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