Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix attended a slaughterhouse vigil for slain civil rights and animal activist Regan Russell, who was killed there in June by a pig transport truck.
Phoenix joined local Toronto activists, including Regan’s husband Mark Powell, to pay his respects and to peacefully bear witness to pigs arriving at Fearmans in Burlington, ON.
“Regan Russell spent the final moments of her life providing comfort to pigs who had never experienced the touch of a kind hand. While her tragic death has brought upon deep sorrow in the Animal Save community, we will honor her memory by vigorously confronting the cruelties she fought so hard to prevent by marching with Black Lives, protecting Indigenous rights, fighting for LGBTQ equality, and living a compassionate vegan life.
“The Ontario government can attempt to silence us with the passage of its Ag-Gag bill – Bill 156 – but we will never go away and we will never back down.”
Ontario’s “ag-gag” Bill 156 specifically prohibits efforts to “stop, obstruct, hinder or otherwise interfere with a motor vehicle transporting farm animals,” a direct aim at Toronto Pig Save’s peaceful vigils. Anita Krajnc, co-founder of Animal Save Movement, has noted “an increase in aggressive behaviour from the animal agriculture industry and certain truckers toward animal rights activists, both online and at vigils” since the passage of 156.
