Activists Rescue Animals From NYC Slaughterhouse

While participating in live market vigils in Brooklyn, several animal rights activists rescued chickens and a rabbit who were on the verge of being slaughtered. 

“The law treats these animals as though they are inanimate objects, but we know that they are feeling individuals who want to live,” said Katerina Travazzo, an organizer with Brooklyn-Queens Animal Save. “Each of us has an ethical obligation to bear witness to their suffering and, whenever possible, rescue them from the needless violence and death that has been normalized by society.”

A sheep about to be slaughtered at a live market in Brooklyn, New York

“People can bury their heads in the sand and pretend that nothing is going to change, but the reality and the statistics show that it is changing all around us,” said Earthling Ed, a London-based animal rights campaigner giving talks in the United States.  “We can either stand on the right side of history or the wrong side.” 

Journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell interviews Earthling Ed during slaughterhouse vigils in Brooklyn

While bearing witness to the chickens, rabbits, sheep and other animals who would soon be slaughtered, activists conducted vegan outreach with the slaughterhouse employees, offering them dairy-free ice cream sandwiches on a hot summer day. 

Katerina Travazzo, an organizer with Brooklyn-Queens Animal Save, convinces a slaughterhouse worker to sample a dairy-free ice cream sandwich

The rescued animals were taken to sanctuaries in Upstate New York to be rehabilitated and live out the remainder of their lives in peace. 

Activists rescued this rabbit from NYC slaughterhouse and brought him to a sanctuary