Viva!Life Issue 74 | Summer 2020

life

Published by Viva! the vegan campaigning group

Issue 74 Summer 2020

Interview with

Jerome Flynn

…diseases from animals just keep on coming

Hogwood presenter on life and living

John Robb column

Tofurky founder Seth Tibbott

A punk’s view of pandemics

... the accidental global brand

Michael Mansfield QC ‘I told you so, Sybil’

Red Tractor exposed again … this time it’s Morrisons

Bats, Zoonoses and inaction What happens next?

Regan Russell

IS HERE…

r e m m Su okery co

Obituary for a caring woman

Our documentary ready to download

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WHO We Are

Viva!’s fight is a fight for life – for animals and ourselves. through effective campaigning, we take the brutal reality of intensive farming to the people who can effect the most change: consumers. Our wide-ranging campaigns promote veganism as the best way to save animals from suffering, protect the environment and improve health.

We have cleared most shelves of so-called ‘exotic meats’; our campaign against the factory farming of pigs, turkeys and ducks saw deaths dive; we are closer to a foie-gras free Britain and meat and dairy consumption are down in the uk thanks to Viva!, in part, and you. Viva! is a registered charity (1037486). viva.org.uk

Contents

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19 7

JulIet GellAtley A personal view on Covid-19

8

tAlkInG tOFurky Interview with founder Seth tibbott

10 3 In 4 Viva! Health (a part of Viva!) really is the authority on everything to do with vegan diets and health. Staffed by qualified professionals, for over two decades it has championed vegan diets for what they really are – the key to a healthier way of living, a lower risk of killer diseases and a longer life. And it has done it with sound science. It publishes fully-referenced scientific reports on such important subjects as breast cancer, obesity and diabetes – but it can also tell you the difference between potassium and selenium; manganese and magnesium. In fact, its brilliant website gives you the complete A-Z of nutrients, the A-Z of diseases and A-Z of Foods. everything you need is there. vivahealth.org.uk

Viva!’s campaign exposing the cause of pandemics

12 BAtS

22

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Why are they at the heart of Coronavirus?

14 MICHAel MAnSFIeld QC I did tell you Basil!

19 COOkery lovely Summer tastes

22 HOGWOOd tHe MOVIe

28

It’s here and ready to watch and share

26 neW PIG exPOSe this time it’s Morissons

28 JerOMe Flynn On his love for all life

32

32 ZOOnOSeS Getting up all our noses

HOW tO Get tHIS MAGAZIne Join Viva! to get your copy of Viva!life magazine three times a year for only £15. You’ll also receive a supporters’ card – giving you discounts at hundreds of shops and on services and holidays (see myvegantown.org.uk/discounts) – plus a free car sticker. Call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) or join online at viva.org.uk/join.

42 OBJeCtIOn! How to object to planning applications

48 tOny WArdle Are you ready for battle?

51 OBItuAry regan russell

52 VIVA! POlAnd nailing down the fur trade

5 lifelines 16 Merchandise 35 V Biz 37 life Science 39 Media life 40 Moo-Free May 41 Viva!’s social media 43 John robb’s column 45 lifestyle 47 restaurant reviews

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Welcome

VIVA!lIFe MAGAZIne

What extraordinary times we are living through. This pandemic and recent lockdown brings with it more than threat and inconvenience, it sounds a blaring fog horn that we are heading directly on to the rocks yet world leaders are not listening.

The last few years has seen one disease outbreak after another, each one with different characteristics. Death rates vary from less than one per cent to 90 per cent and the future is entirely unpredictable. Humanity is now in the hands of simple, almost invisible little life forms – that may not even be life forms – and our future could depend on something as simple as how they mutate.

That is a very scary prospect with enormous global ramifications and so this issue carries a lot of information on viral pandemics. On page 7, I spell out my personal view on how we got here and where we should now go. On page 10 we look at Viva!’s hugely popular 3 in 4 campaign – with its two videos being viewed by almost two million people. Page 12 is both fascinating and frightening as I look at the role human’s destructive behaviour to bats plays in some pandemics and on page 14, patron Michael Mansfield QC takes an international perspective to see what’s been going on behind the scenes. To complete our enquiry, on page 32, Viva!’s Dr Justine Butler looks at zoonoses in general while Tony Wardle tears away the fig leafs that have covered the inaction and selfinterest that have got us to where we are (page 48).

I am delighted to announce that our documentary, HOGWOOD – a modern horror story, is now available to download (page 22) but it too cannot help but draw parallels between the way we treat animals and pandemic diseases (page 48). It is perfectly presented by patron Jerome Flynn who, on page 28, talks movingly about his faith in and love of nature.

And on page 26, all our concerns surface once more as we expose yet another pig farm – another Red Tractor embarrassment but this time supplying Morrisons. The filth and disregard continues even during lockdown due to a disease that stems from the ill treatment of animals. So far there has not been a single word of acknowledgement from the Government of the role animals have played in this pandemic and will do in future outbreaks of disease.

It is with enormous sadness that I report the death of Regan Russell (page 51), a Canadian supporter of the Save movement and protester against Bill 156, a Bill that has been passed into law and criminalises anyone in Ontario who does what we do – expose the cruelty and suffering in modern farming. Regan was outside a slaughterhouse attempting to give water to thirsty pigs being taken inside when she was killed beneath the wheels of an animal transporter. Her memory and Bill 156 are now intimately linked and we will offer all the support we can to keep her brave memory alive and help Canadian activists to repeal this despicable Bill.

