Sheffield Animal Friends

From the National Anti-Vivisection Alliance

Top-secret charter flights have been landing frequently at Manchester International Airport, transporting primates for Britain’s vivisection industry from the Noveprim breeding centre in Spain. The monkeys are driven from there to France and Belgium, before being flown over to Manchester. In a guise to hide the trade, these shipments are labelled as primates for circuses, however this is far from the truth. Once landing at MIA, unmarked Mercedes transport vans from Impex are driven through the Western Security Gate, shadowed by CID police officers and security from both the airport and AstraZeneca whilst the primates are loaded into the back of the van, before being driven to the quarantine unit at AstraZeneca’s Alderley Park site. From here, they are ‘distributed’ to labs across the country.

Those involved would rather this trade is kept secret, however it is now time to act and smash this sickening trade once and for all.

Two airlines are involved in flying the primates – Aeronova and Zorex. Please contact them in disgust at their involvement in vivisection:

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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has written in his newly-published autobiography that he deliberately sabotaged the ban on fox hunting his government introduced. Blair said he ensured that the 2004 Hunting Act left enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue “provided certain steps were taken to avoid cruelty when the fox is killed”. He also told Home Office minister Hazel Blears to steer the police away from enforcing the law.

It has been apparent to hunt monitors and sabs since the “ban” was brought in that the police have little interest in enforcing it, but Blair’s statement confirms for the first time that this inaction was ordered from the very top, in contradiction to the Government’s public statements.

To find out how you can take direct action to hinder hunting and save lives, email Sheffield Hunt Sabs at sheffieldsaboteurs@live.com or check out the website of the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA).

A new site has been launched for the campaign against the Jungle Zoo in Cleethorpes, to provide information on the awful conditions inside and news on past and upcoming actions. Check it out here.

Check out Fitwatch for reports on the actions of police Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) at the Climate Camps in Edinburgh and South Wales.

FIT are infamous for their intrusive style of intelligence gathering – taking photographs and video footage of activists at meetings and demonstrations, and harassing those they have a particular “interest” in. They have been known to accompany activists away from demos – following them to their workplace or homes, on public transport or tailing their cars as they drive home. Their actions go over and above everyday intelligence gathering to make activists acutely aware that they are under surveillance, making activism seem risky and putting some people off from getting active.

The role of FIT has evolved slightly as their harassment of activists has gained some press coverage and they have been implicated in the death of Ian Tomlinson, and as activists have organised to actively oppose them. However, they are still a threat and will no doubt be sniffing around the Animal Rights Summer Gathering this coming weekend. For more information about the role of FIT teams and how best to oppose them, visit the Fitwatch site or come to the talk on “Fitwatching” at the AR gathering.

Yesterday we returned to the Jungle Zoo in Cleethorpes, exposed in undercover investigations in 2007 and 2010. Over three hours on a sunny Saturday in August, fewer than ten people went in. A number of people intending to go were persuaded not to, but many people had already heard of or witnessed the poor conditions inside and vowed not to return.

The “Concrete Jungle” is clearly struggling, so it’s more important than ever to apply pressure and speed up its closure. If you’d like to help the campaign, please write to North East Lincolnshire Council with your complaints, or email us to find out about upcoming demonstrations.

Since Monday a protest camp has been set up at Highgate Farm in Lincolnshire, breeders of rabbits and ferrets for animal experiments. There was a protest camp last summer, and the farm has also been subject to regular demos, an animal liberation raid, and an arson attack one month ago.

Protestors are there from 7am-7pm every day, and are looking for more people to join them. The farm is located at Highgate Lane in Normanby by Spital, Market Rassen, Lincolnshire, and the camp phone number is 07973 722978. Check the SHAC website for more updates.

