Autumn, the forgotten season…compassionate conservation…responses to COVID 19…the anthropause…world news, poetry, recipes, reviews & more….

Early whaling Friends in Nova Scotia...Poetry from Dorothy Jerome and Stevie Krayer...Native wildlife...Puppy Farming in south Wales...The Museum of Animal Stuff...Art and book reviews

Trees, octopi, reptiles, insects, fish - what do we really know of them? More and more, and with thanks not only to the painstaking and patience of ethologists and field researchers but to the artists and poets who allow us to enter imaginatively into their deeply mysterious lives. So incredibly like us, so unfathomably unlike us.

With Remembrance Day a month away, our Autumn 2018 has a special focus on the non-human animal victims of human wars. We also take a look at the options on offer at the most prominent Quaker eateries in the UK and have news from Friends in the USA, as well as a profile of animal defender Bill Palethorpe. Find out about QCA's new partnership with Greyhound Compassion and much more.

QCA Member Elizabeth Allison, of Leicester Meeting, introduces the theme of our Spring 2018, ANIMAL SENTIENCE, with an eloquent plea for more compassion, respect and understanding for our fellow creatures, the depths of whose inner experience science is only beginning to credit.

Our latest issue brings special focus to the plight of captive animals. We feature a blend of reporting on the global work of professional experts in the field of animal advocacy and the individual concerns and actions from our ‘grass roots’ membership. Interspersed with these are some stirring poems-- and striking images-- that we hope will inspire and move you. We also have a tribute to Andrew Tyler and a feature on the marvellous Limbe organisation in Cameroon.

FAITH IN ACTION emerged as the theme for this Spring issue as contributions rolled in.The content of our pages provides evidence of the broad diversity of those witnessing for nonhuman animals today. Animal advocates come in all forms: academics,researchers, fundraisers, photographers, poets, authors, artists, musicians, film makers, liberators, letter writers,professional campaigners, grass roots protestors, donators (of time, skills and cash), the adopters of rescue animals,signers of petitions, joiners of marches – and the individuals who trouble to read and share this publication. All these actions matter, and who knows where they will travel?

OUR UNEVEN RELATIONSHIP WITH WILDLIFE What a contradictory, uneven relationship we have with our British wildlife. The badger cull has now rolled out across seven new areas of the country leading many of us to wonder whether there will be any badgers left for future generations, and the hare continues to be the only ‘game’ mammal in England and Wales not protected from shooting through its breeding season.

Greenpeace was established by a small group of people composed primarily of members from the Sierra Club environmental organisation and the Society of Friends (Quakers). The Don’t Make A Wave Committee was founded between 1970/71 with the sole objective of stopping a nuclear weapons test.

Challenging the trade in exotic pets The main theme for this issue of our Newsletter is the pet trade in wildlife. We are fortunate to have exclusive articles written by experts in their fields, who describe how wild animals, including those now bred for the pet trade, enjoy living and working in social groups, often of a complex structure. These beings, frequently overlooked when it comes to welfare, are capable of joy, playfulness and pleasure in interacting with

Members have been busy lately representing QCA in several spheres. Committee member for Outreach & Liaison, Edna Mathieson,attended a meeting on June 9 2014 sponsored by the Association of Lawyers for Animal Welfare (ALAW) and the Centre for Animals and Social Justice (CASJ) at which Steven Wise spoke on Non-human Animals’ Rights. This is an edited version of her report:

QCA AGM keynote speech Hilary Jones, Ethics Director of LUSH, addressed the QCA AGM on Saturday, 10th May 2014. Mark Constantine, who co- founded LUSH with his wife Mo, first worked in a hairdresser’s, but, concerned about what was in the various products he used, and unable to find out what was in them, he became disillusioned.

THE RIGHT RELATIONSHIP: Quakers and the Creation The course at Woodbrooke in August 2013 – attended by two men and eleven women - was set up at the suggestion of the QCA and tutored by Stuart Masters. Pre-reading was mainly articles from The Friend

I worship the earth and the airs that blow; Churches and creeds are nothing to me. I have my church where the daisies grow, Under a whispering sycamore tree. ~ Mary Webb, Shropshire novelist 1881-1927

Describing his experience of spiritual transformation George Fox wrote that “All things were new; and all the creation gave unto me another smell than before, beyond what words can utter.”

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. ~ Job 12:7-10

The annual Interfaith Celebration of Animals which QCA supports took place for the 8th year at Golders Green Unitarians in London on September 4. The keynote speakers were our patron André Menache of Antidote Europe and Alistair Currie of PETA. Two QCA members, Sonia Waddell and Thom Bonneville, gave readings and Sonia presenteda cheque to Alistair Currie for PETA in memory of her daughter, Andrea.

‘I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again’. —Stephen Grellet, 1773-1855, Quaker.

YEAR OF THE RABBIT OR HARE The beautiful cover of this newsletter is another painting by our committee member Ann Johnson. After Ann offered this, we coincidentally learned that 2011 will be the Year of the Rabbit (兔) - also translated as Hare - the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.