Report from National ARC Meeting April 3rd 2005
1) The meeting was held at Evesham Town Hall,
Worcestershire, WR11. About 65 activists attended. After the chairperson’s introduction there was an introductory go-round where each
person present introduced themselves and said where they were from. There were
people from the following places. Taunton, Essex, Devon, Bournemouth, London,
Wales, Wakefield, Redditch, Liverpool, Manchester, Solihull, Northampton,
Oxford, Leamington, Ross on Wye, Manchester, Cirencester, Somerset, Nottingham,
Evesham, Dudley, Worcester, Malvern, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Coventry,
Moseley, Milton Keynes, Hereford, Bristol, Birmingham…
2) Campaigns Section: The first part of the
meeting was for grass roots campaigns updates.
ALFSG (Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group) and VPSG (Vegan Prisoners Support Group). The latest ALF SG newsletter had been out for a few weeks, packed
with info and news about direct action and the prisoners. One person said they
had just read the new magazine and had been very inspired to know so much was
happening, as she was isolated much of the time. It was good to hear activists
abroad were taking action too, as this means that animal abuse wasn’t just
escaping to be carried out in other countries.
To subscribe to the SG newsletter contact the SG at BCM 1160, WC1N, 3XX.
One of the defendants from
the ongoing “Wickham” Trial was
there to talk about the case. He had been in the witness box on the Friday, and
was due to go back in on Monday, so had to be careful about how much to say
about the case. See SWAT campaign below for details.
Since the last meeting the
most important prisoner news in the UK is that Sarah Gisborne was recently imprisoned for 6 1/2 years. A close
friend of Sarah’s mum spoke at the meeting to say she had known Sarah most of
her life and that she was a compassionate and caring person. People were
shocked at the savage sentence.
Also in USA Petey Young had just been arrested
after 7 years on the run for mink fur farm raids. A support campaign has been
set up to support Peter, see http://www.supportpeter.com.
There was discussion about
what a vital service the VPSG
provides for animal liberation prisoners by ensuring prisoners get vegan food
and toiletries to make their sentence more bearable. It is also important to
write to prisoners, even if it’s just a post-card which only takes a few
minutes, but it can mean so much to the prisoner. www.alfsg.org.uk , http://www.vpsg.org/, 020 8292 8325
CAFT (Coalition for the Abolish of
the Fur Trade). A recent success for
CAFT includes the nationwide outdoor clothing and equipment chain Snow+Rock. The company agreed a fur
free policy in March, after a winter long campaign by CAFT. The company had
been selling fox fur trim jackets, and rabbit fur boots since the Autumn. There
had been demos at just about all their stores around the country, as well as email/phone/fax
alerts. The fur-free policy decision took place very shortly after the last
weekend of action against Snow and Rock.
CAFT remains focused on the
main target, Selfridges, and there
are regular demos at their stores in Manchester, Birmingham and London. Even if
you can’t get to the demos, you can play your part in the campaign by
contacting Selfridges to protest. Check the website for details of demos and
addresses to write to. Another Selfridges
week of action will be planned in May,
details to be confirmed.
It’s also important to look out for fur in shops, and to
make a note of the address, get as many details as possible. You should
complain yourself either in person or in writing, and inform CAFT in any event
with as many details as possible. Shops with a little bit of fur don’t need the
fur to make a profit, so it is easier to persuade them to go fur-free, whereas
the fur traders need all the little outlets to survive. Some activists gave examples in their local areas of shops, which
had withdrawn fur after demos and occupations etc. Someone pointed out that
most people who wear fur trim don’t realise it’s real and are horrified to find
out the truth, so it might be worth pointing it out to them politely at first.
There was discussion about
the fur campaign against Peek and Cloppenburg (P&C) in Germany, it was
agreed to put something on the CAFT website in the UK about the campaign. http://www.caft.org.uk/,
07985 330 7955.
CAPS (Captive Animals Protection
Society). The previous Monday March 28 had been Zoo Awareness Day, organised by CAPS with demos at Zoos around the
country. The next Zoo Awareness Day will be on Bank Holiday Monday, August 29th.
Most if not all animal circuses are now back on the
road, so it is important to keep an eye out for when they visit your area.
