Introduction
This A-Z has been written and produced by Bristol Animal Rights Collective (BARC) to act as an
introduction or a reference guide to a number of Animal Rights related issues. Each subject contains
a short paragraph explaining why it is important to Animal Rights and where appropriate will direct
you to websites or other sections where you can find out more. It is also a celebration of the
diversity of the tactics, and the various campaigns all working towards animal liberation. We also
hope the information on veganism and ideas for animal-free living will be useful.
Read it cover to cover, see where it falls open or dip into it to look up a subject of your choice, it’s
your booklet now so it’s up to you! We hope you enjoy reading it and learn from it, we certainly
learnt a lot writing it. If you would like an electronic copy to adapt and distribute in your local area,
please get in touch. We put a lot of work into this, so it would be nice to share it around!
All content is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of printing but obviously sometimes
things change, and hopefully for the better! For example, just ‘cos we say something is suitable (or
not suitable) for vegans doesn’t mean that it will always be the case.
Until every cage is empty!
BARC
October 2010
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk
And now for the boring bit…
Of course we are not for one minute suggesting you go off and do anything naughty. The comments
expressed in this booklet (and the web links included in it) are usually, but not necessarily, the views
of BARC. Nothing contained in this booklet (or in any BARC publication) is intended to incite or
encourage illegal activities; it is for information purposes only.…blah blah blah….
A is for…
Abattoirs – See Slaughterhouses
Abolition
Abolition is the act of destroying a hierarchy that views individuals as property, and by extension
enslaves said individuals. Once described as terrorists, those who fought against the slave trade are
the most well known abolitionists. Most animal rights activists view themselves as abolitionists as
they are fighting for the same thing: freedom for sentient individuals.
Activist/Action
Activists come in all shapes and forms! An action is something that an activist does to help (in this
case) animals. An animal rights activist could run a stall, sabotage a hunt, leaflet passers by, attend a
demonstration against an institution or company that supports or is guilty of animal abuse, do a talk
about animal rights to the local community, etc. While civil disobedience and economic sabotage for
example are also types of actions, BARC concentrates on the legal ones. If you would like to get
involved in animal rights activism and live in Bristol, please get in touch with us! If you do not live
in Bristol, see the animal rights calendar and directory of local groups produced by Veggies.
www.veggies.org.uk
Adverse Drug Reactions
Adverse drug reactions (side affects from prescription drugs) are the fourth biggest killer in the
West. These drugs have all been deemed safe by animal test results. There are numerous examples
of drugs that have been considered safe on animals, but have been taken off the market quickly, after
killing people. A few examples of why we cannot rely on the use of animals for drugs testing are:
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According to the former scientific executive of Huntingdon Life Sciences, animal tests and
human results agree only ‘5%-25% of the time’
95% of drugs passed by animal tests are almost immediately discarded as useless or
dangerous to humans
Up to 90% of animal test results are discarded as they are inapplicable to humans.
Lemon juice is a deadly poison; but arsenic, hemlock and botulin are safe according to
animal tests
Aspirin causes birth defects in mice and rats, and results in extensive blood abnormalities in
cats. Ibuprofen causes kidney failure in dogs
www.vivisection-absurd.org.uk
www.safermedicines.org
Alpacas
The alpaca is a domesticated species of South American camelid. Considerably smaller than llamas,
alpacas are bred for their fleece which is used in many South American knitted products such as
coats and blankets. Alpaca farms are becoming a common site in the UK and other non-native
countries where they are also bred for their wool. Over the last 10 years the number of alpacas on
UK farms has increased from around 500 to 20,000 or more animals. Native to the South American
Andes, where they live at altitudes of up to 5,000m, alpacas have coats much thicker and warmer
than those of a sheep and are therefore unsuited to our climate.
Alternatives
Animal cruelty is really not necessary. There is a non-animal alternative to almost everything!
You can buy soya ham, soya chicken, vegan cake, and even vegan whipping cream, non-dairy icecream, cheese, and yogurts. You can replace butter with vegan margarine in your favourite recipes,
dairy cream with soya cream; you can even buy vegan soya bacon, and cream that squirts out of a
can!! See the Vegan Beginner guide on our website for a full list of places to buy these goodies.
There are also some great recipes to have as a yummy and healthy alternative to meat and dairy.
We don’t need to test on animals. Animals react differently to drugs and illnesses than we do. There
are a range of methods that have far safer results. These include computer modelling, test-tubes,
studying human populations, autopsies, and health promotion/disease prevention.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/resources
www.safermedicines.org
Anarchy
Anarchy comes from the Greek phrase meaning: ‘without ruler’. It is a political philosophy that
abhors the state and all forms of authority and instead promotes a stateless society where the people
can govern themselves. Anarchists may widely disagree on what additional criteria are required in
anarchism though many agree that mutual aid, solidarity, direct action and co-operation are essential
aspects.
www.anarchistfaq.org
Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)
Bristol ABC aims to practically support people who have been wrongly imprisoned, including
political prisoners, by writing letters, sending books and magazines and where possible financial
contributions to those inside and/or the people and campaigns supporting them. It holds regular
monthly letter writing nights to political prisoners on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, 7pm to
9pm at Kebele Social centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Bristol BS5 6JY. They can provide stationery,
stamps and campaign information, all you have to do is turn up and write.
www.bristolabc.wordpress.com
Angling
Angling is a ‘blood sport’, and another word for fishing. Imagine having your mouth suddenly
impaled by a metal hook that drags you - the whole weight of your body pulling on your mouth - out
of the air and into an atmosphere in which you cannot breathe. This is what fish experience when
they are hooked for ‘sport’. Anglers rarely stop to contemplate that fish are complex and intelligent
individuals which feel pain just like us. Dragging fish out of the water is totally unnecessary. In fact,
if anglers treated cats, dogs, cows, or pigs the way they treat fish, they would be thrown in prison on
charges of cruelty to animals. Even when anglers put fish back in the water, many of the fish die
from stress and their injuries.
www.fishinghurts.com
Animal Liberation
What would you do if you saw a young child being abused across the road? Would you walk on, or
would you try to save that child? Why should it be any different when we know that animals are
being tortured? Animal Liberation is direct action to liberate animals from captivity, pain, suffering,
exploitation and imminent death. See Animal Liberation Front
www.directaction.info
Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
The ALF are compassionate individuals who take direct action to liberate animals from oppression.
There is no central structure within the ALF; it is made-up of individuals and small groups of people
who operate independently around the world. Anybody who does not eat animals can be part of the
ALF and can claim an action in the name of the ALF as long as they adhere to the following
principles:
1. To liberate animals from places of abuse, i.e. laboratories, factory farms, fur farms, etc, and
place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives, free from suffering.
2. To inflict economic damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals.
3. To reveal the horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, by
performing non-violent direct actions and liberations.
4. To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.
www.animalliberationfront.com
Animal Liberation Front Support Group (ALFSG)
The ALFSG provides financial and practical support to animal rights activists unfortunate enough to
end up behind bars. It also promotes an understanding of the reasons why decent, caring people feel
forced to break the law. It is separate to the ALF and operates legally and above ground. See
Prisoner Support.
www.alfsg.org.uk
Animal Liberation Movement
The Animal Liberation Movement is an eclectic group of likeminded individuals who take it upon
themselves to fight for social change with an end to speciesism. Starting in the 1970’s (With roots
stretching back to the 18th century in Europe) it has understandably had a positive beginning which
includes many successes, for example the closure of many breeding facilities for laboratories, the fur
farming ban in the UK, dog fighting, cock fighting and bear baiting are all illegal in this country to
name a few.
Animal Rights
Animal Rights is the belief that all beings (animals and people) have the right to freedom, and the
right to be free from pain, torture and suffering. Animals and people are equally as important.
People often use the misbelief that humans are more important than non-human animals to justify
inflicting pain on them. This is the same argument that was used during the slave trade, when white
people thought they were more important than black people and during the holocaust when nonJews thought they were more important than Jews. Animal Rights rejects all exploitation of animals
for the benefit of people.
Animal Rights Prisoner Support (ARPS)
Animal Rights Prisoner Support is a group designed to put people in contact with political prisoners
and show support and solidarity with animal rights prisoners. ARPS produce a quarterly newsletter
which contains the latest information and letters from various UK and international animal rights
prisoners. You can order the newsletter from their website or pick it up from one of Bristol Animal
Rights Collective’s stalls. See Prisoner Support.
www.arprisoners.org
Animal Testing – See Vivisection
Animal Welfare v Animal Rights
The animal welfare philosophy is fundamentally different from the animal rights philosophy, since it
endorses so-called humane use of animals to satisfy certain human needs. These range from
companionship and sport, to uses which involve the taking of life, such as for food, clothing and
medical research. Animal welfare means ensuring that all animals used by humans have their basic
needs fulfilled in terms of food, shelter and health, and that they experience no unnecessary
suffering in providing for human needs. Animal Welfarists, for example, might say that it is OK to
eat free-range meat.
Animal Rights activists quite rightly argue that we don’t need to exploit animals for our benefit, and
that animals should not be killed, regardless of how they have been treated until the point of their
death. See Animal Rights.
Animals
No-one knows how many species of animals there are. The estimated number of species of animals
on our planet falls somewhere in the range of 3-30 million species (Erwin 1983, Wolosz 1988). The
main six types of animals are invertebrates (animals with no back bone), fish, amphibians, reptiles,
mammals and birds. All animals have a central nervous system and feel pain if they are mistreated
or abused.
Aquaria
There has been a large rise in aquaria over recent years, with most cities having an aquarium. While
most people are starting to feel very uneasy about other animals being held in captivity for public
pleasure, people often forget the suffering endured by fish that are kept in aquaria. Findings of a
Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS) investigation in 2004 included:
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90% of aquaria keep animals that show unnatural behaviour.
At least 16% of aquaria have fish that are “spiralling”, one of the most severe forms of
abnormal behaviour.
74% of the UK public aquaria show evidence of physical health problems in the animals they
keep.
98.2% of animals kept in UK public aquaria do not belong to a species classed as threatened
by the IUCN.
89% of the estimated marine animals in UK public aquaria are wild caught in origin.
The full report can be found here. www.captiveanimals.org/aquarium/suffering.pdf
If you would like to leaflet outside Bristol’s Blue Reef Aquarium to let people know about the
problems with aquaria, please contact CAPS for some leaflets.
www.captiveanimals.org
Arrest
Hopefully you won’t ever be arrested whilst campaigning, but it is a possibility, so it is important to
know your rights. The police often don’t know the law and like to push their luck as much as
possible; activists who have a bit of knowledge of the law may find they know more about it than
the police! Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself, as well as the animals. There are some brilliant
online resources that will help you.
www.freebeagles.org
www.activistslegalproject.org.uk
B is for…
Badgers
Badgers are sometimes culled because it is claimed that they spread TB to cattle. They are usually
cage-trapped then shot, sometimes sitting for over 12 hours in their traps, in all whether extremes.
Badgers are being scapegoated by farmers and farming organisations, whose own intensive
production systems are the direct and main cause of increasing levels of many diseases in cattle,
including bovine TB. There is no plausible evidence to suggest that badgers are transmitting bovine
TB to cattle. The reverse is most likely the case.
When this booklet went to print, the Welsh Assembly was putting together plans for a cull in West
Wales to begin in May 2011. The English Government was also considering a badger cull. This is
all despite scientific evidence “that badger culling is unlikely to contribute positively to the control
of cattle TB in Britain.” (Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, June 2007). See Culling.
www.badger-killers.co.uk
www.badgertrust.org.uk
Bath Animal Action
If you’re from our more gentrified neighbouring municipal Bath, don’t worry; there’s a friendly and
welcoming group of animal activists there too! You just can’t get away from us!
www.bathanimalaction.blogspot.com
Bear Bile
More than 12,000 bears are suffering desperately cruel conditions in Asia’s bear farms, right now,
so bile can be extracted from their gall bladders and sold for use in some Traditional Asian
Medicine. Most are held in cages the size of a telephone booth, in which they are unable to stand
and can only turn around with difficulty. The bears in these farms are visibly in severe distress. They
are often hurt or scarred from repeatedly rubbing or hitting themselves against the bars of their tiny
enclosures. The cage floors prevent them from hibernating. Bear bile can be accessed in a number of
inhumane ways. All are likely to be carried out by untrained farm workers, with no veterinary
experience. Farms will use one of three methods:
1. A tube leading into the gall bladder is created, allowing bile to be extracted. To stop the tube
closing up, the abdominal wound is reopened up to three times a day.
2. Ultrasound equipment is used to locate the gall bladder, before a syringe is inserted deep into
the bear’s body to extract the bile.
3. Bears are caged, left to reach a certain age and then killed. The bile is extracted once the bear
is dead.
If you use Traditional Asian Medicine, make sure your practitioner does not use bear bile in any of
their treatments. Raising awareness and encouraging the use of alternatives will help protect bears
from this cruel industry.
www.animalsasia.org
www.wspa.org.uk
Bears: Dancing Bears
Research suggests that, at the end of 2009, there were still bears in India living out their days
dragged from village to village ‘dancing’ for audiences. This number has dropped from 400 to less
than 150, but the remaining bears are enduring a lifetime of physical and mental distress. Illegally
poached as cubs, even their most basic needs, such as adequate nutrition, are not met. Each young
bear will suffer the piercing of their nose or palate. A rope is passed through the raw wound.
Tugging on it remains an effective means of control throughout the bear’s life.
Years of conditioning allows owners to make adult bears ‘dance’ on command. The Eastern
European tradition of training bears to ‘dance’ was exposed as a cruel and violent practice, in which
the bears were made to stand on hot iron plates forcing them to lift their paws consecutively to try to
relieve the pain. Eventually, the bear becomes conditioned to perform its ‘act’ on cue.
Public campaigning against the practice has significantly reduced the number of dancing bears on
India’s main tourist trails. But the Kalandars – India’s traditional dancing bear owners – have taken
their shows to more receptive areas, such as Spain. The capture and keeping of bears is prohibited,
yet dancing bear shows find rural audiences. People in these areas, where animal welfare education
is rare, are unlikely to report dancing bears to the authorities.
www.animalsasia.org
www.wspa.org.uk
Beer
Sadly, not all beer is vegan. Some beer is filtered through isinglass, otherwise known as fish
bladder. Yuck! Luckily though, lots of beer is, including Bath Ales Organic Natural Blonde lager,
London Pride, Stella, Heineken, Becks, Holstein Pils and Carlsberg at time of printing this guide.
The Animal Free Shopper published by The Vegan Society has a list of vegan beers. You can order
this and find updates on their website. It’s always worth double checking that the beers are still
vegan, as beer recipes do change.
www.vegansociety.com
www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/shopping/veganalcohol.html
Bees
“What could possibly be wrong with honey?” we hear you ask. There are several hundred
commercial bee farmers in the UK, plus many thousands of small scale “hobby” beekeepers. At the
heart of every bee colony is the queen bee – the only one capable of laying eggs. While the ordinary
‘worker’ bees live just a few weeks during the active season, the queen can live for several years.
However, in commercial beekeeping the queens are regularly killed and replaced as often as every
six months. Queen bees are mass-produced and are artificially inseminated with sperm from crushed
males. The queen often has her wings clipped to prevent swarming – the natural way for the colony
to reproduce itself. Sometimes whole colonies are killed off to save feeding them over the winter.
Beekeepers often transport their colonies to areas of flowering crops where the bees pollinate the
flowers, increasing crop yields and earning fat fees for the beekeepers. However, this is to the
detriment of local wild bees and other pollinating insects, which are swamped by the temporary
visitors. And so, that is why vegans do not eat honey!
www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm
Best, Steve
Steve Best is an American Philosopher and animal rights activist. He has come under fire for his
uncompromising campaigning for “total liberation” (humans, animals, and the earth) and has been
banned from the UK for the power of his words.
www.drstevebest.org
drstevebest.wordpress.com
Birds
Thousands upon thousands of birds, kept as ‘pets’ have become neurotic from loneliness and
boredom, and they are a long way from the wild open skies where they belong. These sensitive birds
are condemned to live out their entire lives as mere decorations in people's homes. Holding birds
captive and denying them of their natural urges to fly and to be with others of their own kind often
drive them insane. For every bird you see on sale in a pet shop, several others may have died in
breeding establishments and during transportation. See Exotic Animals and Pet Trade.
www.apa.org.uk
Bite Back
Bite Back is a magazine about the animal rights movement worldwide and reports actions from all
over the world in the fight for animal liberation.
www.directaction.info
Black Fish
A new Europe-based ocean conservation organisation and vegan campaign group, focused on
investigation and direct action to change attitude towards our precious oceans and protect the unique
life within them.
www.theblackfish.org
Bloodsports
A bloodsport is any ‘sport’ or ‘entertainment’ which involves violence towards animals, such as
hunting, shooting, fishing, coursing, dog fighting, badger baiting and bullfighting. We don’t really
need to explain why they are wrong!
www.huntsabs.org.uk
www.animalaid.org.uk
www.league.org.uk
Botox
Botox is the name given to botulinum toxin when used for cosmetic purposes. By paralysing the
muscles, it makes it impossible to frown or crease the skin – hence making wrinkles ‘disappear’.
Botox injections are becoming increasingly popular as a cosmetic procedure, being popularised in
no small measure thanks to celebrity endorsement. Whilst the primary use of Botox is for cosmetic
purposes, a small amount is used for medicinal reasons, allowing the manufacturers to exploit a
legal loophole and test it on animals in the UK.
In barbaric experiments known as LD50 toxicity tests – supposedly outlawed by the government in
1999 – mice are injected with the toxin and suffer symptoms including impaired vision, paralysis of
the body, and paralysis of the diaphragm, which leads to death by suffocation. Numbers of
experiments are reported to have risen significantly over the last two years in line with the surge in
popularity of Botox injections as every batch is tested before sale. One of the labs participating in
this testing is Wickham Labs in Hampshire. Apart from the devastating impact on the animal
victims, the LD50 test is also a betrayal of people who imagine that Botox cosmetic treatments have
undergone proper safety tests. This is not the case.
www.animalaid.org.uk
Boycott
A boycott is when an individual makes a decision to stop using a particular shop, chain, or industry,
often due to a moral stand point. Boycotts have been used affectively for centuries; in the 18th
century people boycotted sugar due to its connection to the slave trade. Today boycotts are used
against animal abusing companies (Such as GlaxoSmithKline and Proctor and Gamble) and their
respective industries.
www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts.aspx
Breeding
Animal Rights activists are opposed to the deliberate breeding of animals by humans and as such we
encourage people with companion animals to spay and neuter them where possible or to otherwise
responsibly ensure that they are not allowed to reproduce. There are thousands and thousands of
animals in rescues and pounds around the country needing permanent loving homes. If you are
looking to take on an animal, please adopt a rescued one rather than buying from the pet breeding
industry. Dogs, cats and other ‘pet’ animals can produce a large number of offspring during their
lifetime, and this can put enormous pressure on rescue centres already caring for hundreds of
animals. Each unwanted animal from a litter is taking up a space in a rescue centre and many
animals, in particular Staffordshire Bull Terriers, are put to sleep each week as there is nowhere for
them to go. Many breeding establishments are little different to factory farms, churning out puppies,
kittens and baby rabbits and birds etc whilst the adult animals are kept in terrible conditions until
they can no longer produce young. See Neutering, Puppy Farming and Rescues. ‘Don’t breed or
buy while rescue dogs die!’
www.hollyhedge.org.uk
www.themoggeryrehomingcentre.co.uk
Bristol Animal Rights Collective (BARC)
Well, that’s us! If you don’t like cruelty to animals, why not join us? We have regular campaigns
against restaurants that sell foie gras, zoos, companies responsible for animal testing, and shops that
sell animal fur. We also do regular stalls in Broadmead, including occasional free vegan food
sample giveaways and we organise an annual free vegan food fair. We are always keen on meeting
new people, and having new ideas. Get in touch for more info! We have regular meetings – keep an
eye on our website, or contact us for dates of these! Hopefully meet you soon!
