Can One Person Make A Difference? | Anita's Story

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.