Obstruction charge stayed against activist

An Ontario woman recently found not guilty of mischief after giving water to pigs headed to slaughter has scored another legal victory in a separate case involving pigs.

Charges of obstructing police and breach of recognizance against Anita Krajnc were stayed, according to Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General, which didn’t provide a reason for the development.

Those charges were laid after Krajnc crossed a police line last fall to get closer to an overturned truck full of pigs in Burlington, Ont.

“I have mixed feelings,” Krajnc said Thursday of the outcome of the case.

“My perspective is always: what is best for the pigs? I don’t want the pigs who died at the rollover crash to ever be forgotten. I would have gone to jail for those pigs.”

On Oct. 5, Krajnc raced out to an intersection where the transport truck full of pigs had crashed, killing 60 pigs. The remaining 100 pigs were marched to a nearby slaughterhouse.

Krajnc said she went past the police tape set up in the area to get a closer view of what happened and to record the pigs’ suffering.

Video of the scene shows her being dragged away by police and then placed in handcuffs. She said she went limp on purpose and wasn’t hurt in the incident.

“I was in a different mental state that day,” Krajnc said. “When I first got there, some pigs were outside the truck, just walking around. There’s nothing like seeing pigs walking on the sidewalk and eating grass after you’ve done years of weekly vigils at a site. It was hard to comprehend that vision.”

As she surveyed the bloody scene, it was the noise that got to her, she said.