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk
barc@hotmail.co.uk
www.twitter/bristolarc
www.myspace.com/bristolanimalrights
or search for us on Facebook
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, some cities in southern France and in
several Latin American countries, in which bulls are ritually killed in a bullring as a public
spectacle. Before the ‘fight’ the bulls have heavy weights tied to their necks for weeks to weaken
them. The workers rub petroleum into their eyes to obscure their vision and beat the bulls’ kidneys
repeatedly. They give them tranquilisers, laxatives, and drugs that induce paralysis or a hypnotised
state. They feed them a large amount of salt so they drink a lot and become bloated and slow. Many
have their horns cut. The bull is held in a tiny cage with no food or water for hours before the
‘fight’. He is harpooned to cause bleeding and released into the arena. After entering the arena, the
bull is jabbed with a ‘garrocha’, then 4 pairs of 18 inch barbed darts, called ‘banderillas’ are jabbed
into the bull’s neck, finally the bull is killed. The fighter attempts to stab the bull in the heart, but
often misses, normally stabbing them in the lungs. This sometimes makes the bull vomit blood out
of his nose and mouth. After stabbing the bull a number of times, they try to slice up the organs so
that the bull with collapse. They will cut the spinal cord then the ears and tail. Then they will drag
the bull around as the audience cheers. Then the ritual repeats itself, with a new bull. The bulls
aren’t the only animals to be harmed. Many horses are killed. They are usually blind folded at the
time and end up dis-emboweled by the horns of a raging bull. Horses’ vocal cords are cut out so that
they cannot scream. Thankfully for bulls in Catalonia, bullfighting will be banned in that region.
Sadly it will not be enforced until 2012.
www.stopbullfighting.wordpress.com
C is for…
Campaigning
Want to get involved in campaigning? See Bristol Animal Rights Collective for information about
what we do and how you can get involved! If you are not in Bristol check the Veggies directory to
find your local group.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk
www.veggies.org.uk/directory
Captive Animals
It is fundamental that animals should not be held captive. No animal can live a natural life in a cage.
See Aquaria, Zoos, Factory Farming and Fur for more information.
www.captiveanimals.org
Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS)
CAPS was founded in 1957. CAPS is opposed to the use of animals in entertainment and works to
end their use. Since 1957 their main object has been to end the use of all animals in circuses, a
campaign which is still at the forefront of their work today. Their other key areas of work are to end
the captivity of animals in zoos and the exotic pet trade as well as the use of captive wild animals in
advertising and films. CAPS seeks to prevent the use and exploitation of captive and performing
animals, and investigates cases of alleged cruelty against captive and performing animals.
www.captiveanimals.org
www.savethemeerkat.com
Cars
Eating meat, drinking milk, hunting and vivisection aren’t the only ways humans kill animals; cars
are also responsible in the destruction of habitat to thousands of millions of sentient individuals all
around the world through global warming.
Cats
A large number of birds are killed by domestic cats each year; it is a good idea to make your cat
wear a bell on its collar and keep it in at dusk and dawn when birds are most likely to be on the
ground feeding to reduce casualties.
Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights is most famous for the African-American civil rights movement of the 1960’s however it
also spans other ethnicities, sexual, and gender issues. Animal rights and civil rights have had a long
and intertwined history; many civil rights campaigners used their skills to progress the animal rights
movement, most notably Henri Spira.
(S)cheese
See Dairy for the reasons why not to eat cheese. Think you might miss it? Fear not, there are lots of
types of vegan cheeses on the market now, including Sheese and Cheezly. You can have vegan
versions of melting mozzarella, garlic and herb cream cheese, blue cheese, cheddar and chives, to
name just a few of the many varieties. Pop into your local health food shop to have a look. Some
large supermarkets now sell these too.
www.buteisland.com
www.redwoodfoods.co.uk
Chemicals
In June 2007 the new European chemical testing regime, REACH (Registration, Evaluation and
Authorisation of Chemicals), came into force. Its purpose is to establish whether an estimated
30,000 chemicals on the market are safe for humans and the environment and to control the use of
those judged to present a risk. This will mean that until 2018 up to 13 million animals will be
poisoned and killed. The experiments used to assess the safety of chemicals are called toxicity tests,
which traditionally involve the poisoning of guinea pigs, rabbits, rats and mice. Chemical companies
now have up until 2018 to prove to the European Chemicals Agency that the chemicals they are
manufacturing or importing are safe to use.
A huge number of these chemicals have been on the market and widely-used for many years. With
many of them, the damage they have done to people, the environment and wildlife is already known
and well-documented. The benefit of this programme appears to lie solely with the companies who
profit from these chemicals in terms of covering themselves against future legal challenges.
Charities
Beware that not all charities are goodies. Unfortunately some charities, including Cancer Research
UK and British Heart Foundation fund research using animals. Please remember which ones fund
animal experiments before sponsoring a friend, dropping money in a tin, or heading into one of their
charity shops. To help you with this The Good Charities Guide can be found on the National AntiVivisection Society’s website.
www.navs.org.uk/publications/112/0/1669/
Chocolate
Like cheese, being vegan does not mean you’ll miss out! There are some delicious vegan chocolates
on the market and vegans can even eat chocolate cake (made with no eggs or dairy!!)
A few brands to look out for are Fry’s Creams, Plamil and Divine, all of which are widely available
in health food shops and supermarkets, and there are many others. Amazingly, you can even get
vegan milk and white chocolate!! Most independent health food shops sell Organica rice milk
chocolate. You’ll wonder why you ever thought you needed dairy after tasting it!
www.plamilfoods.co.uk
www.divinechocolate.com
Circuses
Animals in circuses are there purely for entertainment and the routines have changed little since the
nineteenth century. In circuses, the audience can still see beautiful majestic animals like elephants
ridiculed by their trainers, or big cats reduced to cowardly looking creatures by the cracking whip of
the ‘powerful’ lion tamer. Touring circuses may cover thousands of miles a year, carrying animals
from site to site in transporters and cages on the backs of lorries. The animals may be confined for
hours, even days, in their travelling cages. In the wild, elephants are extremely social, living in large
groups or herds and will travel on average 25kms per day. In the circus, they spend most of each day
chained by a front and a hind leg, standing on a wooden or metal board in a tent.
Some ex animal trainers or keepers have spoken out, to expose the cruel methods used to break and
train circus animals. In the book ‘Elephant Tramp’ by George Lewis the story of a training routine
for Sadie the elephant is told:
‘Sadie just could not grasp what we were trying to show her. In frustration she attempted to run out
of the ring. We brought her back and began to punish her for being so stupid. We stopped suddenly,
and looked at each other, unable to speak. Sadie was crying like a human being. She lay there on her
side, the tears streaming down her face and sobs racking her huge body.’
The few remaining circus in the UK currently to use animals include Zippos and the Great British
Circus. Thankfully, there are many animal-free circuses run by other companies, such as Cirque du
Soleil or Carnyville, which you can enjoy!
www.captiveanimals.org
Conservation
Conservation biology is the study of the nature and status of Earth’s biodiversity with the aim of
protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction. True
conservation of species can only happen in the animals’ natural habitat. The animals need space
appropriate to their needs and populations large enough to provide a suitable gene pool and a natural
social balance of the species, with minimal human contact.
Zoos claim to promote and support conservation. In reality, when reintroduction programmes do
take place they are often initiated by government wildlife agencies rather than by zoos. Captive-bred
animals often lack the necessary survival skills, especially those normally learned from a parent –
finding food, avoiding predators, etc. Releases of captive animals also pose a significant disease
threat to native populations. Most reintroduction projects have had to be suspended indefinitely.
Zoos still take animals from the wild. Over 70% of elephants in European zoos today are wildcaught and 79% of all animals in UK public aquaria were wild-caught.
www.bornfree.org.uk
Companion Animals
As the majority of companion animals come from domesticated backgrounds, it is natural for them
to exhibit signs of affection and joy when greeted by a human. However due to the difference in
species and more importantly the difference in styles of communication, it is inherent that even the
most dedicated human carer will be unable to understand all the needs of the animal. As most people
are not dedicated solely to caring for their companion animal, innocent actions such as going to
work, going to school, even disappearing into the kitchen to cook could stress an animal, especially
dogs who are pack animals; accustomed to being around their pack 24hrs a day. This is just one of
the reasons Companion Animals should not be bred. Unfortunately, in the real world there are
thousands of dogs, cats, and other creatures in shelters waiting for a home with a loving human. For
other problems with the ‘pet’ industry, see Breeding, Pet Trade and Transport.
Condoms
Most condoms contain milk proteins, used in the processing of the latex from which they are made,
but fortunately a few companies have formulated condoms which are suitable for vegans and just as
effective. Apparently condoms are also available made from polyurethane and sheep intestine, ugh!
Anyway, much nicer, vegan condoms are available in a variety of shapes, sizes and flavours and can
be bought in bulk online, yey!
www.condomi-direct.co.uk
www.glyde-condoms.com
Consort Beagles
Consort Kennels was a breeding facility in Herefordshire which supplied beagles to vivisection
laboratories such as Huntingdon Life Sciences. It was closed in September 1997 after a 10 month
campaign consisting of daily protests (and some animal liberation raids!) The campaign came to
public attention on April 24, 1997 (World Day for Laboratory Animals) when an estimated 500
protesters turned up for a national demonstration at the kennels. Activists pulled down the fence and
climbed over the compound wall. The area was then secured by three hundred police officers in riot
gear, until two masked men appeared on the single storey building holding a beagle they had
removed from the kennels. The pregnant beagle was lowered to a group of around forty people but
sadly was later returned to the kennels by the police. In May 1997, 26 lucky beagles were liberated
and found loving new homes.
Conversation
No, we have not misspelt conservation, just a quick reminder to slip animal rights issues into
conversation with people as much as possible!
Cruelty Free
Believe it or not, some of the regular brands we see in the shops such as L’Oreal, Clarins and
Colgate, are still tested on animals. Although cosmetic testing has been banned in the UK, cosmetics
are still tested abroad, imported and sold here. It’s not all doom and gloom though. It is really easy
to find non-animal tested cosmetics at shops such as LUSH, Co-op and Superdrug (their own label
stuff is now not tested on animals). Remember to check ingredients too. Just because something is
not tested, does not mean there are no animal products in the ingredients.
For an up to date list of brands that are not tested on animals check the website below:
www.uncaged.co.uk/crueltyfree.htm
www.gocrueltyfree.org
Culling
Culling is when animals are killed because people feel there are too many of them for the local
habitat, or that they are causing ‘trouble’. In reality, culling is normally due to pressure from
farmers, or other people keen to make profits. For example, at the time of printing this booklet, there
was a rabbit cull in Newcastle, a deer cull in Leven and in the London royal parks, a boar cull in the
Forest of Dean, a goat cull in Snowdonia and talk of culling urban foxes in London. See Badgers
for more information about the Welsh and English badger culls. Other culls include Canadian harp
seals, grey squirrels and ruddy ducks.
No-one involved in culling seems to consider the facts that there really are far too many people for
local habitats and that all animals which are in non-native environments are there because they have
been introduced by humans. Animals don’t need to be culled as animal populations maintain their
own natural and sustainable levels, in relation to their environment, the amount of food they have
available, how many predators there are and other influencing factors. See the links below to keep
an eye on the latest culls.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/wildlife//2177
www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/booklets/Extremeprejudice.pdf
D is for…
Dairy
Dairy cows are artificially inseminated and forced to give birth annually, to produce enough milk to
satisfy our greed. Calves are the bi-product of the dairy industry. If you consume dairy, you are
responsible for the killing of calves. Calves are taken away from their mothers, at just a few days
old, so the milk which is meant for them can be fed to humans. Some of the male calves are
transported abroad alive for the veal industry (see Live Exports), some male calves are reared for
beef, and some females are kept back to replenish the dairy herd. Cows will naturally live 20 years
but dairy cows are worn out by the time they reach four or five and are slaughtered. They are forced
to carry udders that weigh up to 8 stone, and produce 10 times more milk than they would do
naturally.
We are the only species to drink milk beyond infancy, and the milk of another species. Pretty
revolting and unnatural when you think about it! Cows’ milk is meant for small calves to help them
to grow quickly, not humans. That’s why it’s so full of fat! Luckily, there are lots of alternatives on
the market, including dairy-free ice-cream, dairy-free yoghurt, oat milk, rice milk, soya milk and
almond milk.
www.vegansociety.com/resources/animals/dairy-production.aspx
Deforestation
World Resources Institute assessments suggest that 20-30% of the world’s forest areas have already
been converted to agriculture. As agricultural land becomes more and more degraded, most of the
land for replacement and expansion comes from the world’s forests. Estimates suggest that the
expansion of agricultural land accounts for more than 60% of worldwide deforestation. The vast
majority of this land is used to graze beef cattle and to grow food for the cattle. Two World Bank
specialists in agriculture concluded that, “Livestock-induced ranching in rainforests has led to
significant loss in plant and animal biodiversity especially in Central America, 320,000-430,000
hectares per year and S. America about 1.1 million hectares per year”. This process has become
known as the ‘hamburgerisation’ of the forests.
Demos
Why not join us on one of our local demonstrations? We demo against zoos, companies that sell fur
and foie gras, and sometimes join national demos against meat and animal testing. See
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/events for forthcoming dates.
Diet
Go vegan! Your diet can make a huge difference to animals, the planet and your health! One person
can save approximately 5000 animals in their lifetime by being vegan.
www.vegansociety.com
Digging Out
Digging out is when one or more dogs are put into the entrance of a badger sett or fox earth with the
intention of finding and killing foxes or badgers. The dogs used for underground work are generally
small dogs that can get through a network of tunnels, such as terriers. The dog can be traced using
electronic locators once it’s found the animals underground. Once the terrier man knows the dog’s
location, he will dig down and then ‘dispatch’ the animal if it isn’t already dead from injuries
inflicted by the dog. However, badger diggers may take the badger away alive for baiting.
The Burns Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs examined digging out and concluded, “…the activity of
digging out and shooting a fox involves a serious compromise of its welfare, bearing in mind the
often protracted nature of the process and the fact that the fox is prevented from escaping.” The dogs
used can also sustain serious injuries.
www.diggingout.org
Direct Action
Direct action is an activity undertaken outside of the normal political campaigning channels by
groups or individuals with the aim of bringing about political, economic or social change. It can
range from legal civil disobedience to more serious illegal acts and can be either violent or non
violent. In the case of Animal Rights campaigning one of the founding principle of the ALF is not to
harm another animal, human or otherwise, so direct action in the name of AR (or many other social
struggles) will not ever involve violence. Examples of actions that have been carried out by the
Animal Rights Movement are phone blockades, roads closed by protests, hunt sabotage, graffiti,
animal liberations from factory farms or laboratories, arson of slaughterhouse vehicles, sabotage of
construction equipment and destruction of animal traps. Thousands of animals have been saved
through direct action. See Animal Liberation.
www.directaction.info
Dr Hadwen Trust
The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK’s leading medical research charity that funds and promotes
exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments.
www.drhadwentrust.org
Dog fighting
Dog fighting is a sadistic sport involving placing two dogs in a ring or pit and forcing them to fight
until one of them is severely injured or killed. Fighting with dogs is still going on despite being
banned in the UK. Dogs are trained to fight from an early age mainly by beating, taunting and
starving them. By using other small animals as bait such as cats, rabbits or other small dogs, the
fighting dog is taunted and trained to kill. Dogs would not normally do this naturally unless they
were hungry and in need of food. Dog fighting is a recent trend, which has alarmingly come back
into fashion. As a result, the Dangerous Dogs Act has banned several breeds (the Pit Bull, Japanese
Tosa, Dogo Argentino and the Fila Brasileiro) and thousands of dogs that have been bred for
fighting (particularly Staffordshire Bull Terriers) are killed in dog pounds each year because homes
cannot be found for them. Can you re-home a staffy?
www.staffycampaign.org.uk
Domestic Pets
Thinking of taking in a companion animal? There are lots of rescued and unwanted animals needing
homes. Have a look at our website for a list of animal sanctuaries that are looking for homes for
animals. Also, we often hear about animals looking for homes. If you think you would like to take
an animal in, please contact us. If you, your family or friends are looking for an animal to rehomed.
Please make sure they come from a rescue centre and not from a breeder or pet shop. See Breeding
and Puppy Farming.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/resources
www.hollyhedge.org.uk
Down Products – See Feathers
Draize Test
The Draize eye irritancy test has been used since 1944. Liquid, flake, granule, and powdered
substances are placed into the eyes of rabbits, and then the eyes’ progressive deterioration is
recorded. The Draize test is still used in this country to test household cleaners and chemicals. Some
of the cosmetics available in our shops are also tested using the draize test. However, you can chose
to buy cruelty free products.
www.naturewatch.org/shoppingguide
E is for…
Earthlings
Earthlings is a must-see, feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on
animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) which also illustrates our
complete disrespect for these so-called ‘non-human providers.’ It details and gives evidence of the
extent to which animal abuse and cruelty is inherent in every day society. Be aware, it is quite an
upsetting film, so try to watch it with like minded folk, and talk about it afterwards, but don't be put
off watching it!
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/earthlings
Eating Out
It’s always good to support veggie and vegan restaurants, and what better excuse to have some good
grub! There is a list of local veggie and vegan cafes and restaurants on our website and if you are
thinking of going further afield, why not check out cafes and restaurants nationally and
internationally on the Happy Cow website.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/cafes
www.happycow.net
Education
Educating people about what happens is a vital part of animal rights activism. This can range from
street stalls, to leafleting, to doing talks at community events or in schools. Some schools are very
open to inviting school speakers in. In fact, the curriculum now includes animal rights.
Animal Aid and The Vegan Society are always looking for school speakers, and provide free
training and resources.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/EDUCATION
www.vegansociety.com
Eggs
So, surely eating eggs does not hurt animals, right? Unfortunately that is wrong. Male chicks are a
bi-product of the egg industry, and are either gassed or shredded soon after birth. Selective breeding
for high egg production has resulted in distinct strains of birds for egg laying and for meat
production. Birds of the laying strain do not make good meat birds and as a result male birds of the
laying strain, who neither lay eggs nor produce meat efficiently, are a waste product and are killed
when a day old.
Female hens in egg farms suffer from a range of welfare problems and restrictions during their
lifetime. When the productivity of the flock falls the hens are sent for slaughter and are quickly
replaced with more profitable animals. Laying hens are normally only kept for one year before they
are slaughtered – their natural lifespan is around seven years. This slaughter of ‘spent’ hens takes
place even in free range systems.
Laying hens are usually kept in battery cages which are so small that they cannot stretch their wings,
peck, scratch the ground, or perform other natural behaviour such as dust bathing, perching and
laying their eggs in a nest. Battery cages provide a floor space of 550cm² per hen of cage area,
equivalent to a piece of A4 paper. A battery cage typically contains four or five hens. The cage
floors are sloped up to 21.3% (or 12 degrees) depending on the floor type which may consist of wire
mesh. The slope is so that the eggs roll forward for collection by the farmer and puts painful
pressure on the hen’s toes, causing damage to the bird’s feet. Hens’ beaks have an extensive nerve
supply but to combat feather pecking farmers de-beak them, a painful process, carried out without
anaesthetic.