Contact CAPS for leaflets, posters, factsheets etc. There are around 8 or 9
animal circuses remaining, out of some 20-30 circuses touring in total. Just 3
of these still use wild animals.
The animal welfare legislation currently going being debated in
parliament makes no mention of circuses, but the select committee examining the
Bill has recommended at least a ban on wild animals in circuses.
The RSPCA is now taking a more proactive role in opposing circuses, and
CAPS has been working with them. They have reprinted their anti-circus
leaflets, which makes it clear that the RSPCA is opposed to all animal
circuses, not just wild animals. They have even been putting out press releases
in areas before circuses arrive pointing out their total opposition to
circuses. This is something local groups can use to their advantage, especially
with circuses such as the Great British Circus which constantly claims to be
“RSPCA inspected”. CAPS has tried to do something about this in the past, maybe
the RSPCA will have more success. Veggies
has adopted the GB circus and is tracking its progress around the country,
alerting local groups and organising protests wherever they go.
There was a debate about how
to hit circus advertising. With flyposting, most of it is illegal, if
you don’t feel confident to remove it yourself you can contact the council, or
the company whose property the posters are on, eg BT for telephone poles. You
can ask them to do it, but sometimes they are too busy, so you can ask for
their permission to do it yourself. In some cases, officials have given
activists a phone number that the police can ring if they stop you where they
can confirm you have permission. With shop posters you can either ask the shops
to remove the posters, or you can print/write notes to explain the cruelty of
circuses and post them in shops with posters, maybe along with a circus
leaflet, asking them to remove the posters. If you get a circus in your area, check
with CAPS whether they use animals.
Another area covered by CAPS
is animals in advertising. Recently
there have been successes with Halfords, Puma and Pepsi all withdrawing adverts
featuring animal abuse following pressure from CAPS and its supporters. There
is now a campaign against the Halifax Bank which is using primates in its
adverts. Halifax have ignored protests
so far, so the campaign is being taken further. A special leaflet will be
produced soon, and a Halifax Day of
Action is planned for Saturday 7th May, when is planned to hold
demos at branched of the bank. Contact CAPS for leaflets and more details.
Similar demos against Halfords in a previous campaign led to lots of bad
publicity for the company and the offending adverts were withdrawn. A knock on
effect of such campaigns is that the issue is being discussed widely in the
advertising and media industry, and this is deterring others from abusing
animals in their advertising campaigns.
CAPS has also been working
to oppose the building of the NIRAH
complex, a giant aquarium and animal lab complex that now looks certain to be
built in Bedford. There was a public meeting in Bedford organised by Bedford
Animal Action, which was very well attended. It was attended by local councillors
and a local MP. It was a good discussion which dealt with most of the issues,
but most councillors remain in favour of the complex. One did say that it had
given them something to think about. NIRAH also organised a public meeting,
which CAPS only found out about too late. Apparently members of the public
asked some really good questions at the meeting, so the word is spreading about
the campaign. www.captiveanimals.org 0845 330 3911.
CBAG (Coalition of Badger Action Groups). Organised
opposition to the government slaughter of badgers. Baiting of the traps is due
to begin in the next few weeks, the cull begins again officially on May 1st,
though in the past they have started earlier than this date. The campaign has
now been running for 7 years, this is supposed to be the last year of the cull,
but DEFRA have lied so often it is difficult to know if this is true.
There are ten areas each of
100 square kilometres. During culling the aim is to wipe out every badger in
this area. An unset trap is laid down and baited with peanuts, and when the
badgers have got used to going in, the trap is set and the badgers are caught.
They are killed using a 2.2 handgun, it has been known to take 2 or 3 shots to
kill the badgers, as they have an instinct to pull their legs up in front of
their heads to protect themselves. The idea of the campaign to is to find the
badger traps before this happens and to put them out of action.
Figures have revealed that
the cost to DEFRA so far has been £75,000 for every badger killed. When the
campaign began 7 years ago, there would be 20-30 activists taking part, this
has now fallen sadly to 6 or 7, with some areas not even covered, so it is
important that activists get back involved. It is a rewarding way of saving
animals there and then, and not just badgers, there are a lot of non-target
species animals which are trapped too, and DEFRA officials will generally shoot
them too.
It is important for
activists to co-ordinate, as it would be wasteful if the same people were
covering the same traps. Contact CBAG for details www.badger-killers.co.uk 07817 858 166.