Yours for the animals Juliet Gellatley Founder & Director Juliet@viva.org.uk facebook.com/juliet.gellatley

Viva! Founder & International Director Juliet Gellatley Executive Assistant Jess Nunn Editor Tony Wardle Campaigns Manager Lex Rigby Head of Communications Roisin McAuley Campaigns & Outreach Laura-Lisa Hellwig, William Sorflaten, Tayana Simons, Louisa Kendal, Siobhan Dolan Viva! Health Dr Justine Butler, Veronika Charvátová Office Manager & Supporters’ Liaison Laura Turner, Nick Hallows, Beata Rzepecka-Wilk, Charlotte Sutton Merchandise, Business, Festivals & Events Marwa Bahssali, Emily Coster, Dani Lawton, Alice Short, Jem Adéola Food & Cookery Manager Maryanne Hall Design The Ethical Graphic Design Company Ltd Web & IT Roger Peñarroya i Zaldívar, Mark Schiller, Conor Haines, Jeremy Ludlow Podcast Presenter Helen Wilson Editorial enquiries 0117 970 4633 Advertising enquiries 0117 944 1000 Membership enquiries 0117 944 1000 info@viva.org.uk Online viva.org.uk vivahealth.org.uk veganrecipeclub.org.uk vivavegancharity vivacampaigns vivacharity Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH

General enquiries

Contact Viva! on 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri 9-5) Email info@viva.org.uk Write to Viva! at: 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH 4

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vegan is a staTe of kind Kind to you, animals and the planet

lifelines The Forgotten Pandemic

Covid-19 is not the only pandemic that’s sweeping the world. Presumably we don’t hear much about this other one because it’s only killing pigs.

African swine fever is a very nasty DNA virus that causes fever, vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and blood clots in the veins and is extremely deadly to domestic pigs and wild boar. Millions of farmed pigs were killed in China alone to try and head it off as it has a death

rate of almost 100 per cent.

The mass slaughter of wild boar has done absolutely nothing to halt its spread and it is now in more than 30 countries, including the Balkans and Russia.

It spreads through infected food and ticks and the virus remains infectious for up to six months in uncooked pork products.

What are viruses most known for? Constant mutations so what happens if…?

Give wildlife a break

School food – time for change For the first time in 75 years, the national Food Strategy is being revised, including the School Food Standards. Viva! has joined with other animal groups to offer the Government a cogent explanation as to why the present mandatory requirement to serve fish, meat and dairy should be removed and replaced with guidelines that allow schools to be more flexible, which would put us in line with several other countries. Our arguments are undeniable – now let’s see if they’re accepted.

Cummings and goings Martin redston, a member of the public, is seeking a judicial review over the failure of the director of public prosecutions, Max Hill, to investigate dominic Cummings for alleged breaches of the coronavirus lockdown rules when he went on a family jaunt to Barnard Castle to ‘test his eyes’. Heading Mr redston’s legal team is Viva! patron, barrister Michael Mansfield QC.

We’ve said it and the scientists have said it – the illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic. this intrusion also creates two to four new viruses every year and any one of them could turn into a pandemic, according to thomas lovejoy, known as the godfather of biodiversity. He made the claim in a report by the Centre for American Progress. He is a senior fellow at the united nations Foundation and professor of environment science at George Mason university.

A study by a whole string of agricultural and veterinary scientists from the uS, Australia and new Zealand have reached a similar conclusion: “emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health”.

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lifelines

Viva!’s Free Will Writing Service

Don’t upset the kiddiewinks Our Midlands billboard campaign which asked the questions What’s your favourite animal (to eat)? and When did you last kill an animal? got up the nose of one 16-year-old, Joshua Barnes. “I don’t think using the words ‘kill’ is needed or referring to eating your pet. I would want to know how someone at Viva! would speak to a child that was asking about killing animals.” I think a little more directly than that, Joshua.

Anyway, this rather mimsy complaint led to a rerun of the pictures in the Nottingham Post – so cheers Josh.

Viva!’s Roisin McAuley gave an impromptu talk at a primary school to years three and four. “They were very sweet kids and all knew what vegan was. They kept calling me ‘the activist’ and one little girl told me she wanted to start ‘doing activism’! Another put her hand up just to tell me her dad has a hat with the Viva! logo on it.

They invited me back to talk to Years five and six the next day”.

you may have noticed that Viva!’s campaigning work, our shocking exposés, our outreach and media coverage have all increased dramatically in recent years – our influence for the animals is now extraordinary. And there is a reason!

While we’re alive, most of us don’t have a great deal of money to donate to causes, no matter how worthwhile – but we’re often worth a lot more dead than alive. It’s a delicate subject death, but unavoidable. It often gives people the opportunity to do what they would have loved to do while alive – support causes they care about.

And it is these people who are increasingly funding the great work that Viva! does by remembering us in their Wills.

Please think about leaving Viva! a legacy in your Will and in return, as a small gesture of our appreciation, we will cover the costs. yes, you can make a simple Will free of charge in your own home.

Viva! work with an organisation called the Goodwill Partnership and all you need do is ring them on 0844 669 6148, quoting ‘Viva!’, and leave a message and they will ring you back (it may take a few days) and make an appointment to visit you at home. they will help you write your Will, which will then be formalised by a solicitor and returned to you for your approval and signature. It’s as easy as that – and nothing to pay.

For detailed information go to viva.org.uk/legacies. enclosed in the magazine is our guide to making a Will which will answer any questions you might have about Wills and Codicils. you can help Viva!’s work in saving animals even after you have gone.

And the winners are… results of our Spring Fundraising raffle: FIRST PRIZE (£1500): J taylor from Surrey (ticket no. 061996) SECOND PRIZE (£500): A Bond from Glos (006179) THIRD PRIZE (£200): e underwood, Sheffield (007198) – thank you so much elaine for donating your prize back to Viva!.

RUNNERS-UP Prizes go to: l Warner from Hampshire (029808) k Bates from lancashire (082523) J Sanders from Glos (017861) G Salter from devon (022564) n Harris from norfolk (066501) Congratulations to you all, and many thanks to everyone who entered!

