As part of the Felix Solidarity Day on the 4th August, activists from Gloucestershire Animal Action unfurled a 12ft by 12ft banner which read “FREE FELIX, STOP THE OXFORD LAB” (See pic below) from the top of the Beechwood Arcade in Cheltenham Towns busy shopping area in Gloucestershire.

The banner was left hanging for around 30-40 minutes before security from the arcade along with community police officers ran to try and apprehend the individual who dropped the banner, although no laws were broken and the roof is accessible via a fire escape with no private property warnings? The banner was eventually taken down by security.

Simultaneous demos were taking place during the banner drop outside Vodaphone and Thomas Cook with a huge amount of public support(to the horror of community police who were told to monitor all protests for the day). four information stalls were set up with loads of speak / vivisection info, petitions, AR and vegan outreach materials were available to members of the public.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Felix, Felix is the name given by vivisector Tipu Aziz to a macaque monkey whom he intends to abuse and torture for the next few years. The irony of his naming should not be lost on us. Tipu Aziz avowedly has no feelings for animals, yet he has chosen a name for the animal that is to be his slave. Aziz has freely admitted: if it was left up to him he would kill animals in order to test cosmetics and Aziz also believes we should be experimenting on Great Apes.

Felix is the monkey who featured in the recent BBC2 documentary, ‘Monkeys, Rats and Me’, aired on 27th November, 2006, which showed the sanitized, ‘acceptable’ face of vivisection that vivisectors want the public to see. The BBC issued an apology to Europeans for medical progress regarding the bias of the documentary maker (this can be viewed here) and invited EMP to be involved in arguing the anti vivisection side of the story in future documentaries.

After reading a news article yesterday entitled “Teen Girls Accused of Setting Kitten Ablaze” which described teenage girls setting alight to a kitten for “their own amusement”, I was reading through the visitor comments in which various people had made their stance clear about what they might consider to be justice for such a crime. The comments included “I’d burn them (the girls) and laugh.” And “I think they should be put into a mental institution so they can receive the proper care”. This of course is no surprise to hear how sentimental people feel about the life of an innocent kitty, these comments did however come across as somewhat hypocritical.

Why were these girls torturing a kitten? Amusement.

Would it have been more morally acceptable if they would have asked another individual to torture and kill the cat? When this question is asked to most people they would confirm it is just as unacceptable. When asked if they consume animal products most would reply “yes”, when asked why they eat meat, most would reply “I like the taste”.

This poses an awkward dilemma for those who eat meat and other animal products…

Why is it morally unacceptable for the girls to torture a kitten for amusement but it is morally acceptable for an individual to pay for another individual to kill / enslave / torture other sentient beings because they like the taste? Surely as excuses go there is little difference.

There is no disputing that animals feel pain as humans do and farmed animals feel pain just as our companion animals do? So why do we continue to knowingly cause suffering when we can choose a life of doing no harm? Buying free range does nothing for animals, with DEFRA guidelines animals can be kept in barns by the thousands and still be sold as free range, free range organic beef means nothing accept the usual chemicals that are pumped into animals to stop them getting infections and diseases are not used. There are no guarantees with a humane existence and most of all there is no ethical way to take another animals life.

Veganism as a compassionate lifestyle choice therefore should be the baseline for our moral stance in regards to the interests of the animal kingdom. Veganism is healthy, it removes you from the ongoing loop of exploitation of animals (including humans) and environment, not to mention it has been shown to be a much cleaner healthier dietary choice for human beings. You can find out more about veganism from www.vegansociety.com or email us info@stopanimalcruelty.co.uk for more information and meal ideas!

Further reading about the Abolitionist approach to animal rights can be found on Prof. Gary L. Franciones site www.abolitionistapproach.com

Chris