The Bristol Vegan Fayre ‘08 is fast approaching. This is a chance to go along to a great day out and learn more about cruelty free lifestyle choices. Sat May 31st and Sun June 1st at the Amphitheatre and Waterfront Square in Bristol

Now in its sixth year, The Bristol Vegan Fayre remains the largest vegan event anywhere in the world today – and the most fun

A superb site location by the Waterside in the heart of Bristol, plus an excellent organising team, top rate security, some stunning stallholders and sponsors, some supreme entertainers, an awesome line up of talks and demos, and a brilliant team of stewards and helpers ensures that everyone who visits the Bristol Vegan Fayre not only has a memorable day out, but leaves brimful with inspiration, education, some excellent shopping and of course extremely well fed.

It doesn’t matter what your current dietary status is – you’ll be welcome at the Bristol Vegan Fayre. Whether you’re a raw foodie looking for the latest info and products, a committed vegan in search of new cookery ideas and some leather free footwear, a veggie tempted by the idea of going vegan and wanting to know more about it, an ‘omnivore’ who is after reducing their meat intake and in search of a few ideas, recipes and products – or none of these, eats anything but likes a good time, enjoys a decent festival and some good bands, and can put up with a veggieburger and pint without too much issue – you know you’re all welcome – it’s an inclusive show designed to suit all comers.

For 2008 we have several new additions including an expanded Living Raw Area with a Raw Food Prep Class zone as well as Living Raw Talks Area, and we have also a ‘Victorian Circus’ for 2008 with Escapologist David Straitjacket and Contortionist Rubber Ritchie.

And we also have some amazing ‘Show Specials’ this year with some excellent shopping deals available including loads of Half Price and Buy One Get One Free opportunities – see our Show Specials page for all the updates on the most amazing bargains imaginable. Plus – our first 250 visitors each day receive a FREE Goody Bag!

The BVF is renowned for its top notch entertainment ever since the organiser donned a Pink Panther costume at the first show and served all the stallholders champagne, before hosting the world’s first vegan custard pie fight a year later. As the show has grown, so has the level of entertainment, and for 2008 we have an even more staggering line up of bands, musicians, artists and completely mind blowing acts that are guaranteed to thrill. The name of the headline band is currently under wraps at the time of writing and will be announced shortly but it’s safe to say in order to accommodate them the PA will have to be bigger than in 2007, when headliners The Beat rammed the place and took the lid right off!

But its not just about the headliners – there’s some excellent up and coming and well established Bristol bands too, and they will be well represented as they were in 2007 when First Degree Burns, Chemical Dub Theory and Se Fire all tore it up. Expect to see some top notch local; talent in the late afternoons and early evening both days.

Whilst most of us love a good dance and a boogie, not all of us do, and the Acoustic Stage caters for more laid back and less noisy tastes, with an eclectic blend of Blues, Jazz, Country, Classical and Opera fused gently into a whole weekend of delightful music designed to suit all tastes.

Meanwhile, for those who are still a bit young to appreciate the bands and musicians, we have a full on Kids Area and Victorian Circus to thrill and inspire kids of all ages, and adults too, combining to make the perfect day out for all the family.

The 3 main areas to watch out for are the Main Stage, the Acoustic Stage and the Kids Area, which for 2008 is incorporating a Victorian Circus!

BristolVeganFayre08

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Yippee! Cattle farmers have found a way of crossing the species barrier and causing suffering and death to other animals. Yes, it’s time to blame bovine TB not on poor animal husbandry and the movement of cattle but instead on badgers. Why spend effort on putting your own house in order - or even stop earning blood money altogether - when you can lobby the governemt to cull a protected species instead.

Badgers are set to be killed in an attempt to stamp out tuberculosis in cattle.

They are a protected species in the UK but have a bad reputation with some farmers.

Bovine TB is proving a big problem in Wales with over 8,000 affected cattle having to be killed over the last year

Bovine TB is proving a big problem in Wales with over 8,000 affected cattle having to be killed over the last year.

Farmers are blaming the spread of the disease on badgers and in response the Welsh Assembly has made a controversial decision to test how widespread the problem is by setting up a pilot cull zone.