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Tesco comes home When tesco opened up stores in several foreign countries, it abandoned its much vaunted animal welfare codes and did what the locals did. Viva! harried them on blatant cruelty, including slaughtering turtles on demand in front of customers in China (shades of wet markets here). It has now decided to retreat from the country and close its 131 outlets and is negotiating to sell its 2,041 stores in thailand and Malaysia. It wants to concentrate on its core operations – such as ignoring Viva!’s exposé of Hogwood pig farm!

Why we must go vegan to prevent pandemic crises JULIET GELLATLEY’S OP ED PIECE PUBLISHED IN THE INDEPENDENT

e’ve been here before.

In 1855, German pathologist Rudolf Virchow was the first to discover that infectious diseases can be transmitted between animals and humans and he coined the term ‘zoonoses’.

A century later, in August 1958, the World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Zoonoses met at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The outcome was a stark warning: the prevention, control, and eradication of these diseases were ‘responsibilities of considerable magnitude in every country’.

Fast forward to today and the world is in the grip of the worst global pandemic for generations. Covid-19, like SARS, bird flu, swine flu and Ebola, originated in animals.

Three in four of the world’s new or emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic1 and are responsible for some 2.7 million deaths per year,2 largely transmitted through the wildlife trade and factory farming. Despite knowing the dangers for over 150 years, we continue to put ourselves at risk of devastating outbreaks.

Cramming animals together in markets and subjecting them to intensive farming practices creates a breeding ground for disease. Today, some two thirds of all farmed animals are kept in factory farms where infections can spread with ease between animals, mutate and become infectious to humans.

As our excessive demand for meat and animal products grows, so we destroy ever more wildernesses to provide land for growing animal fodder and for grazing, bringing wildlife into closer contact with people – and this puts us at greater risk. This is wider than a matter of animal rights, it is also a global public health crisis.

This coronavirus pandemic has inspired thousands to speak up against the unregulated movement of wild animals, ignited calls for stricter controls at airports and brought global attention to the barbaric cruelty of wet markets, all in a bid to prevent future outbreaks. But the most impactful solution is to stop the spread of these diseases at their source by

W

putting an end to our consumption of meat and dairy.

Taking this simple action will allow animals to live at safe, comfortable distances from one another, reducing the spread of disease. Intervention from people will be minimal, dramatically reducing the potential for animalto-human transmission. Ultimately, millions of lives could be saved.

There will be countless lessons learned from this pandemic. It has brought out the best and worst in people. It has shown us how nature can flourish in the absence of humans. It has offered a glimpse of how we could unite as a global community to tackle the environmental crisis.

1 cdc.gov/ onehealth/ basics/zoonoticdiseases.html 2 ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/ pmc/ articles/PMC5711 306

The solution is at our fingertips But the most important lesson doesn’t stem from this outbreak alone, it is the culmination of our history of being blighted by preventable outbreaks of lethal diseases spread from animals to humans and our collective decision not to act.

We’ve known the risks for almost two centuries. Too many lives have been lost. The solution is at our fingertips: it’s time to go vegan now.

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Have you heard the one about the

Tofurky?

Helen Wilson uncovers a story of passion, failure, learning and triumph when she talks with Seth tibbott, Founder and CeO of global vegan food brand, tofurky – and it’s no joke iving in the shadow of Mount Adams, near Trout Lake, Washington, on the West Coast of America, is a wonderful place to be quarantined, says Seth Tibbott.

He is the man behind one of the longest running vegan brands on the planet – Tofurky – who sell millions of plant-based food products across the world every year and have become a vegan institution.

Even if you’ve never tasted Tofurky, you’ll very likely have seen it on the shelves of health food shops and, more recently, in supermarkets’ refrigerator sections. The Tofurky Roast is a famous thing amongst vegetarians and vegans as it was the first meat-alternative centrepiece you could serve up at Christmas. In its early days, the name was seen as a bit of a joke but when you’re selling over half a million roasts a year, it’s no laughing matter.

The story of Tofurky’s success is one of hardship, graft, uncertainty and perseverance, which is enough to inspire (or scare the pants off) tentative entrepreneurs.

Chapter and verse are set out in Seth’s new book: In Search of the Wild Turkey.

It all started in 1971 with a different book, when he read what was at the time a ground-breaker called Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore-Lappé.

“It made so much sense to me”, says Seth. “It was the first book that pointed out the inefficiencies of feeding 16lb of grain to an animal and then getting only a small amount of protein in return – 8oz or 1lb. I was a naturalist, teaching kids about nature and I saw the farmlands in Ohio where I was working, encroaching on the wildlands where the birds and animals lived. I thought, if we had a way of producing food that was 16 times more efficient than now, there would be 16 times more space. It would take some of the pressure off the environment and habitat that was being lost.”

Seth’s thinking was ahead of the times in the days when there wasn’t much information available about the health benefits of being vegetarian or vegan – so his first thoughts concentrated on the environmental benefits of eating more plants.

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While teaching in Tennessee one day, he took a visit to a large hippy community who called themselves ‘pure vegetarian’, which meant not eating meat, dairy or eggs.

You can just picture the scene.

“There were 1,200 hippies, living on 1,600 acres of land. They were growing soya beans and didn’t know what to do with them, until they found out about tempeh from library books and started making it. What struck me was that it tasted delicious and digested well.

So I thought, wow! I’ve got to try making this,” Seth got some tempeh starter from the hippies and cooked up the beans. Apparently, you rub them together to split them and remove the hulls so the cultures can get in and work their magic. A mould then forms over the beans and binds them together.

After tasting that first batch of tempeh, fried up with sweetcorn, okra and big slices of tomato, Seth was hooked. In 1980 he opened the first tempeh shop in the now US vegan capital of Portland, Oregon. Renting the kitchen in a local health food store, he spent from 4pm until midnight every day making tempeh and delivering it around the area.

