QUAKER CONCERN FOR ANIMALS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
A day of worship and sharing ideas at Friends’ House (Room 2)
173 Euston Road London NW1 2BJ
Saturday May 11th. 2013
PROGRAMME
10.30 Welcome.
11 – 11.15 Meeting for Worship.
11.15 – 12 Annual General Meeting
12 – 1 Forum – QCA: developing our future
Your campaign news and contributions on current areas of concern valued.
1 – 1.45 Lunch – your own picnic, or please support FH café – buy early to avoid the queues!
2.00 – 2.45 Address by Dr. Dan Lyons, CEO of the Centre for Animals and Social Justice (CASJ) on:
Understanding and overcoming obstacles to animal protection.
2.45 – 3.00 Meeting for Worship and close.
YOU ARE WELCOME TO COME TO ALL OR PART OF THE PROGRAMME. NON- MEMBERS ARE INVITED FROM 12.00 ONWARDS.
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Address by Andre Menache to QCA AGM May 12 2012
Considering what man is doing to Nature, one wonders what hope there can be for future generations of people or animals. The Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing, according to scientists. Against the backdrop of this sad news, I was asked to present some positive news at this Annual General Meeting, and so I started looking for examples of acts of human kindness towards the animal kingdom. The problem I have now is that there are so many of them, I could not possibly fit them all into this lecture and so I have selected a few of the most moving examples, to share with you today.
UK good news
- In February of this year, in Essex, a man wearing just his pants crawled across a frozen river to rescue his dog. The man apparently fell into the River Stour but managed to climb out with the dog. An Essex Fire Service spokesman described the incident as a “foolish act of bravery”.
- The European Union laying hens directive gave EU member states 12 years to switch standard battery cages to ‘enriched’ cages, which are larger and contain litter, perches and a scratching post. Most British egg producers appear to be compliant with the new EU-wide law, which came into effect on January 1, 2012, compared with some other European countries that have not fulfilled their legal obligation.
- March 2012. All ferry companies and all but two airlines have stopped importing animals destined for research laboratories in the UK. Every year some 15,000 animals – mostly mice – are shipped in from abroad. They account for 1% of the animals used in UK laboratories. Macaque monkeys imported from China into the UK are subjected to travel times of up to 58 hours, with little or no food or water.
- Badger cull stopped in Wales. A controversial cull of badgers in Wales aimed at cutting TB in cattle will no longer go ahead.
Instead, it will be replaced by a multimillion-pound programme to vaccinate dairy herds. However, considering the animal suffering associated with industrial milk production and the negative human health aspects of drinking cows’ milk, it would make even more sense for people to simply stop drinking cow’s milk altogether. - Anne, the UK’s oldest and last remaining circus elephant, is free at last. She was brought to the UK from Sri Lanka in the 1950s and worked in the circus for virtually her entire life. The hysteria began when footage, taken by a hidden camera installed by the campaign group Animal Defenders International, showed a worker beating Anne at the winter home of the Bobby Roberts Super Circus. Anne is now enjoying a well earned retirement.
International good news
- In Los Angeles, a dog saves a girl from a burning house. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles presented the dog named Diamond with their 29th annual National Hero Dog award. The article was entitled: “Brave in fire but ‘scared of cats’: Beloved pit bull who saved girl from house inferno wins National Hero Dog Award”
- Off the shore of the Brazilian town of Arraial do Cabo, 30 dolphins suddenly swam in with the surf and got stranded in the sandy shallows. A dramatic video shows humans rushing to help their fellow mammals, pushing and pulling hard to help the animals reach deeper water. All of the dolphins were saved and swam out to sea. This unusual event to me represents a hugely symbolic message, where humankind is presented with the chance to repay Nature, and where the dolphins on this occasion are thankfully helped back into the sea. We can only speculate as to the cause of the dolphins’ unusual behaviour. Could it have been due to the effects of man-made electromagnetic interference (e.g. submarine activity) with the dolphins’ sonar?
- Truck full of dogs crammed into tiny cages and bound for Chinese restaurants is intercepted by animal lovers. This is certainly not the first time that stories like this one are coming out of China and beginning to thaw the stereotype of what Westerners think about Chinese attitudes to animal welfare. There is a growing awareness about animal welfare issues, with recent campaigns to stop bile bear farming, eating dog meat and shark’s fin soup. The group Animals Asia is at the forefront of many of these campaigns.
