The Fellowship of Life |
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A millennial reflection
Welcome, everyone, to this, our last
Newsletter of the 20th century and this millennium. It
is a time for reflection, fear and hope. The past century of world
wide violence and cruelty has given us, among other horrors, the
atrocities of genocide, weapons of mass destruction, factory farming
and industrialised, assembly-line animal slaughter, the proliferation
of ever-more-nauseating and pointless animal experiments, the
terrifying danger of genetic engineering and the use of animals as
'spare parts' for humans as well as the nuclear age with its legacy of
deadly radioactive waste for countless millennia to vome.
But, don't despair - these evils are being fought by many individuals
and groups, some of whom we'll highlight in this
Newsletter. Furthermore, the last hundred years have
seen many profound and heartening changes for the better, such as the
rise in support for 'green' values and animal protection and the
blossoming of vegetarianism.
Here are some successes of the century:
The early 1900's were notable for the impact of the humanitarian
movement. In the UK, the Henry Salt - inspired Humanitarian
League fought injustice, inequality and cruelty to all
sentient beings, including humans. The year 1911 saw the passing of
the Protection of Animals Act. But between 1915 and
1960 progress for animals was slow.
Human rights causes flourished with the success of the suffragettes
after World War I; Mahatma Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience and
non-violent resistance to British rule in India, with independence
achieved in 1947; the establisment of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948; civil rights victories
and legal protection for minorities followed in subsequent decades;
support for peace campaigns and holistic medicine gathered momentum;
and 1994 saw the first democratic elections in South Africa.
All this time, the vegetarian movement was achieving its own
milestones. During World War l thousands of conscientious objectors
were imprisoned. Scores of men died in prison because of the harsh
treatment, which was especially abusive for vegetarians, who could
barely survive on prison meals. Fenner Brockway led a food strike at
Wormwood Scrubs and the authorities finally sanctioned a vegetarian
diet.
In 1920 came the first government recognition of the health benefits
in reducing meat consumption. Vegetarianism was gaining
respectability, particularly among nutritionists.
In 1928, the Nature Cure Clinic was established and
run by Nina Hosali, a vegetarian and animal rights supporter. The
founding principles were based on qualified medical guidance,
vegetarianism and anti-vivisection.
The Vegetarian Society in the 1920's, at the time of
the General Strike and throughout the depression years of the 1930's,
sent food parcels to areas of mass unemployment.
In 1931 Gandhi visited Britain and made a huge impact. He popularised
the idea of a peaceful and spiritual way of life intrinsically
involving a vegetarian diet. He embraced the belief that respect for
humans and animals are inseparable. His influence gave vegetarianism a
renewed spiritual power. The slaughter of animals was now condemned as
a symptom of human greed and aggression that was destroying the world.
During World War ll and the years of rationing, vegetarian restaurants
did very well because they proved to the public how an economical and
tasty meal made from plant foods could be satisfying and enjoyable.
Also at this time, a Committee of Vegetarian Interest
was formed to lobby successfully for official recognition of a
meat-free diet. Special vegetarian ration books were provided,
allowing extra rations of cheese and nuts to those who registered.
This non-meat alternative drew an increase in converts.
The Vegan Society was formed in 1944 by a small group
of courageous pioneers wishing to avoid all animal products because of
the inherent cruelty of all animal farming.
In 1959 Lady Muriel Dowding founded Beauty Without Cruelty,
which produced the first cosmetics and toiletries to be
marketed as cruelty-free.
The late 1950's and early 1960's saw an upsurge of interest in
studying the behaviour of wild animals in their natural habitat. In
1960 Joy Adamson's book about Elsa the lioness, Born Free,
was published and later turned into a smash-hit feature film.
This eventually led its stars, Virginia McKenna and the late Bill
Travers to form Zoo Check in 1984, now the
Born Free Foundation.
The 1960's also saw the formation of the innovative Hunt
Saboteurs Association, and the mass-media began to focus upon
issues such as seal slaughter, endangered species and factory farming.
Ruth Harrison's ground-breaking book Animal Machines
was published in 1964 and received widespread publicity. The
seed for the book had been sown four years earlier when Ruth, a
Quaker, received a leaflet on veal production. Having been a
vegetarian all her life, her first reaction was to think that any part
of the meat trade had nothing to do with her, so she put it aside.
But, 'In doing nothing I was allowing it to happen', so she sent the
leaflet to every Friends meeting in the country - she received only
twenty replies. A Friend then advised her that if she was going to
campaign about animal rights she must learn about animal suffering. So
she visited farms and broiler units, battery hens, veal calves and
slaughter-houses. Armed with all that she had witnessed and the
information she had collected, she wrote Animal Machines,
which opened the eyes of the public.
Several new campaign groups were launched in the 1960's, including
Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), formed by
farmers-turned-campaigners Peter and Anna Roberts. From the first,
CIWF equated world hunger with the feeding of
deliberately-bred 'livestock'. This led them to find a marketable
alternative to meat, and in 1969 the first vegetarian textured
vegetable protein products went on sale in UK health food shops.
From the 1970's onwards, advocacy for animals grew, as did media and
public interest. For example, in 1976 the Vegan Society
produced an 'Open Door' programme on television which brought
an avalanche of enquiries.
Active campaigning and direct action went from strength to strength.
The anti-fur movement caused the eventual collapse of the UK fur
trade. The Save the Whales campaign led to
unprecedented protection, and in most countries whales have become the
first species to be granted limited rights to be free from human
persecution on moral grounds.
This period saw the publication of several books that were also
catalysts for the upsurge of interest in animal issues and the
re-emergence of the anti-vivisection movement. Slaughter
of the Innocent (1978) by Hans Ruesch has been hailed as
the greatest presentation ever of the medical, moral and scientific
case against vivisection, inspiring a worldwide anti-vivisection
movement of doctors, scientists and many others.
In 1976, the Band of Mercy became the Animal
Liberation Front and its endeavours to rescue doomed animals
and targeting of the property of vivisection companies, etc. did
wonders in gaining publicity and raising public awareness and support
for abused animals.
In addition to direct action, liberation groups and traditional
methods of campaigning, the 1980's and 1990's included carefully
planned undercover investigations which demonstrated the total
inadequacies of the law and exposed establishments with shameful and
damning revelations.
There is increasing public pressure to end animal tests. Campaigners
have also succeeded in creating a growing market for 'cruelty-free'
products. Many powerful companies have adopted a non-animal testing
policy on their goods. Compulsary dissection of animals for school
biology pupils has been abandoned. People are realising that animal
experiments are dangerously misleading and damaging to human health.
Many circuses are now animal-free; and British campaigners have
inspired new pro-animal initiatives all around the world.
There have been triumphs in farming campaigns, too: the veal crate is
now illegal in this country. The European Union has agreed to ban the
use of Baterry hen cages from 2012 (a far too long phase-out period,
of course, but it was against all odds that they agreed a date at all,
and it's all thanks to campaigners). The EU also agreed to a legally
binding protocol which has elevated the status of farm animals from
'agricultural products' to a new classification of 'sentient beings'.
This probably offers the best hope so far of eventual bans on live
animal transportation and extreme factory farming systems.
The last decade has seen the numbers of vegetarians rise dramatically.
There are veggie cookery books galore, and an ever-increasing range of
veggie and vegan foods is now widely available - even in American
baseball parks where 'not dogs' are being sold!
Here's to many more successes in the 21st century.
From: The Fellowship of Life Newsletter, Christmas
1999
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