People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year and has launched this wonderful new slogan with typical skill and panache. This morning I received their Vanguard Member newsletter in which I was appalled to read that forced swim tests are still being carried out at the University of Bristol. Small animals are placed in beakers of water and made to swim for their lives. This is supposed to shed light on and help measure depression in humans. Who thought this nonsense up? The government does seem to be responding, although not quickly enough, to a letter signed by over 400 scientists, academics and medical and veterinary professionals from around the world, including Peter Singer, calling for an immediate ban.
In an e-mail PETA also applauds Camilla the queen for pledging not to procure fur for her wardrobe. I should think so, but it is a step in the right direction at least. Why then does the Ministry of Defence continue to use real bear fur for those ridiculous ceremonial hats the soldiers on royal protection duty wear? They are the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards. The bears are baited, hunted and killed in Canada, often with crossbows, and many suffer a long and painful death. Each hat requires at least one entire bearskin. Between 2017 and 2022 the MoD bought 498 of them. This is in spite of a PETA campaign which has been running for two decades. As long ago as 2017 faux furrier ECOPEL offered a superior alternative in an unlimited quantity, free, for a decade.
Meanwhile, Protect the Wild has announced that it is working on an exciting new website, bloodbusiness.info. They are hoping to launch before the end of summer. It will list every single business in the UK, whether it be a pub, a hotel, a veterinary practice, an insurance provider, a landowner or a garden centre, with links to the hunting and shooting industries. How wonderful that people will be able to boycott all of them – and let them know why.
This post is dedicated to the late Flash Rota, our very much loved rescue cat who, utterly heart-breakingly, was euthanised yesterday. He was coming up to thirteen years old and going downhill very fast and whilst I don’t doubt that it was the right thing to do, the vets, whom he was with for several days and nights, had and have absolutely no idea what was actually wrong with him. He is survived by his sister, Ash. The death of Flash has very much brought back to mind the death of Tigger, the siblings’ predecessor, not that that memory had ever gone away. I am fighting back tears 24/7. All three knew and know how much they were and are loved. Flash, in spite of spending his last couple of years as a tripod, had a good life. I cannot stop visualising the two of them romping around in sheer delight in the garden on their very first outdoor foray back in 2012.
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