This weekend is The Strength of Many conference which we (Animals and Society Institute) coproduce with the Culture and Animals Foundation, which is led by the preeminent animal rights philosopher, Tom Regan. So, blogging will be light–as it has been for the last few weeks. My goal is to blog daily updates from the conference.
Further thought on blair’s speech
A revealing omission for animal advocates and others in Blair’s list of Labour successes under his leadership and in his final conference speech as leader is any reference to the passage of the unprecedented law to abolish bloodsports, the Hunting Act 2004.
The Grumpy Vegan can only wonder why. Most likely, initial political opportunism for a popular measure weakened throughout the 10-plus year parliamentary debate and public discussion manifested itself in Blair’s mind as an irrational concern that it had become a vote-losing proposition. The pro-hunt lobby and their Countryside Alliance successfully subverted and distracted the issue reframing it as an anti-libertarian measure and yet another example of Labour “trendy urbanites” not understanding how things work in the countryside.
But clearly not successfully enough. It’s now illegal to kill, for example, a fox with a pack of dogs. You can also be prosecuted for it. Nonetheless, the Grumpy Vegan is encouraged by Blair’s inclusion of successes with other animal issues in his “long goodbye” speech.
Quote of the day
Banning things that should never have been allowed: handguns; cosmetic testing on animals; fur farming; blacklisting of trade unionists and from summer next year, smoking in public places. And allowing things that should never have been banned: the right to roam; the right to request flexible working; civil partnerships for gay people.
Tony Blair making his final address as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party at its annual conference yesterday.
Hunting and Fur protest update
Otis Ferry, son of Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, was reportedly the target of PETA protestors at the Burberry spring/summer collection show in Milan. Otis Ferry was once also a protestor. He and others disrupted the House of Commons when it was debating a ban on hunting with dogs in 2004.
Protests of this kind are all well and good. But when are we going to learn that we must reframe the issue of wearing fur from a cruelty-free lifestyle choice issue to also one that places it squarely into the political arena?
Anti-Fur Protest in London circa 1979
By the morning of the sale there was quite a crowd waiting to get in the store. Fay and the first woman in the line were admitted first so that they could buy their merchandise and be photographed by the press at a reception. Fay had decided she would buy the mink coat and leave without participating in any of it. She immediately went outside the store and put the coat in a trash container and set it alight. She paid for the coat herself and the protest was organized by her as an individual.
Fay’s feelings of anger at using animals to produce fur are clearly expressed in her face. The three woman on either side of Fay were journalists who were fascinated with why a suburban mother and homemaker would do such a thing. The journalist on the left clearly shares Fay’s horror.
It is worth noting that when I took this photograph there was very little campaigning against fur and very little public understanding of the animal cruelty involved in producing fur. Fay and I were, however, regular participants in anti-fur protests outside Harrods, which we fondly called Horrids, from 1977 to the early 1980s. Britain’s primary anti-fur group, Lynx, was not formed until 1985 when Greenpeace anti-fur campaigners left to form the organization. Lynx subsequently became the excellent organization, Respect for Animals.
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