GATEWAY TO HELL (campaigning against
transport of animals for vivisection) The media are trying to portray Gateway
to Hell as part of the SHAC campaign, but this is not true it is campaign which
belongs to the whole movement, especially the various vivisection campaigns.
The national ‘World Day’
demo was planned in Dover on Saturday 30th April, coaches have been
booked from all over the country, or it was possible to book at the meeting. A
big turnout is needed, keep the date free. (Since
the meeting this date has been cancelled).
The idea of the campaign is
that there aren’t enough animals in the UK to satisfy the demand of the labs,
especially of certain species such as primates and cats. The import of these
animals is vital for the universities and laboratories, but for the airports,
airlines, ports and shipping companies they are a tiny part of their overall
trade.
Another element of the
campaign it to target the countries who export the animals, and first target in
Mauritius which is a major provider of wild-caught primates to labs. Mauritius
depends on tourism to a great extent, so the campaign is calling for a holiday
boycott of Mauritius, leaflets were available at the meeting. Campaign is now
widening to include travel agents, there is more info on the website, there
were leaflets at the meeting. It doesn’t take much effort to take a few
leaflets and stand outside your local travel agents persuading people to
boycott Mauritius. Thomas Cook appears to be the main supplier of holidays to
Mauritius. Even where other travel agents are selling Mauritius holidays, they
are generally Thomas Cook holidays. 0845
458 3528 www.gatewaytohell.net
HSA (Hunt
Saboteurs Association). Direct
action against hunting. Local group Black Country Hunt Sabs spoke on behalf of
the HSA Hunting ban now in effect, there has been an increase of violence
against sabs this season, but this began before the ban came into effect and
there hasn’t been a further increase since. Even the presence of an ITN news
crew didn’t prevent one recent attack which subsequently appeared on TV. The
police are not turning up to many hunts, and when they do they aren’t
preventing illegal hunting or assaults on sabs. On the plus side, some hunts
have packed in the season early. Of those still hunting, some are drag hunting,
while some are using two hounds to flush out foxes and shoot them, something
which sabs will have to deal with. Some hunts are hunting illegally, but not
clear yet how many. Getting evidence isn’t easy though as hunts are targeting
people with cameras. One hunt even said that any supporters seen with cameras
would be treated as ‘antis’.
Next
season sabs will just adapt tactics to the hunts’ tactics. Sabs aren’t going to go away until the hunts
go away. “We will be here until the last redcoat is in jail”. In answer to a
question it is still technically legal to use hounds to chase rabbits and rats,
but both these animals would go straight to ground anyway, so there is no chase
involved, and there are no cases known where this has happened. If the pack of
hounds is running, they are either on a drag hunt, or hunting illegally. As for
hounds accidentally killing foxes while drag hunting, any huntsman with a
minimum of experience should be able to call hounds off.
There
are several groups involved with gathering evidence against illegal hunting.
The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) runs Hunt Crimewatch (http://www.huntcrimewatch.com)
and there is also Huntwatch (http://www.huntwatch.info)
Both are keen to train people to be hunt monitors, with info about the law, how
to avoid violence and how to collect evidence. Induction days and workshops are
being held throughout the country, visit. www.huntsabs.org.uk
0845 4500727
REALFOOD. Promoting
veganism. The Heart of England Vegan Festival takes place in Birmingham at the
Carling Centre on June 18, over 3,000 people are expected to attend to find out
about vegan issues. There has been a lot of media coverage about the event
already. As well as the usual stalls, there will be speakers, martial arts
displays. At the Manchester Vegan Festival there were about 2,500 people, and
between 40-60% were meateaters. Many of these showed an interest in the “Vegan
Buddy” scheme run by Realfood, and there are more people looking for vegan
buddies than there are volunteers, so contact them if you can help http://www.realfood.org.uk/veganbuddies.htm
.
Realfood
are producing a new colour magazine which should be out in the next few weeks,
packed with features, articles, reviews and much more. In the first edition
there are pieces about nutrition, the Red Bull scandal, open animal rescues.
Please subscribe, check the website for when it’s published.
Free
Vegan Food Fairs are a good way of promoting veganism. The previous day Sat
April 2nd there had been a free food fair in Coventry which a few people at the
meeting had been at. It was a great success, over 300 people through the doors.
