Trial for the protester who gave water to pigs in sweltering heat as they were being trucked to Fearman's for slaughter began this morning.

News 100 redBy Staff

August 24, 2016

Burlington, ON

A trial for an animal rights activist charged with mischief for giving water to pigs that were in a sweltering truck on their way to slaughter began this morning.

Pig trial - Anita Krajnc

Anita Krajnc

Anita Krajnc of Toronto faces jail time or a maximum $5,000 fine for providing water through the narrow openings of a metal trailer to the pigs as they were headed to Fearman’s Pork Inc. in Burlington, Ont.
Krajnc, 49, is part of the group Toronto Pig Save, which held a vigil outside the pork processing plant on June 22, 2015.

The comments being made by readers who are following a twitter news feed by CBC reporter Samantha Craggs are diverse to say the least.

Worth tuning into.

The protesters have been on the scene for a number of years – they are persistent. Fearman’s is taking a beating in the public relations world.

Pigs being watered - trial

That pig may not be human but the look in its eye says it is in serious distress.

The charge of mischief is for giving pigs water in a sweltering truck while they were on their way to a slaughterhouse in Burlington.
Krajnc said her group stands on a traffic island at Appleby Line and Harvester Road once a week to “bear witness” to the animals going to slaughter at Fearman’s Pork Inc.

‘In legal circles, people are scratching their heads’ said lawyer Gary Grill.

On June 22, Ktajnc said, temperatures were high, and her group poured water through the holes. In court documents, Halton police refer to it as an “unknown liquid.”

The Halton police have had to manage calls from the slaughter house every week – at one point the protesters managed to actually get to what is called the hog chute – the spot where the pigs are off loaded from the truck into the plant.

On June 22nd, Krajnc said the driver got out and told them to stop, and she quoted a Bible verse at him about giving water to the thirsty.

“He said, ‘They’re not humans, you dumb frigging broad,'” she told CBC News.

The pork farmer who owned the pigs, Eric Van Boekel of Oxford County, contacted police the next day, court documents say. Police investigated and pursued the mischief charge. Punishment for the charge ranges from a fine to up to 10 years in prison.

Pig trial supporters

Anita Kranjc supporters outside the courthouse

Gary Grill, Kranjc’s Toronto-based lawyer asked: “Taxpayers are paying for this.”

Grill said the question isn’t how he and co-counsel James Silver will defend the case, but how the Crown will prove that what Kranjc did was criminal mischief.

Kranjc, 48, said if she is fined, she will refuse to pay.

The trial continues.

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8 comments to Trial for the protester who gave water to pigs in sweltering heat as they were being trucked to Fearman’s for slaughter began this morning.

  • James

    She is absolutely in the wrong here. No question. The food industry is highly regulated for a reason – our safety. Having random people feeding animals unknown substances that will enter our food supply is completely unacceptable. Period.

  • Shuggers

    She is in the wrong. She violated property rights. The world has been using a food chain for hundreds of millions of years. This is just using an efficient and modernized food chain optimizing apparatus. I absolutely LOVE bacon, pork tenderloin, pork-chops, sausages and ground pork/ground beef burgers. These protesters protest just to protest protesting. She even said she wouldn’t pay a fine if she was mandated to. Sound judgement on her part? Nope.

  • Zaffi

    This does pose a serious question regarding our foid safety. The driver was correct in worrying about the potentially dangerous outcome should that alleged water contain substances tgat could jeaporize our food safety. Has the water of tgat day been tested or the pigs for contaminants?
    Why is it so easy for someone to introduce a substance to animals on their way to slaughter? What if the driver hadn’t done their due diligence in reporting the incident?

  • Chris Ariens

    Property rights don’t trump human decency. We’re not talking about an unknown substance, we’re talking about what is clearly and obviously a bottle of drinking water. If you want to water my garden, go right ahead.

  • DowntownBurlingtonian

    Can I dump an unknown substance on your garden? Can I spray an unknown substance on a commercial farm without consequence?
    It’s private property. This is about property rights. A cornerstone of modern, civilized society.

  • DowntownBurlingtonian

    Pigs are property. Tampering with property is criminal mischief. This was more serious because the property being tampered was entering the food supply. This could set a dangerous precedent if it goes the wrong way. Mmm bacon.

    • Chris Ariens

      Tampering? Give me a break! Just because you don’t care doesn’t mean it’s a criminal offense to show some compassion for an animal that’s on its way to the slaughterhouse. Kindness. What a dangerous precedent indeed!

  • Steve

    What a waste of taxpayer dollars.