I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful and revolting, that if they could obtain a flesh diet on no other condition, they would relinquish it forever.
W.E.H. Lecky, 1838 – 1903, Irish historian and publicist.
I won’t eat anything that has intelligent life, but I’d gladly eat a network executive or a politician.
Marty Feldman, 1934 – 1982, English writer, comedian and actor.
The BBC reports that the Highways Agency and the RSPCA are working together on a trial in the Yorkshire and Humber region to reduce the number of animals killed on the region’s main routes and improve driver safety.
The Grumpy Vegan is greatly impressed with Patty Mark. She developed the strategy of open rescue whereby activists non-violently and openly enter factory farms to document the abuse of chickens. The evidence is presented to authorities who are urged to act. Go here to read more of her vital and unique. Here’s how Patty and her organization, Animal Liberation Victoria in Australia, describe their philosophy.
Open Rescue is based on giving aid, rescue and veterinary treatment to any animal known to be suffering and in pain, yet trapped in confined conditions where they have been neglected and/or abandoned to slowly die. The focus is primarily on factory farms, the largest area of animal abuse in the world. The immediate aim of open rescue is to save lives and secondly to document the cruel conditions forced upon literally billions of animals around the world.
Rescue workers openly identify themselves and work as professionally and diligently as their colleagues in other rescue areas such as fire fighters, state emergency services or ambulance personnel. Unfortunately, until the rights of non-human animals are universally accepted it is necessary to sometimes trespass to perform the life-saving rescue work.
Open Rescue is based on the moral premise that it is wrong to knowingly let any individual, regardless of their species, die an unnecessarily slow, agonizing and painful death. Rescue workers are bound by compassion, competence and a willingness to always help others in need.
Activists involved in open rescue identify themselves because they are prepared to stand strong in their actions and suffer any consequences that may occur due to possible trespass. This website however, is dedicated to any activist, anywhere, anytime, who, with or without a balaclava/disguise puts their own life at risk to save the life of another.
I’ve always been very moved by pictures about slaughterhouses and meat, and to me they belong very much to the whole thing of the crucifixion. There’ve been extraordinary photographs, which have been done of animals just being taken up before they were slaughtered; and the smell of death. We don’t know, of course, but it appears by these photographs that they’re so aware of what is going to happen to them, they do everything to attempt to escape. I think these pictures were very much based on that kind of thing, which to me is very, very near this whole thing of the crucifixion. I know for religious people, for Christians, the crucifixion has a totally different significance. But as a nonbeliever, it was just an act of man’s behaviour, a way of behaviour to another.
Francis Bacon, 1909 – 1992, Irish figurative painter.
The Grumpy Vegan has wanted to write further about the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Surrey, England but when he goes to do so there are further developments that prevent him from doing so. The source is now identified to be most likely the government’s own research laboratory in Pirbright. As Max Hastings asked,
Whatever the explanation of the Surrey foot and mouth outbreak, it appears plain that someone at the Pirbright laboratory complex was negligent. Virus cultures are, in effect, biological weapons, and require handling accordingly. In this case, something went badly wrong.
It does not seem vindictive to suggest that when all the facts are in, if it proves possible to attribute responsibility to individuals, they should be sacked. The outbreak has cost tens of millions of pounds, caused massive disruption and put the fear of God into the rural community. If accountability means anything, somebody should pay the price.
And, as Peter Wilby wrote, Foot and Mouth is “essentially an economic sickness.” In short: Who’s to blame? And why is it costing the country so much when it doesn’t have to? And let’s not forget that farmed animals, who shouldn’t be there in the first place, are being needlessly killed.
And then you have this excellent letter from Dr Harash Narang, Biosecurity goes down the drain.
It’s no surprise that the report into the source of the foot and mouth outbreak has blamed faulty drains at the Pirbright site (Same lab blamed for new foot and mouth case, September 14). The impression given is that the spillage of cultured virus within laboratories is the source of contamination. However, this possible source is negligible compared to constant contamination from the experimental use of animals. To determine the efficacy of the vaccine, at the Pirbright site some animals are vaccinated, others injected with live virus, or vaccinated animals are re-exposed with live virus; various combinations are used and tested. Cows, sheep and pigs shed up to 1m virus particles per gram of faeces; therefore their pens are constantly contaminated with virus particles. Each day these pens are washed down and the contaminated water flows into drains.
Defra currently allows contaminated water into the sewage system as FMD is an animal infection as opposed to a human one. However, given that FMD is a notifiable disease, such water should be held in septic tanks to kill the virus. Defra should make the autoclaving of all laboratory waste materials mandatory prior to disposal. This would bring its policy into line with the Health and Safety Executive, which oversees hospitals and medical institutes.
There is no policy to vaccinate animals on a farm where an outbreak of FMD has occurred or adjoining farms. As the Pirbright site manufactures the vaccine for export only, perhaps the government should consider either moving the production of the vaccine to a country where FMD is already prevalent, or changing our vaccination policy.
