Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
There are a few things I'd like to set straight. Sometimes there's some misinformation, even in our committees. There have been two cases of disease outbreaks because of trespassing. One was in Quebec City, where they had rotavirus on the farm, which they hadn't seen in 40 years, after unlawful protesters were on the farm. Another example was on an Ontario mink farm, where trespassers released thousands of animals, which led to an outbreak of distemper. I'm not sure what the other committee members were hearing, but that's the case of what happened and how protesters have allowed disease outbreaks on farms.
There are a few other things I'd like to put on the record from some of the organizations that are against animals as food. One is PETA, and their revenue was $82.2 million last year. This is a direct quote: “Ending speciesism is our ultimate goal. One strategy to end speciesism would be to end the use of animals as food.” That was Matthew Braun, manager of grassroots protest campaigns, 2021.
Another quote I would like to put on the record is from The Humane League, which has a total revenue of $13.6 million: “find a vulnerable target.... The crueler it is, the quicker the fight is over.” That was David Coman-Hidy, former executive director of the campaign in 2016. Another one is from Direct Action Everywhere, with a total revenue $1.6 million: “We are trying to destroy animal agriculture”, said co-founder Wayne Hsiung in 2016.
I'll direct my questions to Ms. Reynolds.
When farmers see these comments and know that there are hundreds of millions of dollars put into ending what they do, and they see these comments online, like the story you told us of the individual in Ontario, obviously that does affect their mental health. For anyone on this committee to sit here and say that there are no groups out there trying to end animal agriculture, do you think that would be factual?