Again quite a few have made enquiries about the Vegan Buddy scheme.
There
was a general discussion about the benefits of promoting veganism. One young
boy had persuaded a Hindu-owned shop in his town to go vegan, and now many
other similar shops are following this lead. It was pointed out it is estimated
that one person will eat about 2,000 animals in a lifetime, so persuading
people to go vegan saves lives directly. www.realfood.org.uk
SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty). It is important to support the World Day event in Dover on 30th
of April, this was already covered in the Gateway to Hell section. Shac
campaign has long ago taken the fight away from the gates of HLS labs, and
taken it to the structure which keeps the business going. They have taken on
and beaten some of the biggest companies in the world, so that no company was
prepared to provide banking or insurance for HLS so the government stepped in.
The company was driven from the UK stock exchange and is now registered in the
USA.
The
campaign is now targeting the infrastructure of the HLS, which is why the UPS
campaign is so important. As far as Shac is concerned, UPS had the chance to
choose good but, by continuing to deal with HLS, they chose to support evil, and now they will be treated
accordingly. As UPS are a global company, the fight against them has gone
global too. Recently there have been lots of demos against UPS in Holland. A
shac activist who has been prevented from attending any demos in the UK has
simply been travelling to Holland to carry on as usual. UPS, like other
companies before them, spent loads of money getting an injunction, only to find
it was useless. On the SHAC website there is a list of some of the biggest and
most famous names in business who have dropped HLS, followed by the question
“What do UPS know that these companies don’t?”
Sometimes
it can be difficult to understand why a certain company is being targeted,
often they secondary and even tertiary targets, but it is important to stick
with it. For instance the reason BOC pulled out in the end of supplying HLS with
gases, was because activists targeted Marks and Spencer. M&S used the
transport company Gist to supply its stores, which is in turn owned by BOC.
Information was leaked to SHAC that it was pressure from M&S which finally
persuaded BOC to ditch HLS. Likewise with Marsh insurance, it was shortly after
activists disrupted a ballet performance which was being organised by Marsh
boss Hamish Ritchie that the company withdrew insurance from HLS. And Marsh is
one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, yet it was a personal
element of the campaign which finally tipped the balance. http://www.shac.net/
0845 458 0630.
SSAT (Stop Sequani Animal Testing) campaign against Sequani
contract animal testing company, Ledbury, Worcs. There has been a campaign
against this place for about 22 years, it was previously called Quintiles and
before that it was Toxicol. Recently the campaign has widened so it isn’t just
about demos at the gates with placards etc. Local activists have been
travelling far and wide to target suppliers. So far 12 suppliers have cut their
ties with Sequani, and it is rumoured DHL are about to become another success.
There are about 20 suppliers currently listed on the Sequani website, so there
is bound to be target near you. There is a hardcore of about 7 activists, but
the campaign could have more of an effect if more people got involved. The
previous day there had been 35 protesters at the gates of Sequani in Ledbury,
the numbers were probably boosted by having the ARC meeting nearby the
following day. One recent
success was that the company which was providing Sequani with a registered
address in Bristol withdrew the service following demos, so they had to
register the company at the site of the labs. Another target is the chief
scientist at Sequani, who also happens to be chair of the local School Council
at the local girls’ school. Demos at the school led to a lot of press coverage
and heavy policing and embarrassment for the employee concerned. Another
Sequani staff-member was traced after being seen leaving the site. After two
home demos, and leafleting the neighbourhood, one month later she had moved
house.
SSAT
activists also organise actions against other animal abuse targets. Madeleine
Anne, a shop selling fur in Ledbury had had 20 different demos and occupations
last year and withdrew fur. They also travel to help other campaign, and so
shac demos.
It
was suggested that as some suppliers are turning up in various lab campaigns, eg
BOC, DHL etc, it would be a good idea to ask them to leave the vivisection
industry completely rather than just that particular company. www.vivisection.info/ssat/index.html
SPEAK No
work has been carried out for over 9 months now on the proposed animal labs at
Oxford University. In January the University had been bullish, saying they had
found a builder and that work would start in February. In February they were
equally confident of work starting in March. However it is vital that we don’t
get complacent now. Only the previous week a trusted journalist source said
they had heard that a builder had been found at last. SPEAK is convinced the
university will try one last time to get the labs built. It needs another big
effort from the movement to fight off these efforts and bring about a historic
victory. How historic it will be can be gauged by the powerful group of enemies
the campaign has encountered. The majority of the establishment has been
educated at Oxford University, including the Prime Minister and the
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the most senior police officer in the land.
