Press Release January 7, 2021

Slaughterhouse closure necessary to slow COVID-19 outbreak

Media contacts: Trevor Miller, 647.425.5317, trevor.miller011@gmail.com
Anita Krajnc, 416.825.6080, torontopigsave@gmail.com

January 7, 2021: Dozens of COVID-19 cases have been linked to Sofina Foods-owned Fearmans slaughterhouse in Burlington, raising questions for many as to why the business is continuing to operate during the lockdown while elsewhere in Canada and worldwide similar facilities are shut down to slow infections. Two days ago the City of Toronto released a report condemning the company for posing a significant risk to public health.

“There’s no reason to put the lives of slaughterhouse workers and their communities in harm’s way to produce non-essential products,” says Trevor Miller with Toronto Pig Save. “The 10,000 pigs who lose their lives there every day, along with the employees now contributing to overloaded hospitals and ICUs, deserve to be treated with the same privileges as granted to white-collar workers throughout this pandemic – the chance for healthy lives. Many employed in this industry are themselves members of vulnerable and marginalized populations and have found themselves forced into unsafe workspaces to provide others with delicacies during a global health crisis.”

Recently a field hospital has been constructed in Burlington to help prepare for the anticipated growing number of cases – and deaths – that are expected to hit the area before dangers of this pandemic have been mitigated. A small group of Toronto Pig Save activists will be at Fearmans Friday at 9:30 a.m. to bring attention to the risks posed by this facility and call for health authorities to close the operation down.

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Toronto Pig Save started in 2010 and has since grown to include nearly 1000 groups worldwide. Activists gather at slaughterhouses and other locations to bear witness, provide comfort, and document stories of farmed animals in support of animal rights.

For more, visit justiceforreganrussell.com or torontopigsave.org.