Animal
Rights
Every year in the UK
well over two million animals are subjected to experiments "likely to cause
pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm." (As the Government describes them).
An estimated 9 million
animals gassed or decapitated annually because they are deemed 'surplus to requirements'
by the vivisection industry. These
figures describe the horrific scale of suffering and death in British laboratories.
The situation
worldwide is almost too appalling to contemplate, But
what the cold statistics hide is the fact that each one of those 11.6 million
animals was a warm, living, feeling individual.
These animals
have been deprived of the chance to live their lives in the way they were meant
to: in family and social groups, tending to their young, and fulfilling their
basic needs. They can never understand why they are being made to suffer.
They do
not deserve to be locked in cages, and have their whole lives twisted and stolen
by vivisectors. Every experiment they are subjected to is a crime against these
animals. We must never, ever forget that animal experimentation means the suffering
and destruction of sensitive, individual creatures. Once a life is taken, there
is no way to make amends.
Liberation
is dedicated to protecting these animals. Our intensive efforts are educating
the public about the reality of vivisection. Our pressure on companies and governments
is forcing them to take notice of the respect that animals are due, and respond
to the public's growing demand for an end to the abuse of animals. We are now
starting to make historic progress on behalf of animals in laboratories.
But we are faced with an
immense uphill struggle. The barbaric tradition of vivisection is deeply ingrained
in many areas of 'science'.
To make
matters worse, the new technology of genetic engineering threatens to inflict
more pain and death of animals. What
the future holds for animals, ultimately depends on us. For the sake of every
animal, we want to build on the progress that has been achieved, and prevent
new forms of suffering and exploitation from being established. But we can only
continue with your support. Although,
as a single individual, you may feel you can't make a difference, it really
isn't true. Anything that you can do to increase our prospects of success will
help bring closer the day when animals are saved from vivisection.
On December
10th, 1948, the United Nations ratified the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR). The Declaration established once and for all the principle
that all human beings - however poor or powerless, whatever their colour, or
gender or beliefs - have rights that no-one, no matter how powerful, may ever
abuse or take away. Rights to live, to be free, to be protected from torture
and to live their lives free of exploitation.
The UDHR symbolised
the triumph of compassion and justice over the prejudices of the past, and even
though we still have a long way to go before our world lives up to those ideals,
holding those ideals makes us a better and more civilised human race.
But why should rights
stop with human beings? There is a long and growing tradition that argues that
animals have rights too. Is this an idea whose time has come?
Once upon a time, people
thought that human rights, racial equality and democracy were crazy ideas. Could
it be that the people of the future will one day look on the slaughterhouse
and animal laboratory as we now look on the slave ship, the torture chamber
and apartheid?
If we take a serious
and intelligent look at this question, maybe we can see why there is a growing
recognition that all animals deserve respect and the right to life and liberty,
whatever their species.
The human race has,
in fact, long recognised that it is wrong to treat animals as things. They experience
pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering, in just the same way as we do. Science
has taught us that we are, of course, animals ourselves, with our nearest relatives,
the chimpanzee, sharing 99% of our genes.
People used to think
that animals were just like machines, and that human beings could use them however
they chose, but as we have become civilised we have come to understand that
cruelty to animals is wrong. Now, some of us are saying, that if we recognise
that cruelty is wrong, then animals should have the right to be protected from
cruelty. If people have a right not to suffer, why not other animals?
Of course there are
many differences between human beings and other animals, but that doesn't mean
that animals can't have rights, there are differences between people too. Just
because one person is less intelligent than another doesn't mean that their
pain hurts less, or their life is worth less. Just because a baby or perhaps
a person suffering from a mental handicap cannot tell the difference between
right and wrong, does not mean that they can have no rights.
In fact, we recognise
that we have a duty to protect and nurture those who cannot take a full part
in our society - those who are weaker than ourselves. If we apply the opposite
rule to animals - that because they are weak, or lack intelligence, we can use
them however we choose - are we not guilty of hypocrisy and discrimination?
It is time to stop looking
at our differences - which is the way of the racist, the sexist and the bigot
- and start looking at our similarities. We know that animals, like us, suffer
fear and pain, but they are still experimented upon in our laboratories.
We know that they form
bonds of affection and perhaps even love with their families, just as we do,
but calves are still taken from their mothers within days of their births.
We know that animals,
like us, flourish in freedom, but still they are imprisoned in zoos, circuses,
laboratories and on our factory farms.
Finally, we know that
they, like us, will protect and preserve their own lives if they can, but they
are still slaughtered in their billions for food which is unhealthy, unnecessary
and environmentally destructive.
In 1799, people thought
those who wanted to abolish slavery were crazy. In 1899, people thought the
suffragettes were crazy. Now, in 1999, people are starting to realise that the
idea of honouring the rights of animals isn't crazy, foolish or sentimental,
but is just the next step along the journey to make our world a fairer, more
compassionate and more civilised place.
We don't believe that
rights belong to the few any more, we don't believe that the powerful may use
the weak how they choose any more.
Even now in the new
millennium, animals are abused and exploited in ways that could not even have
been imagined a century ago; cloned, genetically engineered, factory farmed,
poisoned in laboratories with chemicals nobody needs, and even, used as spare
part factories for transplants.
More and more of us
now believe that the future belongs to compassion and justice. We believe that
one day the world will recognise fully the rights of animals just as it has
recognised the rights of humans. We are campaigning for the future.
The animal and human
rights movements have grown considerably over the last few years. Many of us
now seek a more fulfilling set of ethics, with the number of those who now live
a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle growing to such an extent that the food industry
sees us as major consumers.
The powers that be try
to hide and lie about the atrocities most accept as everyday life. We must now
work together to expose the dangers threatening the existence of our planet
and all who reside on it.
The time has come for
those of us who really care to stand tall and scream for change.
Some of the subject
matter Liberation covers is both graphic in both words and pictures, for this
we do not apologise! We believe that's the only way to expose the truth.
By attempting to abuse
our democratic rights they have declared war, and war requires militancy.
Stay militant!