WEBVTT 00:00:00.299 --> 00:00:04.479 My name is Anita Krajnc, it’s A-N-I-T-A Krajnc K-R-A-J-N-C, 00:00:04.479 --> 00:00:08.399 and I co-founded Toronto Pig Save. 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:14.900 Can one person make a difference? 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:18.929 With everything wrong in this world, what hope does one person have for creating 00:00:18.929 --> 00:00:27.929 change? Well do you see all those people down there? They’re there because of one person. 00:00:27.929 --> 00:00:31.510 Anita. This is her story. 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:40.739 Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. There’s a lot in 00:00:40.739 --> 00:00:46.129 our world that needs changing. As individuals our tendency is to think we alone can’t 00:00:46.129 --> 00:00:50.879 make an impact. When faced with injustice, there are those of us who exclaim, “someone 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:56.620 should do something about this!” in exasperated disbelief and indignation. We don’t consider 00:00:56.620 --> 00:01:03.010 that we could be that someone. Maybe we feel too intimidated, uneducated, uncertain of 00:01:03.010 --> 00:01:07.890 what action to take. Or we think that since we can’t fix it all immediately on our own 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:10.660 then we might as well not try. 00:01:10.660 --> 00:01:16.160 Then there are those who see injustice and exclaim, “I should do something about this.” 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:21.660 And despite their own misgivings and uncertainties, despite their seeming powerlessness against 00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:28.930 the astronomical odds, they do something incredible. They try. 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:33.570 Last week I had the honor of meeting such an individual: Anita Krajnc, the co-founder 00:01:33.570 --> 00:01:39.180 of Toronto Pig Save. I was attending a 24 hour vigil for pigs, cows, and chickens at 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:46.200 Toronto area slaughterhouses organized by Toronto Pig Save, now running five years strong. 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:51.810 To see my experience and the incredible power of what Anita has created firsthand, please 00:01:51.810 --> 00:01:55.010 see this video, which is also linked below. 00:01:55.010 --> 00:02:00.170 I want to share with you the genesis of this Toronto Pig Save in Anita’s own words. Captions 00:02:00.170 --> 00:02:04.040 are available if the background noise makes it difficult to hear. 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:09.320 I live near a slaughterhouse since 2006 and I knew somebody should do a protest or something 00:02:09.320 --> 00:02:14.520 but when I adopted a dog, Mr. Bean, who’s here at the vigil today, I walked with him 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:18.850 everyday on Lake Shore. And during rush hour traffic we would see 7 or 8 trucks in the 00:02:18.850 --> 00:02:26.060 morning. And at the time I was reading Leo Tolstoy and Gandhi and Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:33.170 and they all took action when there was injustice in their communities. So when I saw all these 00:02:33.170 --> 00:02:39.350 trucks, it was like “I have to take action.” It was almost five years ago—it was December 2010. 00:02:39.350 --> 00:02:43.760 And then in July, 2011, we made a commitment to do three vigils a week every single week 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:47.660 of the year, and we’ve kept that promise. I made that promise to the pigs when I first 00:02:47.660 --> 00:02:51.720 bore witness and I saw them in the truck looking at me, pleading for their lives and I said 00:02:51.720 --> 00:02:55.160 “we will do a minimum of three vigils a week.” 00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:59.910 In the days after the vigil, Anita sent me some writings from Leo Tolstoy which she says 00:02:59.910 --> 00:03:04.830 encompass the approach of the Save Movement, with one quote in particular encapsulating 00:03:04.830 --> 00:03:07.460 the gravity of their work: 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:12.930 “When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:18.790 the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as 00:03:18.790 --> 00:03:24.650 close as you can to him [/her] who suffers, and try to help him[/her].” 00:03:24.650 --> 00:03:30.200 And this this what Anita has done. She’s come closer time and time again. And others 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:31.060 have followed. 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:36.370 From my perspective, everyone has a duty to bear witness. I actually think it's a duty 00:03:36.370 --> 00:03:41.380 that all of us have, and in life there's a choice when you see someone suffering you 00:03:41.380 --> 00:03:45.890 either look the other way or you come closer, as close as you can to try to help. And if 00:03:45.890 --> 00:03:50.599 we all did that we wouldn’t have genocide. We wouldn’t have animal abuse. We wouldn’t 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:56.150 have suffering, because we would build a community where if there is suffering we all come together, 00:03:56.150 --> 00:04:00.569 we come close to help those who are suffering. So, that’s what we’re about. 00:04:00.569 --> 00:04:05.209 Starting on those morning walks with her companion Mr. Bean, Anita’s decision to take action 00:04:05.209 --> 00:04:10.880 has blossomed into the greater Save Movement, a now international movement of activists 00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:16.539 coming together to bear witness to the massacre of animals all over the world and bring attention 00:04:16.539 --> 00:04:23.199 and validation to their experience. Still, Anita pushes forward for greater change. 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:29.319 And, we recognize that we're doing a very partial form of bearing witness, because we’re 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:31.809 helping a little bit, but we’re not fully bearing witness. We’re not actually actually 00:04:31.809 --> 00:04:35.699 saving the pigs before us, and that creates a lot of pain. 