Activists behind bars
As he made his way down a central thoroughfare in Abbotsford, B.C., Wednesday, my colleague Marc Fawcett-Atkinson was greeted by roughly a dozen people waving photos of bloodied pigs. They had gathered along the route to the city’s courthouse in support of animal rights activists Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer.
Three years ago, the pair broke into a hog farm just a 10-minute drive from that same courthouse and livestreamed their sit-in protest on Instagram. The footage showed hundreds of pigs confined to metal cages that were too small for them to turn around or scratch themselves. The farm was never penalized for the animals’ living conditions — they’re perfectly legal under Canadian law. But on Wednesday, Soranno and Schafer learned the price they will pay for their protest: 30 days in jail, a year of probation and a fine for their role in the hours-long protest.
Their sentencing didn’t appear to surprise those in the courtroom, Marc tells me — the announcement drew a few gasps but no protests. “The energy in the room was one of disapproval and disappointment: the group wanted the judge to condemn the accusations on the basis of the righteousness of their activist cause,” Marc explained. “He explicitly did not.”
Rather, the judge’s ruling aimed to deter protesters of all stripes from breaking the law for political reasons, Marc reports. But in recent years, animal rights activists have ramped up their tactics, seeking to expose inhumane conditions in the factory farming industry. Some have gone so far as to apply for jobs at these farms in order to secretly document the overcrowded spaces where factory-farmed animals are often confined, along with other inhumane treatment.
As journalist Arno Kopecky writes, this tactic has had some success. One Canadian animal rights group pulled off several such investigations and even got a law on the books holding farm operators accountable for their employees’ actions. But the bolder activists get, the bigger the consequences become: some provinces have already passed so-called “ag-gag” laws, which criminalize these kinds of undercover investigations. And on Wednesday, the judge presiding over Soranno and Schafer’s sentencing made it clear the courts have little patience for illegal break-ins in the name of animal rights, either.
“Thirty days (in jail) may not sound like much, but it's the first time any activist has ever been jailed for a sit-in-style protest in this country,” Arno says. “It's a major legal precedent. It carries huge implications for the future of civil disobedience in Canada.”
Animal farming, by the numbers
Whatever your views, factory farming is bad for the planet. Cutting back on animal products could certainly help, but cutting them out altogether isn’t necessarily the answer. In fact, Marc reports, meat in moderation could even be part of the climate solution.
7.1 billion: Tonnes of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions that come from livestock around the world, around 14.5 per cent of the total.
2.1 million: Hectares of land cleared to raise cattle each year. Beef production is the leading driver of deforestation.
6.4 million: Estimated number of Canadians who limit the amount of meat they eat, according to a 2018 Dalhousie University study.
17.7: Average greenhouse gas emissions (in kilograms of CO2) from getting 50 grams of protein from beef
3.8: Average greenhouse gas emissions (in kilograms of CO2) from 50 grams of protein from pork
2.9: Average greenhouse gas emissions (in kilograms of CO2) from 50 grams of protein from poultry
0.4: Average greenhouse gas emissions (in kilograms of CO2) from 50 grams of protein from beans
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