- Laboratory monkeys reprieved in Holland. The Dutch science institute TNO decided to hand over 67 macaque monkeys no longer required for medical research to a primate sanctuary, rather than to kill them. This probably represents the largest voluntary release of monkeys from a laboratory to a sanctuary.
- An end to animal circuses in Bolivia. In a series of dramatic seizures all over Bolivia, Animal Defenders International (UK), working with the Bolivian authorities, successfully removed wild animals, including 24 lions, from eight different circuses spread across Bolivia.
- Canadian seal cull. The European Union has effectively banned the importation of seal products – now joined by the Russian Federation. This is in addition to a worldwide decrease in the demand of seal products. Hopefully these steps will allow seal populations to recover from the effects of the seal industry. The effects of global warming must also be considered since this adversely affects the seals.
- I would like to end my lecture with an example of empathy within the animal kingdom. Perhaps there is a lesson here for the human kingdom.
In the December 2011 issue of Science, an observational study of rats found them to be surprisingly selfless, consistently breaking friends out of cages—even if freeing other rats meant having to share coveted chocolate. It seems that empathy and self-sacrifice have a greater evolutionary legacy than anyone expected. Many animals have evolved instincts to help others, even at a cost to themselves, and we humans would like to think that we have inherited these same instincts. The scientists conclude that helping an individual in distress is part of our biology and not something that develops or doesn’t develop because of culture.
I should mention that I am against animal experiments and this study could just as easily have been done by observing a colony of rats in the wild instead of in the laboratory. However, I included it because the rats teach us a moral lesson.
QUAKER CONCERN FOR ANIMALS
REPORT ON QCA AGM AT FRIENDS’ HOUSE ON MAY 7 2011
The committee decided this year to invite the Quaker Peace & Social Witness linked group Turning the Tide to facilitate our day.
Their raison d’être is to advance and promote the understanding of non-violence for positive structural change.
Though they are not issue-based, they spring from the peace movement. As the focus of social action has widened, so has the work of Turning the Tide.
Though they are not issue-based, they spring from the peace movement. As the focus of social action has widened, so has the work of Turning the Tide.
They offered us tools for our strategic thinking, to help us:
be more effective – better unite and focus ourselves – and become more empowered.
The morning forum for members was aimed at exploring our identity as a group and identifying some aims – e.g. given the diversity of animal suffering, how can we work out what to focus on?
Steve Whiting and Kiyo Miyamoto were our Turning the Tide facilitators. They explained how a SWOT analysis works and
we used this tool.
we used this tool.
These are some of the responses we produced:
S – STRENGTHS:
Commitment and enthusiasm– strong and passionate compassion for all life – trying to adhere to Quaker testimonies – have Quaker reputation behind us – endurance of our 120 year old group – passion of individual members – “believe and do” – symbolic actions which catch the imagination – hardworking committee – excellent network of contacts – spiritual and positive message of non-violence.
W – WEAKNESSES:
Small committee group – lack of clear attainable goals – diffuse – small membership widely dispersed – only an internet community – communication between members – number of “active” members – lack of knowledge of what active members do – not enough integration with Living Witness.
O- OPPORTUNITIES:
Opportunity to express a distinctive Quaker view – internet communication – can express solidarity with small overseas groups – like-minded Ffriends within Meeting for Worship network – QCA representatives at AM level and presentations to AMs – publicising QCA locally – outreach to other faiths – join forces with emergent eco/food ethics groups – reach out to
other AW groups and work together – limitless! – as not a charity can do radical things – more public awareness of animal issues.
other AW groups and work together – limitless! – as not a charity can do radical things – more public awareness of animal issues.
T- THREATS:
General drift of society towards a less caring/ethical life – public apathy – lack of funds – lack of interest among Friends –
enormity of the task leading to feelings of lack of empowerment – disagreements on issues and beliefs, eg. veganism vs vegetarianism vs moderate meat eating – feelings of guilt – too few members and need to replenish our numbers – seen as
a fringe group by other animal charities? – a lot of QCA knowledge and activity in relatively few hands – aversion to change – work overload.
enormity of the task leading to feelings of lack of empowerment – disagreements on issues and beliefs, eg. veganism vs vegetarianism vs moderate meat eating – feelings of guilt – too few members and need to replenish our numbers – seen as
a fringe group by other animal charities? – a lot of QCA knowledge and activity in relatively few hands – aversion to change – work overload.
During discussion, spreading ourselves too thinly recurred as an issue. In one Meeting, we learned that they adopt a special concern each year, work on it and run a special collection. This needs a good deal of discipline however, as one member asked how we can refuse requests to work for and support other issues.
