By Staff
May 3rd, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Sometime tomorrow Anita Krajnc, co-founder of Toronto Pig Save, will learn what Justice Harris will decide if any punishment should be given for giving pigs in a commercial animal trailer water to drink.
The hearing will be the last in a long protracted trial on a charge of criminal mischief laid in June 2015
Pigs in a transport truck being given water.
Ms. Krajnc was charged after giving water to dehydrated pigs in a transportation truck bound for slaughter. Ms Krajnc claims she was simply following The Golden Rule – treat others as you wish to be treated.
“The law should protect the vulnerable, not criminalize those who come to their aid. We all have a duty to follow the Golden Rule and give water to panting animals and raise awareness of their unjust slaughter,” says Anita Krajnc.
She faces a potential six month prison sentence and a $5,000.00 fine. At the most recent trial on March 9th, Judge Harris said he needed more time to issue the verdict.
The case has attracted global media attention and the defence put together by Ms. Krajnc’s lawyers James Silver and Gary Grill, both vegan, has put the animal agriculture industry on trial, showing people that pigs are persons, not property.
“Pigs have individual personalities. They’re also one of the few species that can recognize themselves in a mirror. They have self-awareness and have a sense of themselves within the social community. Each one is a unique individual,” said Lori Marino, a neuroscientist who testified at the Pig Trial on November 1, 2016.
Burlington fire fighters tear open the top of a transport trailer to free pigs that were in the truck when it rolled over.
The criminal mischief charge was laid by Regional police on the day a transport rolled over on Walkers Line.
‘Toronto Pig Save’ started in 2011 and began a wider network known as ‘The Save Movement’ in which groups from around the world join together to bear witness to animals arriving in transportation trucks at slaughterhouses. There are now almost 150 groups worldwide including in North and South America, Europe, Oceania and Asia.
Several groups will also be holding solidarity vigils worldwide to show unity with the message that compassion is not a crime, with several groups in the UK taking part.
There will be an all-day vigil outside Freeman’s Pork – 7 am to 12:00 pm on Thursday.
Acquitted.