Animal rights activists hold mock funeral in front of Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP's office

A coffin, grim reaper and roughly 85 animal rights activists arrived in front of Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly's office on Saturday to honour the life of Regan Russell and protest a controversial bill by hosting a mock funeral.

The activists marched through Hamilton, Ont., before arriving at Skelly's office.

Russell, a 65-year-old Hamilton animal rights activist, was giving water to pigs on the morning of June 19, when she was hit and killed by a truck. 

A Toronto Pig Save video shows her waiting to give the pigs water moments before she died. 

Since Russell's death, tensions between animal rights activists and some in Ontario's farming industry are at an all-time high.

Police have since charged the 28-year-old driver of a transport truck with careless driving under the Highway Traffic Act. "Her death was completely avoidable," Russell's widower, Mark Powell, said outside Skelly's office.

"There is nothing in Bill 156 that is going to protect the right of every Canadian to protest. We will always be here – we aren't going away – but this bill needs to be repealed."

Skelly's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bill 156 establishes "animal protection zones" that prohibit animal rights activists from "interfering or interacting with the farm animals in the motor vehicle."