Archived Version: December, 2015
| Status | Exploratory |
| Primary Work Area | General Animal Advocacy Industrial Agriculture |
| Website | Toronto Pig Save (TPS) |
| Review Published | December, 2015 |
| Type | Archived Review |
| Current Version | December, 2015 |
Toronto Pig Save (TPS)’s mission is to put “glass walls” on the three slaughterhouses in Toronto—that is they want to expose the cruelty inherent in factory farming and animal slaughter to the public, and thereby encourage people to adopt a more compassionate lifestyle. TPS encourages people to live compassionately and be daily animal activists through vegan diets, protecting the environment, creating animal sanctuaries, and transitioning workers from the brutal work of raising, transporting and slaughtering animals, toward more just and peaceful work in vegan food industries. Their work has sparked the “Save” movement, a network of organizations with similar activities and values.
This is an exploratory review of this organization. For more information on the types of reviews that we use, see our section on the evaluation process.
Impact Evaluation:
Potential of vigils and bearing witness
TPS raises awareness of animal agriculture cruelty by regularly holding vigils for people to bear witness to animal suffering. These events consist of observing pigs and other animals in transportation trucks on their way to slaughterhouses. TPS claims that, by doing so, activists gain a greater connection to the animals in need and further their motivation to help. If this effect is significant, then it could be an important way to support activists and maintain a strong advocacy community.
Some evidence for impact
We believe some outreach designed to raise awareness of the plight of farmed animals and build a strong animal advocacy movement is highly effective. Whether this is the case for TPS’s activities probably depends on factors such as whether their tactics reliably create new activists or substantially decrease recidivism, how much attention their vigils get from outside the animal advocacy community, and whether these changes eventually lead to significant change for animals.
A recent survey of The Save Movement’s social media followers has investigated some of these factors. For example, of the 90% of respondents with experience advocating for animals, 78% agreed or strongly agreed that The Save Movement’s social media posts gave them a greater reason to become active or stay active for animals. This evidence is limited because of considerations like social desirability bias, but it is consistent with the claim that The Save Movement is successfully building a strong activist community.