Demonstrators want the Fearman pork processing plant closed during the lockdown

By Staff

January 8th. 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

A group of people who object to the slaughter of pigs at the Fearman plant in Burlington have shifted their focus just a bit and want to see the slaughterhouse shut down because they believe there are a number of people working in the plant who have become infected with the Covid19 virus.  They are demonstrating outside the plant

Their information, which could not be confirmed, was that 29 workers at the Fearman plant have become infected.

A 150 year old corporation that plays a significant role in the Burlington economy is part of the Sofina Group that is close to the largest pork producer in Canada. 

The Public Health Unit reports on the number of new infections but they don’t break that data out with enough detail to know if there have been infections at the plant.

Fearman’s is a very large employer operating a plant that is said to process 10,000 pigs each day.

The torontopigsave group has organized a small demonst5ation at the plant that started at just after 9:30 am.

Trevor Miller told the Gazette that the small number of demonstrators (there are just five) was done for two reasons – they didn’t want their people to create a crowd that could spread the virus and they wanted to ensure that there was not a repeat of the Regan Russell tragedy.

Regan Russell, was run over by a truck transporting pigs into the Fearman plant last June

Ms Russell was run over by a transport truck that was getting ready to enter the plant  on June 19th, this year when the accident took place.

The demonstrators are asking why the business is continuing to operate during the lockdown while elsewhere in Canada and worldwide similar facilities are shut down to slow infections. Two days ago the City of Toronto released a report condemning the company for posing a significant risk to public health.

Save the pigs activist watering pigs in a transport truck while it was stopped at an intersection just before entering the slaughterhouse.

“There’s no reason to put the lives of slaughterhouse workers and their communities in harm’s way to produce non-essential products,” says Trevor Miller with Toronto Pig Save. “The 10,000 pigs who lose their lives there every day, along with the employees now contributing to overloaded hospitals and ICUs, deserve to be treated with the same privileges as granted to white-collar workers throughout this pandemic – the chance for healthy lives.

“Many employed in this industry are themselves members of vulnerable and marginalized populations and have found themselves forced into unsafe work spaces.”