She said pigs experience fear, joy and happiness and have “very good” long and short-term memories.

“They are at least as emotionally complex as dogs and as psychologically complex as primates.”

Marino said it’s unclear how to equate a pig with humans but that “it sells pigs short to say they are as sophisticated as a human toddler — they are more complex than that…. They are at least as cognitively advanced as monkeys.”

“Yes, they (pigs) are persons,” she said, noting that not just a human is a person.

During a break in court proceedings, Krajnc told the Post she was happy to hear Marino state that a pig is a person as Krajnc believes “talk of personhood is important,” although she acknowledged that under a certain definition a corporation is a person as well.

Pigs suffer on a physical and emotional level when on a factory farm or in transport on crowded trailers, Marino testified.

“A factory farm situation is about as far from what they need in a setting to thrive.”

One of Krajnc’s lawyers, Gary Grill, suggested to Marino, who agreed, that pigs, like humans, sometimes try to deceive and outwit each other.

“We do that in court every day,” Grill offered.

Justice Harris interjected dryly, “Some better than others,” which elicited laughter from the packed courtroom audience.

Marino got serious when discussing the effects of transporting pigs en route to the slaughterhouse.

She said that by the time a pig is loaded onto a transport truck’s trailer many are overweight and have stiff joints and bruises, they may not know the other pigs they are crowded with and may get further stressed if they can’t regulate their body temperature, leading to physical and psychological stress.

“They have all the brain parts to experience stress and (physical) pain and psychologically-based pain,” Marino said of pigs.

The courtroom was shown a 2014 video of hogs being herded in small pens inside the largest abattoir in Australia. A worker is seen poking pigs with an electric prod with one hog trying desperately to climb over a metal enclosure.

They were then loaded into a metal cage, several at a time in close quarters, to be lowered into a gas chamber, which would render them unconscious prior to their slaughter. The loud squeals of pigs can be heard on the video, “squeals of distress,” according to Marino.

“I think it’s clear that pigs are being tortured in a factory farm setting,” Marino later testified.

Nutrition expert and University of Toronto professor Dr. Jenkins was next to take the stand.

He said an increase in the use of antibiotics on factory farms, to keep animals in close proximity from spreading disease, is problematic.

“We are concerned about the rise of antibiotic resistance. We’re worried about zoonotic infections,” where a disease is transmitted from animals to humans.

He said scientific study indicates a plant-based diet is healthier than a meat-based one with lower incidences of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease with the former.

Jenkins said that since 2012 the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s nutrition panel has advocated for three diets to consider following: Mediterranean, DASH or vegan.

A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and whole grains is recommended, he said.

Jenkins said nutrition can be a political issue noting American nutritional guidelines were moving toward vegetarianism but that Congress got involved and instead decided the guidelines should stress more lean meats.

Health Canada, he said, has updated the national food guide and for the first time its ‘rainbow’ of food groups does not include a leg of beef, but fish is pictured.

James Silver, another of Krajnc’s lawyers, asked Jenkins if his parents were wrong to tell him as a boy to “eat meat and grown big and strong.”

Jenkins replied, “Eat meat and grow your cancer big and strong.”

Red meat is a source of iron and too much iron, a metal, can cause oxidation of the blood.

Hemochromatosis, an iron overload, can lead to a heart attack, diabetes or cirrhosis of the liver.

It’s not easy to quantify, said Jenkins, but some studies indicate, he said, the increased chance of contracting diabetes from red meat intake is anywhere from 20-50 per cent.

Plant-based diets, which are recommended by the Canadian Diabetes Association, said Jenkins, have the potential to reverse the effects of arterial disease.

“Plant fibre helps keep blood glucose levels under control,” he added.

Jenkins offered up the McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger as an example of the “ideal of what we don’t want to happen to us,” as it consists of a white bread bun, a red meat patty and is loaded with saturated fat.

On the subject of cancer, Jenkins said processed meats, which are often pork-based, are a prime culprit in heightening incidence of the disease.

“The way we prepare and cure meats with nitrates — they are known carcinogens.”

“Meat that is cooked and cooked well might create compounds … that form carcinogens.”

Deep frying and roasting foods changes their chemical composition, with potential health consequences, said Jenkins. He suggests people boil their food or eat it raw, such as vegetables.

Silver asked if meat should have health-warning labels, like cigarettes.

“I hesitate (to say yes) because we might have association (of adverse health effects) but not direct causation.” Random human control testing would be needed but is not possible, he said.

Halton assistant Crown attorney Harutyun Apel did not cross-examine either Marino or Jenkins.

Krajnc’s trial continues on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. in Burlington.

On that day her defence team is expected to call its last witness, Dr. Anthony Weis, an expert in ecology and agriculture.

Then the case goes to written and oral submissions to Justice Harris from the defence and the prosecution.

The case is likely to be put over to at least March 2017 after the Nov. 10 hearing.

• • •

Krajnc was scheduled to be in Milton court today for her first appearance on a new charge.

She was charged with obstructing police and breach of recognizance to keep the peace in the aftermath of a traffic accident on Oct. 5 outside Fearman’s.

A truck loaded with hogs and destined for the local pork plant overturned while cornering at Harvester and Appleby Line. Forty-two hogs died. The truck’s driver faces two charges including careless driving.

Krajnc was charged after she moved toward the overturned truck, with the hogs still inside, and for allegedly refusing to leave the area when told by police to do so.