Djurrättsalliansen (the Animal Rights Alliance) have recently published the results of an in-depth investigation into the Swedish fur industry. Over a year and a half, one fifth of Sweden’s mink farms were visited, revealing stereotypical behaviour, sick and injured animals, dead animals still in their cages, dirty cages and instances of cannibalism. Although the inhumanity of incarcerating minks in mesh cages no bigger than 90 x 30cm is obvious, this investigation has produced up-to-date, concrete proof, and has shown the horrific details of the animals’ lives and deaths:

We understood that the mortality rate would be high. Several reports show that one out of every four or five animals die before they reach 6 months of age. But we didn’t know how they die – and how they suffer. Now we know. We have seen pups chewing on their dead littermates, entire litters where every animals has had its ear bitten off; young animals with gaping wounds on their heads; and fully-grown mink that twist and turn in agony, screaming in panic from pain and illness that minutes later ceases but only with their death.

In 2003, the Swedish Commission of Inquiry into the Fur Industry gave Swedish fur farms until 2010 to comply with the Animal Welfare Act, which clearly states that all animals must be allowed to express their natural behaviours and that they must be protected from unnecessary suffering. With the general election fast approaching, activists are working hard for a nationwide ban on fur farming, and targetting in particular the heel-dragging of the ruling Alliance coalition.

For more information, check the campaign site or watch the video below:

The UK Animal Rights Summer Gathering will take place over the weekend of Friday 27th to Monday 30th August – (Summer Bank Holiday Weekend) near Northampton. Members of S.A.F will be going, some for the whole thing and others just for the day, if you’d like to join us please get in touch!: sheffieldanimalfriends@gmail.com

The gathering will officially start on Friday 27th after lunch, and will end on the afternoon of Monday 30th. (Activists are more than welcome in the days before and after these dates to help set up the site and clear away afterwards, vegan food and camping space will be provided for these volunteers).

This is the national gathering of the grass roots animal rights movement. It’s a chance for activists from throughout the country to get together for a weekend of talks, discussions, workshops and films on a wide range of topics connected to animal rights activism, to take stock of where we are and make plans for the future, as well as some practical and skills based workshops and activities to share and learn new skills.

There will also be plenty of time and opportunities for us to relax and unwind, to spend some time catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones, to try some tasy vegan food and drinks, all in beautiful rural surroundings.

Please visit the gathering website for more details: www.argathering.org.uk

We have just received confirmation that ‘Kitchen’ have removed the ‘foie gras and veal burger’ from their menu and will not be selling these items again in the future. So thank you to those who got in touch with them, we will be checking up to see if they have kept to their word, and if not we will commence demonstrations against them. Though if you don’t hear anything more about it the matter is closed and the planned demo on the 16th will not go ahead. So as of now could we please ask people to stop contacting them to ask them to remove foie gras and veal from their menu.

Thank you

This restaurant are selling something which is frankly hard to believe, a ‘foie gras and veal burger’ see here . This is truelly a double whammy of extreme cruelty, if you’re unsure about the realities of production behind these ‘delicacies’ please visit these pages for info about foie gras and veal. Please contact Kitchen to politely request they remove this dish in it’s entirerity and to inform them of the issues behind these dishes and that you shall be boycotting them and encouraging others to do so untill they agree to remove the said dish and to not sell the offending items in the future. They can be contacted by email on sheffieldkitchen@gmail.com, by phone at 0114 267 1351 or go along in person to have a word with them at 762 Ecclesall Road,Sheffield, S11 8TB (Past Hunters Bar roundabout), again remember to conduct any contact with them in a civil manner.

If there has been no progress from the contact we have made with Kitchen, we will commence demos against them the first being on Friday 16th July from 7.00pm – 8.30pm. Please come along and help if you can and keep checking the email list for updates about other possible demos on week nights (contact us if you would like to be added to the mailout list.) Although the production of foie gras and veal is horrific and is very obviously unnecessary, it should not be the limit of our action for animals. A vegan diet is the most effective way of stopping one’s complicity in animal suffering, and the only logical expression of a philosophy of animal liberation. For more information, please see the veganism page on our website.