On 9 June, direct action group Animal Rising published a damning investigation into the RSPCA Assured scheme, which is supposed to ensure that every Assured ‘hatchery, farm, haulier and abattoir’ has been confirmed to have met the RSPCA’s ‘higher farm animal welfare standards’.
Footage released by Animal Rising from 40 farms shows baby chickens dying in factory farms and pigs left dead for days in filthy sheds. More info: www.animalrising.org…
Animal Rebellion, the animal rights arm of Extinction Rebellion, has been busy organising in-person nonviolent direct action (NVDA) trainings, which they describe as ‘one of the most important and valuable parts of taking action with Animal Rebellion’.
Over 1 – 2 October, Animal Rebellion held 15 NVDA sessions across the UK, from Plymouth to Glasgow, and from Aberystwyth to York.
On 23 March, Animal Rebellion used a lorry to blockade the road leading to the Kedassia (kosher) abbatoir in Hackney, East London.
This was the beginning of ‘Gardens Not Slaughterhouses’, a campaign to shut down what the group says is London’s last remaining slaughterhouse – and turn the site into a community garden.
Two days later, on the day of the global climate strike, students from University College London, King’s College London, and London Metropolitan University dropped…
This is a book about farmed animals: about their exploitation and the complex web of factors that serves to normalise this exploitation. Kathryn Gillespie invites us to re-think our relationship to non-human animals and to how their lives have been co-opted for human consumption.
From the outset, she challenges some common assumptions about the dairy industry.
First and foremost, the myth that cows always produce milk.
Just like other mammals, dairy cows only…
The field of disability studies has never gained much traction in the popular sphere. Of course, this would not come as a surprise to someone like Sunaura Taylor who knows all too well that societies are primarily built by and for able-bodied people, and that disabled people are some of the most neglected and marginalised people in the world.
In this semi-autobiographical work, Taylor outlines with great patience what a disabled person is, and can be, in a similar way to Lynne Segal’s…
If you asked someone who had never read or heard anything about the origins of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) who they thought might have founded it, the chances are they would guess something along the lines of ‘some well-meaning elderly man who was opposed to the shooting of rare birds for sport’, or something like that. But it seems very unlikely that they would come anywhere near the real founders of the RSPB: a group of women who were passionately opposed to the…
Tessa Boase
Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury and Feminism – Women's Fight for Change
Aurum Press, 2018; 336pp; £20
If you asked someone who had never read or heard anything about the origins of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) who they thought might have founded it, the chances are they would guess something along the lines of ‘some well-meaning elderly man who was opposed to the shooting of rare birds for sport’, or something like that. But…
For 40 years, Kim Stallwood (sometimes known as ‘The Grumpy Vegan’) has been an active animal advocate. Growl combines autobiography, social history and an exploration of the philosophy and practice of animal rights. It is an engaging and readable book which made me draw parallels with other areas of nonviolent campaigning.After working in a chicken slaughterhouse, Stallwood became a vegetarian in 1974, aged 19. Two years later he became a fully-fledged vegan. Unlike today, when all…
In early November, British army surgeons received training in Denmark, by operating on 18 pigs that had been shot by snipers in such a way as to injure their organs but not kill them.
After the surgery, the animals were put down.
Animal rights group PETA pointed out that this exercise is banned if performed in the UK under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, and is also banned in 22 other NATO countries.
On 20 June, Animal Aid launched a boycott of Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Society and Parkinson’s UK, urging that people stop donating money until the charities end animal testing.
On 23 June, MPs voted to ban wild animals in circuses.
Animal rights activist Joe Hashman made legal history on 8 March by establishing that employers should not discriminate against people for holding anti-hunting beliefs. Joe was sacked from Orchard Park Garden Centre in Dorset in September 2009, just as celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright was convicted of attending an illegal hare coursing event – as the result of Joe’s covert filming.
The owners of Orchard Park Garden Centre, Sheila and Ron Clarke, keen supporters of the South and…
In 1996, three vegans, David Stringer and Jane and David Graham, veterans of the peace, anti-nuclear movements, and sometime guests at HM Prisons, decided to start the Vegan Organic Network, an organisation specifically directed to changing the current situation in agriculture, where most food that is available has been grown either using animal by-products (applying blood and bone after animals have been processed in the slaughter house) or using synthetic fertilisers.
This…
“Already a legend, this awesome creation has manifested itself at countless gatherings, events, festivals and protests the length and breadth of the UK. There are thousands upon thousands of hungry campaigners who have feasted on these top-notch meat-free burgers at all hours of the day, all points of the compass. Truly a legend.”Vegan Environmental Awards
Whilst there is a long way to go to catch up with Peace News, Veggies of Nottingham have covered a lot of history. From…
Seven animal-rights activists of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were jailed on 21 January, with sentences ranging from four to 11 years in prison.
On 23 December, Gerrah Selby, Daniel Wadham, Gavin Medd-Hall and Heather Nicholson were found guilty of conspiracy to blackmail companies associated with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), which kills five hundred animals daily conducting research for pharmaceutical companies. They were sentenced to four, five, eight and 11 years,…
On 6 June, after an 18-week trial, the operator of a website criticising animal testing company Sequani, was found guilty under section 145 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA), “interfering with the contractual relationships of a laboratory”.
For allegedly conspiring to organise protests at Sequani Limited and associated companies, Sean Kirtley was jailed for four and a half years followed by a five-year ASBO (anti-social behaviour order). The main “proof”…
