Animals
The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer? - Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher 1748-1832.
Winston Churchill said of Stanley Baldwin "He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened".
I was like Stanley Baldwin but 2002 brought about a complete turnaround in my life. I had, in 1998, given up eating red meat and after seeing the appalling treatment of animals during the Foot and Mouth crisis, I also gave up eating white meat and poultry. In September this year I bit the bullet and abandoned eating fish, after seeing footage of a tuna's futile and bloody struggle against its captors, and reading about the pollution of the world's oceans. I no longer eat any animal, fish or fowl.
In March I dressed up as a sheep and squeezed into the front carriage of a Circle Line train along with 150 other sheep to demonstrate against the export of live animals: a totally cruel and unnecessary practice - why are we exporting unwanted calves to veal crates in Holland when we have banned these crates in this country because they are so cruel. At this demo I met Christopher and Elizabeth Campbell who have become good friends and who took me on another first - an anti-war march, something I had missed out on in my mis-spent youth! Walking from the Embankment to Hyde Park with hundreds of other like-minded people to protest about the Bush-Blair plan to force a war on Iraq was something I shall never forget.
But it was an anti-vivisection rally on 7th September outside the BBC in Portland Place, followed by a march to Trafalgar Square which really brought it home to me that fighting for the rights of animals not to be hurt, frightened or abused is what I am here for. I felt proud. Proud not to be eating the flesh of animals, proud to be defending them. It was a defining moment.
Please do have a look at the links to my favourite animals campaigning organisations. They do fantastic work but need all the support they can get.
Students for Ethical Science - an Open University Society
SES is an OUSA-affiliated society of students, former students (including graduates) and staff from all disciplines, whose aim is to persuade the OU, by peaceful means, to end its harmful use of animals in research and teaching.
Their activities include gathering and disseminating information about alternatives to animal experiments, publicising the rights of students to demand these, and enabling members to contact each other via the ‘SES Networking’ scheme. They have stalls at OUSA Conference and OU Open Days, and send delegates to the conference to put forward motions and speak on similar ones submitted by others. In March 2003 I had the privilege of representing them at the OUSA Conference in Eastbourne. We were successful in getting two of our four motions through; the third was defeated and the fourth fell due to the Steering Committee linking it to our first. In 2004 I was back and we successfully deleted a bad piece of policy, against huge opposition from the Executive Committee who had failed to do their homework!
I have since be appointed to the OU's Animal Ethical Committee to represent the views of the student body, via their decisions at Conference.
To find out more about SES please contact membership secretary Vivien Pomfrey by email
