'The pigs are considered property, and they have no rights,' said Xeriqua Garfinkel, the leader of Louisville Pig Save. 'But they have a right to be free from harm. Imagine if that was a school bus full of children. It would be an entirely different conversation'.
BILLY KOBIN: ‘After a tractor-trailer carrying 178 pigs overturned Wednesday morning on an interstate ramp in downtown Louisville, animal welfare groups quickly mobilized and offered to help save any pigs if possible. But the animal advocates said their offers to take injured pigs to rescue shelters or sanctuaries were turned down. There were 178 pigs inside the tractor-trailer that overturned… Of them, 110 of the pigs were killed or had to be euthanized because of injuries suffered in the incident…
“The pigs are considered property, and they have no rights,” said Xeriqua Garfinkel, the leader of Louisville Pig Save. “But they have a right to be free from harm. Imagine if that was a school bus full of children. It would be an entirely different conversation.” Louisville Pig Save is the local chapter of The Save Movement, a global network of groups advocating for farmed animals subject to slaughter. Garfinkel said that while driving to work Wednesday morning, she noticed the accident scene and pigs out on the interstate ramp.
After posting about the incident on the Louisville Pig Save Facebook page, Garfinkel said she was met with a flood of offers from volunteers, including some who live out of state and were looking to help the injured pigs in any way. The truck was believed to be headed to the JBS Swift pork processing plant… While acknowledging that many of the pigs died in the crash and that the unscathed pigs belong to a business, Garfinkel said she was focused on saving the pigs whose injuries made not them not suitable for eventual human consumption.
“We were just trying to save at least one pig,” Garfinkel said. “If an animal is injured and can’t walk itself to slaughter, it can’t (be killed) and go in the food system”… But after eventually getting in contact with Bruett, the corporate spokesman, Garfinkel said she was told the surviving pigs were taken to a barn for examination by an “animal welfare representative” while the owner of the pigs decided next steps… “We assume the worst already happened,” Garfinkel said. “We were completely stonewalled in trying to help”…
PETA Vice President Daniel Paden said in a statement that crashes like the one on Wednesday “will stop only when people stop eating meat.” PETA “urges anyone upset by the terror, suffering, and violent death that these pigs experienced to help keep other animals off the road and out of slaughterhouses simply by going vegan,” the statement read.
The Arrow Fund, a Louisville-based group that helps severely abused and neglected animals in Kentucky and Indiana, had already found a sanctuary in Ohio that was willing to take in a few of the injured hogs. Rebecca Eaves, president and founder of The Arrow Fund, said her group would have provided all necessary veterinary care to even just one or two pigs before giving them to the sanctuary.
“We thought it would be wonderful if we could get one or two injured pigs and put them in a sanctuary,” Eaves said. “This situation was unique and we simply wanted to help.” But since JBS did not give out the name of the owner, Eaves said The Arrow Fund could not do anything else to help. “It’s just a shame,” Eaves said. “It would have made a world of a difference to a couple pigs”.’ SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: