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In New York City, hundreds of animal rights activists took to the streets to participate in the global March to Close Down All Slaughterhouses. The 1.5 mile march began with a rally on the steps of the NYC Public Library and ended with a mass die-in in Union Square. New York is one of 37 cities in 16 countries that are participating in the annual march. TheirTurn spoke to onlookers along the parade route to get their reaction to the march and the message.

At the rally, Carla Athena Tejada, an animal rights activist who organized the NYC march, told participants: “It is our goal to have others see what we see and know what we know — that this violence is unnecessary and that we demand the abolition of this exploitation.”

Kathy Stevens, founder of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, which rescues and advocates for farm animals, said, “If I’ve learned anything in 17 years of running an animal sanctuary, it is that animals want their lives just as much as we want ours.  In the ways that truly matter, we are all the same.”

NYC organizer Carla Athena Tejada delivers opening remarks at the rally before the March to Close Down All Slaughterhouses

According to StopAbattoirs, the organization that coordinates the global marches, 60 billion land animals and more than 1,000 billion aquatic animals are killed each year. That translates to 164 million land animals and almost 3 billion aquatic animals being slaughtered each day.

The 2017 March to Close Down All Slaughterhouses in Paris. The 2018 March takes place on June 23rd (photo: stopabattoirs.org)

A pig attempts to escape from the truck taking her to a slaughterhouse.

If anyone doubts the intelligence of a pig, please show them this video.  Of course all farm animals, not just the smartest ones, should be free.  As 19th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham once stated, “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

With the support of PETA, a U.K.-based animal advocacy group called Animal Aid, circulated a petition (almost 13,000 signatures to date) “urging the government to make CCTV installation mandatory for all slaughterhouses.”  The meatpacking industry opposes the measure.

Paul McCartney once said, “If slaughterhouses had windows, then everyone would be vegetarian.”  I think it’s safe to say that many people would also go veg if they watched animals being slaughtered through a live feed from the kill floor.  We might not have CCTV – or windows – in slaughterhouses, but we do have the next best thing: videos that show the terror and agony experienced by animals being killed.