While many farmers have welcomed the decision, the RSPCA described it as going against sound scientific judgement.

Officials say bovine TB is out of control in Wales, but conservation groups insist a badger cull will not stop it spreading.

The method and a site with suitable natural or man-made boundaries have not be chosen. Other areas could be considered after the pilot is reviewed.

In a statement Wales’s Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said: “This is a difficult decision to take and it has not been taken lightly. I am very aware of the strong views on this issue.”

She made clear that badgers would remain a protected species and said she had given “due consideration to the divergence of scientific and political opinion”, adding “illegal action will not be tolerated.”

Ms Jones said she wanted to reform the compensation system for farmers whose infected cows were slaughtered to “encourage herd owners to comply with legal and best practice requirements”.

Last year, 7,905 cattle were put down in Wales, up from 669 in 1997. A compensation bill for affected farms of £15.2 million in 2007 would grow to more than £30 million by 2012 if it continued at the present “unsustainable” rate, she added.

Source of article above was ITN

Please see stopwaronbadgers and badger-killers for arguments aginst the cull of badgers.
A sample argument is given below.

Badgers are being scapegoated by DEFRA (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture) to placate the farming lobby, whose own intensive production systems are the direct cause of increasing levels of disease in cattle, including bovine TB. There is no plausible evidence to suggest that badgers are transmitting bovine TB to cattle. The reverse is probably the case.

The persistent focus on badgers distracts from the serious health problems faced by intensively managed cattle in Britain. Many other diseases, such as pneumonia, E. coli, coccidiosis (a fatal diarrhoea), salmonella and mastitis, are also increasing in British cattle herds.

Bovine TB is caused by intensive farming methods, >NOT badgers!

Background - In 1973 a dead badger was found on a farm in Gloucestershire that had recently suffered an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) within its cattle herd. Upon post-mortem examination the badger revealed a large number of lesions throughout its body, which tested positive for bTB. MAFF (now DEFRA) first started to kill badgers (using cyanide gas) as a means of ‘controlling’ Bovine TB (bTB) in 1975. But since 1982 badgers have been cage-trapped in Britain where they remain until operatives return to shoot them. In Ireland they are caught in cruel snares.

Since then the badger has become a farming and government scapegoat for what is a bovine disease and over *30,000 badgers have been killed in unfruitful, pointless ‘experiments’. (*Up to 1995) And once again starting in 1998 badgers were killed…

Farmers insist that badgers transmit the disease to cattle, and yet not even farmer-friendly DEFRA has produced any convincing evidence. During the past 28 years, DEFRA (and formerly MAFF) has up to now killed more than 40,000 badgers in a failed effort to halt bovine TB outbreaks. In fact, TB in cattle has been increasing since 1986, including in areas where badgers have been eliminated, or where they have been shown to be free of the disease.

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Here is a subject which shines a great huge spotlight onto speciesism - dogs. Those that happily tuck into plates of body parts from practically any other species recoil at the idea of eating dogs. This inconsistent behaviour highlights some subconcious revulsion at eating individuals, because that is surely the problem, that people have come to know and have a relationship with a dog so that they are now seen as individuals and not a faceless herd member ready to be murdered and consumed. This thinking will also feed the cultural stigma of the idea of eating dogs that puts canines off the menu even for the most ardent ‘not a dog person’.
The truth is that all animals are individuals and when people make this connection they find it harder to eat them - ask any vegetarian.

Push for more dog meat on menus

THE Seoul city government is seeking to classify man’s best friend as livestock in order to set food safety standards for South Korean lovers of dogmeat.

Somewhere between two and four million dogs are estimated to be consumed in South Korea every year, but the slaughtering and processing is carried out in dirty environments and poses a risks to diners’ health.

Since dogs are not currently classed as livestock there are no hygiene regulations on their slaughter, officials said.

“Dogs are consumed in their millions in this country every year. That’s a fact. We have to take care of this situation,'’ said Lee Hae-Woo, head of the city government’s department of food safety.

“We plan to recommend to the central government that dogs are classified as livestock,'’ he said.

