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From a vigil on June 11, 2017

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Jackie is a great kid, but small. He's always been small, and I've always been his best friend. He's really shy, and he can't see very well, so he kind of stays pressed against my side as much as he can. I take care of him, and make sure no one bullies him. I make sure he eats, even when he doesn't feel like it. Sometimes I don't feel like it either. Lately I haven't really felt all that good. Something has been filling me with a dread I can't explain. I don't sleep well anymore, and I cry sometimes. Jackie nuzzles my face with his soft lovely snout when I cry, and I hear his voice in my head saying, "Don't cry, Krystal; it's going to be alright," while he presses against my side to make me feel safer too. I guess we help each other. 

We're on our way to something new. I can smell something in the air that makes me think we are going to a great place with air that smells like the color green and doesn't make my eyes burn. We've been in this moving thing for so many hours, though, and I am so tired. I threw up three times, once on the snout of a little girl I know who can't walk very well and shakes her head a lot. I feel scared but I know that this place we're going to is going to be terrific. I told Jackie that and he said, "of course it is, Krystal. everything's going to be alright now. When we get there we can get a drink of water and take a nap and maybe snuggle." 

"Oh, Jackie, I love you," I said, pushing my snout to his face. I nibbled his snout a little and said, "Look, we've stopped and the back door is opening. We made it!"











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Why We Bear Witness 
by Roxanne Kirtright

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“When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help.” Leo Tolstoy

Bearing witness is a tradition of facing a truth, often a difficult or hideous truth, in the face of a culture that prefers not to take notice. It is brutal but essential, difficult but inspiring, hazardous to your health and necessary for your soul. 

Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture is a vital component of animal activism. When you witness something, you become a part of it. You become a legal witness to it, able to testify in a court of law. You become a moral witness, able to testify to friends and family and strangers, things that you have seen for yourself. You become a witness with a mandate, someone who is energized to work as hard and as smart as you can to affect positive change for the ones you have seen suffering. It is a life changing experience, one you can use to great effect, and one you can share. 

The dictionary says that to bear witness is to show that something is true. There is a great responsibility in this. We become responsible for the truths that we witness. We become responsible to show others that this thing that we have seen is, in fact, true. 

In witnessing atrocities, we become representatives of this truth, keepers of this truth. We become obligated in a deep way to take this truth into the world and share it. In doing this, we are able to take a hidden thing and bring it to light; those responsible for these purposefully hidden things, exposed, will be forced to address this change. This is how powerful the act of bearing witness is. By witnessing a thing- you are able to expose it. 

Why go through all of this? It is so heavy, so awful! What a terrible burden! 

Yes, it is all of those things. And much more. 

Bearing witness is transformational. Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture will help end animal agriculture. People who participate in vigils and other associated work come away changed. It is very stressful, and that stress takes a toll and must be addressed. Please see the section on Emotional Self Care, and always ask for help when you need it. But bearing witness is much more than a burden. It is a mandate you will never let go of. It is a reason to push through your sorrows and fears. It is the thing inside you that will not allow you to fail or even consider it. You will transform the pain into action. You will be galvanized in a way that no other kind of action or experience can produce. Bearing witness turns a caring person into an activist, and an activist into a Super Activist. 
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11Nov16 

2/22/2017

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Smithfield Packing Vigil. February 3, 2017.

2/12/2017

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On February 3, 2017 activist with NCFAS returned to Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, NC. The worlds largest pig slaughterhouse. We have monthly vigils at this location.
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Dead Boxes

2/12/2017

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Many animals in CAFOS (concentrated animal feed operations) do not survive long enough to be sent to slaughter. Piglets who are not growing fast enough are killed, chickens die from heat exhaustion and inclement weather, many die from disease. Whatever the reason, those animals bodies are then places in a dumpster at the end of the street until a dead truck comes to collect them. NCFAS activist have photo and video-graphed these dead boxes. This form of bearing witness is emotionally tolling but absolutely necessary in exposing animal agriculture.
A mother and her piglets. September 2016.
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Juvenile pigs in a dead box in Duplin County, NC. October 2016.
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December 2016 following hurricane Matthew. Many farmed animals died that week.
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Dead turkeys in a Butterball farm dead box. December 2016.

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Butter Ball Thanksgiving Vigil For Turkeys

2/12/2017

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On November 19th, 2016 activist came together to bear witness at the world's largest turkey slaughter house in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. An estimated 45 million turkey are slaughtered every year for Thanksgiving. Over the years Butterball has been in the headlines numerous times after undercover investigations show extreme abuse inflicted on the turkeys in their care. See them all here at-  
http://www.butterballabuse.com/
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An overhead shot shows the massive size of this slaughterhouse.
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Stockyard Pig Vigil: The Story of Sweet Baby

2/12/2017

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In 2016 NCFAS discovered the pigs at the Wallace stockyard. Since then we have been returning to document their conditions and provide relief to them. The following are video and images from some of our first vigils there.

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Activist named this pig Sweet Baby after spending several hours with her. She was secluded from the general population of pigs in the pens that day. The reason for her seclusion is that she was deemed a "downer" which refers to animals in the agriculture industry who are unable to stand or walk on their own and therefor are unable to go to slaughter. Sweet Baby was a culled breeding sow meaning that her entire life prior to this moment she was artificially inseminated and forced to have babies over and over. She no longer could reproduce so she was culled.
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Activists gave her water and offered her fruit.
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Sweet baby suffered from a prolapsed anus, and was unable to access any food or water on her own. NCFAS did attempt to rescue her but the farmer would not release her, She laid there for three days before being killed.
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House of Reaford Chicken Slaughter House

2/12/2017

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House of Raeford is a chicken slaughter house in Duplin County, NC. This facility slaughters between 600,000-650,000 chickens every week. These are photos from our first vigil at the facility in February 2016.
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This is a close up photo of a chicken on the transport truck entering the facility. They are packed into crates that stack on top of each other as shown in the image below.
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Most of the chickens suffer from injuries from being loaded into the crates, fatigue from the long journey, and from heat exhaustion. In this photo the chickens are going to be parked in an area across the street from the facility while they are awaiting slaughter.
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First Vigil at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel NC 

4/9/2016

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In November of 2015 NCFAS had our first vigil at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, NC. It is the largest pig slaughterhouse in the world, with 2 complete kill lines. It is responsible for the deaths of a reported 35,000 pigs per day. 

Activists drove and carpooled from all across North Carolina to get to Tar Heel; a tiny town in the middle of rural NC. Some even came from SC. Activists with other animal rights and vegan organizations came. We all came to bear witness to the trucks full of pigs entering the facility, and to hold our signs up for the motorists on the busy highway to see. 

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