Birds in free range systems can be stocked at a density of 9 hens per square metre. Birds in free
range systems may also be de-beaked to combat feather pecking.
www.vegansociety.com
Elephants
A growing body of scientific evidence reveals the cruelty of confining elephants in zoos. Elephants
live up to three times longer in the wild than in zoos. Zoo small enclosures (60 to 100 times smaller
than the smallest home ranges in the wild), restricted movement and hard flooring lead to foot
problems. Limited exercise makes many captive elephants obese, itself a contributor to early deaths.
A 2008 study published by DEFRA, examined every elephant in UK zoos, finding that “there was a
welfare concern for every elephant in the UK” and that 54% showed behavioural problems during
the daytime.
Many organisations, including Captive Animals’ Protection Society, Born Free Foundation and the
RSPCA, have called for an end to the keeping of elephants in zoos.
Similarly, elephants (like any other animal) should not be used in circuses. In the wild, elephants are
extremely social, living in large groups or herds and travel on average 25kms per day. In the circus,
they spend most of each day chained by a front and a hind leg, standing on a wooden or metal board
in a tent. The chains on their legs mean they can only shuffle a pace or two backwards or forwards.
www.captiveanimals.org
Email list
Want to keep up to date with Bristol Animal Rights Collective dates, and other information? Sign up
to our email bulletin by following the link from our website.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/contact
E-numbers
Sadly, some e-numbers are not vegan. There is a list on The Vegan Society to tell you which are and
which aren’t. You can also get a good idea of whether a product is vegan by checking the
ingredients and the allergy advice on the packet.
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/food/criteria-for-vegan-food.aspx
Environment
Did you know that the rearing of livestock contributes to worldwide environmental degradation such
as global warming, desertification, water pollution and misuse of resources? According to a United
Nations report, animal farming is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions - more
than the total generated by the entire transport sector worldwide. It takes more than three times the
amount of water to feed a meat eater as it does to feed a vegan. Shockingly, forests are being
destroyed at a rate of 125,000 square miles per year to create space to raise animals for food. The
raising of livestock takes up 70% of agricultural land in industrialized countries. A vegan diet
requires just one third of the land needed for a typical European omnivorous diet. Half of the
world’s harvest is fed to animals; while precious agricultural land is used to grow animal feed,
millions starve in the developing world.
www.vegansociety.com
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of human populations. Most of what we know about cancer and heart
disease is from epidemiology, not animal experiments. Epidemiology revealed that folic acid
deficiency causes birth defects, that smoking causes lung cancer and that lead damages children’s
brains.
www.safermedicines.org
Exotic Animals
Reptiles, amphibians, fish, and exotic birds and mammals are becoming increasingly popular as
companion animals. There are three main areas of concern; firstly maintaining responsible
ownership; secondly the regulation of trade to prevent suffering during breeding and transportation
and thirdly the fact that many ‘pet’ animals are taken from the wild, including threatened species.
There are significant numbers of exotic species being sold from breeders, via pet shops, dealers and
over the internet. Unfortunately, many exotic animals are bought or acquired by people who do not
have specialist knowledge about the environment, diet, lighting and humidity that these animals
need. Their care is often very specialist and many animals die or are permanently in a poor state of
health because, often without intention, their ‘owners’ cannot adequately care for them.
www.apa.org.uk
www.savethemeerkat.com
Exotic Meat
Obviously all meat is murder. Exotic meat is often sold under the guise of conservation or
sustainability. However, exotic meat practices are still as cruel as ‘common’ meats such as pork,
chicken and beef. For example, as recently as 2010 there has been an outcry over squirrel meat
being sold in shops in North London. Shop owners claim that this supports the (stupid) grey squirrel
cull (see Culling for why that is stupid!). Exotic meat sales increased in the UK after beef sales
bombed in the wake of the 1996 BSE crisis. Since then, Kangaroo meat has been withdrawn from
all major supermarkets along with ostrich and crocodile, but sadly not banned.
www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/exoticmeat
Experiments – See Vivisection
Extinction
Humans have caused extinction of many hundreds of species through over-harvesting, pollution,
destruction of habitat, introduction of non-native predators and food competitors, and other
influences, including the spread of diseases. There is concern that since the advent of humans, and
our expansion around the globe, people are now the primary causal factor of extinctions. As
humans, we have a choice in how we will impact either reduction of biodiversity or its conservation.
Habitat degradation through our pollution can kill off a species very quickly. It can also occur over
longer periods at lower toxicity levels by affecting life span, reproductive capacity, or
competitiveness. Habitat degradation can also take the form of a physical destruction of niche
habitats. The widespread destruction of tropical rainforests and replacement with open pastureland is
widely cited as an example of this.
Eyes – See Draize Test
F is for…
Facebook
Facebook is a great way to pass on information to people about how they can help animals, through
posting links, films and promoting animal rights demonstrations and events. Why not join our
Facebook group, and invite your friends? Search for “Bristol Animal Rights Collective” on
Facebook or follow the link on our website. Be aware not to put too many personal details about
yourself or others on it though, as you don’t know who is reading it.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/contact
Factory Farming
In the UK alone, approximately 1,000 million animals are slaughtered for food each year. This
figure doesn’t include fish, which are killed in such vast numbers that they are counted in tonnes.
The vast majority of farmed animals are fattened in the dirty, cramped conditions of a factory farm –
their lives filled with stress and suffering. All will have died a violent death at the slaughterhouse.
You can save around 12 animals a month from these horrors by not eating them.
Organic meats are now widely promoted as cruelty-free, which is not the case since organically
farmed animals are still treated as meat machines and usually live in confined conditions. Cows may
be kept indoors with as little space as six square metres. Calves are still removed from their mothers,
and artificial insemination, freeze-branding (super-cool iron) and dehorning are all permitted. Up to
one thousand laying hens, 2,500 broiler chickens, 800 turkeys or 2,000 ducks can be kept per
hectare of land. The unwanted male chicks are killed, just as they are on non-organic farms.
www.animalaid.org.uk
Feather/Down Products
Down is plucked from birds (normally geese) once every six weeks until they are slaughtered. Down
can be found in items including coats, pillows and quilts. Traditionally, the feathers and down would
be gathered after slaughter for use in products, in a process considered ‘cruelty-free’ because it
doesn’t inflict additional pain on the birds. Yet undercover investigations have found that geese are
sometimes plucked while still alive, which is painful and terrifying. We don’t need this revolting
stuff to keep us nice and cosy. Synthetic duvets are just as warm. So, check that label next time you
buy some bedding!
Fish
They do feel pain!
Fish Farming
Fish farms and their environments are often treated with antibiotics and pesticides which ultimately
enter the food chain. Farmed fish are fed many times their weight in wild-caught fish, so have an
even greater impact on declining populations in the seas, hardly saving the oceans as some people
believe!
Fishing – See Angling
Flu
Where do bird flu and swine flu come from? Think about it – would these flu crises have happened
if not for the farming of animals (and BSE and Foot and Mouth for that matter…the list goes on.)
Foie Gras
Every year in France, 30 million ducks and geese are forced into cages so small they can’t even
stretch their wings. Trapped and helpless, a metal tube is thrust down their throats and vast
quantities of food are forcibly pumped into their stomachs so that their livers swell painfully to up to
10 times their natural size. There is no escape and no respite. The suffering of these birds is so
extreme it would be illegal in this country. However, free trade laws mean that every year we import
tonnes of these diseased livers, marketed as an expensive delicacy.
In Bristol, we protest outside restaurants that sell foie gras, to embarrass the owners, and spread the
message that it is not acceptable. See our website for current anti-foie gras campaigns.
In other parts of the country, such as York, Eastbourne and Bolton, foie gras is banned on council
property and land. We hope that Bristol follows suit.
www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/foiegras
Food Fairs
Free vegan food fairs are a chance to show off the range of food that vegans can eat. You can save
up to 12 animals a month by going veggie, and even more by being vegan, so they are an important
aspect of animal rights campaigning. Keep an eye on the BARC website for the date of the next free
vegan food fair if you would like to find out more about becoming vegan or if you are vegan already
and would like to help out.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/veganfoodfair
Francione, Gary
Francione is known for his work on animal rights theory, and was the first academic to teach it in an
American law school. His work has focused on three issues: (1) the property status of animals, (2)
the differences between animal rights and animal welfare, and (3) a theory of animal rights based on
sentience alone, rather than on any particular characteristics.
He is a pioneer of the abolitionist theory of animal rights, arguing that animal welfare regulation is
theoretically and practically unsound, serving only to prolong the status of animals as property by
making the public feel comfortable about using them. He argues that non-human animals require
only one right: the right not to be regarded as property, and that the moral baseline of the abolitionist
approach is veganism, the rejection of the use of all animal products.
www.abolitionistapproach.com
‘Free’ Range
The term ‘free range’ suggests a handful of hens or turkeys scratching around a yard. In reality
modern free-range units usually contain several thousand birds crammed together in each shed, with
an outdoor run which they are often unable to get to. Don’t be duped by the RSPCA’s Freedom
Food labels. Undercover reports have shown that practices are still horrendously cruel.
www.hillside.org.uk
Fur
Due to campaigns by anti-fur groups, the farming of animals ‘solely or primarily for their fur’ was
banned in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 1st January 2003. Meanwhile,
millions of animals continue to be killed around the world for their fur. The majority of these
animals are mink, raised on fur factory farms. Other animals farmed for their fur include rabbits and
foxes. In some countries stray dogs and cats are rounded up and skinned, many whilst still alive.
Every year some 10 million animals are trapped in the wild for their fur, caught by leghold traps,
body grip traps and wire snares.
www.caft.org.uk
G is for…
Game Birds
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted
for ‘sport’. An estimated 35 million pheasants and millions more partridges are mass-produced and
then released to be shot every year for ‘sport’ in this country. On game bird rearing farms, breeding
birds are confined in small cages where they are forced to endure crowded conditions, stress and
disease. Their eggs are hatched, and when the chicks are hardy enough they are transferred into
outside pens and then released into controlled woods where they continue to be fed by the
gamekeeper until the day of the shoot. The job of the gamekeeper is to feed the birds so they come
readily to his call, and to kill any other wild animals who threaten or compete with the pheasants.
Millions of other birds and wild mammals are killed every year by gamekeepers. Stoats, weasels,
foxes, polecats and other animals are caught in traps and snares or simply poisoned. Sometimes,
protected species, such as badgers, otters, wild cats, kestrels and owls and other birds of prey are
killed to ‘protect’ the valuable game birds.
Although the shooters try to kill the birds dead in flight, because they use spread-shot cartridges in
the guns, a quick death is not guaranteed. Many birds either fly on, wounded by lead shot, or fall to
the ground alive. The grouse shooting season officially opens on 12th August and is known as the
‘Glorious Twelfth’. Many hunt sabs groups often head to the shooting moors to sabotage the shoots
and save the lives of the birds.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/pheasant
Global Warming
A recent UN report cited that the livestock industry produces 18% of all CO2 emissions, more than
cars and all other transport combined. It is estimated that livestock farming is responsible for a 5th
of global warming effects as Methane is many times more powerful and damaging than CO2.
Nitrous oxide is another hugely damaging pollutant that is produced by livestock rearing. Around
65% of the world’s nitrous oxide is produced by the livestock industry.
“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental
problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.” Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s
Livestock Information and Policy Branch. The report noted that meat eaters use three times more
resources than vegans and vegetarians.
www.veganoutreach.org/globalwarming.html
www.vegansociety.com/resources/environment/global-warming.aspx
Gorillas
If it is true that we are moving towards a world in which Mountain Gorillas can survive only in
zoos, then we must ask whether it is really better for them to live in artificial environments of our
design than not to be born at all. Gorillas, like all great apes, are extremely intelligent and highly
sentient and can suffer particularly badly in captivity. It is wrong to confine great apes, or any other
animal, for ‘entertainment’. Most gorillas living in zoos today were born in captivity. Their
ancestors originated in the enormous rain forests of Cameroon, Gaboon and the Republic of Congo.
Since 1956 gorillas have been bred in zoos and the captive population now seems to be selfsustaining. It is impossible to duplicate their natural habitat. The space available in captivity, for
instance, is very limited and only very robust plants survive in gorilla enclosures. As gorillas are
very intelligent, social creatures they can get bored easily. See Captive Animals and Zoos.
Grassroots
Grassroots defines the level of a movement at a local level. Examples of this include street stalls,
leafleting, and fly posting to name a few.
Grazing Animals
A vegan diet requires one eighth of the land needed to feed a meat eater. We have to make the
decision: will we feed the world’s people, or feed the animals we rear for our own consumption? We
cannot feed both. An acre of land can either produce 40,000 lb of vegetables or 250 pounds of meat.
In many places rainforests and wood are cleared to make way for grazing animals thus destroying
the habitat of other, sometimes endangered or even undiscovered species of plant and animal life!
People often argue that a vegan diet is dependent on too much soya. But 95% of soya grown
globally is fed to animals, or used as a bulking agent in processed products, many of which are
animal-based.
www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/hot/dietofdisaster
Green Living
Apart from testing on animals (see Vivisection) and using animals in products many large
pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies have huge environmental impacts. Avoiding animal
products and instead using ‘cruelty-free’ products has wider implications for the environment than
the individual animals that aren’t exploited directly! Many products (e.g. toiletries and cleaning
products) have damaging chemicals in them which pollute and impact on biodiversity. Green living
also means having an awareness of issues such as rubbish and litter on animal populations. Use
chemical free products and think about your waste! You cannot get greener than vegan. See
Environment, Global Warming and Grazing Animals.
www.vegansociety.com/afssearch.aspx
www.greenlivingtips.com
Greyhound Racing
Around 25,000 Greyhounds are registered for racing every year. Only some of these make the races;
over 10,000 greyhound pups and young dogs are put to death each year as they fail to reach racing
standards. Many dogs obtain muscle, joint or tendon injuries during races. Most dogs ‘retire’ at
around 2 1/2 yrs. It is obviously hard to rehome so many dogs and although some owners do care for
their dogs after they have retired many are abandoned or killed. Even the racing industry admits that
around 1,000 retired greyhounds are put to death each year. This alone would be enough to justify a
ban on greyhound racing, but the true figure is sadly far higher, as many as 6,000 are killed each
year.
www.greyhoundaction.org.uk
www.tiagreyhounds.org.uk
H is for…
Habitat Protection
Most threatened species cannot be properly protected without conservation of their habitats. There
are legal provisions for the protection and management of areas where threatened species occur,
although these are regularly ignored by many large companies, hunts and other enemies of wildlife.
Protected habitat is broadly divided into:


Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), National Nature Reserves and Marine Nature
Reserves are selected and protected under British law because they are examples of
important habitats and often contain rare invertebrates.
Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are chosen under the Habitats Directive for other
animals and plants needing habitat protection in Europe as a whole. Among these species are
the Stag beetle and White clawed crayfish.
Other areas in the UK are designated under the Ramsar Convention, a world-wide agreement on the
conservation of wetlands. Habitat Action Plans have been drawn up for priority habitats under the
UK Biodiversity Action Plan. See Conservation.
Highgate Farm
Highgate Farm supplies several university and commercial laboratories, including Huntingdon Life
Sciences (HLS) with rabbits and ferrets to be used in animal experiments. They were exposed in
January 2008 when anonymous people entered the farm to find rabbits living in bare metal cages
suspended above thick excrement and urine. A total of 129 rabbits were loaded in friendship groups
into bags and taken immediately to safety.
Activists occupied land near the entrance of Highgate Rabbit Farm in protest against their breeding
of rabbits and ferrets for the vivisection industry. The campers are holding a peaceful occupation of
the land, calling on the closure of the farm, and for the farmer Geoffrey Douglas to hand the animals
over to a suitable organisation for rehoming. There are regular demonstrations at the farm, and in
July 2009 a protest camp was held outside the farm for a week.
www.closehighgatefarm.com
Hill, Mike
Hunt saboteur, Mike Hill, was killed on the 9th of February 1991 at a meet of the Cheshire Beagles.
Towards the end of the day’s hunting, with no kill under his belt, the huntsman boxed up his hounds
in a small blue trailer being towed by an open-top pick-up truck. The kennel huntsman, Allan
Summersgill, along with another man, jumped into the pick-up and, on impulse, three sabs who
were nearby, jumped onto the back of it to prevent them driving the pack to another location to
continue hunting. Summersgill drove off at high speeds down winding country roads for 5 miles
with the terrified sabs clinging onto the back. It is thought that Mike jumped from the pick-up as it
slowed to take a bend. He failed to clear the truck properly, and was caught between the truck and
the trailer, which crushed him. Mike died where he lay on the road.
Despite the thud, and the screams of the other sabs, Summersgill continued driving for a further
mile. The truck only came to a halt when one of the sabs smashed the rear window of the cab. The
sab was hit with a whip as he tried to stop the truck. Once it had stopped one sab ran back to Mike’s
prone body while the other ran to a nearby house to call for an ambulance. Summersgill drove off.
He later handed himself in at a police station. No charges were brought against him and in a travesty
of justice, a verdict of ‘Accidental Death’ was brought at the inquest. Summersgill is still hunting
hares.
Mike was a brave young activist, who tragically had his own life cut short whilst trying to protect
the lives of others, he will not be forgotten.
www.huntsabs.org.uk
Hill Grove Farm
Hill Grove Farm near Witney in Oxfordshire was a breeding facility which sold cats and kittens
(from as little as ten days old) for experiments worldwide. It held over 1,000 cats in windowless
sheds at the back of the farm. In 1997 the Save the Hill Grove Cats campaign was set up with the
aim of closing it down. At least 350 people were arrested and 21 jailed for public order offences
over the course of the campaign. Policing costs rose to £2.8m and a five-mile exclusion zone was
put in place around the farm. After unbelievable pressure Hill Grove buckled and closed after an 18
month campaign in August 1999. It was headline news around the world as over 800 cats were
rescued from the farm and rehomed on the night of August 12th 1999.
The closure of the farm was highly significant in the UK, as an example of what is viewed - both by
animal rights activists and by the British government - as the increasing influence and determination
of the animal rights movement. It was the last commercial breeder of cats for laboratories in the
United Kingdom. Activists then went on to target Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a contract
animal-testing company in Cambridgeshire.
Honey – See Bees
Horne, Barry
Barry Horne was a dedicated animal rights activist, sentenced in 1997 to 18 years for arson and
criminal damage against companies involved in vivisection and the fur industry, still the longest
sentence given to any animal rights campaigner. He died in prison on 5th November 2001 after
going on a series of hunger strikes to draw attention to the government’s broken pre-election
promises surrounding animal experiments. His three longest hunger strikes, lasting 35, 46 and 68
days, brought worldwide media attention to his campaign against the government’s dishonesty and
the plight of animals in vivisection laboratories. They also generated a surge in animal rights
activity, with hundreds of protests and actions carried out throughout the UK and the world in
support of his campaign. The hunger strikes also had a massive impact on his health and affected his
hearing and eye sight as well as causing him unimaginable pain. When Barry died in 2001 he had
been refusing food for a further 15 days and his liver finally gave up. Hundreds of activists attended
his funeral in Northampton where his coffin was carried through the streets. He was given a Pagan
burial and had an Oak tree planted on his grave. His dedication, strength and bravery continue to
inspire activists around the world and actions are often dedicated to his memory.
www.barryhorne.org
Horse Racing
Horse racing is a highly dangerous ‘sport’ enjoyed by a ‘privileged’ few that spend vast amounts of
money on this barbaric hobby. Horses are whipped to encourage them to ‘behave’ and run ‘safely’.
