Courthouse Rally to Cheer for Woman Facing Jail Time for Giving Water to Thirsty Pigs

PETA Will Show Support for Ontario Activist Anita Krajnc

For Immediate Release:
August 23, 2016

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Holding signs proclaiming, “We Stand With Anita. Compassion Is Not a Crime,” PETA members—including Steve Jenkins, guardian of Esther the Wonder Pig—will show support for activist Anita Krajnc on Wednesday and Thursday as she reports for a hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice. Krajnc has been charged for giving water to dehydrated pigs—who were being taken to slaughter on a sweltering day in June 2015—and faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

When:    Wednesday, August 24, and Thursday, August 25

Where:    Ontario Court of Justice, 2021 Plains Rd. E., Burlington

“Getting a bit of water from Anita Krajnc was likely the only kindness that these panting, terrified pigs ever knew during their nightmarish lives,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA will be outside the courthouse to remind everyone that the real crime here is allowing smart, sensitive pigs to be crammed so tightly onto trucks that they suffocate, are crushed to death, or have heart attacks on their way to slaughter.”

Krajnc, who is being represented by counsel Gary Grill and James Silver, is the co-founder of the Toronto chapter of The Save Movement, a global coalition of over 40 animal advocacy groups. She will urge the judge to watch a virtual reality video about factory farming before the ruling is delivered. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that more than 1 million pigs die on their way to slaughter each year, often from extreme confinement, heat exhaustion, or frigid temperatures that cause them to freeze to the sides of trucks in winter.

For more information, please visit PETA.org