Demos
at the proposed site of the labs have continued once a week for 9 months, in
all weathers, a big tribute to those have persevered. The Oxford Uni
authorities hate the spotlight and would love these demos to go away.
Recently
there have been press reports announcing an investigation into the future of
primate experiments, and it turns out these have been instigated by Oxford Uni
professor Weatherall. No doubt any report will be a whitewash, but it shows how
worried they have become.
The
spotlight is clearly on Oxford now. On 21st April, there was a
planned public debate between the head of the RDS (Research Defence Society)
and members of EFMA (Europeans for Medical Advancement), chaired by former MP
Tony Benn. To this date has now been added two more high profile debates. The
week before on 14th April sees a debate between notorious Oxford
University cat torturer Colin Blakemore and Gill Langley, who has been
scientific adviser to various anti-vivisection groups. Admission for this is
£7, whereas the one the week after is free. And the week after, on 28th
there is a debate in the Students Union attended by a representative of the
Speak campaign.
From
20 to 23 April, an 85 year-old Speak supporter will be carrying out a 3 day
public hunger strike in protest at the proposed labs. She has previously
carried out a 24 hour hunger strike outside the site, which gained much
publicity for the campaign, and again put the University in the spotlight.
Support will be needed throughout the 3 days, and it should be remembered that
the RDS v EFMA debate on 21 April will take place during the fast. The location
of the fast will be announced nearer to the time.
On
July 23rd, there is a national demo in Oxford, and it is vital as
many people as possible to turn up to this. It is called the National Freedom
March and Rally. Freedom in this case has 3 meanings, freedom for the animals,
freedom for the right to protest which is under attack from the government and
the courts, and freedom for scientific progress without the need for cruel and
unnecessary animal experiments. There is a problem at the moment with the
meeting place for the march. Speak have applied to have a rally in South Park,
Oxford, but the Oxford Trust which owns the park, no doubt under the influence
of the all powerful University, has turned down the application, saying
political rallies are not allowed. This is a lie, as just last year there was a
huge rally there including Trade Unions and many political groups. Speak now
intends to seek a Judicial Review of this decision. Whether this is successful
or not, the demo will take place in Oxford on 23rd July, so it is
important to start planning transport as soon as possible, particularly as
coach and minibus companies get very busy at that time of year, and it may be
wise to book well in advance. www.speakcampaigns.org 07985 330 7985
SNGP (Save
the Newchurch Guinea Pigs). There had been much publicity about the injunction
which had been applied for by the Guinea Pig farm owners the Halls, but for the
campaign the outcome had been a success, as the application had been turned
down in almost every respect. They tried to secure a 200 km square Exclusion
Zone, and failed, to limit the number of protests to one a month and failed,
they tried to allow just six people to attend demos and failed, they tried to
claim one man represented the feelings of 30,000 locals, and failed, and tried
to limit these demos to just two hours long, and failed. And they tried to stop
Sunday demos altogether, and yet again failed.
What
the injunction does mean is that demos are limited to once a week on Sundays
between 12noon and 3pm, with no more than 25 protesters. It was important still
that as many people as possible turn up, if there are more than 25 there is a
shift system. One regular protester said that before the injunction numbers
were well down to something like 10, but it seems the limit of 25 has been
taken as an order, and numbers are now regularly up to 30 or more.
Other
restrictions include no megaphones or amplified sounds of any kind, but there
are voices loud enough to overcome this, and no photo or video to be taken of
staff or suppliers, though this doesn’t cover getting evidence of police
harassment.
Just
before the last injunction hearing there was yet another well publicised series
of arrests in connection with the theft of the body of a relative of the Halls.
This has happened before and the timing is very suspicious, but if they wanted
to influence the judge they failed, yet again. One 60 year old activist has
been told she is no longer on bail in connection with the incident. Two
activists from Gloucester had their computer and car taken by police as
evidence, so donations or replacements for both would be appreciated, contact
SNGP.
