Sign the petition here

London Fashion Week starts this week! It has long been regarded as one of the pioneering and defining events of the fashion world. Spawning countless trends and providing platforms for some of the most famous designers that have ever existed. Yet even though London Fashion Week prides itself on paving the way for the future of fashion it is unable to progress beyond some of the darkest and most horrific practices committed by the fashion world.

Every year the fur industry is responsible for the death of 1 billion rabbits and 50 million other animals  – including foxes, minks, dogs, cats, racoons, chinchillas, seals and many more. Most of these animals are raised in fur farms, intensive facilities where the animals are kept in tiny cages and confined to a life of misery. These farms can hold thousands of animals and are designed to specifically maximise profits. These animals go insane performing psychotic repetitive behaviours such as circling endlessly in their cage as well as cannibalism and self-mutilation. 

The most common methods of killing animals in fur farms is anal electrocution, gassing, poisoning or stomping on the animals and breaking their necks. These are all done to try and preserve the quality of the fur.

In the year 2000 fur farming was banned in the UK due to the horrific nature of these practices but fur can still be legally imported into this country. Why is it that London Fashion Week finds it morally justifiable to still provide a platform for fur and profit off the exploitation of an industry that was outlawed in the UK 17 years ago?

Big fashion labels like Armani, Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, The Kooples, Vivienne Westwood and many more have denounced fur, yet London Fashion Week continues to provide the largest platform for fur in the UK. This has to stop.

As high fashion drips down into high street fashion, the relentless promotion of fur by high brow designers is culpable in the normalisation of cheap high street fur items that have been brought back into shops and market stalls. No doubt imitations of the the fur items featured in LFW this year will soon be seen donned by members of the public in the not too distant future.

Please sign our petition to ban fur from London Fashion Week.

Sign the petition here

Stand up for live animals in transport on 13th September.  For more information on how you can get involved see http://www.stoplivetransport.org

By current European law, animals are recognised as sentient beings, acknowledging their ability to feel pain, suffer and also experience joy. No one who has seen a cow going outside for the first time after a winter indoors, a hen dust bathing, or a pig wallowing in a fresh patch of mud would disagree with that. The law says that as animals are sentient beings, full regard must be given to their welfare when creating new legislation or regulations.
Securing this status for animals was a massive step forward for animal welfare in 1997. It was the biggest campaign Compassion has ever run. The recognition of animals as complex and intelligent creatures has been the cornerstone of European animal welfare legislation since that time, and the basis for so much of the progress we have made together.

So what’s the problem?
The Repeal Bill, which moves all European law into UK law once we leave the EU, has left out this important protection. It is completely absent; both the recognition of animals as sentient beings, and the requirement for governments to pay “full regard” to their welfare.
Once the UK leaves the EU, we cannot be sure that future Governments will still treat animals as sentient beings. Please demand that the clause is brought into UK law.
This could be a disaster for animal welfare. We cannot let this happen. Please sign this petition calling on Michael Gove to take urgent action here

1st September is the day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and Pope Francis has just announced a joint appeal with the  Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I,  for the world to work together on this special day.

Pope Francis said: “We invite everyone to adopt a respectful and responsible attitude toward Creation”.

“We also appeal,” the Holy Father added, “to those who have influential roles, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor who suffer most from ecological imbalances.”

What a wonderful message!  AIA member organisation, Catholic Concern for Animals endorses it fully and will take the message to its annual retreat which begins on Monday 4th September at Holland House.

AIA supports CIWF’s ‘Stop Live Transport’ International Awareness Day – 13th September 2017.

For more details go http://www.stoplivetransport.org

Read it here:

Animal Spirit – Issue 7 – Autumn 2017.pub

The interfaith group, The Animal Interfaith Alliance, criticised the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney for the bank’s cavalier attitude in showing no regard for the fundamental beliefs of faith groups such as Hindus and Jains.  In a letter to the Governor, they wrote:

Dear Dr. Mark Carney,

I write on behalf of The Animal Interfaith Alliance, an international alliance of faith groups founded in Britain concerned about the welfare of animals.  Our member organisations and individual members include Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.  We are all united by our common concern for animals, based on our various faiths. Our member organisations are listed below.

We refer to the use of tallow on banknotes.

As a group which takes a spiritual perspective on the exploitation of animals for human ends, we are of course opposed to the use of animal products in items we use, and do everything humanly possible to avoid them.

There is, however, another aspect to our serious concern to which we must draw your attention. 

Many of our most active friends and members are Hindus and Jains, and, by your insistence on the use of tallow, the Bank of England is, in a cavalier fashion, showing no regard for their fundamental beliefs.

Your use of a product derived from the cow, an animal, as you know, revered and indeed loved as a mother in India, shows a lack of respect for their faith which appears to us to demonstrate general disregard for the requirements of adherents of all faiths.

Our organisation reveres and tries to follow the compassionate Hindu and Jain precept of ahimsa – harmlessness – and we are asking you to avoid animal products and to continue to seek a harmless constituent for the banknotes which is acceptable to everyone. 

Best regards,
Marian Hussenbux – Secretary International Campaigns
 
Animal Interfaith Alliance
http://www.animal-interfaith-alliance.com
 
Faiths Working Together for Animals