Many horses obtain atrocious injuries including broken bones, bleeding lungs, ripped ligaments and
very deep wounds. Often owners kill horses if they are not good racers or if they become injured and
are not considered financially worth treating. Around 420 horses are killed in racing and race
practise every year. Between 1999 and 2009 30 horses died from injuries they gained in the Grand
National. Between 2006 and 2008 31 horses died at Cheltenham races.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_racing/ALL/1263
Horse Riding
Whilst many people who participate in horse riding would argue that their horses are well cared for,
well loved and possibly even enjoy being ridden, there are other issues involved in horse riding
which are causes for concern. From an animal liberation perspective, being ridden is purely for the
benefit of the rider and goes against the natural will of the horse. Horses, like other domestic
animals, are bred, traded and separated from their mothers at a young age, all of which clearly cause
them distress. They also need to be ‘broken in’ in order to be trained to be ridden. Horses are also
used in other exploitative ways, such as racing, show jumping, hunting, rodeos, as transport and by
the police, all of which can put them in frightening and dangerous situations in which they would
not naturally find themselves.
Hunting
In the UK people most associate the hunting of foxes with hounds with the term hunting, but is
actually any practice of pursuing living animals (usually wildlife) for food, recreation, or trade. In
present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching which is illegal.
The species which are hunted are referred to as ‘game’ and are usually mammals and migratory or
non-migratory game birds. The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called
fishing, which is not commonly categorized as a form of hunting.
The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The effect of the Act is to
outlaw hunting with dogs (particularly fox hunting, but also the hunting of deer, hare and mink and
organised hare coursing) in England and Wales. However, hunts still meet regularly in the season,
and the Government has threatened to repeal the ban, making hunting legal again.
The pursuit of foxes with hounds was banned in Scotland in 2001. It remains legal in Northern
Ireland. See Bloodsports and Hunt Sabbing.
Hunt Sabbing
The idea behind hunt sabotage is to legally intervene in hunting with the intention of preventing a
kill. Sabs try to distract, confuse and delay the hounds. This is done in a number of ways including:




Citronella sprays to put hounds off the trail of the hunted animal by masking the scent
Using hunting horns and voice calls (in the same way as the hunt staff) to distract and
confuse the hounds, and take them away from the control of the huntsman
Using whips to make a loud cracking sound to stop hounds on the trail of an animal or to
keep them away from roads and railways where they could get hurt
Using ‘gizmos’ (more hi-tech equipment!) which amplify recordings of horn calls and packs
of hounds ‘on cry’ (they made a very distinctive barking sound when they pick up a scent) to
send the hounds off course.
Hunt Saboteurs save thousands of animals every year, despite the efforts of huntsmen, terrier men,
police and the courts to stop them. Sabs act because they cannot stand by and allow the torture and
killing of animals while politicians and media fudge the issues and delay any hope of legislation.
Their actions mean the difference between life and death for hunted animals.
Over the past four decades, hundreds of Hunt Saboteurs have been attacked at hunts, two killed by
huntsmen and a huge number arrested by police in a futile attempt to stop what are proven tactics
that save the lives of hunted animals. See Hill, Mike and Warby, Tom.
www.huntsabs.org.uk
Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA)
A national organisation (made up of hunt sabs from around the country) which supports local hunt
sab groups, produces leaflets, a quarterly magazine called Howl, lots of cool merchandise, deals
with press enquiries and is a bit fab all round. See Hunt Sabbing.
www.huntsabs.org.uk
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS)
Huntingdon Life Sciences is the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe. It has about 70,000
animals on site, including rabbits, cats, hamsters, dogs, guinea-pigs, birds and monkeys. These
animals are destined to suffer and die in cruel, useless experiments. HLS will test anything for
anybody. It carries out experiments which involve poisoning animals with household products,
pesticides, drugs, herbicides, food colourings and additives, sweeteners and genetically modified
organisms. Every three minutes an animal dies inside HLS, totalling 500 innocent lives every single
day.
Huntingdon Life Sciences is the most exposed laboratory in the world. In recent years it has been
infiltrated and exposed at least seven separate times for disgusting animal cruelty and rule breaking.
Each time, horrific evidence of animal abuse and staff incompetence has been uncovered, including
workers punching beagle puppies in the face.
In 1996, after the successful closures of Consort Beagles, Shamrock Farm, Regal Rabbits and
Hill Grove Farm, the attention of the Animal Rights movement turned to HLS and Stop
Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was formed.
www.shac.net
I is for…
Ice Cream
Vegans don’t have to miss out on ice cream! Whilst ice cream is traditionally made from dairy, there
are many delicious soya and rice alternatives in lots of flavours. You can even by non-dairy
Cornettos and Magnums! Below are some of the most commonly seen brands.
www.swedishglace.com
www.triano.f2s.com
www.boojabooja.com/e_news.htm
Illegal
Illegal describes acts or things which are prohibited or not authorised by law. The law is changing
all the time, with new laws being introduced in reaction to the current social climate. Many new
laws, such as anti-terrorism laws, have also been used to clamp down on various protest movements.
For example, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005 has a section specifically
targeting protests against organisations with links to animal testing facilities! There are a number of
online resources which can help you learn your rights such as Free B.E.A.G.L.E.S., a legal resource
for UK activists.
www.freebeagles.org
Incarceration
Sometimes animal rights protesters sacrifice their own freedom in order to free non-human animals
from incarceration or to obtain evidence to be used in campaigning for their freedom. See Prisoner
Support.
www.openrescue.org
www.directaction.info
Indymedia
The Indymedia websites provides reports from movements around the world struggling for freedom,
cooperation, justice and solidarity, and against environmental degradation, neoliberal exploitation,
animal exploitation, racism and patriarchy. The reports cover a wide range of issues and social
movements – from neighbourhood campaigns to grassroots mobilisations, from critical analysis to
direct action. The content of the Indymedia website is created through a system of open publishing:
anyone can upload a written or video report directly to the site through an openly accessible web
interface. See Media.
www.indymedia.org.uk
www.bristol.indymedia.org
Information stalls
A good way to spread information and to reach members of the public is through information stalls
in the high street. Most local groups use these to publicise local and national campaigns and events
and to give out leaflets about animal farming and vegan diets. It is also a good way to meet people
who may want to become involved in the local group. BARC does regular information stalls in
Broadmead and other areas of the city, if you think it sounds like your cup of tea then get in touch.
You will find our contact details at the back of this booklet.
Innocent
Innocent means ‘free from moral wrong; without sin; pure’. The animal rights movement has
evolved in order to fight for the rights of innocent animals which are unable to speak for themselves.
It is made up of compassionate individuals who are not prepared to sit back and let animals suffer
and be exploited for the benefit of humans.
Insects
Some people may be surprised that the concept of Animal Rights extends to all living creatures, no
matter how small they are or how many legs they may have! It doesn’t stop at the cute and cuddly
ones! All have a right to life and a capacity to feel pain and fear. Some foods, for example, aren’t
suitable for vegans as they contain insects such as cochineal (red food colouring) made from beetles
and shellac (used as a glaze) which is secreted by the lac bug – and people really eat this stuff!? Yes,
weirdly they are both used in widely available foods. So remember, animals can suffer – no matter
how small or insignificant they may appear to be, no matter how much they make you jump when
they run out from under the bed and no matter how much bigger than them you are!! See Honey.
International Animal Rights Day (IARD)
The annual International Animal Rights Day – 10th December – aims to remember the animal
victims of human tyranny and call for the recognition of our Universal Declaration of Animal Rights
(UDAR). The goal of this historic campaign is to build on the recognition of human rights, and
persuade humanity that kindness and respect is due to all sentient creatures. Protests and vigils have
taken place on this date around the world since it began in 1998.
www.uncaged.co.uk/iard.htm
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that consists of millions of
private, public, academic, business, and government networks. The Internet carries a vast array of
information resources and services, making it a valuable tool in the animal rights movement,
whether it is to be used for research, spreading information through online reports and photographs
(e.g. undercover investigations, demo reports) or to mobilise people and publicise upcoming protests
and events.
Isinglass
Isinglass is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish, ugh! Who’d want to eat a
bladder of any kind anyway? It is a form of collagen used mainly for the clarification of wine and
beer. It can also be cooked into a paste for specialised gluing purposes. Isinglass can be a problem
for vegans as it is used in the clearing process of many alcoholic drinks and usually doesn’t get
listed on the packaging. Supermarkets are starting to label their vegan-friendly alcohol, most notably
the Co-op and Sainsbury. The Animal Free Shopper (available from The Vegan Society) is a very
useful pocket-size guide for all your vegan shopping. There are also online databases of alcoholic
drinks which are suitable for vegans, but be aware that things do change, so they are best used as a
guide only.
www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/shopping/veganalcohol.html
www.vegansociety.com/afssearch.aspx
www.veggiewines.co.uk
J is for…
Jelly
Jelly traditionally contains gelatine (derived from animal bones and skin) to make it set. Fortunately
there are vegan alternatives that can be used instead to meet all our vegan dessert needs (…..mmmm
…..trifle!) Vegan jelly can be bought in many different flavours from wholefood shops and
supermarkets. Some supermarket own-brand products may also be suitable for vegans.
www.justwholefoods.co.uk/jelly.html
Johnnies – See Condoms
Jungle
Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change, and much of the reason for this tragic
loss of natural habitats is the need for more and more land for grazing and to grow crops for cattle
feed. One of the most important things you can do to reduce your impact on the planet is to go
vegan. See Deforestation and Global Warming.
K is for…
Kangaroos
Australia exports approximately 3 million kangaroo skins, worth more than £12 million, to Europe
and the USA every year. The vast majority of these skins are used to make football boots. Official
numbers for the kill do not include the baby kangaroos that also die as a result, the worthless ‘waste’
of the industry. Each time a female kangaroo is killed, it is likely she will have two baby ‘joeys’ –
one in the pouch and one ‘at foot’. Tiny joeys are pulled from their dead mothers’ pouches and
stamped on, clubbed, decapitated, shot or simply left on the ground to die. Older joeys hop away
into the night invariably to die of starvation, predation, cold or neglect. See Exotic Meat.
www.savethekangaroo.com
Kebele
Kebele Kulture Projekt started as an empty building that was squatted in September 1995 to provide
housing for homeless activists. Through resisting certain eviction and after negotiations with the
owners, the Housing Co-op was formed to buy the building with a mortgage. Based on anarchist
principles of opposing all forms of authority, and organising collectively without leaders, Kebele’s
premises became the base for many activities: the regular, cheap vegan cafes; bike workshops; a DJ,
sound system & party network; an allotment; many forms of art, radical info and publications; and
numerous events & meetings featuring local and international speakers & artists. Come along for a
cheap Saturday breakfast or Sunday evening meal, or one of the many events organised there.
www.kebelecoop.org
Kitchen
The kitchen is the best place to start your cruelty-free lifestyle. Millions of animals are farmed and
killed each year to supply the meat, dairy and egg industries. A vegan diet not only cuts out the
animal suffering on your dinner plate, it is also more sustainable, better for the environment and
better for your health. There is a wealth of vegan information online and thousands of tasty recipes.
Excluding animal products from your diet will make your meals more ethical, healthier and more
appealing too. For vegan recipes see some of the links below or search online for ‘vegan + (your
favourite dish)’.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/recipes
L is for…
Laboratories
Animal Research Laboratories are one of the key focuses of the Animal Rights movement and many
animal labs are the subjects of campaigns set up specifically to close them down (see SHAC,
SPEAK, Stop Wickham Animal Testing). Over 3 million animals are used in experiments in
British laboratories every year in procedures which are licensed to cause ‘pain, suffering, distress
and lasting harm’. These statistics do not include experiments which are considered unlikely to
cause pain as those do not need to be licensed. Experiments may involve animals being starved,
burned, blinded, poisoned, irradiated, having their limbs broken, being forced to breath toxic fumes
and having electrodes inserted into their brains, among other things. Many experiments continue for
months, or even years, using the same individual animals.
www.uncaged.co.uk
www.vivisection-absurd.org.uk
Lameness
Lameness is one of the biggest welfare concerns in dairy cows affecting between 25% and 55% of
animals at any time. Lameness is caused by the metabolic strain put on the cows to produce ever
increasing milk yields (up to ten times the natural amount) along with the unnatural weights they are
forced to carry as their udders swell to many times their natural size. It is also affected by poor
housing and the fact that they are often forced to stand for long periods in faeces, muck and mud
which allows infections to develop. See Dairy.
www.vegansociety.com/resources/animals/dairy-production.aspx
Larsen traps
Larsen traps are traps made of mesh, with a wooden or metal frame. They are divided into segments
and are designed to trap corvids such as magpies and crows. They work by using a caged live decoy
bird to encourage over another bird, which then becomes trapped and is later killed by a
gamekeeper. They can often be found around shooting estates and in areas where game birds are
being raised. Somewhat ironically, they have been banned from Denmark (where they were
invented) as they are so inhumane.
www.againstcorvidtraps.co.uk/larsen_traps
Learning
There may be a lot to learn, many people are shocked by the number of ways in which animals are
used and abused by humans when their eyes are first opened to it all. But it doesn’t stop there. It is
important to always keep your eyes open, question anything and everything and always be open to
being taught something you did not know. None of us know it all, (whatever we’d like to think
sometimes!) activists and the Animal Rights movement as a whole are constantly learning and
growing with new tactics and methods of campaigning emerging all the time.
Leather
Many people mistakenly believe that leather is a by-product of the meat industry, and that buying
leather does not increase the number of animals that are killed. The truth is leather is a valuable
commodity and accounts for a large proportion of the value of the dead animal, without it the meat
industry would be much less financially viable. Much of the leather available in this country has
been imported from countries where welfare standards are even poorer than they are in the UK.
Other animals, including sheep, goats, horses, pigs, lambs, kangaroos, snakes, sharks and elephants
are often killed for their skins.
Regardless of how animals are reared, and whether they are bred for their skin, their meat, or both,
wearing them is not cool, it’s not vegan and it’s not right!
www.cowsarecool.com/theFacts.asp
Legal
Unfortunately involvement in political campaign movements such as animal rights, human rights,
anti-war or climate change often comes with unwanted and unwarranted attention from the
authorities. It is important to know your rights if you are going to be in a situation where you may be
confronted by the police (such as on a protest march) as they often cannot help themselves from
taking liberties if people do not know the law. If you know when and in what situations you are
legally obliged to give your details, move from a certain location, take photos, use a megaphone etc.
you will you often find you have more knowledge regarding the law than the police, which comes in
handy when they try using intimidatory tactics (including out right lies!) to move you on. There is
lots of legal information available, aimed specifically at activists. Remember that laws do change so
it is important to get the most up-to-date information.
Despite all this, generally the animal abuse that we are fighting against is in fact legal! Consider
what vivisectors are allowed do to animals inside laboratories, if you did the same thing to a cat or a
dog in the street you could expect to be prosecuted for it! See Solicitors.
www.freebeagles.org
www.activistslegalproject.org.uk
Letter writing
As well as stalls, protests, food fairs and petitions etc, an affective method for campaigning against
animal abusing companies or laws is through letter writing. This may be a letter to the head of a
company to say that you will boycott its products while it continues to do X, Y and Z. a letter to
your MP to highlight an issue about which you are concerned and ask for support or to the letters
page of a paper to highlight an issue to the readers. BARC respectfully requests that all letters,
emails and phone calls made in support of our campaigns are polite. Don’t forget you can also
support political prisoners by writing letters to them.
Liberation
Liberation can mean both the physical act of being set free and the act or fact of gaining equal rights
and economic opportunities. While Animal Rights activists may sometimes be involved in the
physical liberation of animals, for example liberating caged chickens from a battery farm, the
overriding aim of the animal liberation movement is a world where non-human animals have an
equal right to live a life free from exploitation, pain and suffering.
Life
A founding principle of animal rights is that all lives are equal. Animals are not ours to be eaten,
worn, experimented on, enslaved or used for entertainment, in the same way that it is wrong to
exploit or victimise people of a different race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or people with
different mental or physical abilities to one’s own. All animals have a will to live and a survival
instinct to rival our own.
Live Exports
Live export is the transportation of live animals, often for hundreds of miles, across state and
national borders, so that they can be slaughtered nearer to the place in which they are going to be
eaten. Conditions inside transporters are horrific, and animals frequently go many hours without
access to food, water and clean air. They are also subject to extremes of temperature as they are
moved year round. Thousands of animals die each year whilst being transported, and many more are
injured and crippled in the cramped, crowded conditions of the cattle trucks. Transportation
regulations, despite being lax, are routinely ignored. Pigs and horses can legally be transported for
24 hours without a break, but in reality they are often on the road for longer than this without being
unloaded. Many people conveniently forget the link between the dairy industry and the live exports
and veal industries. Dairy cows need to give birth to a calf each year to continue producing milk,
and by the law of averages, half of these calves will be male and will therefore never produce milk.
Many of these young male calves are exported to mainland Europe, where veal farming is still legal,
to be raised in damp, cramped, dirty sheds over there instead.
www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/livexp.pdf
Lord Dowding
The Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research was set up in 1973 to promote the use of non-animal
research as both humane and more effective than outdated vivisection. It does this through funding
scientific research which replaces the use of animals in testing medicines and curing disease, and
through supporting research aimed at highlighting the failings of animal testing.
www.ldf.org.uk
LUSH
LUSH is a cosmetics company, founded on ethics and the move away from animal testing of
toiletries and cosmetics. LUSH does not test any of its products or ingredients on animals and will
not buy ingredients from companies that do. All of its products are suitable for vegetarians and
many are suitable for vegans. Most are also unpackaged, solid products, reducing the impact on the
environment. LUSH financially supports many charities and campaign organisations. Some of its
more recent beneficiaries have been the Hunt Saboteurs Association and the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society.
www.lush.co.uk
M is for…
Macaques
Aside from humans, the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to
Afghanistan and, in the case of the Barbary Macaque, to North Africa. They are also the most
widely used primate in animal testing laboratories. See Primates.
McDonald’s
If you want wholesome, healthy and nutritious food then don’t go to this place. These cheap, nasty
and foul-smelling so called restaurants are everywhere you go. They are mass murderers of cows
and chickens, not to mention people and the planet on which we live. The chicken burgers they sell
have been known to contain ground up bird skulls and beaks. This isn’t my idea of a ‘happy meal’.
McDonald’s also exploit humans. As well as being responsible for forcing farmers and tribes off
their native land to make room for cattle feed crops they don’t treat their workers very well either.
Workers in catering do badly in terms of pay and conditions and McDonald’s have a policy of
preventing unionisation by getting rid of pro-union workers. Annual staff turnover is 60% (in the
USA it’s 300 %!)
Please don’t buy from this unethical, multinational corporation. There are many legal things you can
do to sabotage McDonalds like sitting in the place (if you can stomach it) for a couple of hours and
generally getting on their nerves. Also, (some people’s favourite) finding McDonalds litter (or any
other evil food chain) and taking it back and dumping it on their counter in front of customers.
See the latest version of the factsheet about McDonalds that was proven through the McLibel trial
and has since been updated, here: www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/resources.
