Animal activist Regan Russell loses her life while giving pigs water outside Ontario slaughterhouse

65-year old animal activist Regan Russell was struck by a transport truck full of pigs outside Fearmans Pork on Friday. Witnesses say that Russell had been giving water to the pigs inside the trailer of a truck entering a slaughterhouse shortly before she was fatally hit.

Regan was a longtime animal rights activist and a member of Toronto Pig Save. Her death  happened just 2 days after the province passed a controversial legislation that increased fines for trespassing on farms and food-processing facilities and made it illegal to obstruct trucks carrying farm animals. It makes it an offence to ‘interact with’ farmed animals in a transport truck.

The groups co-founder Anita Krajnc said that “she was a sophisticated, well-educated woman who was very strong and always determined to do the right thing”.

Since Toronto Pig Save was founded in 2010, the group has inspired a global movement of hundreds of similar organizations worldwide. In 2015, Animal Save Movement founder Anita Krajnc, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief for giving water to pigs in a transport truck outside of the Fearmans slaughterhouse. Ms. Krajnc was acquitted in 2017 after a much-publicized trial. Vigils at Fearmans Pork adhere to strict safety protocols.

Russell had often joined Toronto Pig Save as they gave water to pigs on transport trucks at the entrance of the plant, she said, and Friday was no different. Temperatures reached 30C [86 degrees Fahrenheit] on the morning of Russell’s death,  and most of southwestern Ontario was under a heat warning by Environment Canada. On a scorching hot day like it was the day of her death, the pigs arrive in the transport trucks extremely dehydrated and some are already dead from heat exposure.

“She supported Black Lives Matter, Indigenous rights and she was an intersectional vegan who understood the importance of equality in terms of racial justice and in terms of animal equality,” Krajnc said.

A spokeswoman for Sofina Foods, owner of Fearman’s Pork, said the company is fully cooperating with a police investigation into the death. The Toronto Pig Save have asked Michael Latifi, CEO of Fearmans to release the pigs who were on the transport truck that killed the activist, to a sanctuary as a sign of compassion and respect.

Dozens of activists gathered at the plant Friday to mourn their friend.