Animal activist

 

Does Jenny ever feel in danger during some of these actions? “I’ve experienced violence from workers in the past. I was part of a lockdown, the slaughterhouse seven we called it, at the cow slaughterhouse back in 2014 and we refused to get up. It blocked the slaughterhouse trucks coming in. In the end, all the tactics trying to drag us away were bruising. And some injuries occurred when the police dragged us away too. We were all arrested at that point. You can certainly experience violence as an activist.”

Despite the arrests, she does not have a criminal record because charges were dropped. She’s paid fines and been made to do community service hours with the nonprofits she supports, something that is not a punishment for this activist.

animal activist

animal activist

 

As Jenny explains, DXE’s actions centre around “disrupting the normalization of animal violence, the way society views animals. A lot of the DXE action is disrupting places where animal use is considered normal, like running into the Royal Ag fair in Toronto with a banner and disrupting slaughterhouses. Direct Action Everywhere is dear to my heart.” She adds that she is buoyed by their mission: We will achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in one generation.