Meat
Meat is murder, as I’m sure you’ve heard before. A ‘food’ that comes from dead animals; the
product of an incredibly cruel and unnecessary industry. Hard for humans to digest, and bad for your
health as a result. It’s expensive, bad for your health, bad for the animals, bad for the environment,
and it’s very easy to live without, so why not ask yourself, can you really justify eating it? See
Kitchen for online animal-free recipes.
www.factoryfarming.org.uk
www.britishmeat.com
Media
Media, in the mainstream, can be far from the friend of an activist. We are often portrayed in a
negative light as our actions show resistance and question the world as it is by exposing cruelties
and acting against them. The mainstream media is very controlled by the government, the people in
charge who don’t like to be questioned. That said, when companies and cruelties are exposed in the
mainstream media the news can reach a huge number of people, so it is worth sending out those
press releases and writing to your local paper – in fact letters pages are often the most effective way
of using the printed media to get your message across. Or consider setting up your own blog.
Fortunately there are open and independent news outlets that are not controlled by the ones in power
and people can report their own news, see Indymedia. And remember: don’t believe everything you
read in the paper or hear on the news!
www.indymedia.org.uk
Milk
We are the only species in the world to consume milk past infancy, and to consume the milk of
another species. Not very natural, is it? Not only is it unnatural, there’s a lot of cruelty inherent in
the production. And seeing as calcium is contained in every green plant/vegetable, consumption of it
is unnecessary. See Dairy and Veal.
Mink
The unnecessary killing of Mink is for the rich people who like to wear animals, which is really
quite strange. Is there really any need to wear dead animals when there are many clothes out there
which don’t involve cruelty to animals. We don’t live in the stone-age where we have to kill and
wear animals to keep warm. Boycott fur and politely explain this to anyone you see wearing fur,
they wont feel so great when people don’t like what they are wearing. See Fur.
www.caft.org.uk
Money
Money makes the world go round, unfortunately. It is the cause of many wars, and other atrocities,
including a lot of animal abuse and exploitation. Zoos exploit animals because they can make a
profit. Aquaria as well. Pet stores, laboratories, the meat and dairy industries…the list goes on. But
we can use the monster that is capitalism against these places, boycotts cut the profit, and when the
profit’s gone they close down. So don’t give these places your money! See Boycott.
www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts/currentboycotts.aspx
Monkeys – See Primates
Moon Bears
The Asian black bear, also known as the Moon bear or White-chested bear is a medium-sized
species of bear, largely adapted for arboreal life, which occurs through much of southern Asia,
Korea, north-eastern China, the Russian far east and limited parts of Japan. It is classed by the IUCN
as a vulnerable species, mostly due to deforestation and active hunting for its body parts. Another
major threat to Moon Bears is the bear bile trade. In countries across Asia, thousands of bears live a
life of torture on bear farms, so that their bile can be extracted and used in traditional medicine to
cure ailments ranging from headaches to haemorrhoids. Bears are confined in cages which vary
from agonisingly tiny ‘crush’ cages to larger pens, all of which cause terrible physical and mental
suffering. See Bear Bile.
www.animalsasia.org
Movement
An organic coming together of people to achieve a common goal. If you are patient and want
something enough that is right and fair and are prepared to fight for it, you can help achieve this by
being involved in a movement and it is possible to win against the odds, which has been proved in
history. Social struggles have gone a long way towards ensuring equal rights for and treatment of
women and people from different ethnic backgrounds – maybe not yet far enough, but that’s another
booklet! See Animal Liberation Movement.
Mulesing
So what could possibly be cruel about wool? Sadly, quite a lot. Australian ranchers perform a
barbaric operation-called mulesing, where they force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs
between metal bars, and, without any painkillers whatsoever, slice chunks of flesh from around their
tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that can’t harbour fly eggs. Ironically, the
exposed, bloody wounds themselves often get flystrike before they heal. A lot of wool sold in the
UK comes from Australia. See Wool for more information about how cruel UK-produced wool is
too.
MySpace
MySpace is (yet another!) social networking website, but BARC is on there, so that makes it more
worthwhile ;-)
www.myspace.com/bristolanimalrights
N is for…
Nature
A general understanding of nature refers to the natural world, i.e. plants, earth, trees, animals, and so
on, something which is being destroyed rapidly by over industrialisation, and other unnecessary
expansions of society. Nature is precious, and should be cherished far above the so-called ‘need’ for
money, expansion and development; we need to stop destroying it for the benefit of other species,
because we do it for nothing other than our own ignorant greed!
Natural Products
Products created without the use of chemicals; healthier, for people, animals and the environment.
Many people chose natural and organic foods, without thinking as much about the products they put
on their skin or use to clean the house. Chemicals from these products go down the drains and can
have a damaging effect on the environment. There are many vegan, environmentally-friendly and
biodegradable toiletries and household products, pop in to your local health food shop to see what
you can find.
www.biodegradable.biz
Nest Boxes
A nest box is a human-made box provided for animals to nest in. Nest boxes are most frequently
utilized for wild birds, but some mammalian species may also use them. Many wildlife and
conservation groups encourage supporters to install nest boxes in their gardens and to feed the birds
to help combat the sharp decline in many garden bird species. The loss of so many hedgerows,
among other factors, has resulted in less food and less opportunities for nesting for many birds. See
Cats.
There are other boxes that can also be used to encourage wildlife into your garden, such as
bumblebees, dormice and hedgehogs.
www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/nestboxes
www.bumblebee.org/nestboxes.htm
Neutering
Neutering is the removal of an animal’s reproductive organs, for the purpose of sterilising them. The
term neutering is usually used to refer to the castration of male animals. Most good animal rescues
will always ensure that animals coming into their care are sterilised to prevent any unwanted litters.
There are thousands of animals in shelters looking for homes as so many people irresponsibly allow
their animals to breed, adding to the overall number of unwanted companion animals, increasing the
pressure on rescue centres and adding to the number of animals, dogs in particular, which are killed
each year as there is nowhere for them to go. Please ensure your animals are done to avoid adding
the number of unwanted animals. See Breeding and Spaying.
National Health Service (NHS)
Everyone knows who the NHS are, but not many know that the NHS is constantly being held back
by inaccurate ‘science’, and is constantly losing money because of (you guessed it!) vivisection.
There have been numerous drug disasters such as Vioxx, which had been tested on animals, yet
when prescribed through the NHS, and other health services worldwide, caused an estimated
140,000 heart attacks and strokes! It had to be withdrawn in 2004. Shows how much all the time and
money put into that research was worth. See Adverse Drug Affects, Vivisection.
www.vivisectioninformation.com
Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm (NAZF)
NAZF is a zoo in North Somerset, not far from Bristol, which was exposed in October 2009 after an
undercover investigation revealed their dealings with the Great British Circus and a whole host of
other welfare concerns. NAFZ was rejected from the zoo trade body after it emerged that it had
acquired animals from the circus and been dishonest about it. It was also caught out illegally
disposing of the carcass of a dead tiger on land belonging to the zoo. In 2010 North Somerset
Council (the licensing body) conducted its own investigation into the zoo and as a result added
seven new conditions onto the zoo’s licence. In May 2010 NAZF was granted planning permission
to build an elephant enclosure, despite objections from the RSPCA, The Born Free Foundation and
The Captive Animals’ Protection Society. BARC carries out regular protests outside the zoo. Get in
touch if you want to come along.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/join/noah'sarkzoofarm.htm
www.closenaz.wordpress.com
Nocturnal
Nocturnal essentially means a species which chooses night time over day time, animals such as
badgers, owls, foxes, etc. will rarely be seen during the day, as they sleep during these hours.
Activists can also be nocturnal, using the cover of night to remain anonymous! Just in case someone
should spot them liberating some animals, it’s legally frowned upon to do good, for some reason, so
remember to look the other way!
November
World Vegan day is the 1st of November every year, but Animal Aid has made the decision to turn
the whole of November into World Vegan Month! It supports The Vegan Society’s initiative to
improve quality and availability of vegan food in the UK. They will do this through the promotion
of free vegan food fairs through out the country, as well as providing free information and giveaways to tempt your taste-buds!
www.worldveganday.org
www.veganmonth.com
O is for…
Oceans
Covering approximately 71% of the world’s surface, oceans are home to over 230,000 marine life
forms, from microscopic plankton to the largest of the great whales. Life within the ocean began 3
billion years before life on land and due to its size, certain parts remain unexplored. Our oceans –
the world’s last great wilderness – are in crisis. Destructive fishing, polluting industries and climate
change are threatening the survival of fish species (including sharks), whale and dolphin populations
and whole ecosystems. The size of the ocean makes its species and habitats particularly vulnerable
to climate change and human exploitation. Whilst many parts of the ocean are protected, such as the
red sea in Egypt, there are many parts where no protection is in place.
Mass fishing not only causes a food shortage for marine animals which depend on these fish for
survival, but hundreds of dolphins and turtles get caught in the fishing process and either drown or
die from serious injuries. Marine animals are hunted for meat, captured to be sold to captive
environments or injured by boats. Human waste regularly washes up on shores and coastlines which
can be massively destructive to marine life and habitats as they are often caught up in or have eaten
harmful debris. Oil spills and leaks are also a major issue for marine species and often prove fatal.
Oceans have also been massively impacted upon by climate change through an increase in
temperature and acidity levels, essentially creating a hostile and uncomfortable environment for
them to live in. Marine conservation groups all over the world are fighting to conserve and monitor
these natural environments by organising coastline cleanups and sabotaging the efforts of fishermen,
whalers and poachers.
The first step to protecting and preserving the oceans is to become vegan and therefore boycott a
fishing industry which, on the whole, is emptying the seas faster than they can be replenished. See
Angling, Fish Farming and Shark Finning.
www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans
Oppression
Oppression is ‘the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner’. Factory
farms and vivisection laboratories are sometimes compared to concentration camps as the cruelty is
so ingrained and the animals/people seen as a lesser race/species. Many social movements have
fought oppression and achieved greater or equal rights for women, people with a different skin
colour or sexual orientation. The animal liberation movement aims to achieve for animals the right
not to be treated as lesser beings or property.
“When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be
oppressive.” Florynce R. Kennedy, lawyer, author, speaker, and social activist.
www.abolitionistapproach.com
Orang-utans
These highly intelligent and gentle primates, once widespread amongst the forests of Asia, are now
nearing extinction. As one of our closest relatives, sharing 96.7% of our DNA, the name ‘Orangutan’ was derived from the Malaysian term ‘person of the forest’. Orang-utans are highly intelligent
and gentle animals. As they primarily eat fruit, they can spend up to 60% of their day eating food
just to gain enough energy. Orang-utans are also very slow breeders, with females producing one
baby once every 7-8 years. It is therefore unlikely that a female will have more than three offspring
in her lifespan, one of the reasons the number of orang-utans are decreasing. Human interference is
also a major contributor to the small numbers of orang-utans, with forests being destroyed for palm
oil plantations their natural habitats are rapidly being wiped out. See Palm Oil. The use of fires to
destroy trees and clear space are also an additional risk to this already serious threat. Illegal logging
and mining is already a major issue which has devastated protected primate habitats. The illegal
trade of orang-utans, as pets and for use in entertainment, which requires killing the mother orangutan in order to get hold of the baby ape, is not only extremely cruel, but is contributing to the low
number of wild apes. The Sumatran Orang-utan Society (SOS) predicts that for every orang-utan
orphan sold in the marketplace, six to eight orang-utans die in the process of capture or
transportation. Combining their slow breeding rate along with human interference to their natural
habitats, these apes are now confined to only two islands, Sumatra and Borneo where shelters and
projects have been set up to protect the remaining wild orang-utans and provide safe habitats for
those which have been rescued.
www.orangutans-sos.org
Organ Donation
Many people in the UK have signed up to organ donation which could help save lives after they die.
However, most people do not know that they can also leave their bodies for vitally important
medical research. Bit of a gruesome thought maybe, but it’s a great alternative to using animals in
research, plus it actually works (unlike vivisection) and you won’t feel a thing! Bodies can be used
in research, patient treatment, teaching and learning and transplantation purposes. It is possible to be
both an organ donor and a body donor: body donation is heavily regulated by the Human Tissues
Act and the EU Tissue and Cells Directive. It is a far safer way for research to be carried out and it
is a step further in abolishing our current system of animal testing
www.hta.gov.uk/aboutus.cfm
www.ukhtb.org
Organic
Organic farming imposes ‘standards’ which define what farmers can and cannot do. It prohibits the
use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers and bans genetically modified foods, placing a strong
emphasis on the protection of wildlife and the environment whilst providing health benefits.
Organic animal products are now widely promoted as cruelty-free, which is not the case since
organically farmed animals are still treated as meat machines and usually live in confined
conditions. The slaughter procedure is the same for organic animals as non-organic animals.
Cows may be kept indoors with as little space as six square metres each. Calves are still removed
from their mothers, and artificial insemination, freeze-branding (super-cool iron) and painful
dehorning are all permitted. Up to 1,000 laying hens, 2,500 broiler chickens, 800 turkeys or 2,000
ducks can be kept per hectare of land. The unwanted male chicks are killed, just as they are on nonorganic farms.
Organisms
Organisms are living things that are capable of reacting to stimuli, reproduction, growth, and
homeostasis such as plants, animals and fungi. An organism can either be singular celled, multicelled such as the millions of cells which produce tissues and organs in humans and are complex
chemical systems organised in a way that promote reproduction and some sustainability or survival.
Ostrich Syndrome
Ostrich Syndrome is when people prefer to ‘stick their heads in the sand’; much as an ostrich does,
rather than accept the facts. People with Ostrich Syndrome prefer to pretend that animal experiments
and abuse do not exist. People without face up to the facts and are proactive in the animal rights
movement or make simple, compassionate changes to their diet and lifestyle.
Outreach
Outreach is an effort by groups or individuals to connect its ideas to the public or specific audiences.
For example, the animal rights movement aims to raise awareness of animal abuse to the general
public. It also promotes this concept to younger generations through talks and demonstrations.
Bristol Animals Rights Collective promotes veganism and an end to animal abuse through
demonstrations and awareness stalls in and around Bristol. Get in touch if you would like to get
involved.
Oxford
Home to the infamous Oxford University, Oxford has been under public scrutiny since 2004 when
the world renowned university announced it was going to build an £18 million animal laboratory.
Whilst vigorous efforts from the animal rights movement managed to delay the build of the
laboratory, it was fully completed in 2008. See SPEAK.
www.speakcampaigns.org
P is for…
Palm Oil
Palm oil is a plant oil derived from the fruits of palm trees which is highly versatile and can satisfy
many uses. Palm oil can also be refined to produce biodiesel which is made up of vegetable fats and
alcohols and can be used to fuel motor cars. Biodiesel has some advantages such as reducing carbon
emissions and reduced production energy levels; however it has major impacts on the environment.
Rising demand for palm oil is driving land owners to clear tropical rainforests in order to create
space to produce palm trees. This results in more habitats for animals being destroyed and it is
feared that endangered species, such as the Asian Rhinoceros and the Sumatran orang-utan and
tiger, could reach demise if their natural habitats continue to be destroyed. Recent studies have
shown that palm oil production is responsible for over 87% of deforestation in Malaysia and experts
estimate that we are losing about 137 species of plant, animals and insects everyday due to
deforestation. High demand is also leading developers into tropical areas such as the Amazon
Rainforest. High street names such as Unilever, Cadbury’s, Nestle and Tesco’s as well as palm oil
traders Cargill and ADM are amongst those to blame as they represent over 40% of the global palm
oil trade. Avoid buying products which contain palm oil (unless sustainably sourced) and if you
choose to run your car on biodiesel, ensure it is produced from recycled cooking oil.
Patriarchy
The connections between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of animals are well
established in fact and theory. Across history and geography, patriarchy has been strongly correlated
with the practice of keeping livestock. Traditionally, women and animals were grouped together,
along with children, as the property of the male head of the household. Terms referring to femininity
have been used to justify the exploitation of animals while terms referring to animals have been used
to justify the exploitation of women. Eco-feminist vegans such as Carol Adams and Val Plumwood
have highlighted the objectification and exploitation of women and animals.
www.bravebirds.org/sexism.html
‘Pest’ Control
A term coined to refer to the control, regulation and management (but also referred to as a
euphemism for killing) any insect, animal or bird perceived to be a nuisance. Rats, mice, flies, wasps
and pigeons are just some of the creatures considered to be pests to society. However, the term pest
is far more widespread than common occurrences in domestic households. It includes stray dogs,
foxes and badgers who may pose a threat to farmers’ livestock and even moles and squirrels who
may be a pest for the avid gardener. Pest control dates back to the beginning of agriculture and an
extensive list of control methods has been developed over the centuries and range from: poisoned
bait which is popular for rodent control, field burning to destroy all eggs and insects, hunting with
dogs or guns, traps such as mouse traps, glue pads and snares, poisonous sprays used for flying pests
such as flies and wasps and fumigation in which pests are trapped in air tight space whilst a deadly
concentration of gas is released for a long period of time. Modern views regarding animal rights
have urged people to use humane methods such as the use of repellents and humane traps (which
catch the animal alive so that it can be safely relocated). Deterrents can also be effective and
removing the food sources (such as litter and unsecured bins) can avoid encouraging them in the
first place.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/wildlife/ALL/360
Pet Trade
Every year, millions of animals are bred in their thousands to satisfy public demand. Domesticated
animals such as dogs, cats, rabbits, mice guinea pigs and birds are bred to be sold in pet shops and
via dealers. However, due to large volumes bred, many animals are without homes or in overflowing
animal shelters, resulting in thousands being killed. Wild species such as monkeys, turtles and
lizards are poached and stolen from the wild and are illegally exported to satisfy the booming
demand of exotic pets in Europe and Japan. Unfortunately, rare wild species create high demand and
sell at very high prices resulting in criminal gangs controlling this trafficking business. The pet trade
is now so rife, that over 35 million animals were legally transported through borders with predicted
figures of hundreds of millions being illegally exported. Recent studies have proven that rainforest
habitats have been largely affected by the decreasing number of wild species that live in them due to
them being plucked for sale. Smuggling exotic pets is becoming more prevalent and as demand
increases, new methods of illegal exportation are being developed. Sadly many animals do not make
it to their destination alive and some experts have estimated losses as high as 90%. See Breeding.
Pharmaceuticals
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, markets and licences drugs used for medicinal
purposes and is amongst the biggest contributors to animal testing using over 600,000 animals a
year, in the UK alone. During their testing phases, Pharmaceutical companies throw money at
laboratories, such as the infamous Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), to test their drugs on
undeserving animals such as rats, mice, cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. Despite heaps of
evidence proving that animal testing is unreliable, drug companies still claim that animal tests are a
necessary evil to ensure the safety of new medicines. In a report conducted by Animal Aid, it
became clear that animal testing, along with other pharmaceutical practices, are not done in the
interest of patient health and safety, but to protect gross company profits. Animal experiments also
provide pharmaceutical companies with a legal safety net. When their products harm or kill people,
they defend themselves in court by claiming due diligence – that they fulfilled their legal obligation
by proving the drug’s safety in animal tests – and are therefore not liable for the damage it has done.
Seeing as companies are not required to submit all of their retrieved data to regulators, whatever
data is submitted has been meticulously manipulated and, therefore a careful selection of species can
demonstrate whatever is required of a drug. Not only do drug companies prey on helpless animals
they also prey on the poor by monopolising the drug industry to protect their collective £300 billion
profits. They are also the largest opposers of the Revision of the EC directive 86/609 which hopes to
end the use of primates in experiments.
www.safermedicines.org.uk
Phipps, Jill
Jill Phipps was tragically killed in February 1995 by a lorry transporting veal calves to continental
Europe whilst protesting against live exports at Coventry airport. Jill was only 31 when she died, she
was a dedicated vegan, animal rights protester and a mother. The 1st February has become known as
Jill’s Day, and each year events are organised in her name to further the cause she so bravely fought.