I was happy to be on this mission to bring tempeh to America He told me: “I registered as a business and at Christmas that year, I went back to see my aunt in Minnesota, which is more of a conservative state than Oregon. I sat there one evening over some of her amazing apple pie and told her all about my business plans. The whole thing was really new to me but I was going to make this product – a plant-based protein for the world that was low down on the food chain!

“She sat me down and said: ‘Seth, look at me, this is a very bad idea! This is a meat-eating country and it’s always going to be a meat-eating country. Nobody is going to want to eat these mouldy soya beans of yours.’

I said, thanks Aunt Rosie for the nice words but I’m going to keep on doing it. And I’m glad I did.”

For the first nine years it seemed Aunt Rosie was right. He didn’t make any real money and was living on just $300 a month. “I was very poor,” says Seth, “but the dream kept growing, bit by bit. And those were pretty thrilling, happy years. I was failing in a financial sense but I was happy to be on this mission to bring tempeh to America”.

The financial part of the conundrum was solved when a wholesaler placed an order for 400 kilos of tempeh a week. Seth had to move production to the kitchen of an abandoned school outside Portland and that’s where the determination really set in. He worked there for the next 10 years – with a team who took turns to sleep under one of the worktop counters.

“The business was growing, Seth said, “But I kept feeling like a failure. I was so stupid in the ways of business, I didn’t know about good book-keeping or accounting, marketing and sales, so I had to learn all that.

So I look at those first 15 years as my business school.”

Clearly, what he did learn paid off well.

“One day, I went to see my friend Hans, who had a small sandwich shop in Portland and was making a tofu roast for Thanksgiving. This is a big food holiday in the US when most people eat turkey to commemorate the first settlers landing – but if you didn’t eat turkey, you had a problem.

“I’d tried seitan roast that you couldn’t cut with a chainsaw. There was a stuffed pumpkin packed with all these lovely vegetables and rice, which then collapsed in the oven. But then I tasted this tofu roast, it was delicious – I saw a business opportunity. I changed from an all tempeh company to a tempeh/tofu company but it was really Tofurky that changed both my and the company’s fortunes – from a small regional operation to a national and then international supplier.”

In 1995 he sold his first 800 Tofurky roasts at Thanksgiving and Christmas – and the product became a world-wide phenomenon, starring on daytime TV, news channels and even the US sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond.

The Tofurky factory in Hood River, Oregon, now produces more than 35 vegan products, with their Italian Sausage currently charting as a best seller. It’s interesting that the journey of Tofurky runs parallel with the growth of plantbased foods, both here and in the US. Seth tells me: “Tofurky products were some of the early products that supermarkets would buy but it wasn’t easy. Buyers would see the name Tofurky and laugh, saying, ‘this is a joke product, right?’

You had to convince them to buy it in but once they did, it flew off the shelves and customers wanted more.

“Five years ago, refrigerated plant-based products in supermarkets were growing at a rate of about five per cent a year. By 2017/2018, we started to see a growth of 40-50 per cent and more. This is when we knew something serious was happening.”

CONTINUED ON P53

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3 in 4 campaign Viva!’s Incredible Campaign Reach on the origins of pandemics and the Vegan Solution he medical effects of coronavirus are profound – but nowhere near as profound as the warning it flags up. With a death rate of less than one per cent, its impact is cruel but there will be other pandemics and some will take a much greater toll on human life than this one. Try to imagine the impact that a mortality rate of, say, five or 10 per cent or even greater would have had – because it will happen.

This is not crazy project fear but a careful interpretation of the science. Essentially, we have been warned. Pandemics are potentially terrifying and Viva! has been saying for years that they are inevitable and so it’s natural that a good part of this issue of Viva!life is devoted to the subject – not least our 3 in 4 campaign. We were determined that as many people as possible should be aware that it is our lifestyles, our choices that create pandemics – and that applies across the world. And here’s why!

Globally, 3 in 4 of new or emerging infectious diseases now come from animals. It started when we first confined, farmed and hunted wild creatures and it continues to this day – but viruses and bacteria are becoming more lethal and new diseases are becoming more frequent.

We acted quickly on coronavirus with the aim of mobilising a large-scale media campaign. We called for an end to animal exploitation as the only way of preventing future pandemics. Viva! began the campaign by launching a video featuring Juliet Gellatley, our founder and director, talking to camera about wet markets and the poor fate of pangolins in Coronavirus Origins Explained in One Minute, which immediately went viral (no pun intended) on Facebook. It was viewed by over one million within a month! View at viva.org.uk/coronavirus. Juliet followed this up with a second video, Shocking Facts

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About the Origins of Pandemics where she explores the role of factory farms and trading wildlife in the origins of deadly viruses and calls for people to choose vegan, and this was viewed by almost 700,000 on Facebook alone. View at viva.org.uk/3-in-4 We then had an open letter published in the Independent calling for a vegan world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

We wanted to make the case as strongly as possible and co-ordinated with other concerned scientists, campaigners and public figures to add their signatures. We said: “Across the globe, animals are kept in horrific conditions in factory farms and wildlife markets.

These settings provide a fertile environment for the transmission of viruses between different species and humans.” Encouraging people to go vegan and end factory farming, the letter went on: “Ending the exploitation of animals is one of the biggest actions humankind can take to protect itself against future pandemics.”

At the time of writing, there were almost 300,000 confirmed cases and 44,000 deaths in the UK of Covid-19, just one of the 3 in 4 of new or emerging infectious diseases that come from animals – mainly the wildlife trade and factory farming. Diseases such as SARS, bird flu, swine flu, measles, Ebola and AIDS as well as Covid-19 originated in animals.