“This is like a hot potato, but we don’t pretend the issue does not exist.'’

South Korea’s capital has always been ambivalent about dogmeat. To avoid adverse publicity before the 1988 Olympics, the city banned dogmeat and snakemeat as “abhorrent food”.

The order is now largely ignored and an estimated 500 dogmeat restaurants operate in Seoul alone.

Remainder of article at news.com.au
Animal Freedom Korea

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Posi Up!  A London council is set to take a step towards vegetarinism for the benefit of the environment.

A London council wants to encourage its staff to help the environment by going vegetarian.

Cutting meat and dairy products from canteen menus will reduce carbon emissions, according to Camden’s climate change group.

Councillors will vote on the proposal at the end of May after examining a report setting out a raft of measures designed to reduce the borough’s environmental impact.

Camden’s “eco champion” Alexis Rowell said the idea of taking meat off the menu was based on United Nations data showing that the livestock industry is responsible for 18 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.

He said: “At some point we have to get to grips with the Western diet, which contains so much meat and dairy and is part of the carbon problem and the obesity problem.

“We are not talking about turning everyone into vegetarians but about eating more vegetables and fewer pieces of meat, especially beef which is the most intensive. We are growing grain and manufacturing fertilisers using a lot of fossil fuel and water, which is a scarce resource, to feed cows to then feed humans.

“It would be better to grow vegetables and feed them straight to humans.”

According to the Vegetarian Society, 70 per cent of the world’s agricultural land is used for rearing farm animals, either as grazing land or to grow fodder. Far less land is used to grow crops to feed directly to humans.

The animals themselves are said to emit more damaging gases than the world’s entire transport system. Camden also wants to cut the amount of food flown in from abroad or driven across the country in lorries.

Read more at the Evening Standard

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Murdering animals in terrifying conditions because people have not realised what goes on in their name is something we are all sadly used to. People are unaware of or scared of alternatives and so continue to eat the products of the mass production meat industry. Using animals in entertainment is again something that we are sadly all used to seeing. But to combine these two practices and use bodies as clothes for a vapid entertainment show seems like a lurch even further away from any form of natural order.
And yet that is what happended on the 2008 series of ‘America’s Next Top Model’.

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Another occassion where we learn that those in the meat industry are perhaps not always entirely trustworthy. Who would have thought that those involved in murder for a living can sometimes be moved to other slips of moral fibre.

WASHINGTON — The president of a slaughterhouse at the heart of the largest meat recall denied under oath on Wednesday, but then grudgingly admitted, that his company had apparently introduced sick cows into the hamburger supply.

He then tried to minimize the significance.

The executive, Steve Mendell of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, Calif., said, “I was shocked. I was horrified. I was sickened,” by video that showed employees kicking or using electric prods on “downer” cattle that were too sick to walk, jabbing one in the eye with a baton and using forklifts to push animals around.

The video was taken by an undercover investigator from the Humane Society of the United States. One tape showed a worker using a garden hose to try to squirt water up the nose of a downed cow, a technique that Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who conducted the hearing where Mr. Mendell testified, referred to as waterboarding.

Testifying before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Mendell, who appeared only after being subpoenaed, assured lawmakers that despite his lack of knowledge about conditions at the plant, sick animals were not slaughtered for food, so no safety issue existed.

But Mr. Mendell retracted the statement when shown a second video in which a “downer” cow was shocked and abused by workers trying to move it to the “kill box,” then finally shot with a bolt gun and dragged by a chain to the processing area.

When Mr. Mendell told the committee he was unaware of the abuses, Mr. Stupak asked him, “What’s your curiosity, as president and C.E.O. of the company you’re responsible for?”

Mr. Mendell replied that after he had seen the first video, he concluded that “it was a regulatory violation, for sure, it was inhumane treatment, for sure,” but that he did not believe it was a food safety issue until he saw the second video on Wednesday.

Mr. Stupak asked if one could conclude from the video that the cow dragged into the killing area had gone into the food supply.

“That would be logical, sir,” Mr. Mendell replied.

Article continues at nytimes.com

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