How about a green Xmas?
Animals have no voices but yours…
“Sign this petition and get HLS shut down,” a young lady dressed in white cotton T-shirt is constantly shouting to the passerby, attracting many people to her stall besides Boots in Queen Street, Cardiff.
On this sunshine Saturday afternoon in December 2006, Leah, a member of Newport Animal Rights, is carrying her campaign to call for animal protection. The striking red letters on her slogan claim “take action, fight to save the animals and close the terrible HLS down”.
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) near Cambridge is Europe’s largest commercial animal testing lab but has long been condemned as a profit making organization-killing 500 animals a day in tests for products such as weedkiller, food colourings and drugs. Besides that, HLS have been exposed at least 5 times for disgusting animal cruelty and rule breaking. Luckily, due to the effort of SHAC (Stopping Huntingdon Animal Cruelty), thousands of animals have been saved from vivisection and rehomed.
However, in the late 2006 two ex-workers in HLS revealed that dogs are still abused inside HLS, which brought HLS into the sight of the public again.
Besides rebuking animal testing, Leah also advocates “going to vegeratian food” and “fur free”. “People will consume huge amount of meat and fur products during Xmas, so animals will fall into a new round of large scale massacre. I think it’s make sense to hold such an activity now,” said Leah.“Animals have as much right to life as human beings”, said a middle-aged gentleman who has just signed his name on the petition.
Meat is murder
Every year a billion animals, most of them from factory farms, meet a cruel and early death to satisfy the demand for meat in the UK. Chickens raised for meat live just a few weeks and pigs a mere six month, while sheep average about two years and cattle about four. Fish suffer too, dragged from the deep in their millions to suffocate slowly in the air or be crushed to death by the weight of their dying companions. Choosing not to eat meat, poultry and fish is an important step in showing compassion towards animals and helping to reduce their suffering.
But what’s people’s choice in Cardiff? “Yes, we do have vegetarian food, but most people prefer meat,” said George, waiter of The OLD ARCADE restaurant.
Fur in fashion
Meat is definitely not the only contribution made by animals. Fur is another thing that humans despoil from the poor animals. Take a close look at River Island, Zara, Gap and other shops in Queen Street. Fur products are still among the best-sellings. Although the UK government banned fur farming in 2003, the trade in imported fur continues. In other countries, millions of chinchillas, lynx, foxes, mink and even hamsters are farmed for fur, which is sold in the UK.
Xmas is coming. People will indulge themselves in guzzling the sumptuous Xmas meals and buying ostentatious fur jackets, while the innocent poor animals have no other choice but waiting to be slaughtered, weeping with desperation. Perhaps their last thought is “how about a green Xmas, free from meat and fur?”
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