Taken together, 56 zoonotic diseases are responsible for an estimated 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million deaths a year.

The letter went on: “Calls for tighter controls at airports, banning unregulated movement of animals and limiting human-animal contact will give us little protection if we continue to provide the perfect environments for these diseases to thrive. Hundreds of

thousands of animals are crammed in factory farms giving viruses the perfect opportunity to mutate, become more deadly and to jump to humans. The most logical and best form of protection is to go vegan and stop the disease at source.�

Juliet Gellatley concluded by saying: “The longer we continue to exploit and abuse animals for our own needless consumption, the more at risk we will be to pandemics like Covid-19 in the future�.

The letter was coordinated by Viva! and signatories included renowned journalist and environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, Professor Andrew Knight, Centre for Animal Welfare as well as public health professional, Dr Josh Cullimore. They were joined by top barrister and Viva! patron, Michael Mansfield QC and several others.

The Independent went on to publish a powerful opinion piece by Juliet and the Daily Mail picked up on the story, publishing a hard-hitting online article about the campaign. The open letter and our call for a vegan world went on to be printed by the Ecologist and its editor, Brendan Montague, told us: “this feature had 250,000 views in the first week after publication. I believe that is the best performing article in our history.�

We were also in the London Economic, Belfast Telegraph and many other regional papers.

We also hit the airwaves, with Juliet being interviewed on Talk Radio by the Shadow Minister for Culture, John Nicholson MP. She stressed the need for urgent action to prevent the next pandemic and then went on to do 19 other radio interviews, including Big City Radio and Sky News, with its 26 million weekly reach and distribution of radio soundbites to almost every commercial radio station in the UK. Juliet was also the main guest on several podcasts and webinars – from the popular vegan Plant Based News through to political themed podcast, The Bunker, with a reach of 36,000, to a Facebook Live talk in the USA’s DXE which had almost 35,000 views – a great figure for a one hour Facebook Live.

The momentum continued when the Daily Star published details of our report, Zoonoses: a ticking time bomb, written by Viva!’s senior health researcher, Dr Justine Butler. We followed this up distributing our campaign leaflet, Animal Farming is Killing Us and two posters, across the UK. To order a free set go to vivashop.org.uk/3-in-4-pack We created over 100 videos, graphics, blogs and memes to demonstrate the link between animal farming and pandemics and over the past two months, we’ve seen our reach go from 15,000 views per post on Facebook to over 400,000. This is great news for

CORONAVIRU Public Heal S: th Notice

Animal farming is

killing us

• Animal farm ing and mea t markets pres major health ent a threat to soci ety. • Three in four of infectious dise the world’s new or emergin ases come from g anim als. • The most com mon of these dise 2.5 billion case s of human illne ases cause 3 million dea ss and almost ths a year * • They are larg ely trading wildlife transmitted through and factory farm ing. • Covid-19 is one including SAR of many zoonotic diseases S, MERS, mea sles, swine flu, and HIV. The y all came from Ebola viruses are app anim earing with incr als and new easing frequen • In order to cy. protect your own and othe meat choose vegan. r’s health

s and Factory farm hotbeds for markets are pandemicsFind out mo future Going vegan: re: viva.org.uk/3-in-4 viva.org.uk/ea Choose vegan syvegan /3-in-4

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*Grace D, et Mapping of poverty al., 2012. zoonoses hotspots. and likely ILRI, Kenya

We did reach many who had not heard the vegan message before and their shocked comments came piling in veganism, particularly as we had chosen to try and reach those who were most likely to be ignorant of the links between animals and pandemics.

We did reach many who had not heard the vegan message before and their shocked comments came piling in, along with pledges to move towards going vegan.

To extend our range and reach as many people as possible, we also posted our content on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Instagram is particularly important as more young people use this platform than Facebook or Twitter and they are the changemakers of tomorrow. We were able to reach tens of thousands of them – and many have responded and shared with their followers.

We wanted a straightforward, simple and easily recognisable image to drive this successful campaign and what we eventually chose was simplicity itself.

We asked people to write #3in4 on one of their hands, photograph and share it, and they did – in their thousands.

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Special feature

From a Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva!, explores the animal origins of coronavirus

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oronavirus is one of the smallest and simplest life forms to ever exist and yet it has killed over half a million people so far and spread fear and economic chaos across the world. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes Covid-19 and is just one of hundreds of coronaviruses that have an ancient viral ancestry. They evolved tens of millions of years ago and their natural (original) hosts are bats and birds.

Over time, coronaviruses have come to infect a wide array of other mammals and birds – hedgehogs, beluga whales, bottlenose dolphins, pigs, cows, geese, ducks, moorhens, night herons and others, including us!

Coronaviruses were first discovered in chickens in the 1930s but it wasn’t until the 1960s that human coronaviruses were detected. To date, seven have been identified that cause disease in us. Four are endemic and usually cause mild disease – accounting for 15 to 30 per cent of common colds. But three can cause much more serious and fatal disease – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Covid-19.

All seven human coronaviruses are zoonotic – they evolved in animals and jumped the species barrier to us.

This is so common that three in four of all newly emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic, hence Viva!’s campaign – 3 in 4. The scary thing is, the incidence is increasing because of the way we exploit and kill animals. We are decimating natural habitats to clear the way for more factory-farmed animals and fodder, incarcerating ever-increasing numbers of animals in filthy, crowded sheds and also trading wild animals – all for traditional medicines that don’t work and meat we don’t need.

Invading and disrupting ecosystems inevitably shakes loose viruses from their natural hosts and factory farms provide the ideal conditions for them to mutate, become more deadly and jump to humans.

Coronaviruses mainly infect the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts of their hosts. Individual virus species mostly appear to be restricted to a narrow host range, often a single animal species. However, genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses testify that coronaviruses have frequently crossed the species barrier.

