Freedom for Pigs vigil

Vigil for Pigs report

Wellington animal rights activists held a continuous 48-hour vigil against factory farming at Civic Suare from noon Friday 9 April to noon Sunday 11 April, doing shifts inside a sow crate and experiencing a tiny taste of the confinement that pigs suffer.

Most people were very supportive - our main stress was running out of submission cards for people to sign! Around 2,000 people signed submissions against factory farming. We met lots of enthusiastic kids, some of whom wrote us messages on pig or flower shaped stickers, which we attached to the bars of the crate - such as "hi guys, go pigwise!" and "Let the pigs go free". Sue Kegley came down to support us on the Friday, and spent time in the pig crate, as did Loren Horsley from the movie Eagle versus Shark. The Animal Rights and Wrongs radio show did a live interview with us on Saturday morning, and the Vegetarian Society organised a stall next to the vigil on Saturday afternoon.

During the evenings we lit candles and used the Civic Square stall as a base for roaming people in pig costumes who walked around the central city, collecting more submissions. We had interesting conversations as in the evenings people were more relaxed and willing to give time to discuss the issues (though we discovered that Courtnay Place on Saturday night was better to avoid). On Saturday night a couple of skaters came past the vigil. We talked to them about factory farming, and they became so enthused that they put on pig costumes and skated off to collect signatures for the submission against pig farming - returning incredibly quickly with 60 cards filled in!

The vigil ended with a delicious vege sausage giveaway - thanks to Trudi from SAFE! Some non-vegetarian punters were very impressed that the sausages tasted so good.

Thank you to all the groups who supported the event - WARN, SAFE, Campaign Against Factory Farming, Animal Freedom Aotearoa, and the Vegetarian Society.
And an enormous thanks to all the volunteers who did shifts in the sow crate, sat on the stall, supported us through the cold night hours, or came down to talk to us. Activists arrived from Palmerston North and Whangarei to help with the vigil - amazing!


We also have more animal rights events coming up in Wellington - WARN and Sea Shepherd are organising a joint fundraising dinner on Saturday 22 May at St. John's Hall. More information soon!