‘Tis the season of peace and love.
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Toronto Pig Save shared more than 50 vegan coconut bacon BTLs with drivers, including a couple of pig transport truck drivers at our morning vigil on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012. The vegan BLT giveaway occured on a traffic island dubbed Pig Island at Lake Shore and Strachan in downtown Toronto — where the pig transport trucks pass in a busy intersection enroute to “”Quality Meat Packers” slaughterhouse was an exhilarating day, full of emotions.
Jo-Anne McArthur of WeAnimals.org so perfectly captured it on camera (some of the photos appear in this video) in all its feelings and emotions on all sides, from people to puppets and pigs. See Jo’s entire photo album “Toronto Pig Save Vigil and Vegan BLT giveaway.”
It’s the holiday season and we all acutely felt the sharp contrast of giving free vegan BLT sandwiches with love, kindness and smiles, on the one hand, and the sad and scared pigs in transport trucks, on the other. It’s why we’re out there… to spread the love-force or soul-force (as Tolstoy and Gandhi put it) and to save the pigs and our souls. The fab vegan coconut bacon which will soon save millions of lives once it gets into mainstream supermarkets and restaurants was made by the gentle soul Kristen Bethel of Know thy Food.
We also gave gift packages with DVD of Peaceable Kingdom (film by James LaVeck and Jenny Stein featuring multiple generation dairy farmer turned vegan animal rights advocate Harold Brown) and packages of vegan bacon to two pig transport truck drivers and a third for Mr. Clair Schlegel–a Mennonite pig farmer via his cheerful driver.
Come out and join us please at our weekly vigils by joining our “Weekly Vigils” facebook event page or emailing us at [email protected]. It was so good to have everyone there collectively bearing witness and offering support and kindness to everyone: Paul Figueiras and Carlos Garcia for handing out vegan BLT’s, Jo-Anne McArthur, Julie O’Neill, Sylvia Fraser, Mary Fantaske, Rhiannon Arseneau, Brad, and Ian.
Julie, who is pregnant and just came back from India volunteering with Animal Aid Unlimited helping rescued pigs such as Stacie, saw three sows in one transport truck. It’s the first time we saw sows. Again, the contrasts between the dirty, scared and abused sows heading to “Quality Meat Packers” slaughterhouse where they will experience electric prods, a carbon dioxide gas chamber, being hung upside down on one leg, bled with a hollow knife and thrown into a scalding tank after being used for 2 or 3 years impregnated 2x a year to “produce” piglets who are stolen from them in a couple of weeks vs. how all life and pregnancy ought to be treated… as sacred, special, joyful and wonderful. Pigs are treated with love and respect in sanctuaries across Ontario such as Ruby Ranch Pig Sanctuary, Snooters, Cedar Row, Wishing Well, Teja’s, RR Horse Refuge and others. See video “Introducing Stacey, our rescued paralysed pig at Animal Aid”, with whom Julie spent time with in Indi.
Everything we do makes a difference from being vegan to spreading the word and taking part and supporting animal justice activism.
Kindness defeats everything and can never be defeated.
-Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom
Vegan coconut bacon: Kristen Bethel, Know thy Food
Photos: Jo-Anne McArthur, WeAnimals.org
Video: Anita Krajnc, TorontoPigSave.org
* * *
For more info, please visit TorontoPigSave.org
Join our FB group at: facebook.com/groups/144171365639268/
Most important, please join our weekly vigils page at: facebook.com/events/200342320082846/
Follow us on Twitter @TorontoPigSave
Please “like” Toronto Cow Save–sister group of TPS at: facebook.com/TorontoCowSave
