norfolk-quakers.org.uk

Concern for the treatment of farm animals worldwide brought 160 representatives from animal welfare organisations and from the European Communion together in Brussels in mid-April. Held under the auspices of External Trade Director Peter Mandelson’s Civil Society Dialogue, the aim was to prepare the way for a larger EU gathering early next year.

As convenor of Norwich and Waveney’s Quakers and Kindred Animals Committee (QUAKA), I was there to represent the only faith-based CSD organisation concerned specifically with the well being of animals in world trade. My main task was to develop awareness of the spiritual nature of our fellow creatures, which we had already begun to ease - very gently – onto the EU agenda.

The prime mover in bringing about the forum was the charismatic Adolfo Sansolini, whom some of you met when he came to Norwich to speak at Friends’ Meeting House in March. QUAKA will be taking an active part in a blog being set up to develop the ideas that came out of that meeting. It will be posted shortly on the forum’s website http://www.animalwelfareandtrade.com. The views expressed will in turn be reflected in the final submission that is made ahead of the 2009 meeting.

What follows is the mission statement which I took to Brussels on behalf of QUAKA. Copies were made available to all delegates.

Valerie Macfarlane

Factory Farms - We’re in This Together

The intensive rearing of livestock has until recently been a matter of concern to only a minority of people. It was considered solely an animal welfare issue. Increasingly however, evidence is coming to light showing the serious effect it can have on the people who work in this industry.

Casual attitudes are inevitable where thousands of creatures are processed on an un-ending conveyor belt of feeding and killing. Repetition is bound to desensitise anyone to the welfare of individual animals. But to see where this can lead you only have to go on the internet, key in Cruelty on Factory Farms, and read the accounts of former employees. Almost anything you can imagine happening in an understaffed, ill-supervised environment where low overheads and high through-put are paramount – happens.

Peer Pressure

One of the worst cases of cruelty to get into the newspapers happened in England on a Bernard Matthews turkey farm. Two young men, using poles intended as aids for rounding up the stock, were secretly filmed playing baseball with live birds. Their lawyer said they had been influenced by “peer pressure.” He told the court: “In this sort of environment the one thing you cannot do is step outside what everyone else is doing.”

The risk of certain individuals being led into sadism is always present where respect for living creatures has been eroded. Despite the secrecy policy of the majority of factory farms, it now appears that exposure to this behaviour can lead to brutality being regarded as normal. Today, therefore, we must face the fact that what was once seen as an animal tragedy, is in fact one which embraces human beings as well.

It doesn’t end there. Research suggests a clear link between cruelty to animals and violence towards people. In America, an FBI analysis showed that a high proportion of those convicted of violent crimes have histories of animal abuse. One study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Northeastern University put it as high as seventy per cent.

At the same time it has become clear that we can no longer justify the division which we have always maintained between the animals and ourselves. In recent years science has taught us a great deal about what we and our fellow creatures have in common physically. It is now accepted that they are sentient beings which experience fear and pain as we do. In many cases their senses are far superior to our own. And these “dumb” creatures have their own means of communication.

Differences of Degree

We can no longer claim that what separates us is more than a matter of degree. And in many ways they have the advantage over us. So what grounds do we have for continuing to treat our fellow creatures as different in kind from ourselves? Encouraged by the Church, man has always clung to the soul as the single thing that separates him from the rest of creation. But spirituality in man manifests itself through such qualities as love, symbiosis and altruism. And anyone who has lived close to animals knows that these are not the monopoly of homo sapiens. Those most aware of this – and who live their lives accordingly – are indiginous peoples such as the First Nation Americans, the Inuit and the Aborigines.

The evidence today is that these groups - often looked down upon as primitive - have been right all along. Each life form is really an aspect of a single, indivisible whole. There may be variations when it comes to individual development. And we progress at the pace of the slowest. But in the end we are one. On the factory farm – as in everything – we are in this together.
QUAKERS AND KINDRED ANIMALS (QUAKA)
Email: valmacf@btinternet.com

Quakers and Kindred Animals

This was first set up as the Kinship Group in 2004. Two years later it organised a nationwide Quaker petition to the European Commission seeking proper consideration for the welfare of animals in world trade.

As a result of this initiative we were asked to go to Brussels to put our case to officials of the External Trade Directorate. At this meeting we were invited to register with the Civil Society Dialogue, a regular discussion group chaired by Peter Mandelson, the EU Commissioner for External Trade.

The group is open to not-for-profit NGOs with interests in world trade, enabling them to exert an influence on EU trade policies. It was set up in 1998 in pursuance of the Commission’s policy of open governance.

Our registration was formally accepted in April 2007.

In August, Norwich and Lynn’s Quakers and Kindred Animals Committee (QUAKA) made its first submission to the European Union as a member of the Civil Society Dialogue (CSD) . It had been invited to comment on trade negotiations between the EU and Mercosur, the South American trade group. QUAKA is the only faith-based organisation specifically concerned with animal welfare registered with the CSD. The inspiration for its submission came from the following article by JOHN MYHILL.

Spirituality of Animals

Since Quakers began, 350 years ago, they have emphasised the importance of responding to “that of God” in everyone they meet. This has been of huge assistance to them in working for peace all around the world. Quakers are widespread in South America, and they share in this work for peace.

Two-hundred years ago the abolition of the slave trade came about largely because of the dedicated campaigns of Quakers during the previous fifty years. Most of their contemporaries accepted that it was necessary for international trade that black human beings should be transported in chains, closely packed together, to work as slaves in the West Indies.

Despite the great economic value of the trade, government was eventually persuaded that their treatment in these ships was cruel and must be stopped.

Quakers see a close parallel with our treatment of farm animals today. Two-hundred years ago, farm animals were rather better treated than those black slaves. Today they have unnaturally short lives, often insufficient space to turn round, are usually without natural light – let alone green fields. As with the slave ships, most people are not aware of the horrific conditions in which the vast majority of farm animals are now kept.

If you bought sugar and other products of slavery two-hundred years ago, you probably had little or no contact with slaves. Certainly insufficient contact to know that they were human beings just like you. The situation is exactly the same today. Most people have had little or no contact with farm animals. They have been unable to experience the close kinship which science has established exists between all mammals.

Because of our tradition of peacemaking, Quakers went out of their way to get to know slaves, their owners and the traders. They were able to say from their own experience that slaves were human beings who contained that spirit of God. The people with political power, recognising the truth of what the Quakers were saying, abolished the slave trade.

Quakers today who have followed the same process of living and working with other mammal species can now say from their own experience that these are peaceful, loving, trusting souls. A pig has higher intelligence than many humans who are cared for throughout their lives in institutions. A cow is more distressed when its calf is taken away than many human parents who abandon their children. Sheep are more community-minded than a lot of today’s young people.

The suffering of farm animals is much greater than at any time in the past. These creatures are mammals whom science shows are very similar to us genetically. Caring people – including Quakers – have long shown that they have natures as good as, if not better, than our own. Those arguments were sufficient to persuade the politicians to abolish the slave trade. They remain sufficient today.

How You Can Help

Buy only free-range eggs and meat and fish.

Support just ONE animal welfare charity. If we each do this we will bring about a major change.

Tell us your own concerns about the welfare of animals – particularly in the context of world trade.

Contact: Valerie Macfarlane (Convener)
email: valeriemacf@waitrose.com