Urgent action needed to stop schools from farming animals!
Viva! urges you to sign our petition demanding a ban on schools keeping farmed animals.
Farmed animals are a major cause of environmental damage while the meat and dairy it produces are linked to many serious diseases. Despite this, a worrying number of schools are keeping farmed animals, such as pigs, sheep, cows and chickens, under the guise of teaching children ‘where meat comes from’. When they are sent to slaughter, the emotional impact on children who have befriended them can be devastating
We are calling on members of the public to take action now and sign our petition asking the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP, to instigate a ban on schools housing farmed animals.
These are the reasons why:
- It causes intense and unnecessary distress to children and animals.
- It causes inner conflict and anxiety in children who are encouraged to care for animals and then brutally destroy that bond.
- It causes distress and confusion over the morality of killing animals for food.
- It needlessly takes the lives of animals.
- It propagates misinformation about how animals are farmed (85 per cent of UK farmed animals are confined in factory farms). Almost no animals killed for food are farmed as they are in schools.
- It encourages meat consumption which is linked to serious diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. The World Health Organisation says that processed meat is a group 1 carcinogen (the same category as tobacco smoking and asbestos) and red meat a group 2A carcinogen meaning it probably cause cancer too.
- According to the UN, animal agriculture is responsible for around 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions and is a main cause of global wildlife loss; encouraging children to think that eating animals is normal is misguided and destructive.
- Boris the Pig – read all about his journey and how he was saved from slaughter
Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva!, says:
“Schools need to be at the forefront of protecting children’s future. Encouraging meat consumption is doing the opposite. The factory farming of billions of animals worldwide is destroying the environment, killing wildlife and producing huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming. Three in four new and emerging diseases come from animals and factory farms pose a pandemic risk. The suffering of sentient beings should not be encouraged, in schools or anywhere.”
Make your voice heard and demand that this stops. Sign the petition below – your message will be sent directly to the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP.