Over the past 30 years and before Covid-19, there have been several coronavirus cross-species transmissions involving cows, pigs, humans, bats, cats and dogs.

Of the seven human coronaviruses, five originated in bats and two in rodents but they all transmitted to us through an intermediate host – always animals we exploit. It is therefore inevitable that similar zoonotic infections will occur in the future, unless we stop abusing animals.

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WARNING BELLS And it’s not as if we weren’t warned. Almost 20 years ago, a virus appeared in wildlife markets in southern China unlike any the world had ever seen. It was winter 2003 and sufferers complained of fever, chills, headache and dry coughs – all symptoms you would expect during cold and flu season.

But this condition progressed into a lethal form of pneumonia, one that left honeycomb-shaped holes in people’s lungs and generated severe respiratory failure in a quarter of patients. While most infections only spread from the infected person to three other people, some of the afflicted became ‘super-spreaders’ – unwittingly transmitting the disease to dozens at a time. By the time the epidemic of SARS ended seven months later, more than 8,000 cases and 800 deaths stretched across 32 countries.

SARS originated in bats but passed to people through civets – sold in wet markets. Professor Yuen, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, who screened large numbers of civets, said it was likely the virus jumped host while the live animal was being handled. One of China’s first confirmed SARS patients worked as a cook in a Shenzhen restaurant, another was an animal handler and the first ‘super-spreader’ worked in a wet market.

Professor Yuen said: “If you cannot control further jumping of such viruses from animals to humans, the same epidemic can occur again – so it is very important that we have ways of controlling the rearing, the slaughtering and the selling of these wild game animals.”

There were many more warnings from scientists. “The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-like coronaviruses in… bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb.” A time bomb that just went off.

Even before the emergence of Covid-19, another coronavirus had mutated in 2012 enabling it to jump from bats to camels. This was MERS and it was bad news. Camels are exploited for their milk, meat, wool and for transport and racing. Following substantial government support, camel farming and racing expanded hugely, exacerbating desertification so in 2005, the free grazing of camels was banned.

Consequently, camels are now often confined in barns alongside those who work with them. This virus causes only mild disease in camels but it changed its clothes again, infected people and became exceptionally deadly – killing one in three.

Between 2012 and 2019, there were around 2,500 cases of MERS and over 900 deaths and the only reason it didn’t spread further is because it isn’t very contagious.

Just seven years later, in 2019, another coronavirus raised its ugly head – SARS-CoV-2 and probably born in a wet market in Wuhan city, China. In December 2019, two thirds of the first 41 people hospitalised with Covid19 had walked through that market.

WHAT IS A WET MARKET? Like farmers’ markets around the world, wet markets are collections of open-air stalls selling fresh seafood, meat, fruits and vegetables. Some sell and slaughter live animals on site, usually chickens, fish and shellfish and, more rarely, wild animals. The Huanan market in Wuhan, sold and slaughtered 75 species, including snakes, beavers, porcupines, wolf pups, badgers, bears, foxes and baby crocodiles, as well as dogs. The conditions for all of them were pitiful – crammed in small cages for selection and killed there and then, their blood permeating the ground giving meaning to ‘wet market’.

The theory is that bat and pangolin viruses swapped genes to be able to form a deadly new enemy – SARS-CoV-2 The Covid-19 virus is 96 per cent genetically identical to a bat coronavirus but the bat virus doesn’t have the right genetic sequence to be able to enter our cells. Enter the pangolin. Its coronavirus is 77 per cent similar to the Covid-19 virus but at the site that enables it to enter the human cell, it is 99 per cent identical. The theory is that bat and pangolin viruses swapped genes to be able to form a deadly new enemy – SARS-CoV-2. That recombination could have taken place in the trafficked pangolin.

Also known as scaly anteaters, pangolins look like an artichoke with legs. It is elusive, nocturnal and barely understood. When frightened, pangolins curl up into a roly-poly ball – no protection against humans! Because CONTINUED ON P34

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I did tell you…

BY VIVA! PATRON, MICHAEL MANSFIELD QC

suppressed refrain by Sybil, the long-suffering wife in Fawlty Towers – an institution bearing a remarkable resemblance to aspects of UK governments in recent years. ‘Forgetting the lessons of history and being forced to relive them’ comes to mind in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Necessarily and naturally we are consumed presently with combating the viral disaster as quickly and safely as possible. To that end, it’s been a constant catch up to achieve adequate supplies of PPE, test kits, track and trace apps and, most of all, the search for an effective vaccine.

Before that the focus was on the shortfall of isolation ICUs, hospital beds, ventilators and mortuary accommodation. In the first place, all too slow into lockdown. Now, all too anxious to unlock. And all the while clocking up the second highest death toll from Covid-19 in the world.

But it need not have been like this. Where have the authorities been? What have they been doing about foreseeable and known risks? Pretty well nothing – obsessed with distractions such as Brexit, at the same moment the virus was making its mark in the Far East.

Starting with relatively recent history, from 1918 onwards, there has been a clear and charted sequence of pandemics as well as epidemics.

The 1918-20 pandemic became known as Spanish flu and was followed by another in 1957/8, known as Asian/avian or bird flu, and another H1N1 in 2009/10 known as swine flu. Add to this the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) 2002-2004, which involved a coronavirus (CoV-2). As a result, the WHO predicted in 2016 that this virus, or a variant, would be the likely result in future epidemics or pandemics becoming endemic.

Certain common features were established. It was likely to be transmitted from a major host source such as bats, which tends to occur in environments where human population density is proximate to large animal congregations. The means of transmission would be

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airborne water droplets and the spread would be fast unless contained and isolated by a period of quarantine.

