Unsung Heroes: Novel gives pigs a tireless friend

Gordana Sokorac, volunteer for SAFE, an animal rights organisation. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It began with a novel by Annie Proulx.

When Gordana Sokorac read That Old Ace in the Hole - the Pulitzer-prize winning author's novel about intensive pig-farming in Texas - her "ordinary" love of animals became a full-blown crusade.

Soon Ms Sokorac was pounding the streets, gathering signatures supporting a review of New Zealand's laws on sow crates.

She has been nominated for the Herald Unsung Heroes series, which acknowledges the work people do in their communities, by the Auckland volunteer co-ordinator for animal welfare charity SAFE.

Five nominees will be chosen at the end of the series to join a P&O cruise.

Ms Sokorac says one day she "accidentally" read the Annie Proulx novel and was awakened to the reality of factory farming.

In many more hours of reading she came across the sentence "your plate should reflect your ethical and moral stance."

"I thought 'My plate does not do that, because I supposedly love animals'," she said.

She became a vegetarian, then a vegan, and now campaigns tirelessly for better conditions for pigs in captivity.

The 60-year-old, who brought her three daughters to New Zealand from Belgrade 15 years ago to give them a better life, says she found it easy to get people to sign her petitions after images of pigs in sow crates appeared on New Zealand television screens last year.

She is awaiting her second hip replacement but that does not slow her down.

"People have so many worse problems. Sometimes I walk without crutches, sometimes with one, sometimes with two, when I walk long distances," she says.

SAFE campaign officer Eliot Pryor says the charity's time logs shows she is the best Auckland volunteer.

"It is easy to see she does more hours than anyone," he says. "She is the perfect volunteer."

When Ms Sokorac wasn't gathering signatures she helped set up SAFE's North Shore branch, set up library displays on animal welfare, wrote to the local newspaper, volunteered with St John's ambulance and helped a third charity that feeds and de-sexes stray cats.

Her next project is to encourage people in her native Serbia to take better care of the unwanted cats and dogs that wander the streets in Belgrade.

"No government can solve the problem if nobody else is involved," she said.