The suggestion was made that we might work to our strengths and let the weaknesses sort themselves out.
We then each wrote down a suggestion for an issue to discuss in a structured way, using the Pillars of Power analysis.
These included very wide ones such as “stop vivisection”, “ban factory farming”, “ wean humans off dairy products and on to veganism” to narrowly defined suggestions:
- every AM to lay a purple wreath for Remembrance of animals in war
- dedicated aisles in supermarkets for non animal-tested toiletries etc.
- campaign for CCTV in all abattoirs
- campaign against the conventional use of whips in horse racing
Four groups formed to discuss the following issues:
1. Interfaith links.
2. Unregulated breeding of companion animals.
2. Unregulated breeding of companion animals.
3. Use of the conventional whip in horse racing
4. Farmed animal welfare
PILLARS OF POWER
An inverted triangle is drawn, in which a problem issue is written. Factors which support this undesirable state of affairs are identified and form the struts.
One of these struts is singled out and this becomes the subject in the next inverted triangle.
The supporting struts for this problem are identified and again one is chosen. The process can continue until a point is reached where we feel we can take some effective action.
The supporting struts for this problem are identified and again one is chosen. The process can continue until a point is reached where we feel we can take some effective action.
1. Interfaith Links
A general problem was identified: Lack of will within faith communities to realise their potentials for promoting animal welfare.
What supported this?
The following were identified:
The following were identified:
Anthropocentrism – religious Cartesianism – ignorance of one’s own tradition – conventionalism and inertia – non-human
animals have no souls, so are spiritually unimportant – arrogance/the dominion paradigm – compartmentalisation of people’s daily behaviour and spiritual principles.
animals have no souls, so are spiritually unimportant – arrogance/the dominion paradigm – compartmentalisation of people’s daily behaviour and spiritual principles.
Some suggestions for combating these were offered:
Appeal to leaders of faith groups – demonstrating respect for traditions before criticising them – appeal to our common lot/expanded community – a more sophisticated theology – offering alternatives – making the connections between animal and human welfare/war, health, environment.
2. Unregulated breeding of companion animals.
Supporting struts are:
Ignorance – animals considered as products – a false belief that “we care for animals in the UK” – impulse purchases
– industries such as racing – corporate, such as selling animals at Pets at Home, garden centres – high costs of breeds.
– industries such as racing – corporate, such as selling animals at Pets at Home, garden centres – high costs of breeds.
“Impulse purchases” was selected from these factors.
What supported this?
Cost of life of animal is cheap –perception – they are seen as commodities – too freely available – throwaway disposability
– ignorance of the individual – advertising pressure.
– ignorance of the individual – advertising pressure.
From this, “perception” was identified and the supports were:
Disney films – novels – trends.
3. Use of the conventional whip in horseracing.
Supporting factors might be:
Jockeys – owners – the British Horseracing Association, governing body – racecourse management – punters/public
– some vets – betting shops.
Jockeys – owners – the British Horseracing Association, governing body – racecourse management – punters/public
– some vets – betting shops.
We soon realised that many of these factors might well be neutral in their support of the whip and hence open to influence. For instance, the general public – after the Grand National this year, there were more complaints lodged about use of the whip than about the height of the fences.
It should be noted that the BHA stipulates that jockeys carry whips.
We singled out the punters for the next triangle and considered that though they did not want to lose their money, so
might support whipping a horse if that meant a win, they also did not want their pleasure marred by a feeling they were supporting cruelty.
might support whipping a horse if that meant a win, they also did not want their pleasure marred by a feeling they were supporting cruelty.
(A thought which is not wholly relevant to this analysis is that Towcester Racecourse in Northamptonshire, one of Britain’s 60 racecourses, will be banning the use of the conventional whip after October 5.
If one were to choose this issue as one to work on, it might therefore make sense to contact the 59 racecourses and ask them to emulate Towcester.)
4. Farmed animal welfare.
Summary:
We hope that QCA members attending this innovative AGM came away inspired and newly enthused about our task. First responses are favourable!
One of the main problems we all know only too well is that there is much emotion invested in this issue and there is so much to do that one can easily despair and lose hope that any improvements can be made.
It is important to realise that by analysing our tasks and attempting to identify a component which might be amenable to change, we can regain hope and feel more empowered to work for and support our suffering fellow beings.
As we are a faith-based group, it is good to remember that this can be as much spiritual as practical support.
For more information on Turning the Tide and how they might help you, please see:
or contact Steve Whiting on stevew@quaker.org.uk Tel: 020 7663 1061