Animal Aid

Founder(s)	Jean Pink[1]
Type	Animal rights
Founded	1977 (1977)
Headquarters	Tonbridge, England
Area served	United Kingdom
Focus	Vivisection, animal testing, factory farming, animal rights, veganism, Horse racing, Grand National
Method	Campaigning, cruelty-free fairs,
Website	animalaid.org.uk

Animal Aid, founded in 1977, is a British animal rights organisation. The group campaigns peacefully against all forms of animal abuse and promotes a cruelty-free lifestyle. It also investigates and exposes animal cruelty.

Animal Aid produces campaign reports, leaflets and factfiles, as well as educational and undercover videos. They also offer a quarterly magazine and a sales catalogue with cruelty-free products.

Aims and objectives

Animal Aid was founded in January 1977 to work, by all peaceful means, for an end to animal cruelty. The organization is a not-for-profit limited company run by a volunteer council of management. It has not applied to be a charity, so that it is able to use its funds for sometimes controversial campaigns. Its aims are:

• To increase public awareness of the abuse of animals in our society, particularly in vivisection laboratories and factory farms and to educate public opinion to demand, by all lawful means, the abolition of all experiments on animals, factory farming and all other forms of animal abuse.
• To examine existing legislation on matters associated with the above objectives or related aspects and to promote social, legal and administrative reforms in furtherance of the above objectives.
• To prevent exploitation of animals.
• To educate the public and particularly young people to a sense of moral responsibility towards animals.
• To promote, generally, a lifestyle which does not involve the abuse of animals.
• To collect, and diffuse among members and the public generally, information on all matters affecting the above objectives and with a view there to print, issue and circulate papers, periodicals, books, circulars and other literary matter and produce film and audio-visual material, and to promote, sponsor, procure or assist in any way, courses or lectures or other instructions in furtherance of such objectives.^[2]

Celebrity supporters

Animal Aid has a wide range of celebrity supporters, including Thom Yorke, Stella McCartney, Richard Wilson, Wendy Turner Webster, Massive Attack, Alexei Sayle, Tony Benn, Benjamin Zephaniah, Martin Shaw, Chrissie Hynde, Peter Tatchell and Reverend Professor Andrew Linzey.

Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, the primatologist, has supported the Animal Aid campaign against primate experiments, stating: "I have yet to hear a sufficiently compelling scientific argument that justifies the suffering inflicted on primates in medical research." ^[3]

Campaigns

Animal Aid campaigns against animal experiments on both moral and scientific grounds, and promotes the non-animal medical research. It obtains and publicises undercover footage showing how animals are treated in farms and on slaughterhouses. Animal Aid promotes an animal-free diet. They argue that a vegan diet is more humane, healthy, environmentally friendly and a better way to use the world's precious resources. Its other main campaigns are against culling, horse racing, pheasant farming and shooting.^[4]

Animal Aid launched the purple poppy campaign in 2007^[5] to commemorate the animal victims of war. Millions of animals have lost their lives in human wars, but are rarely mentioned in remembrance ceremonies. The purple poppy aims to rectify this. It can be worn on its own or alongside the red poppy. Tens of thousands people have bought the poppy, and it has been worn by celebrities including Morrissey on stage in November 2009.^[6][7]

Christmas Fayre

Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre is held every year in London, England to promote a cruelty-free lifestyle.

There are goods for sale including fair trade crafts and jewellery, cruelty-free cosmetics, recycled goods, environmentally friendly clothing, non-leather boots and shoes and seasonal cards and gifts. The 2009 fayre hosted more than 80 stands selling cruelty-free gifts. There is a lecture programme throughout the day, plus a celebrity auction, and vegan food. It is promoted as a family event.

There is also an annual South West Christmas Without Cruelty Fayre held in Exeter, England.

See also

• Animal ethics (disambiguation)

References

External links

• Animal Aid website
• Horse Death Watch

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