In 2005, to mark the 10 year anniversary of Jill’s death, friends, family and fellow campaigners
made a short documentary about her, which can be ordered from the link below or watched on
YouTube by searching for ‘Jill’s Film’.
www.jillphipps.org.uk
Polar Ice Caps/Ice Packs
Polar ice packs are large areas of pack ice formed from seawater in the Earth’s polar regions. Polar
packs significantly change their size during seasonal changes of the year. However, in addition to
this seasonal variation, there is an underlying trend of melting as part of a more general process of
Arctic shrinkage, which is widely agreed to be largely caused by human-induced global warming.
One of the best ways to reduce your contribution to global warming is to go vegan.
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet
Police
Police are there to protect the economy, not us, nor animals, simple as that. A good example of this
is their failure to enforce the hunting ban, whilst at the same time hindering hunt saboteurs from
stopping illegal fox hunts (through delaying sabs and threatening them with arrest for trespass).
Police are often found to be impeding lawful protest marches and rallies by stopping protesters from
handing out leaflets and shamelessly lying about the law.
Press
Whilst the press can be the most effective way of boosting public awareness, it can also provide a
biased and incorrect view of the animal rights movement. It was Tony Blair who gave sanction to
the idea that animal rights activists are a big part of global terror which has since stuck with the
government and the media. When suited, the press can blow a minor incident out of proportion to
satisfy the public’s thirst for clampdown on terrorism, however, when media attention is needed,
they can also play it down to minimise our efforts.
Primates
Whilst some monkeys are specifically bred in the UK for experiments, a vast number of monkeys
are imported from countries such as China where they have been bred in captivity or captured from
the wild; this has been linked to the illegal pet trade. The similar genetics and physiologies between
primates and humans have unwillingly volunteered these creatures for scientific research. Rhesus
macaques, Marmoset, spider and squirrel monkeys are amongst the most commonly used primates
in science. These monkeys have been used in toxicology, neurology, genetic and behavioural tests
and are subjected to a wide assortment of invasive procedures of which cause sever pain and
distress. These procedures include restraining the monkey for long periods of time (as long as
several days), multiple surgeries, food and water deprivation, lethal dosing, irradiation, blood and
tissue sampling, and much more. Primates are viewed as a scientific resource in a budget controlled
environment meaning that housing luxuries and general healthcare are often bypassed and therefore
often result in psychological illnesses and mentalities as well as poor health. Whilst some monkeys
are specifically bred in the UK for experiments, a vast number of monkeys are imported from
countries such as China where they have been bred in captivity or captured from the wild, this has
been linked to the illegal pet trade. Despite all of this, our government has failed to admit that
testing on primates is unwarranted and does not work. Primate research has failed to predict
dangerous side effects of medications and has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, birth defects
and serious injuries where lethal drugs were passed as safe after primate testing. The British
government has been shown to flaunt bad politics in favour of research institutions by waving rules
and regulations due to potential financial gain. However, more and more scientists, including those
who have previously tested on primates, are pushing forward experiments which do not involve the
use of animals but instead promote human specific medical research to produce safer medicines.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) launched a campaign to revise ED directive 86/609 to
urgently end the use of primates in experiments.
www.savetheprimates.org
www.safermedicines.org
Prisoner Support
Passion for animal rights has left activists finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. When
this happens the system often treats animal rights activists very harshly and will dish out highly
disproportionate prison sentences to those acting on behalf of animals. Prisoner support is a way for
us to combat the oppressive prison system which is designed to subdue our passion. Writing letters
to political prisoners is often a good way to show support, solidarity and let them know that they are
not alone (even if the prison system would like them to think so!). There are lots of dedicated groups
who can put you in contact with prisoners including: The Anarchist Black Cross, Animal Liberation
Front Support Group & Animal Rights Prisoner Support.
www.bristolabc.wordpress.com
www.alfsg.org.uk
www.arprisoners.org
Property
White people thought black people were their property during the slave trade; some men still think
women are their property. It is just as ludicrous for us to think that we ‘own’ animals. Animals are
not ours to use or abuse; this is the corner stone of animal rights theory and is the socio-paradigm
that animal rights activists fight for.
Puppy Farming
A term used to describe the mass breeding of dogs. In these ‘farms’, brood bitches exist solely for
the purpose of producing puppies to satisfy the commercial greed of their owners. Puppies are bred
in appalling, cramped conditions and taken from their mothers far too early resulting in poor health
and temperament problems. The puppies are often sent via vans or rail overseas to places such as
China or Japan or to UK big cities to satisfy the public demands. However, many of them do not
make it through this transition alive. Breeding establishments operate all over the UK, particularly in
Wales and Ireland. With demand rising, the number of establishments are rapidly increasing and
adding to the large dealer network. ‘Dealers’ are people who buy puppies and then advertise to resale them and pose as the breeders. Puppies sold in pet shops are also likely to have come from a
puppy farm.
www.puppylovecampaigns.org
Q is for…
Quality of Life
The term quality of life is particularly subjective and means different things to different people.
Many people use it from a welfare perspective, for example describing the conditions on a free
range farm, whereas an animal rights perspective would be influenced more by the abolitionist view
that there should not be any animals on farms and that true quality of life could only be achieved
through a life free of captivity and exploitation.
Queen Bee – See Bees
Question (everything) – See Learning
Quit
Political campaigning can often feel like an uphill struggle, especially when there are powerful
people deliberately trying to prevent you from making progress. Unfortunately there will always be
someone with a vested interest in keeping an animal abusing industry alive. But it is important never
to give up on your beliefs. There are a few motivating slogans that you may often hear, such as ‘We
never give in and we always win’. Many campaigns have lasted several years, with protests and
information stalls each week, in all weathers. Determination will win through in the end; eventually
enough people will be woken up to what goes on inside research laboratories and factory farms etc
and the industries will be forced to bow to public pressure and close.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” – Mahatma
Gandhi
www.activist-trauma.net
R is for…
Rabbits
Rabbits are exploited in many different ways, by many different industries. They are intensively
farmed for meat and fur – contrary to popular belief, their fur is not a by-product of the rabbit meat
industry as different breeds are used for fur, see Fur. Rabbits are also used in many toxicity tests as
they are inexpensive and easy to handle. They also have a much less efficient tearing system in their
eyes than humans and other species, so chemicals put directly into their eyes are not washed away as
readily as they would be in other animals, see Draize Test. Rabbits are commonly kept as ‘pets’ in
small, cramped outdoor hutches with little space to move around in and precious little social
interaction. Many people take them on with little consideration for the time and space that they
require.
Rabbits are also viewed by many as a pest species, so are under pressure from farmers and land
owners who accuse them of damaging crops. Many land owners employ people to shoot rabbits or
hunt them with ferrets, see Pest Control. Sinisterly, after the Second World War, the disease
myxomatosis was deliberately released in the UK and in Australia to reduce the number of rabbits;
in Australia the vaccination against it is banned! This disease results in a slow and lingering death
and has been devastating to rabbit populations, and some prey species that feed on them. It is still a
problem now, and many people will have found rabbits suffering from the effects of it. If you find a
rabbit with myxy, please call your local wildlife rescue centre so that it can be helped and prevented
from spreading the disease to others. Find your local rescue and store the number in your phone for
emergencies.
www.valewildlife.org.uk
www.oandf.co.uk
www.secretworld.org
Racing – See Horse Racing and Greyhound Racing.
Regal Rabbits
Regal Group UK operated a farm in Surrey which bred rabbits for UK vivisection laboratories.
Inside the stinking, windowless sheds, in row upon row of cages, were thousands of rabbits, destined
to be tortured to death in cruel and pointless experiments, many without anaesthetic.
Following the successful closure of Shamrock Monkey Farm, the Animal Rights movement
focused its attention on Regal Rabbits, it didn’t take long! On Saturday 8th July 2000, just 12 days
into the campaign to close the farm, owner William Pitcher announced he would cease operating
immediately. He also agreed to hand over all of his rabbits to be placed in loving homes. On
Tuesday 11th campaigners went in and rescued 600 rabbits from his sheds and brought them to
animal sanctuaries and homes across the country. The remaining rabbits (breeding females and their
young) were re-homed when the young were weaned. Most of the caging and feed was also removed
from the farm.
Recipes
There are many vegan cookbooks available from various organisations such as Animal Aid and
Viva! There are also loads of cruelty-free recipes on line. Many websites are dedicated to vegan
recipes and others have pages of their favourite tried and tested recipes. Bristol Animal Rights
Collective publishes a booklet entitled The Vegan Beginner, it’s full of recipes and is tailored for
new vegans living in Bristol. If you are looking for a vegan version of your favourite dish, a good
way to find one is to type ‘vegan + (your favourite dish, e.g. toad in the hole, chocolate cake,
omelette) into a search engine. The links below are full of lots of tasty vegan recipes to try.
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/recipes
www.veganvillage.co.uk/fddrnk.htm
www.veganfamily.co.uk/kitchen.html
www.parsleysoup.co.uk
Recycling
Most people appreciate how important it is to reduce waste and to recycle as much as you can. From
an animal rights perspective it is doubly important because of the damage done the planet and its
natural habitats through people’s desire to consume more and more products. The world’s natural
resources are being used up at an alarming rate, and species are becoming endangered due to habitat
loss through deforestation and the destruction of other ecosystems.
Redwoods
The Redwood Wholefood Company is the saviour of many people who want to give up animal
products for ethical and health reasons, but still enjoy the occasional ‘ham’ sandwich or ‘chicken’
curry. Redwood make an entire range of vegan alternatives to animal products, such as fake meat
slices, chicken-style pieces, sausages, pates, fishless fishcakes, veggie bacon etc. Have a look at
their website, you don’t have to give up anything to be vegan, and you can gain so much!
www.redwoodfoods.co.uk
Rennet
Rennet is an enzyme complex which is produced in the stomach of mammals. Rennet from the
stomachs of calves is often used in the production of cheese to coagulate the milk. There are
vegetarian rennets available, and therefore cheese which is suitable for vegetarians, but the best
alternatives are soya and rice cheese, which also cuts out the cruelty of the dairy industry, see Dairy
and (S)cheese and the links below to find the good vegan stuff!
www.buteisland.com
www.redwoodfoods.co.uk
Reptiles
Exotic animals do not make good pets and are not suited to life in captivity, 90 per cent of wildcaught reptiles do not survive their first year in captivity. Purchasing an exotic animal also means
supporting a trade that involves a high level of cruelty and environmental destruction as many
animals in the trade are captured from the wild. Elaine Toland, from the Animal Protection Agency
(APA), compares the life of a pet reptile to spending the rest of your life in a toilet: “Life for many
captive reptiles is unimaginable. In terms of their need for sufficient space and a varied diet it is akin
to spending the rest of your life in a toilet cubicle and having the same meal, every mealtime,
pushed under the door. Given the complex biological needs of these animals, life for the average pet
reptile is most probably far worse than this.” See Exotic Pets.
www.apa.org.uk
Rescues & Rehoming
Many animal rights activists are also involved in rehoming animals and/or volunteer at animal
rescue centres and sanctuaries in their free time. While AR campaigning focuses on preventing
animals from being introduced into situations where they will suffer in the first place and
campaigning against those industries which harm thousands of animals, many individual animals are
rescued from situations of abuse and therefore need to be rehomed in a suitable environment in
which to live out the rest of their lives. Animal rescue can involve looking after animals’ day-to-day
needs and care, such as feeding, cleaning out and dog walking. It may also be through carrying out
home checks to ensure that rehomed animals get the best home they can and don’t end up back at
the rescue as can happen if the animal’s new guardians have not understood the level of
commitment it will require. Sanctuaries are always looking for volunteers for hands on tasks and to
help with fundraising. Find out about the rescues near you and get in touch with them if you would
like to volunteer. If anyone you know is looking to take on an animal, make sure they adopt from a
rescue and don’t buy one from a breeder. Companion animals should be neutered to ensure that they
don’t breed, adding to the number of unwanted cats and dogs found as strays or dumped at rescue
centres each year.
www.happy-landings.org.uk
www.hollyhedge.org.uk
www.themoggeryrehomingcentre.co.uk
Rights – See Animal Rights
Road Kill
Thousands of animals are killed each year on Britain’s roads. Animals need to cross roads to feed,
drink and breed, and are not well equipped to detect vehicles speeding towards them. Roads have
been built through territories that animals have been using for years, some species, such as badgers
have been using the same paths for centuries, and they won’t deviate from them because a road is in
the way. Find out about your local wildlife rescue and store the emergency number on your mobile
phone in case you find an injured animal. Slow down, particularly on dark or winding roads and be
especially vigilant when the clocks change. For a few weeks after the clocks change road death
numbers increase significantly as some animals have learnt the times of day the roads are busiest
and are caught out. Deterrents are available to fit to cars to give animals an earlier warning of
approaching cars, such as this very affordable ultrasonic whistle available from the Hedgehog
Preservation Society.
www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hogalogue.htm
Roots of Compassion
Roots of compassion (ROC) is a vegan activist collective selling clothing, books, food, DVDs,
buttons, sweets, patches, stickers, magazines and much more. It was founded in Germany in 2001 as
a way to promote veganism and animal liberation and started off selling t shirts and badges at gigs,
protests and other events. In 2004 they launched their online shop, selling additional items. As a
collective they make decisions on a consensus-driven and egalitarian basis. All members of the
collective are equal and have the same voice. ROC believes that speciesism is one element of
repression in a system that has to be criticized as a whole. Thus, they also object to all forms of
fascism, racism, sexism and other forms of oppression. On the way to a more just economy, we try
to use fair trade relations where possible and aim to promote a critical, responsible, rebellious,
mindful, self-determined way of life
www.rootsofcompassion.org
RSPCA
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (sometimes referred to as The Royal
Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals!) is one of Britain’s best known animal charities,
and many people donate generously to them each year. The RSPCA specialise in cruelty cases and
prosecutions where animals have been abused or neglected outside the law. It has recently decided
that it will no longer take in strays and unwanted animals in a worrying attempt to save money,
focusing instead on animals which have been seized by their own inspectors or those which are in
immediate risk of cruelty. The pressure which this decision will put onto local rescue centres with
much lower budgets is tremendous. If you are able to afford to support an animal charity, why not
check out the work of your local rescue centre. For shelters local to Bristol see Rescues &
Rehoming.
There are also widespread concerns about the RSPCA’s Freedom Foods scheme after undercover
investigations by organisations such as Hillside Animal Sanctuary filmed conditions inside a
number of RSPCA farms indicating that they are as bad or worse as many factory farms.
www.hillside.org.uk
S is for…
Sabbing – See Hunt Sabbing
Sabotage
A deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption,
or destruction. As a rule, saboteurs try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of
their actions. Across the world every day individuals resist animal exploitation and abuse. You
might never hear of it, but it’s happening, and animal liberationists in the UK have been hugely
successful in causing massive economic damage to many large corporations.
Safer Medicines
The Safer Medicines Campaign is an independent patient safety organisation of doctors and
scientists whose concern is whether animal testing is more harmful than helpful to public health and
safety and to protect human health by promoting human-specific medical research. It focuses on
evidence based analysis of animal experimentation to assess the balance of help or harm to human
health, and the benefits to drug safety offered by a focus on human, rather than animal biology. The
campaign calls for safe and effective treatments for patients as soon as possible, an open discussion
of the key scientific questions at the heart of this controversial issue, separately from the associated
highly-charged ethical issues, and independent scientific evaluation of the utility of animal tests for
drug safety: something which 250 MPs and 83% of GPs have also called for. You can watch the
Safer Medicines film on the link below.
www.safermedicines.org
Sanctuaries
An animal sanctuary is a place where rescued animals are brought to live and be protected for the
rest of their lives. Unlike animal shelters, sanctuaries do not seek to rehomed animals, instead
keeping each animal until his or her natural death. In some cases, an establishment may have
characteristics of both a sanctuary and a shelter. The resident animals are given the opportunity to
behave as naturally as possible in a protective environment. In a sanctuary, every action is
scrutinized for any trace of human benefit at the expense of non-human residents. Sanctuaries act on
behalf of the animals, and the caregivers work under the notion that all animals in the sanctuary,
human and non-human, are of equal importance. A sanctuary is not open to the public in the sense
of a zoo; that is, the public is not allowed unescorted access to any part of the facility. A sanctuary
tries not to allow any activity that would place the animals in an unduly stressful situation. One of
the most important missions of sanctuaries, beyond caring for the animals, is educating the public.
The ultimate goal of a sanctuary should be to change the way that humans think of, and treat, nonhuman animals.
www.animalsanctuaries.co.uk
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk/resources/Animal Sanctuary round-up.pdf
Sausages
A sausage is a food made from ground meat, both beef and pork. Also commonly included is ground
pork fat (fatback), salt, herbs and spices. Typically the sausage is formed in a casing traditionally
made from intestine, but sometimes synthetic. Some sausages are cooked during processing and the
casing may be removed afterwards. Just because you stop eating meat doesn’t mean you have to
stop eating sausages! There are now many vegan alternatives to sausages, often made of soya, or pea
protein, there’s been a lot of developments in this area of food production in the last few years
beyond just “sos-mix”! This includes BARC’s favourites - Redwoods Wholefoods Sage and
Marjoram and Lincolnshire Style ready to eat sausages which you can get from most health food
stores and some larger grocery stores and supermarkets. There’s never been a better time to
experiment with an animal free diet, and they are usually healthier too, with lower cholesterol, and
no weird hormones and chemicals!
www.redwoodfoods.co.uk
Save(d) the Newchurch Guinea Pigs (SNGP)
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs was a six-year campaign by British animal rights activists to close
a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire that bred guinea pigs for animal research. The owners, three
brothers trading as David Hall and Partners, announced in August 2005 that they were closing the
business as a result of the pressure from activists.
School Talks
Education is a vital part of any campaign and school talks are a great way to break down myths
connected to animal rights, and promote animal liberation. Campaign groups use a wide range of
materials suitable for teachers and pupils studying subjects such as English, Citizenship, PSHE, RE,
Food Technology, Media Studies and General Studies. Resources include videos and DVDs, Student
Activities (lesson plans and worksheets), student factsheets and information booklets, campaign
leaflets and posters. If you are interested in doing school talks about animal rights and veganism,
Animal Aid and The Vegan Society both provide free training and resources.
www.animalaid.org.uk
www.vegansociety.com
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS)
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international non-profit, marine
wildlife conservation organisation. Their mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of
wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when
necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity
of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future
generations. Sea Shepherd activists have sunk several ships associated with shark fining and illegal
whaling
www.seashepherd.org
Seals
Every year, hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals are clubbed to death in front of their mothers
by Canadian fishermen. The quota set by the Canadian government for 2008 was 275,000 seals. The
event has turned into an annual spectacle, with animal protection groups and the media attempting to
document the slaughter from ships or helicopters. The Canadian government and the sealers
themselves attempt to block access to the area to avoid publicity. Over 40% of the seals are still
conscious and alive when they are skinned.
www.seashepherd.org/seals
Sentient beings
Animals (including fish!) are sentient beings. This means they have consciousness, and the capacity
to feel pain, and experience suffering and fear. This is an essential element of animal ethics. The
concept of sentience involves some form of physiological state of existence or some sort of capacity
for thinking and/or feeling.
