‘Protest never solved anything!’– Viva!life 96
‘Oh really,’ says Tony Wardle. Where animals are concerned, it’s the only thing that has ever succeeded.
I’ve no idea who first said that protesting was pointless but I suspect it came from those who are too embarrassed to stand in public and shout their heads off in pursuit of a cause; or those who are fearful of being protested against.
There’s a trite phrase that leaps off the lips of just about every politician who stands up in the House of Commons to talk about livestock farming – a Pavlovian-like reaction that’s devoid of both truth and sincerity: “We have the best animal welfare in the world!” It implies that they and their colleagues have sat down and carefully worked out how best to protect farmed animals. Oh, dear god, if only!
They have very little to boast about where farmed animals are concerned as the improvements that have been achieved are almost entirely down to us – you, me, Viva! and the wider animal rights movement and a few principled parliamentarians.
It probably started with the pole axe – a medieval weapon of war that was also used to ‘stun’ animals at slaughter in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was barbaric and caused immense suffering and was finally banned in 1933 after widespread public protest.
But let’s come a little more up to date. Who do you think woke up one morning and said: “I’ve got a jolly good idea – let’s take little calves away from their mothers and keep them in solitary isolation in tiny wooden crates where they can’t turn around and never exercise. That way their flesh will be oh so tender but even better, let’s deny them solid food so they develop anaemia and that will make their flesh white. What do you think?”
The Government clearly said yes, brilliant idea, and so did farmers because it happened. The one group of people who should have said: “Over our dead bodies,” also acquiesced, ignoring the veterinary oath that every single one of them had taken on qualifying:
“I promise and solemnly declare that I will pursue the work of my profession with integrity… and that, above all, my constant endeavour will be to ensure the health and welfare of animals committed to my care.”
How about that for utter hypocrisy?
That was in the 1950s and it took another 40 years of unimaginable suffering before veal crates were finally abandoned in the UK – in 1990. Why? Because of protest!
But the farming’s great productivity ideas kept on coming: “I know, why don’t we put mother pigs into tiny sow stalls and shackle them to the floor with body belts so they can’t move – that way they won’t use so many calories and we’ll save money on food. We’ll give them a change of scenery every five months by sticking them into a different crate – a farrowing crate – to give birth. What do you think?”
“Brilliant,” said the Government. “Right on,” said the farmers. “Show us the money,” said the vets, who should have screamed their heads off in disgust. And they kept on agreeing even when it became obvious that sows were lapsing into ‘stereotypic behaviour’ – were being driven mad by the cruelty!
It took almost another 40 years for that obscenity to be overturned – in 1999 – after years of campaigns and protests. It could have been earlier had a Conservative MP not stood up in parliament and ‘talked out’ a previous Bill – kept talking in the debate until there was no time left to vote on it.
“What did you do today, Daddy?”
“Well, darling, I stood up in parliament and talked complete bollocks for hours on end so my farming supporters could continue to torture female pigs.”
But the ideas man (and I’ll bet my bottom dollar it was a man) hadn’t finished yet. He had another bright idea – to take five chickens at a time and cram them into cages so small that not a single one could spread their wings. And again, everyone who stood to profit said: “What a spiffing suggestion.”
That began in the 1930s but really took off in the 1950s, with protests constantly mounting. After decades of refusing to budge, the Government and industry finally threw up their hands in 2012 and conceded defeat… well… not exactly!
They perpetrated a brilliant confidence trick by shouting out loud that they had banned battery cages and replaced them with – using the carefully chosen, cuddly-sounding words – ‘colony’ and ‘enriched’ and then, out of the corner of their mouths, whispered ‘cages’.
Yes, the five-bird battery cage was gone, replaced by the 80 or 90-bird battery cage. But hey, the birds were given more space! Instead of having to tolerate a tiny floor area of 9.6 square inches (24.5 sq cm), the new smoke and mirrors cages would allow hens to tear around unhindered with a magnificent floor space of 10.8 square inches (27.5 sq cm).
But, with all its attendant publicity, the new recommendations had done their job and persuaded the public that battery cages had been banned. And that’s why Viva! is calling for an end to this charade and the end to imprisonment for egg-laying hens.
You don’t believe that any government could be that cynical? Think again because in his memoir, A Journey, former Prime Minister Zombie Blair (he’s dead but refuses to lie down) proudly boasted of an example of his cynicism that would have won an Olympic gold medal had there been a category for it.
His Government introduced the 2004 Hunting Act after MPs’ post bags were deluged with demands from animal rights organisations and the general public to ban fox hunting. And so that’s what he did – or rather that’s what he pretended to do.
Mr Blair says that introducing legislation to ban fox hunting was one of the measures he most regrets from his time in power (unleashing death and destruction across the Middle East and destabilising the entire region was fine, it seems). Worse than that, he deliberately sabotaged the 2004 Hunting Act to ensure there were enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue. This he called a “masterly British compromise”. And to ensure hunters weren’t inadvertently arrested, he told the then-Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears, to steer police away from enforcing the law. Wowee!
Cynicism towards the public’s vociferous demand to protect animals became almost endemic and in 1994, the RSPCA started to offer welfare ‘guarantees’ that on their approved factory farms, animals were treated kindly, no matter how often exposés showed the opposite. Then, in 2000, Red Tractor leapt in on the act and distributed its welfare guarantees like confetti at a mass wedding.
So now you see that we, as a movement, are all that stands between a cynical establishment that sees animals only as a profit centre but has no shame in adopting our vocabulary of care and concern while bitterly attacking us. But the more fiercely they attack us, the more they fear us. And so they should!
About the author
Tony Wardle
I have been with Viva! since its launch, helping Juliet with precious few resources – staff or money! My title is associate director and I can turn my hand to most things that Viva! does, and can talk on almost all the subject areas we cover. But my time is consumed mostly with words, writing for and editing our supporters magazine, Viva!life, checking, editing a large output of written material as well as conceiving and writing much of it.