International Animal Rights Day

That was the 10th December, when people group together to remember or campaign for, the millions of non-human animals who suffer at our hands. From abused 'pets', farmed animals and wild creatures hunted for sport, to those held for vivisection in laboratories across the world.
The Oxford campaign, SPEAK, continues its fight to protect the animals being tortured in the Oxford University primate lab. Its website explains the bad science behind animal testing.

An article from The Guardian:
Writing for Animal Aid, the UK's largest animal rights group, Marius Maxwell, a neurosurgeon at a specialist spine centre in the US, said the minority of Oxford animal researchers were "tirelessly promoting their claimed achievements before the media".
He said: "Many of my Oxford colleagues in world-class scientific laboratories, and in the humanities, are privately aghast at the ability of a small group of media-savvy vivisectionists to hold the debate hostage and thereby besmirch the international reputation of their university."

The fact that no-one is allowed to see what goes on in these places, shows that the practices are unacceptable to decent, right-minded human beings. Cameras are being resisted in abbatoirs, all access is denied to the public in battery farms etc. Only thanks to undercover activists has the truth come out, but this too is suppressed by mainsteam media. I include these couple of images, knowing full well I have selected the least offensive and disturbing:



As I write this, I'm thinking too of all the courageous people who are currently serving long jail sentences for trying to protect sentient creatures from this cruelty. Away from their families, as Christmas approaches, they have my respect, support and solidarity.