The next #compassionisnotacrime court session will be taking place on November 10th in Burlington, ON and is for Anita Krajnc of Toronto Pig Save. #govegan #pigtrial #smithfieldpigsave #torontopigsave #thesavemovement #activism #animalactivism #peacefulprotest #humanrights #feminism #ecofeminism #socialjustice #justice #justiceforthepigs #animalrights #animalliberation #loveforall #animals #showcompassion #love #compassion #kindnessmatters #liveandletlive
The Pigtrial’s first court-date of the month is tomorrow! Please show your support by either peacefully protesting outside the courthouse, sharing information about the issue online, and/or attending the concurrent vigil for the pigs going to their deaths at “Fearman’s Pork” (the slaughterhouse which recently tortured and mercilessly killed the 200 pigs involved in the transporttruck crash).