“The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?” Jeremy Bentham
Sexism – See Patriarchy
SHAC – See Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Shamrock Monkey Farm
Shamrock Farm was Britain's only non-human primate importation and quarantine centre, located
near Brighton in West Sussex. The centre was run by Charles River Laboratories and sold monkeys
to vivisection laboratories around Europe. It closed in 2000 after a 15 month campaign by British
animal rights activists, under the name ‘Save the Shamrock Monkeys’. Despite offers from various
monkey sanctuaries to take on these animals and care for them, the farm owners sold off the
remaining monkeys to be tortured and killed in labs. But the closure of the farm will have greatly
reduced the number of primates used in UK laboratories.
Shark Finning
Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the savage
practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The
sharks starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement
their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being ‘harvested’ in ever greater
numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup.
Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate
is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several
species have been decimated by over 95%. Due to the clandestine nature of finning, records are
rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to
shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China. Sharks play an integral part in regulating many
other species in the ocean and if threatened will send the CO2 absorbing nature of the oceans into
chaos. The film ‘Sharkwater’ can provide more information.
www.stopsharkfinning.net
www.seashepherd.org/sharks
www.sharkwater.com
Shelters – See Rescues & Rehoming
Shock Collars
The term shock collar is used to describe a group of electronic training collars (also called e-collars
or electronic collars). The collar produces a static pulse stimulation at varying degrees of intensity
and duration to the dog via a small transmitter incorporated into a dog collar. Some collar models
also include a tone or vibration, as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, the static pulse
stimulation. Others include integration with Internet mapping capabilities and GPS to locate canines
or alert owners of their whereabouts. Originally used in the late 1960s to train hunting dogs, early
collars were very high powered. Electronic collars are now readily available and have been applied
to a wide range of purposes, including behavioural modification, anti-theft and GPS location and
tracking, obedience training, and pet containment, as well as military, police and service training.
While similar systems are available for other animals, the most common are the collars designed for
domestic dogs. Following campaigns in the UK to make these illegal, Wales has become the first
part of the UK to outlaw the use of shock collars in 2010.
Shoes
You don’t have to wear funny sandals just because you’re vegan! Many companies now make really
nice shoes from a variety of synthetic and natural materials. Obviously, items dependent on the
petrochemical industry still have an environmental impact, and thus impact on animals, so we
should still avoid rampant consumerism, but it’s never been easier to be stylish, do your favourite
sport, and be animal free!
www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk
www.ethicalwares.com
www.bboheme.com
www.veganstore.co.uk
Shooting
Animals are often categorised as ‘pests’ or ‘menaces’ and shooting is a common method used to kill
them once labelled so. Shotguns and air rifles are the most commonly used. Mammals and birds are
often considered ‘sport’ for people who use the excuse of a ‘cull’ to kill unwanted animals. Shoots
are often disrupted and sabotaged by demonstrators. See Game Birds and Hunting.
Silk
The most common type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry
silkworm reared in captivity. Silks are produced by several other insects, such as spiders, but only
the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacture. As the process of harvesting the
silk from the cocoon means boiling the larvae alive, real silk has been criticized many, especially
since artificial silks are available. Mohandas Gandhi was also critical of silk production based on the
Ahimsa philosophy “not to hurt any living thing.” This led to Gandhi’s promotion of cotton spinning
machines.
Skipping
One third of the food produced in the UK ends up as ‘rubbish’. This has a huge environmental
impact. Skipping or dumpster diving (finding food that shops and supermarkets have thrown out
because they have passed, or are close to, their sell by dates) enables us to eat for free. There is a
surprising amount of fresh fruit and veg discarded because of the date on the packet, sometimes it’s
not even ripe yet! The ethics of freeganism and veganism are complicated, but BARC promotes
skipping veg and non-animal based products as a way to stay healthy, reduce your environmental
impact, and save money! You don’t have to skip gack or meat to survive, the city is full of other
options for tasty low impact vegan food…. cook for yourself, your mates or organise a free food
event.
Slaughter Houses
A slaughterhouse is an industrial facility where animals are processed for consumption as food
products. The total numbers of animals slaughtered for food in the United Kingdom in 2009 include
2.5 million cattle, 1.5 million sheep, 9 million pigs and several hundred million birds. DEFRA
statistics estimate poultry figures of 160 million birds in the UK in 2009; given that meat birds are
usually slaughtered at just a few weeks old, the number killed is probably far greater than this.
Slaughtering animals on a large scale poses significant logistical problems and public health
concerns, with public aversion to meat packing in many cultures influencing the location of
slaughterhouses. Undercover filming has revealed animals being routinely kicked, slapped, stamped
on, picked up by fleeces and ears and thrown into stunning pens. Animals have regularly been
recorded animals having been improperly stunned and going to the knife while still conscious. In
addition, some religions stipulate certain conditions for the slaughter of animals so that practices
within slaughterhouses vary.
Workers in slaughterhouses are often exploited ‘illegal’ workers with no rights, doing the dirty work
of the company that employs them. There has been criticism of the methods of preparation, herding,
and killing within some slaughterhouses, and in particular of the speed with which the slaughter is
sometimes conducted. Investigations by animal welfare and animal rights groups have indicated that
a proportion of these animals are being skinned or gutted while apparently still alive and conscious.
There has also been criticism of the methods of transport of the animals, which are driven for
hundreds of miles to slaughterhouses in conditions that often result in crush injuries and death en
route.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter/ALL
Snares
Snares are anchored cable or wire nooses set to catch wild animals such as foxes, rabbits, and
coyotes. In the UK, they are commonly used for population control, but are used as well at times for
food collection (e.g., rabbits) or for ‘research’. They are also widely used across the world by
subsistence and commercial hunters for bush-meat consumption and trade in African forest regions.
They are also commonly set around pheasant pens to trap foxes and other species considered ‘pests’
by gamekeepers. Snares are cheap to produce and easy to set in large numbers. A snare traps an
animal around the neck or the body and tightens around the animal, restraining it. Snares are widely
criticised by animal welfare groups for their cruelty. UK users of snares accept that over 40% of
animals caught in some environments will be non-target animals, including domestic cats and other
companion animals. Approximately ten million animals are trapped and killed worldwide each year
for fur. Animals caught in traps suffer immensely while waiting for the trapper to come and kill
them. Animals caught by their limbs have been known to chew through their legs in a desperate bid
to escape.
Snares are regulated in many jurisdictions, but are illegal in other jurisdictions, such as in much of
Europe. Different regulations apply to snares in those areas where they are legal. In the United
Kingdom, snares must be ‘free-running’ so that they can relax once an animal stops pulling, thereby
allowing the trapper to decide whether to kill the animal or release it. Animals which are released
may die later from shock or as a result of any injuries they have sustained.
www.antisnaring.org.uk
Soap Dodgers
Often people dismiss animal liberationists and other activists as soap dodgers, but thanks to a huge
array of cruelty free natural products we can stay clean without a massive environmental impact and
without harming others. For example LUSH are firmly committed to a policy which not only
precludes testing its products and ingredients on animals, or engaging with third-party suppliers to
do so on their behalf, but will also not buy any ingredient from any supplier that tests any of its
materials on any animals for any purpose.
www.gocrueltyfree.org
www.uncaged.co.uk/crueltyfree.htm
Social Centres
If you live in a city, chances are you live near a social centre! These are exciting places to have
meetings, do benefit gigs, eat tasty (normally vegan) food, and share skills. The UK has a social
centres network, but there are also many other autonomous spaces across the country. Social centres
are an expression of anarchist politics in practise, and promote horizontal organising and consensus.
Social centres come in all shapes and sizes, from coops, like Kebele, to squatted buildings, of which
Bristol has many! Squatting enables us to take control of our city, and stop contributing to the
capitalist system which promotes the exploitation of animals. See Bristol Indymedia for updates, or
email BARC.
www.socialcentresnetwork.wordpress.com
www.veggies.org.uk/acd/groups/centres.htm
Solicitors
Often essential for the unlucky activist! Solicitors are legal representatives. It is worth researching
sympathetic solicitors in your local area, and also utilising activist legal advice. If you are in
custody, it can slow down your process of being released if you request a solicitor, so many people
give “no comment” interviews and don’t wait for a solicitor to be present (best under all
circumstances generally as the only purpose of a police interview is to obtain ‘evidence’ to use
against you!) When in custody it is your legal right to have a solicitor, but be warned, some duty
solicitors (those selected by the police) are worse than useless. If you chose not to instruct one
whilst in custody you can always request one later if charged, or chose to represent yourself. Legal
aid is available although it is increasingly difficult to get assistance. It can be empowering to find
out about your legal rights, and with the current level of repression against animal rights activists,
you never know unfortunately when you or one of your comrades might need it! See Legal.
www.activistslegalproject.org.uk
www.freebeagles.org
Soya
Soya is often part of a vegan diet, but not essential. Many vegan products, especially those which
are processed into meat replacements contain soya. Soya milk is a common milk replacement, but
also you can drink oat, rice or nut milk!
Beef and soya farming are causing mass scale destruction of the Amazon and other rain forests. By
2050, current trends in agricultural expansion will eliminate a total of 40% of Amazon forests,
including at least two-thirds of the forest cover of six major drainage basins and 12 eco-regions.
People often criticise veganism as there is a misconception that a vegan diet causes deforestation
due to soya consumption, but most soya grown is fed to animals, or used as a filler in processed food
items. 70 % of cleared Amazon rainforest is used for the grazing of hamburger cattle, while most of
the remaining 30% is used for growing soya animal feed production (UN FAO, 2006).
Deforestation is caused by logging, acid rain, land clearing by landless and poverty-stricken farmers,
urbanisation and fire, but the overwhelming reason is ranching and the growing of animal feed
crops. What really kick-started this wholesale destruction was an explosion decades ago in the US
fast-food hamburger market. It required masses of low-quality cheap beef reasonably close at hand.
In 1996, the US imported 80 million pounds of beef from Brazil (Greenpeace, 2006). Meat is also
imported from other Central and South American countries. It has been estimated that just one
hamburger made from Costa Rican beef results in the eradication of one large tree, 50 saplings,
seedlings from some 20-30 different species, hundreds of species of insects and a huge diversity of
mosses, fungi and micro-organisms. To make the situation worse, multinationals have exported the
hamburger culture to every corner of the world, increasing the global demand for beef.
Spaying
Is another word for neutering, the removal of an animal’s reproductive organ, either all of it or a
considerably large part. Neutering is often used to describe the process in males whereas spaying is
often reserved for females. Neutering is the most common sterilising method in animals. Despite
involving invasive surgery, spaying and neutering is considered necessary by most people involved
in the rescue and rehoming of animals to prevent the births of unwanted litters, which contribute to
the already overwhelming numbers of unwanted domestic animals such as cats, dogs and rodents.
SPEAK Campaigns
SPEAK is a grass roots animal rights group currently campaigning to end the use of animals in
research carried out by Oxford University. SPEAK is against all animal experiments on ethical
grounds and is currently focusing on Oxford University due to the huge numbers of animals
suffering inside the laboratories of this well known institution which can hold over 16,000 animals
at any one time.
Attention focused on Oxford University when in March 2004 it emerged that the university had
started building a new £18 million animal laboratory. This news came just after Cambridge
University announced they were abandoning their plans to build the largest primate laboratory in
Europe due to a successful campaign run by SPEAC (Stop Primate Experiments at Cambridge).
SPEAC relocated to Oxford and changed its name to SPEAK: The Voice for the Animals, and began
the campaign to stop the Oxford animal lab. BARC activists regularly travel to Oxford for the
Thursday protests outside the new lab, get in touch if you would like to come along.
www.speakcampaigns.org
Speciesism
Speciesism is the assigning of different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species
membership. The term was created by British psychologist Richard D. Ryder in 1973 to denote a
prejudice against non-humans based on physical differences that are given moral value. “I use the
word ‘speciesism’,” he wrote in 1975, “to describe the widespread discrimination that is practised
by man against other species … Speciesism is discrimination, and like all discrimination it
overlooks or underestimates the similarities between the discriminator and those discriminated
against.”
The term is mostly used by animal rights advocates, who argue that it is irrational or morally wrong
to regard sentient beings as objects or property. Peter Singer’s philosophical arguments against
speciesism are based on the principle of equal consideration of interests. Many connections have
been made between speciesism, racism and sexism. Also, comparisons to the Holocaust have been
made by theorists such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, to highlight the inconsistencies in our respect for
other sentient beings.
Stalls – See Information Stalls
Stock Free – See Vegan Organic
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC)
SHAC, the campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), was set up at the end of
1999 by a group of activists who had successfully closed down several lab animal breeders,
including Consort Kennels and Hill Grove cat farm. Extensive animal cruelty was documented
through a high profile exposé by an undercover worker at HLS in 1997, and was shown on Channel
Four. HLS has been exposed numerous times over the past 25 years for routinely flouting animal
welfare regulations and best practice guidelines, including workers punching beagle puppies in the
face, showing up drunk for work and selling drugs on site.
The success of previous campaigns has ensured all those animals caged within them (and many
thousands who would have followed them) have been spared a life of torture and pain. If we had
waited for politicians to act they would still be inside places like Consort and Hill Grove. The lesson
to be leant is that if we really want these hell holes to close then we have got to do it ourselves –
action is what it is all about. We have to fight to win. SHAC is now a global campaign with
demonstrations and supporters in many countries around the world. Numerous customers and
suppliers of HLS have severed their links with it, due to the SHAC campaign.
www.shac.net
Suffragettes/sexism – See Patriarchy
T is for…
Teaching
Teaching about animal rights is probably one of the most effective ways of opening people’s minds
to the nature of animals and of getting people to question how humans should treat animals. This is
especially true when educating children. BARC organises outreach events such as film screenings,
workshops, free food events, stalls in the city centre, all of these can be effective ways of promoting
animal rights. Animal ethics can connect to philosophy, religious education and general studies and
other topics. By exploring issues of health and the environment, veganism can be connected to
science and geography. Teaching and popular education in connection to animal rights is fun, and a
great way to challenge preconceptions and support people in becoming vegan.
Terrorists
Those working towards the liberation of animals and challenging animal abuse are often labelled
‘terrorists’. Politically-loaded language has been used to discredit activist resistance. The term
‘terrorist’ has historically been applied to resistance movements in order to attempt to disable the
critical character of those movements. For example, we have seen this term applied by the South
African government to activists who opposed South African Apartheid. Additionally, a similar move
was used by the U.S. government in an attempt to discredit the Black Panther Party. While the term
has always held political sway, it currently evokes a particularly visceral response in a post-9/11
world.
The ALF have been accused of using terrorist tactics, and increasingly, the label is used to describe
anyone not acting in accordance with the wishes of the state. With pre-emptive raids in the name of
‘anti-terror’ legislation becoming increasingly common for all grassroots movements - the Serious
Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 (supposedly anti-terrorist legislation) includes sections
specific to campaigns against animal testing facilities!- important lessons can be learned from the
criminalisation of animal liberation. If increased repression is an expression of the success of a
movement, then the current levels of policing targeted at animal rights activists are a testament to
the strength and impact the movement has had historically. As this A-Z shows, the range of ways in
which animals are utilised, exploited, tortured and killed by humans is extensive, and it is important
not to forget who the real terrorists are in this struggle. They are enshrined by law, and we must
continue to fight them by whatever means necessary.
Testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, vivisection, animal research, and ‘in vivo’
testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide, it is estimated that 50 to 100
million vertebrate animals (those with a backbone) are used annually, along with a great many more
invertebrates (animals without a backbone). Experiments on invertebrates are largely unregulated
and not included in statistics. Most animals are killed after being used in an experiment. Sources of
laboratory animals vary between countries and species; while most animals are purpose-bred, others
may be caught in the wild or supplied by dealers who obtain them from auctions and pounds. The
research is conducted inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms,
defence establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to industry. It
includes pure research such as genetics, developmental biology, behavioural studies, as well as
applied research such as biomedical research, Xenotransplantation, drug testing and toxicology
tests, including cosmetics testing. Animals are also used for ‘education’, breeding, and defence
(military) research.
In 2009, 3,619,450 million experiments took place in British labs, a decrease of 36,540 (1%) on
2008, but still 417,959 (13%) higher than 2007. In the UK, research projects are classified as mild,
moderate, or substantial in terms of the suffering the researchers conducting the study say they may
cause; a fourth category of ‘unclassified’ means the animal was anesthetized and killed without
recovering consciousness, according to the researchers. Animals are often subjected to extensive,
painful and unnecessary experiments in the name of science, the results of which are often forgotten
or discarded as they don’t provide the results the researchers were after. In the UK, mammals,
including primates and common domestic species (all of which are sentient beings who suffer and
feel pain) may be poisoned, mutilated, given diseases, starved, operated on without anaesthetic and
have electrodes inserted into their brains. This can continue on individuals for a period of many
months, most are then killed at the end of the experiment.
At the time of writing, BARC is involved in a campaign against Wilmott Dixon, the main
contractors in the building of a massive new laboratory at Leicester University, and has been
holding regular demo’s outside their Bristol office.
www.uncaged.co.uk/vivisect.htm
www.safermedicines.org
www.stopanimaltests.com
Tofu
Tofu, also known as bean curd, is a soft white food made by coagulating soya milk, and then
pressing the resulting curds into blocks. It is of Chinese origin, and part of East Asian and Southeast
Asian cuisine. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been
processed in some way, for example smoked or used in meat substitute products. Tofu has very little
flavour or smell on its own, so it can be used either in sweet dishes (e.g. cheesecake, and chocolate
mousse) or savoury dishes (e.g. stir fries, quiches and curries) and is often seasoned or marinated to
suit the dish.
Tofu is low in calories, contains a relatively large amount of iron, is a good source of protein and
contains little fat. Depending on the coagulant used in manufacturing, the tofu may also be high in
calcium and/or magnesium.
Sometimes people criticise vegans for excessive use of soya based products, such as tofu, but the
percentage of global soya consumption that is eaten by vegans is very small compared to that which
is used as a bulking agent in animal products, or fed to animals directly. See Soya.
Training
Animal training refers to teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli.
Training may be for the purpose of companionship, detection, protection, entertainment. Animal
trainers use reinforcement or punishment to condition an animal’s responses. Some animal trainers
may have knowledge of the principles of behaviour analysis and operant conditioning, but there are
many ways to train animals and no legal requirements or certifications are required. Animal training
is extremely unregulated in Europe and the US.
Animals are also trained for use in films and other forms of entertainment, and companion animals
such as dogs are also often trained. Areas of training often include obedience training tasks,
attention, housebreaking, nonaggression, and socialization with humans or other pets. Dogs are also
trained for many other activities, such as dog sports, service dogs, and other working dog tasks.
Horses are another species that is commonly trained by humans as we utilise them for our own use.
The primary purpose of training horses is to socialize them to be around humans, teach them to
behave in a manner that makes them safe for humans to handle, and, as adults to carry a rider under
saddle or to be driven in order to pull a vehicle.
Fish and other sea creatures including marine mammals are trained for entertainment such as
bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, belugas, sea lions, and others. Wild animals may also be trained,
such as bears, elephants, lions, tigers, leopards, or other big cats. Elephants are also trained for use
in zoos and circuses. See Circuses, Shock Collars and Zoos.
Transport
Thousands of animals are transported every day by the livestock industry, between farms, markets
and slaughterhouses. Many millions of animals are also being transported outside the European
Union. Live Exports in the EU are driven by the desire of some European nations to be able to sell
fresh meat rather than meat that has been frozen. Farm animals are not used to travelling. They
suffer from fear and distress when loaded onto the lorry and again when they are unloaded. Lorries
used for animal transport are often overcrowded causing overheating, dehydration and general
discomfort. Animals must constantly try to balance on the moving vehicle; if they fall they may be
trampled by the other animals.
