Joaquin Phoenix had a big night on Sunday when he took home the SAG Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture.
While his contemporaries no doubt celebrated into the wee hours at after-parties, Phoenix decided on a different way to cap off his evening: by heading to a Los Angeles slaughterhouse, where he joined a vigil for pigs being trucked into the facility.
As People reports, Phoenix was among the activists “bearing witness” as the pigs entered the Farmer John Cloughtery Packing Co., an event hosted by Los Angeles Animal Save.
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“Most people don’t really know of the torture and murder in the meat and dairy industry. I’ve seen it for what it is, so I have to be here,” Phoenix, still wearing his SAG Awards tux, told vlogger Jane Velez-Mitchell in a video she shared on Facebook.
“We have moral obligations to talk about it and expose it for what it really is,” added the “Joker” star. “We are so indoctrinated with these happy images of animals on farms, on the covers of meat containers, at restaurants and it’s a lie. I think people need to know the truth and we have an obligation to do that. Those of us that have seen it for what it really is, we have an obligation to expose it, so I have to be here.”
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Phoenix, has been increasingly involved in animal-rights activism, and recently served as executive producer of the documentary “The Animal People”, following the quest of six activists attempting to expose the world’s largest animal testing lab.
“There is a change that is happening and it’s now just becoming undeniable. Slowly but surely we’re getting there,” he continued.
“As heartbreaking as it is when we’re here giving water to the pigs I have a certain optimism in our community and how committed everyone is,” Phoenix added. “People come down here week after week after week so I had to come here tonight and support and it’s a little antidote to what I was just given, so I’m blessed to be here.”
Phoenix can be heard speaking just after the 16-minute mark in the video above.
