On Sunday, October 2nd, FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement) founders and coordinators of World Farm Animals Day, held an all-night vigil at the Smithfield Packing Plant in Smithfield, Virginia.
Smithfield is the largest pig-killing operation in the US, with over 20 million pigs slaughtered every year. The plant FARM chose for their vigil kills and processes 18,000 pigs every day, and operates throughout the night. That's why FARM staff and volunteers arrived 6pm Sunday evening and stayed until 8am the next morning. In addition to holding signs urging compassion towards animals for passing motorists and school buses to see, activists took the opportunity to interact with the local police and some of the plant's employees, including meat packers, slaughterhouse line workers, and security guards. As activists stood outside the plant, trucks holding a hundred or more tightly packed young pigs would arrive. Later other trucks adorned with large pictures of ham and bacon headed out of the plant to bring the pigs' flesh to market. On Monday morning, FARM founder and president Alex Hershaft decided to make a strong statement about the injustice of the pig massacre going on at Smithfield. Carrying a sign opposing the cruelty, he sat down in the road directly in the path of an oncoming truck that was delivering pigs to slaughter. Police arrested him, but they couldn't silence his message of mercy for pigs and the need to end the slaughter. |