In early 2018, anticipating the inevitable, this prediction was discussed at a conference convened by WHO in Geneva under the ominous title of Disease X, according to one of the attendees and reported in the New York Times on February 27 earlier this year.

“Disease X will likely result from a virus originating in animals and will emerge somewhere on the planet where economic development drives people and wildlife together.” It would spread quickly and silently, exploiting networks of human travel and trade, reaching multiple countries and thwarting containment. Too right!

A worrying development occurred later in 2018 when the UK authorities detected and notified WHO about a confirmed case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) in a visitor to the UK from Saudi Arabia. WHO issued the following warning and chillingly accurate advice: “WHO encourages all member states to continue their surveillance for acute respiratory infections and to carefully review any unusual patterns. WHO recommends the collection of exposure information, including recent travel history… infection prevention and control measures are critical to prevent the possible spread of MERS-CoV in health care facilities” (WHO news circular Disease Spread, August 31, 2018).

Come on Boris, I think it’s telling you to be alert! The UK government knew, at the latest by the third week of January this year, that there was a serious infectious disease outbreak in the Far East and yet it did no monitoring, no testing and no

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isolation save for the initial arrivals from a cruise ship and a businessman from Singapore.

Only now, three and a half months later, is there talk of all travellers arriving by air being subject to quarantine for fourteen days and no mention of those arriving by other means overland by rail and ferry.

But this is not the worst of it. Unbeknown to the public, UK authorities clearly thought they had better find out how the NHS might cope with an imagined but scientifically predicted pandemic. The results in 2016, following a threeday exercise code named Cygnus, were too much to bear or reveal. In short, the NHS couldn’t cope.

A board paper for NHS England appeared to acknowledge that the exercise had revealed critical shortcomings, concluding: “Plans are currently being revised to incorporate the learning from this exercise and ensure our continued preparedness for future pandemic influenza outbreaks” (Dan Sabbagh, Guardian, April 2, 2020).

Did they rush around stockpiling the essential protective equipment, constructing the necessary extra facilities or assembling potential testing or vaccine research facilities? Not a bit of it! Instead, austerity and spending cuts were inflicted on the very services now being applauded every Thursday night. A nightmare has happened but which was foretold as a horror story in 1981 by Dean Koontz, Eyes of Darkness. He called the killer virus ‘Wuhan 400’ – a bit of viral misinformation.

How much longer do we have to suffer procrastination, obfuscation and downright mismanagement by successive Governments? The results are large-scale, unimaginable pain, anguish and death that was preventable.

It might be useful if we were to occupy this current hiatus for reflection upon the forces at work. There is a need to re-evaluate the way in which our planet, our environment and the animal kingdom has been plundered, generation after generation. The relationship has been contaminated by our incessant exploitation. Until this root cause is addressed by all of us and our governments it won’t be long before the next pandemic comes rolling down the tracks towards an ill-prepared and blinkered Parliament.

Michael Mansfield QC Nexus Chambers, May 2020

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p o h sshopp o h s

Miiro Crisp-Coated Signature Chocolates with a peanut heart (35g)

Miiro have created a vegan version of peanut M&Ms – so they’re back on the menu and just as you remembered them.

A crunchy peanut nestled in Miiro’s signature chocolate, with a colourful crisp coating.

Heavenly layers of pure indulgence – soya-free, glutenfree and contains no palm oil or artificial ingredients! £1.75

Some delightful new foody items now in stock – go ahead and treat yourself!

Vegan Surprise Treat Box new to Viva!, this treat Box is filled with delicious vegan goodies which we think you’ll love! the contents are a secret – maybe a new treat and or a great gift for a loved one! each box contains a mix of treats, such as chocolates, fudges, sweets, biscuits, toffees and more. they’re all on our website so you can repeat buy your favourites.

Buying this box helps to support our campaigns. So, eat chocolate, save animals! £20.00

Mummy Meagz Rocky Roads these delicious rocky road bars are a take on the classic rocky road bars, minus the animal cruelty!

Mummy Meagz has done it again – they are gooey, crunchy and chocolatey, complete with soft marshmallows. And, gluten free too! they melt in your mouth!

Choose from – Original, Orange, Mint & Sea Salt and Cinder toffee £2.15

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Summer Vegan Outfits Our Vegan for the Piggies range comes in three different tees (two women’s, one men’s). Perfect for the summer and to show your love of piggies!

We’re delighted to offer you this striking, minimalist design from Anna Borup that simply sings! they come in white with blue and pink piggies, for both men and women, and a blue tee with blue and pink piggies. Cute and makes a statement, too. £13.99

s n o i n a p m o C l A nim a For felines there’s Bertie the Budgie catnip toy – Bertie is stuffed with 10g of north American catnip. Made from upcycled plastic bottles and double stitched for extra strength. keep your feline friend happy while saving the planet! £3.99.

For doggos we have the classic favourites, a ball and a bone – both made from sustainable, durable rubber to suit even the toughest of chewers! they have a hollow centre so you can hide delicious treats inside to keep your pup entertained. the bone is also made from natural rubber, with a vanilla scent. Ball £5.99, Bone £8.99.

We also have tasty vegan dog treats that are rawhide alternatives, made from nutritious veggies with no GM ingredients, soya-free, wheat and artificial nasties-free. these chew sticks come in three flavours – turmeric & Chicory, Blueberry, Spinach & kale. £2.15. We also have small knots and large knots. £2.69.

From Benevo, a 100 per cent veggieowned, family business based in Hampshire.

A range of treats to keep your furry friends’ tails wagging and their purring constant!

dress your mutt to strutt! this lovely little bandana will make any vegan doggo look stylish – even more so than they do usually, if that's possible!

Choose from pastel pink or monochrome.

Available in sizes small, medium and large. £8.50.