Another
activist on bail for the same thing was at the meeting said he had been offered
£10,000 for the return of the body, and has now made an official complaint
about this. www.liberation-now.org
01902 564734.
SWAT (Stop
Wickham Animal Testing). Campaigning against Wickham animal labs, Hants. A big
success recently was the news that BOC had pulled out of supplying Wickham. The
campaign against other suppliers continues, including White Rose Environmental,
Reliance Security and TNT.
SWAT
has recently been concentrating on the trial of two local activists who were to
stand trial for burglary and theft of around 700 mice from Wickham. The trial
was due to begin the day after the meeting. One of the defendants was at the
meeting to talk about the case. Briefly he was charged along with another with
stealing about 700 mice from Wickham Labs, he was admitting carrying out the
offence, but was pleading not guilty using the “Justification” defence, ie he
was preventing one crime by carrying out another. The crime in this case was
that the mice were being used to test Botox, a cosmetic experiment which is
supposed to be banned, likewise in LD50 tests which are supposed to be used
only when no alternatives exist. The trial should last until the middle of the
week. If successful, this defence could set a precedent. (Since the meeting, both defendants were convicted, both are on
bail to be sentenced on 29th April). www.swatonline.co.uk
02392 588516.
VEGGIES. Co-ordinates
the ARC (Animal Rights Calendar) the authoritative diary for the movement. The
ARC has been redesigned, so each event has it’s own web page. This is a vital
service for local groups and others who don’t have a web presence, they can
always use their event page on the ARC as a web address. The system seems to be
working very well, there have been no date clashes and the number of visits to
the site has doubled.
Unfortunately
work on the ARC has delayed the promised update of another of Veggies’ vital
roles, the Animal Contacts Directory. This is still being done, so please send
in your group’s contact details soon.
Not
forgetting Veggies’ other main role, that of catering for the movement. They
had provided most of the catering for this meeting, as they do at all ARC
meetings. However catering for 70 people was going to be nothing compared to
about 30,000 that are expected to turn up in July for the G8 summit in
Scotland. Veggies will be working with several other catering collectives at
the events, and the others have agreed that all catering will be vegan
throughout. So lots of help will be needed, please contact Veggies for details.
Veggies
has been paying special attention to the Great British Circus, tracking their
movements around the country and alerting local activists. See CAPS section
above. www.veggies.org.uk
0845 458 9595.
3) Local
Groups Section. This is for local grass roots groups to talk about what
they are up to and to swap ideas and tactics. Unfortunately we didn’t have time
for all the local groups so we asked for reports later by email.
SARC
(Southern Animal Rights Coalition) An illegal bird fair went ahead in Bournemouth
despite the efforts of local activists, but they will be keeping vigilant to
stop future such events. Local activists took part in the successful Snow and
Rock campaign (see CAFT section above) as well as holding demos against local
shop tReds. There was a demo at Southampton airport as part of the Gateway to
Hell campaign, with megaphone and airhorn.
Coventry Animal Alliance The recent Jill’s Day demo in Coventry was a great
success despite all the problems beforehand, around 500 activists turned up. The film about Jill’s life and campaigning
was shown, people were very moved even thought it isn’t quite finished yet. It
was a good use of a personalised story to convey a strong message about animal
suffering. The event has also helped to kick-start the local group. Nancy
Phipps’ book dedicated to Jill was on sale at the meeting, it costs £6 and
proceeds go to Jill’s fund to support animal rights campaigns.
The Great British Circus had been in Coventry and there
had been demos at every performance, this is in large part down to the
enthusiasm generated by Jill’s Day.
The day before the meeting there had been a free vegan
food fair in Coventry, which was a great success, with over 300 people coming
through the door. As well as vegan food, there were stalls and talks by a
nutritionist and the Dr Hadwen Trust, a tombola as well as a couple of showings
of Jill’s film.
CAA will be very busy during National Greyhound Week, May
21st to 28th, with protests at the Greyhound Stadium
planned every day, which the owners really hate.
West Midlands
Animal Action. WMAA is a co-ordinating group covering different areas of
the West Mids. They were involved in the campaign against Snow and Rock selling
fur, holding protests at their shop in Birmingham (see CAFT above). Recently
activists occupied the shop and the police were called. It was the following
day that CAFT received a letter from Snow and Rock that they would stop the
sale of fur.