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:39.409 In China they actually stopped trucks and rescue all the animals and liberate them. 00:04:39.409 --> 00:04:43.099 And that’s the right thing to do and we recognize that. And so it’s very painful 00:04:43.099 --> 00:04:46.090 because it’s partial, but it’s better to be here than not to be here. And eventually 00:04:46.090 --> 00:04:50.740 our goal is to just liberate all animals, because if it was you in the truck you know, 00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:54.569 as has happened in the past in genocides, you wouldn’t just want people to say “I'm 00:04:54.569 --> 00:04:58.699 sorry” and to give you a little bit of water, although that's good and that’s compassionate, 00:04:58.699 --> 00:04:59.939 it's not enough. 00:04:59.939 --> 00:05:05.409 Anita and the now hundreds standing with her, watch the trucks pass into the slaughterhouses 00:05:05.409 --> 00:05:10.999 time and time again. The site of them exiting, empty of the life that was there just moments 00:05:10.999 --> 00:05:17.539 ago, is just as, if not more heartbreaking. But Anita resolutely looks towards the future. 00:05:17.539 --> 00:05:21.909 And we’re moving that way—we’re always upping the ante. Now we’re stopping trucks. 00:05:21.909 --> 00:05:25.469 We didn’t do that for, like, the first four years of our group. Now we’re stopping the 00:05:25.469 --> 00:05:32.389 trucks. So every time, we’re just exerting our power. People have more power than they 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:38.089 think. If we exert our power, especially as a community, in terms of community organizing, 00:05:38.089 --> 00:05:40.120 we can actually change a lot. 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:45.719 Anita’s passion and belief in the power grassroots activism is inspiring and the worldwide 00:05:45.719 --> 00:05:51.129 growth of the Save Movement is a concrete testament to the power one person can have 00:05:51.129 --> 00:05:53.150 when they choose to come closer. 00:05:53.150 --> 00:05:58.339 At the last 24 hour chicken vigil, Toronto Pig Save activists were able to liberate a 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:04.279 chicken names Mercy from Maple Leaf Poultry and earlier, a lamb named Meadow from Newmarket 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:10.009 Meat Packers. Both now live free at local farm animal sanctuaries. 00:06:10.009 --> 00:06:14.449 If you think you can’t make a difference, if you think holding vigil isn’t effective 00:06:14.449 --> 00:06:19.479 activism, if you think giving water to pigs on their way to slaughter, running alongside 00:06:19.479 --> 00:06:24.050 trucks full of cows in an effort to document their experience, and standing in the way 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:30.689 of semis carrying 5-10,000 chickens to their deaths isn’t going to change anything, I’d 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:37.159 ask you to visit Mercy and Meadow and ask them if it's made a difference. 00:06:37.159 --> 00:06:44.360 It’s very easy for people on the outside to criticize what activists do, or what we’re 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:52.069 attempting to achieve, because it can seem so insurmountable for us to overcome all the 00:06:52.069 --> 00:06:58.699 evil in this world and make an impact as individuals. It’s very easy to be disheartened. But if 00:06:58.699 --> 00:07:05.369 we all just say “I’m one person. I can’t do anything,” nothing is going to be accomplished. 00:07:05.369 --> 00:07:09.469 Just because we can’t fix everything right now and just because we can’t do everything 00:07:09.469 --> 00:07:14.930 perfectly and we can’t make a vegan world tomorrow doesn’t diminish the value of doing 00:07:14.930 --> 00:07:17.189 everything we can in this momemt. 00:07:17.189 --> 00:07:22.219 And that is what Anita has done. She has looked into the faces of our food industry, made 00:07:22.219 --> 00:07:28.520 them a promise on that morning walk, and now thousands stand beside her. Each and every 00:07:28.520 --> 00:07:35.050 one of us has the ability to affect change. You have the power to affect change. It just 00:07:35.050 --> 00:07:42.539 takes a decision to act. A decision to not look away. A decision to come closer. 00:07:42.539 --> 00:07:46.979 Never doubt the power you have, and the even greater power we have when we come together 00:07:46.979 --> 00:07:54.529 at a grassroots level. Stop waiting for someone to do something and be that someone. 00:07:54.529 --> 00:08:00.089 I hope that hearing Anita’s story has shown you the impact one person, and one dog, can 00:08:00.089 --> 00:08:05.449 have. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be certain. You just have 00:08:05.449 --> 00:08:12.059 try. The animals don’t need us to be strong, they need us to be there. 00:08:12.059 --> 00:08:16.629 On a personal note, though I work virtually every hour of every day on Bite Size Vegan 00:08:16.629 --> 00:08:21.550 and am consistently immersed in the realities of what we put animals through, I was deeply 00:08:21.550 --> 00:08:26.770 and profoundly moved by my experience with Toronto Pig Save. Those of us who are already 00:08:26.770 --> 00:08:32.169 vegan need to remember that we are not beyond needing to reaffirm our own connection, and 00:08:32.169 --> 00:08:35.568 that we too must bear witness. 00:08:35.568 --> 00:08:40.019 For more information about Toronto Pig Save and the greater Save Movement, please see 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:44.680 the blog post for this video and the links below in the video description. 00:08:44.680 --> 00:08:49.540 All my thanks to Anita, Toronto Pig Save, and all of the activists who are out there 00:08:49.540 --> 00:08:50.860 fighting to make a difference. 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:55.139 If you’d like to see more videos like this highlighting activists out there creating 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:59.720 change, give this video a thumbs up and please share it around to inspire others to take 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:04.089 action. If you want to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either of the support links 00:09:04.089 --> 00:09:08.560 in the video description below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the sidebar. 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:15.160 There’s also a support link below for Toronto Pig Save. Now go live vegan, make a difference, 00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:16.660 and I’ll see you soon.