Animal Aid

Animal Aid demand an apology from the National Farmers' Union [also see the day's events in photos]:

Animal Aid awaits a response from National Farmers' Union president Ben Gill, following a lively Animal Aid protest by 30 activists in farmers' garb, that was staged Tuesday May 8 on the doorstep of the NFU's London HQ. Gill was asked to apologise to the British people for the carnage and mayhem resulting from the foot and mouth crisis. Our letter was accepted on Gill's behalf by the NFU's vice president, Michael Paske, and deputy director general, Ian Gardiner. (See photos.)

We were there at the NFU to inject some realism into the debate over foot and mouth and to press the NFU into admitting that, whatever the specific cause of the FMD outbreak, it is a disease that flourishes in the kind of squalid and oppressive systems of animal production, transportation and slaughter favoured by the animal 'production' industry. That FMD follows in the wake of major outbreaks of E.coli, salmonella, campylobacter, swine fever, bovine TB and BSE signals that industrialised animal production is in a state of permanent crisis - and that it's time the Union and the government gave tangible support to humane and sustainable systems of food production. (See our veggie pages.)

The Animal Aid protesters outside the NFU beat tin plates and shouted slogans such as 'We're Farmers! We want ALL your tax money' and 'Killing is our Living'.

We carried a three metre long banner declaring:

'Farmers say sorry! We've seen the light. Meat Stinks - Go Veggie!'

And we screened, for passing members of the public, our new five minute shock video called Choose Life - Go Veggie! This shows what is usually concealed from the public behind farm and slaughterhouse gates …the violence and bloodshed that are at the core of the meat industry.

Smaller placards continued the theme with the following messages:

Farmers say
SORRY
For the animal suffering

Farmers say
SORRY
For sponging off taxpayers

Farmers say
SORRY
For decimating tourism

Farmers say
SORRY
For polluting the environment

Farmers say
SORRY
For closing down the countryside

Farmers say
SORRY
For blaming everyone else instead of taking responsibility

Farmers say
SORRY
For pretending that killing animals isn't our living