There was a good protest recently at the NEC in Birmingham
against a conference which included several high-profile vivisection suppliers.
As part of Zoo Awareness Day there was a demo at Dudley
Zoo. Also the area seems to be a favourite haunt of animal circuses, there have
been demos against Zippos, the Great British Circus, Bobby Roberts and Jolly’s.
For the National SPEAK demo
there was a full coach from the area. A coach is also organised for the Gateway
to Hell demo.
Northampton Animal Concern. The group is being revived at the minute. There
was a benefit gig and social which raised over £700 for campaigns, as well as
bringing people together. Also they have found that some fancy-dress shops are
selling fur, and advise groups to check in local shops.
Manchester Animal Protection. There are regular fur demos against Selfridges in
Manchester as part of the national campaign. There were also regular demos
against Snow and Rock before they went fur free. As part of Horse Racing
Awareness Week there demos against betting shops in various towns around
Manchester, which had some excellent coverage. There were also stalls on the
Saturday and door to door leafleting.
London
Although London Animal Action folded earlier in the year, there has been no let
up in activity at all. There are fur demos against Selfridges just about every
Saturday, and there were also demos against Snow and Rock before they stopped
selling fur. Activists have also been busy with several demos against the seal
cull at Canada House in Trafalgar Square, some of which have got good
publicity. As part of Zoo Awareness Day
there was a good demo at London Zoo. There were demos against Zippos Circus as
well.
There were coaches from
London to the National Speak Demo in Oxford, as well as to Jill’s Day in
Coventry the week after. There are also regular London demos for Shac, Speak
and Gateway to Hell campaigns.
There was a free vegan food
fair at Pogo Café, it was a big success with over 300 people turning up. There
was also anti-meat leafleting with a stall, giving out literature and samples
of free vegan food. There are plans to set up a new vegan campaigns group in
the London area to promote veganism. There
are regular Anti-McDonalds demos every Thursday.
4)
AR2005 gathering. From Friday July 15th
to Saturday July 18th in Kent. This was
the last ARC meeting before the gathering, planning for the gathering is coming
on well. This time the focus of the gathering will be less theory and history
and more on practical skills. There are some new speakers, Tom Regan is
confirmed, Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd is also a possibility. The site will
be open for a week before the event to allow for preparation, help will be
needed during this time. Also for 3 or 4 days afterwards to help to tidy up the
site. Funding is another issue, it costs thousands to put on the gathering, and
there is an appeal for groups and activists to help fundraise to cover costs,
see the website for details. 0845 456 9496 http://ar2005.info
5) General Open Forum There was a
discussion about new laws which will affect activism, in particular the new
anti-terror laws and the Serious Organised Crimes Bill
6) Other Forthcoming Events/ Any Other
Business. There was a demo against
the Canadian Seal Cull in London coming up on April 11th organised by various
groups including Sea Shepherd. There was a general discussion about the
campaign against the seal cull and we were asked to contact the Canadian
Embassy to protest.
7) ARC meetings. Feedback from this meeting,
discussion about future meetings. The main problem with this meeting was that
there was not quite enough time for all the local groups section. Having said
that, at the previous meeting when there had been enough time, there were about
the same number of contributions. One problem was that many people arrived
late, which meant the meeting started an hour late. It has been suggested that
we start with local group discussions before the campaigns section On the other
hand the campaigns section often gives local groups a cue about what to say
they’ve been up to. Another idea is
to break the group down into smaller groups for part of the meeting. This was
suggested after the September meeting in Bedford, but again a problem is lack
of time, but we would welcome more feedback on this. It was also suggested that
groups talk more about what they are planning to do rather than what they have
done.
8) Next ARC meeting There was discussion about whether to have the next ARC meeting at the Gathering in July as most of us will be there. On the other hand it would be good to have an ARC meeting shortly after the Gathering to capitalise on the energy and enthusiasm. Also the Gathering is intended to be an international gathering, last year it was felt that it was too UK centred. In the end the decision is to have the next ARC meeting about month after the gathering, this time it will be in the North-West. We have a venue just about sorted, but are just trying to finalise a date. Details will be updated on the Animal Rights Calendar at http://www.veggies.org.uk/arc.htm