Across Europe in the 1990’s animal rights activists created massive resistance to the live export of
animals, with weeks of port and airport blockades by animal rights groups. Radicals have chained
themselves to airplanes and trailers in efforts to stop animal exporting. In 1995 Jill Phipps, a
campaigner from Coventry was tragically killed by a truck carrying live animals. Since the protest
campaign began in 1992, exports of British calves for slaughter have dropped by 30%.
Today, the transportation of pets and exotic animals is also an everyday occurrence, see Exotic
Animals, Birds and Zoos.
www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/horses/index.htm
Trapping
Animal trapping is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a
variety of purposes, including food, fur, wildlife management, ‘pest’ control or for the entertainment
industries, such as zoos, circuses and the ‘pet’ trade.
Traps can be easily divided into five types: foothold traps, body gripping traps, snares, cages and
glue traps. Trapping may be safe and inexpensive for the trapper, but it is controversial, because of
the cruelty inflicted on the victim. Despite regulations, trappers sometimes leave traps unattended
for long periods of time and trap animals out of season, for example when they may have dependent
young. Non-target animals can be caught in most forms of traps. Being trapped is extremely
stressful for an animal, and often painful, depending on the type of trap used. Animals have been
known to starve to death, die from weather extremes or cause themselves further injury trying to free
themselves from traps. Where traps are left unmonitored for long periods the level of suffering
caused is much greater.
www.bornfreeusa.org/a10_trapping.php
Trees – See Deforestation
T-shirts
T-shirts, badges and patches are a great way to promote your campaign, look cool, and avoid
promoting evil corporations! Buy some plain t-shirts from a charity shop, use the Kebele screen
printing workshop, and say what ya want! We also sell DIY t-shirts on the BARC stall promoting
various campaigns.
Twitter
Follow BARC on twitter to stay up to date with events and info.
www.twitter.com/bristolarc
U is for…
Uncaged
Uncaged Campaigns was established in 1993 as an international animal protection organisation,
focusing on animal experimentation. Uncaged is a holistic organisation, operating at every level,
from grassroots protests to motions in Parliament, through to participation in academic discourse. It
has contributed to numerous Government consultations, given evidence to the House of Lord,
appeared in journals and been quoted by researchers, as well as receiving national and international
media coverage. Some of Uncaged’s most successful campaigns are Diaries of Despair, giving an
insight into experiments carried out by Imutran/Novartis, the Xenotransplantation scandal (see
below) and the global boycott of Procter and Gamble.
www.uncaged.co.uk
Undercover Investigations
Undercover investigations have been used extensively to gain evidence of the cruelty that goes on
behind closed doors. Many animal research labs, farms, slaughterhouses, circuses and zoos have
been caught breaking animal welfare laws though the use of undercover workers with secret
cameras. These investigations have also played a huge role in exposing animal abuse industries and
demonstrating that the cruelty caught on camera is usually routine rather than a series of isolated
incidents. Shocking footage from farms, both intensive and ‘free range’, has had a huge impact in
convincing many people to stop eating animals and to go vegan. It’s hard to keep your head in the
sand when you’ve seen images of the animals suffering for your dinner plate. Hillside Animal
Sanctuary is one organisation which has conducted many successful undercover investigations.
On a local level, one of BARC’s biggest campaigns at the time of printing was initiated after
findings from an undercover investigation found major animal welfare problems at a North
Somerset zoo, see Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm.
www.hillside.org.uk
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter/ALL///
www.shac.net/HLS/exposed.html
www.www.offthehoof.co.uk/samplefeatures/OTH5Zoo.pdf
Universities
Around a third of universities in the UK conduct animal research, including our own, Bristol
University. The type of research they do is often exploratory. Due to the scientific failings of
vivisection as a whole it can offer no meaningful data to aid human health or fight disease in other
species. A number of universities have recently built or are in the process of building new animal
research departments, and as such campaigns have been set up to oppose these developments and
companies involved in the building of them. At the time of printing BARC has been holding protests
outside construction firm Willmott Dixon in Bristol for this reason and regularly travel to Oxford for
demonstrations against the university lab there.
www.speakcampaigns.org
www.safermedicines.org
Unnatural Behaviour
Unnatural behaviours can frequently be witnessed in captive animals kept in cramped, artificial
environments such as zoos and farms, laboratories and pet shops. These behaviours are known as
stereotypies and are repetitive, obsessive movements which have no natural purpose, such as may be
demonstrated by patients suffering from mental illnesses. The behaviours most commonly seen are
pacing, swaying, rocking and chewing of cage bars, but more severe behaviour such as self
mutilation and aggression towards others are also commonplace. Farms and zoos often mutilate
animals in an attempt to reduce the risk of injury to others, such as through painful dehorning and
debeaking procedures and the removal of animals’ tails. Some zoos also give animals antidepressants and anti-psychotic medication to mask the psychological effects of a life in captivity.
www.captiveanimals.org
V is for…
Veal
Veal calves are a by-product of the dairy industry as cows need to have a calf each year to continue
producing milk, see Dairy. By drinking dairy, you are contributing to the veal industry. Veal is
illegal to produce in this country, but UK calves are still being exported alive on hot and long
journeys to Europe to be made into veal.
Male calves are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. Most are destined for the veal crate. The
veal crate is a wooden restraining device that is the veal calf’s permanent home. It is so small that
the calves cannot turn around or even lie down and stretch. The crates are designed to prevent
movement and therefore producing tender ‘gourmet’ veal. The calves are often fed a low-iron diet,
to make them anaemic and create the pale pink or white colour meat desired in the finished product.
Craving iron, the calves lick urine-saturated slats and any metallic parts of their stalls. Farmers also
withhold water from the animals, who, always thirsty, are driven to drink a large quantity of the
high-fat liquid feed. Because of such extremely unhealthy living conditions and restricted diets,
calves are susceptible to a long list of diseases. Consequently, they must be given massive doses of
antibiotics and other drugs just to keep them alive. The calves often suffer from wounds caused by
the constant rubbing against the crates.
www.britishmeat.com/veal.html
www.noveal.org
Vegan
Vegans do not consume, wear or use any animal products. Vegans will not accept any form of
animal exploitation and do not use animal tested products. Being vegan is the single most important
thing to do if you want to help save animals. The average person eats thousands of animals in their
life time. Even if you do not have time to actively help the animal rights movement, not eating
animals or their ‘by-products’, using animals for entertainment (e.g. visiting zoos, circuses and horse
races) or adding to the misery in animal laboratories through buying animal tested products, makes a
huge difference.
www.vegansociety.com
Veganarchy
Within anarchist communities (see Anarchy) there are many who choose not to consume animal
products (see Vegan). Many understand the links between human oppression and animal oppression
which are both administered by the state. Capitalism plays a vital role in the constant exploitation of
animals and humans and as such many Veganarchists seek to abolish capitalism as a way of
liberating animals.
Vegan Buddies
Thinking of becoming vegan? Not sure how to take the initial step? Get in touch with Vegan
Buddies to be paired up with a vegan mentor who can answer any questions you may have:
veganbuddybristol@googlemail.com
Vegan Organic Growing
Vegan-organic, or stock free organic, broadly means any system of cultivation that excludes
artificial chemicals, livestock manures, animal remains from slaughterhouses, genetically modified
material and indeed anything of animal origin such as fishmeal. Many people are rejecting the use of
pesticides, and realising the scale of land required to feed animals used for human consumption.
Stock free Organic (SO) farming seeks to minimise reliance on imported fertility through in situ
composting of all plant wastes, by using living green manures as soil fertility builders, and by
practising minimal soil disturbance or reduced tillage cultivation. Food grown using SO systems is
eaten locally and in season, thus minimising food miles, and is delivered with as little (reusable)
packaging as possible. Stockfree Organic farming is the greenest, most ecologically sustainable and
carbon neutral way of producing healthy food.
www.stockfreeorganic.net
www.veganorganic.net
Vegan Outreach
Vegan outreach is an important part of animal rights. The vast majority of animal cruelty is due to
people’s greedy appetite for meat and dairy products. It’s up to us to show people how easy it is to
be vegan! That’s why we organise free vegan food fairs and hold monthly free food stalls in Bristol
City Centre. Get in touch for more information or if you would like to give us a hand.
www.vegancampaigns.org.uk
www.vegansociety.com
Veggie Pets
Cats and dogs can be vegan and healthy! There is no reason why you should feed your animals meat
if you would not eat it yourself. Some health food shops such as Natures Genius in Fishponds and
Wild Oats in Clifton sell veggie cat and dog food. You can also buy it online.
www.veggiepets.com
Veggie Vision
You’ve got it – a veggie TV channel!! View cooking demos and reports from veggie events online!
www.veggievision.tv
Veggies Catering Campaign
Veggies are a wonderful group who are known for their delicious veggie catering at animal rights
demos. They also have a great website, with an animal rights events calendar, and directory of
animal rights groups in the UK.
www.veggies.org.uk
Vivisection
Animals including rats, dogs, mice, cats, monkeys, guinea pigs, sheep, rabbits, goats, pigs, birds and
fish are routinely used for:
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Drugs testing
Disease research
Product safety tests
Weapons research
Cosmetics Testing
Testing of household products
Not only are these tests cruel, they are also misleading as animals have different reactions to
substances than humans, and do not suffer from the same diseases as us. See Laboratories,
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Testing for more information.
www.safermedicines.org.uk
www.vivisectioninformation.com
www.vivisection-absurd.org.uk
Vegan Prisoner Support Group (VPSG)
The VPSG provides support and information for vegans detained either in police custody or within
the prison system. VPSG also try to ensure that the prison vegan diets are nutritionally sound and
that vegan clothing and cosmetics are made available or can be ordered or sent in to vegan prisoners.
www.vpsg.org
W is for…
Warby, Tom
On the 3rd of April 1993, Tom Worby, a 15 year old hunt saboteur attending his first foxhunt
protest, was crushed under the wheels of the Cambridgeshire Fox Hunt’s hound van in an incident
all too reminiscent of the killing of Mike Hill two years before.
After a successful day’s sabbing, the hunt had boxed up and sabs were making their way back to the
meet down a narrow lane. As the hound van came up behind them, revving its engine, sabs
scrambled for the roadside; however Tom’s jacket became snagged in the vehicles wing mirror and
he was dragged some distance before he managed to gain a foothold on the van’s running board.
Although he banged on the window the van kept going, and when Tom finally lost his grip, he fell
onto the road and under the truck’s wheels. His head was crushed by the rear wheels of the vehicle
and he died shortly afterwards. No action was taken against the driver of the hound van, 53-year-old
huntsman Alan Ball.
Hunt sabs continue to go out week after week to protect our wildlife. Tom Warby and Mike Hill
gave their lives trying to stop hunters, perhaps you can spare a few Saturdays?
www.huntsabs.org.uk
Welfare – See Animal Welfare v Animal Rights
Whales
Whales are hunted and killed mainly for their meat and oil in an act known as Whaling. In the late
1930s more than 50,000 whales were killed annually and by the middle of the century whale stocks
were not being naturally replenished. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned
commercial whaling so that stocks might recover. Commercial whaling still goes on under the guise
of scientific research. Groups like Sea Shepherd take direct action against whalers and attempt to
disrupt their activities in order to save the animals.
www.seashepherd.org.uk
Wickham Labs
Wickham Labs in Hampshire, England is a contract animal-testing facility that was set up in 1965.
The company came to public attention in November 2009, when The Sunday Times published
footage taken during an eight-month investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of
Vivisection (BUAV), which showed Wickham laboratory staff botching injections, immobilizing
rabbits for up to eight hours, and improperly euthanizing mice by accidentally breaking their backs
instead of their necks. In December 2003 two members of the Animal Liberation Front broke into
Wickham labs and rescued 695 mice from incarceration and certain death. The mice were eventually
returned to the laboratory after the activists were arrested and sentenced. There has been an ongoing campaign to close down the labs, called Stop Wickham Animal Testing (SWAT). For more
information, contact SWAT on 02392 588516.
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild
plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a
major impact on the environment, both positive and negative. While the term in popular culture
usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife
around the world is impacted by human activities, for example we routinely encroach on and destroy
their habitats, wipe out their food sources and/or predators, and generally knock ecosystems out of
kilter.
Witness: A Tribe of Heart Documentary
Witness is a film about the fur industry as told through the eyes of a tough New York City
construction contractor who takes in a kitten and ends up becoming a vegetarian and animal rights
activist. BARC has a copy you can borrow if you like!
www.tribeofheart.org
Wool
Wool is the hair of sheep, or other members of the Caprinae family, which is used to keep the
animal warm. Humans farm sheep not only for their meat but also for their wool. Sheep are
selectively bred to produce the highest yield which has led to many unnatural breeds of sheep
(including one species that sheds its wool naturally). During the sheering process little care is given
to the sheep’s well being. It is often a traumatic experience for the animal and blunt shears and
vicious manhandling will often result in cuts and grazes. See Mulesing.
In Australia, where more than 50% of the world’s merino wool (used in products ranging from
clothing to carpets) comes from, lambs are forced to endure a gruesome procedure called mulesing,
in which huge chunks of skin and flesh are cut from the animals’ backsides, without any painkillers.
Millions of these sheep are then shipped to the Middle East on crowded multilevel ships. These
journeys, which can last for months, are to countries where animal welfare standards are nonexistent. The suffering sheep are dragged off the ships, loaded onto trucks, and dragged by their ears
and legs to unregulated slaughterhouses, where their throats are slit while they are still conscious.
www.savethesheep.com
World Day for Animals in Laboratories
World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAIL) is an internationally recognised day and is
marked by marches and protests around the world. The aim is to raise awareness and show solidarity
for animals locked up in testing laboratories worldwide. A national march takes place in London
every year on the Saturday closest to 24th April. BARC arranges transport to this. Get in touch if
you’d like to join us.
www.wdail.org
X is for…
Xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation (xeno- from the Greek meaning ‘foreign’) is the transplantation of living cells,
tissues or organs from one species to another, such as from pigs to humans. Such cells, tissues or
organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants. Human xenotransplantation offers a potential
treatment for end-stage organ failure, a significant health problem in parts of the industrialized
world. It also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues. A continuing concern is that pigs
have shorter life spans than humans: their tissues age at a different rate. Disease transmission
(xenozoonosis) and permanent alteration to the genetic code of animals are also causes for concern.
There are few published cases of successful xenotransplantation.
www.xenodiaries.org
Xmas without Cruelty
Every year millions of turkeys are killed in order to meet the need for a ‘traditional’ Christmas
dinner. It is possible to be cruelty-free at Christmas. Don’t buy turkeys or animal by products and
instead try cooking a tasty vegan alternative! See the links below for some delicious vegan
Christmas recipes. Not so great in the kitchen? Fear not, Redwoods Wholefoods do a scrummy
‘Celebration Roast’, which you can buy from health food shops and some large supermarkets.
www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/booklets/xmas.pdf
www.veganfamily.co.uk/yule
www.viva.org.uk/christmas/recipes.php
Y is for…
Yobs
‘An uncouth individual or thug’, i.e. the sort of people who like to follow fox hunts! See Hunting.
Yoghurt – see Dairy
You
Any change that you want to see happen in the world has to start with you. As Gandhi said: “Be the
change in this world that you want to see.” You are the only person who can help put an end to
animal abuse. If not you, then who?
Youth Groups
Many campaigns have youth groups aimed at young animal rights activists. These are a great way to
teach children about animal rights.
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/youth
Z is for…
Zeitgeist
The literal meaning of zeitgeist is ‘the spirit of the times’. Its dictionary definition is the general
trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time. More and more people are
going vegan and cutting animal products out of the diets and animal exploitation out of their lives,
and you can too! See Vegan Buddies or visit the website to help answer any questions you may
have.
www.veganbuddy.org.uk
Zero Tolerance
How would you feel if you were an animal being abused? Would you want people to turn a blind
eye, or compromise in a way that meant you were still being abused? Of course not! Remember – do
not compromise. Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment, full
stop.
Zoonosis
Zoonosis is any infectious disease which can be passed from non-human animals to humans. On top
of the swine flu, BSE and bird flu we have the farming industry to thank for, there are also a whole
host of nasties that can be caught from animals inside zoos. Still thinking about going???
Zoos
Zoos are collections of captive bred or wild-caught animals, confined in enclosures and put on
display to the public as a tourist attraction. Most zoos hide behind excuses of education and
conservation, but their benefits to both are really just a myth.
Animals in zoos display unnatural behaviours (such as pacing, swaying and chewing cage bars) due
to their confinement, lack of stimulation, the breaking of family ties, and their unnatural diets,
surroundings, life styles and social interactions. For example in the wild they would be used to
finding (or catching) their own food, protecting themselves from predators, and may live in large
family groups – all impossible to recreate within the artificial environment of a zoo. Animals in zoos
are sometimes given anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication to counteract the effects of
boredom and frustration brought on by their restrictive surroundings. According to Oxford scientists
lions in zoos spend almost half their time pacing and 40% of elephants display unnatural behaviours.
Health problems and obesity are also common problems in many animals, for example a recent
DEFRA study found welfare issues with every single elephant in a UK zoo. So, as for education,
you really can learn far more about animals and how they live by watching documentaries.
Most animals in UK zoos are the ones considered to be crowd-pullers, not those on endangered lists!
Captive-bred animals have little or no value in terms of real conservation, which as to be about
protecting natural habitats. Many species in UK zoos are descended from several generations of
captive-bred animals, so have lost much of the knowledge and instinct they would need to survive in
the wild. Breeding programmes are often unsuccessful for this reason and can even be counterproductive as captive-bred animals can carry diseases back to native populations near the release
site. On top of this, many animals in zoos are aquaria are still wild caught, 79% of UK aquaria
animals in the UK were taken from the wild.
Convinced? Then come and join us on one of our demos, see Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm to learn about
our current local campaign and don’t pay to see captive animals.
www.captiveanimals.org
ZZZZZ
OK, now you’ve read that lot you deserve a hard earned rest, so pull on your non-wool slippers,
make a nice cup of soya milk cocoa, grab yourself a few pieces of dairy-free chocolate and take
yourself off a non-duck/geese down bed!
(LAST PAGE)
Bristol Animal Rights Collective,
c/o Kebele,14 Robertson Road, Bristol, BS5 6JY
www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk
barc@hotmail.co.uk
www.twitter.com/bristolarc or search for us on Facebook
Vegan Buddies: www.veganbuddy.org.uk
Local Animal Shelters:
Happy Landings Animal Shelter, 01749 860350
Pye Hill, Pylle, Shepton Mallet, BA4 6TG, www.happy-landings.org.uk
Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary, 01275 474719
Wild Country Lane, Barrow Gurney, Bristol, BS48 3SE, www.hollyhedge.org.uk
The Moggery Rehoming Centre, 0117 924 3128
65 Longmead Avenue, Bishopston, Bristol BS7 8QB, www.themoggeryrehomingcentre.co.uk
Local Wildlife Rescues:
Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre, 01386 882288
Station Road, Beckford, Nr Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 7AN. www.valewildlife.org.uk
Oak & Furrows Wildlife Rescue, 01285 862439
The Paddocks, Somerford Keynes, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 6FE. www.oandf.co.uk
Secret World Wildlife Rescue, 01278 783250
New Road, East Huntspill, Highbridge, Somerset, TA9 3PZ. www.secretworld.org