Animal Aid

Unhappy Mother's Day

Maternal instincts are not unique to humans, and Mother's Day is the perfect time to show compassion towards mothers from all species. It is with this in mind that Animal Aid campaigners visited an intensive pig farm to bring a little happiness into the otherwise desolate lives of breeding sows, taking apples to the porcine mothers incarcerated in highly restrictive - and extremely controversial - farrowing crates.

Animal Aid Commemorates a Decade of Death at Cheltenham Festival

Animal Aid supporters are to stage a memorial ceremony at Cheltenham Racecourse to commemorate the 30 horses who have died at the 10 annual festivals held at the course since 1999. Bearing ‘tombstones’ with the names of the dead, activists will maintain a silent presence outside the main entrance of the course, whilst Animal Aid’s Horse Racing Consultant, Dene Stansall, will read out a short eulogy for each horse.

The Food Standards Agency Backs CCTV Campaign

Animal Aid’s campaign to tackle the worst aspects of cruelty and incompetence in British abattoirs has taken a major step forward with the declaration by the head of the government’s food regulatory body that he backs our call to have CCTV installed in every British abattoir. Our campaign already has the support of the RSPCA, the Soil Association and Compassion in World Farming.

A weekend of racing in atrocious conditions leaves three horses dead

Desperate that their income should not be affected by considerations of Thoroughbred welfare, some racecourses staged meetings this past weekend in atrocious weather conditions – with predictably tragic consequences.

March is Veggie Month

March is Veggie Month - the perfect time to consider the impact that your food choices have on animals, your health and the environment.

RSPCA Backs Animal Aid's Slaughter Campaign

The RSPCA has formally endorsed Animal Aid’s call for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses and has said that it will make cameras mandatory in all Freedom Food approved abattoirs.

We're hiring! Join us as a merchandise officer

Animal Aid requires an enthusiastic, hard-working person to join our busy merchandise and sales team in May. For this full-time post you will need to be computer literate, numerate and have excellent organisational and administrative skills. Duties include dealing with incoming orders for goods, sending out parcels and packs of literature, data entry, stock control and liaising with customers.

A reminder of why the 2004 Hunting Act matters

The Conservative Party has indicated that, should it win the next General Election, it will make parliamentary time for a free vote on repealing the 2004 Hunting Act, which made hunting foxes and stags with hounds illegal. The Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, admitted that he used to go hunting.

Please watch this short video, by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which shows the horrendous cruelty that will return to the countryside if the Hunting Act is repealed.

MEP bulletin on non-animal research: #2

The field of non-animal biomedical research is expanding at an unprecedented rate. Old-fashioned animal tests look slow, unreliable and cumbersome by comparison. And yet, the message hasn’t got through to Europe’s legislators. This much has become apparent as Animal Aid – in collaboration with several other national anti-vivisection groups – has pressed its case during the current process to rewrite Directive 86/609, the law governing vivisection across the EU. To help alert parliamentarians to the benefits of ethical research, Animal Aid now produces an e-mail newsletter featuring the latest developments in animal-free technologies, combined with examples of the human health problems caused by reliance on animal data. Each bulletin offers six or eight succinct, easily digestible but fully referenced examples, with the aim of making a positive, cumulative impact. It is sent to all MEPs and UK MPs.

Pharmaceutical Companies Criticised

The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) was unveiled in draft form this week by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM provides diagnostic criteria for mental disorders, and the revised version is already being criticised for medicalising normal human conditions. This could lead to more people being diagnosed with mental illnesses, and treated with powerful psychotropic drugs they do not need.

Meat-Free Monday: The Movie

What a difference a day makes is the title and main theme of a beautifully produced, highly watchable, mini film launched this week by Animal Aid, which features a soundtrack donated by famous musician and vegan advocate, Moby. With world leaders having failed to agree on meaningful initiatives at the recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, the film declares that it is now time for individuals to take personal responsibility for helping to save the world and, towards that end, people should adopt at least one meat-free day a week.

Love Animals? Then don't eat them!

This Valentine’s, have a heart for the 1000 million farmed animals, bred and slaughtered each year in the UK to end up as food on our plates, and go veggie!

Live Pigs Blown Up In Government Military Research Laboratory

On Sunday, details emerged concerning shocking experiments being conducted on live pigs at Porton Down, a secretive military research centre in Wiltshire. In a series of tests, 18 live pigs were placed just a few feet away from explosives, which were then detonated. The pigs were left to bleed until almost a third of their blood had drained from their bodies, to see how long they could then be kept alive.

Grey Squirrels Do Not Harm Woodland Birds

Researchers from the British Trust for Ornithology and Natural England published this month results of a study into whether grey squirrels have a negative impact on 38 woodland bird species. Such an accusation has often been made by those with vested interests in squirrel culling, namely shooting and forestry industries but to date no evidence has been provided.

Ask your MP to help ban battery cages for game birds

Please write to your MP and ask him or her to sign Early Day Motion (EDM) 507, which calls for a ban on the use of all battery cages for ‘game birds’. A decision on their future will soon be taken, so please write as soon as possible.

A million or more sheep face death in the snow

In November, we reported that, according to the farming trade press, hundreds, if not thousands, of sheep and cattle perished in the floods that battered Cumbria. Now comes the news that a million Scottish sheep face being starved or frozen to death on exposed hillsides. The National Farmers' Union in Scotland has said about a third of the country's sheep are on hills and warns that many flocks are ‘on a real knife edge’ following weeks of snow and sub-zero temperatures.

Help Ban Animals from Circuses

DEFRA has launched a public survey aimed at testing opinion on the use of animals in circuses. Although the consultation focuses on wild animals, it is still a valuable first step in working towards a total ban on the confinement and use of all animals in circuses.

It is important that you voice your opinion on this issue - and please encourage friends and family to do likewise.

Animal Campaigners Win Important Freedom of Speech Victory

Five animal rights campaigners - including an Animal Aid School Speaker - have won an important victory under the Human Rights Act 1998, following a series of arrests by Lancashire Police in 2006. The placards that the protestors carried - depicting monkeys in vivisection experiments - were deemed by the police to be ‘threatening, abusive or insulting’ under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

Have a great 2010

The beginning of a new decade is the perfect time to resolve to make a fresh start. What better way of having a compassionate, healthier and happier 2010 than by going veggie or vegan?

Otter Valley Poultry and the Soil Association – a clarification

In our press release of 18 December 2009 (Organic Poultry for the Christmas Table: Secret Filming Reveals the Grim Truth) – which was also posted on our website – we said that the chickens and turkeys we filmed at Otter Valley Poultry in Honiton were Soil Association-approved organic animals. We came to this conclusion based on declarations on Otter Valley Poultry’s website. We are now informed by the Soil Association that, while the poultry slaughter operation at the Honiton abattoir is Soil Association-certified, the farm at the same address is not organic, Soil Association or otherwise. Otter Valley’s Soil Association-approved organic chickens and turkeys are farmed at three different addresses before being slaughtered at Honiton. We are happy make public this clarification.