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est, this is This is what we do b Together what YOU do best! appen – h we’re making vegan en, on the whether in the kitchere we go streets, or anywh Shop our ethical, climate neutral clothing range at: vivashop.org.uk/wemakeveganhappen 18

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r e m m u S sizzlers

Never mind if you’re not able to get away to the sun as we have brought the sun to you – the Italian sun with two of our recipes and the Spanish sun with another. The fourth relies on the British sun but as it’s so delicious with its tangy berries that it won’t be too disappointing if the sun don’t shine. With the focaccia, a little dip into good, tangy olive oil with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar is perfect. And what better to follow it with than cannelloni and maybe a glass or two of Chianti. Our paella is meant for sharing – and it doesn’t matter how you pronounce it. All in all – a tiny taste of summer sun.

Tomato, Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia l 500g strong bread flour l 7g fast action dried yeast l 1 tbsp sugar l 350-400ml warm water

l 2 tsp salt l Olive oil l 1 tsp flaky sea salt l Bunch rosemary sprigs l 200g cherry tomatoes l 1 bulb garlic

1 Pop the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, combine and make a well in the centre.

2 In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and water and leave for a couple of minutes.

3 Pour the liquid onto the flour and combine until you have a dough.

4 On a floured surface, knead for 5-10 minutes until soft and smooth then cover and leave for an hour.

5 Preheat the oven to 180⁰C/350⁰F/Gas Mark 4.

6 Wrap the garlic in kitchen foil and pop on the middle shelf to cook for 40 minutes. remove from the oven and, once cool, squeeze out the cloves and set them aside.

7 Put the cherry tomatoes in a bowl, drizzle with a little oil, a pinch of salt and set aside.

8 Oil a baking tin (approx. 25cm x 35cm) and place your dough in it, stretching so it covers the bottom. leave to prove for 30 minutes.

9 Increase the oven temperature to 200⁰C/390⁰F/Gas Mark 6.

10 Make uniform dimples in the dough using your thumb. Press a clove of roasted garlic into each as well as cherry tomatoes and rosemary – or scatter rosemary on top. drizzle over more olive oil, a tbsp of water and 1 tsp flaky sea salt.

11 Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. While the bread is hot, drizzle over more olive oil.

WORDS AND PICTURES BY MARYANNE HALL

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Spinach & ‘Ricotta’ Cannelloni ‘Ricotta’ l 35g sunflower seeds l 425g firm tofu, drained and patted dry l 2 tbsp lemon juice l 1 tbsp olive oil l ¾ tsp salt l Pinch black pepper l 1 clove garlic, crushed l 20g nutritional yeast Cannelloni l 14-16 cannelloni tubes l Extra virgin olive oil l 400g spinach l ½ tsp nutmeg l 1 onion, finely diced

l 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped l 2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes l Zest of ½ lemon l Handful fresh basil l ½ tsp sugar or syrup (eg agave or maple) l Salt and black pepper, to taste l 200g melting vegan cheese (we used Bute Island Sheese Greek Style) l Vegan Parmesan (eg Violife Prosociano or pre-grated Angel Food, Flavour Fusion or Follow Your Heart)

‘Ricotta’ 1 Blend sunflower seeds in a food processor or use milling blade on your blender.

2 Add tofu and blend with sunflower seeds until smooth.

3 In a bowl, combine the tofu/sunflower seed mix with all other ingredients and stir thoroughly.

4 Place in the fridge.

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Cannelloni 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan)/350°F/Gas Mark 5.

2 In a large saucepan, add spinach, a drizzle of olive oil, half the nutmeg (¼ teaspoon), pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and leave spinach to wilt down, stirring occasionally. Pop in a bowl and set aside.

3 In a large pan, fry onion until soft and golden. Add garlic and fry for a further minute.

4 Add plum tomatoes, breaking them up.

5 Add sugar, lemon zest and a few basil leaves.

Simmer 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

6 Once spinach has cooled, squeeze out the liquid and cut it up into small pieces. Add to ‘ricotta’ with rest of nutmeg (¼ teaspoon) and stir thoroughly.

7 either pipe ricotta mix into pasta tubes using a piping bag or use your hands.. kids love doing this!

8 Place stuffed cannelloni tubes on the bottom of an oven dish, pour tomato sauce over and spread evenly. Add a layer of basil leaves, sprinkle over your preferred vegan cheese and top with vegan Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

9 Cover the top of dish with foil and tuck in around the edges. Place in oven for 30 minutes, remove foil and return to oven for another 15 minutes.

10 enjoy with a green salad and garlic bread.

Vegetable Paella l Oil for frying l 1 onion, finely diced l 2 handfuls vegan chorizo, sliced (optional) l 1 red pepper, finely sliced l 5 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped l 2 cloves garlic, crushed l ½ tsp smoked paprika l ½ tsp cayenne pepper l 200g paella rice (or use arborio if you’re plastic-free) l 125ml (vegan) dry white wine

l Good pinch saffron, soaked in tiny amount boiling water (ideally for 15-30 minutes) l 2 bay leaves l 475ml strong vegan stock l 200g frozen or fresh peas or broad beans l 1 tbsp capers l 10 artichoke pieces (from a jar), halved l 1 handful olives, halved l 1 tbsp fresh parsley or thyme leaves, chopped l Salt and pepper, to taste

1 In a paella pan, wok or wide frying pan, lightly fry onion until slightly soft.

2 If using vegan chorizo, add now and fry for a couple of minutes.

3 Add red pepper and tomatoes and fry for a further 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

4 Stir through the garlic and fry for 1 more minute.

5 Add cayenne pepper and paprika and stir for 30 seconds before adding paella rice.

6 Stir the rice through for a minute before adding liquid.

7 Add the white wine, bring to boil then reduce to a simmer.

8 Add vegetable stock, bay leaves and saffron and stir. Simmer for 10 minutes. do not stir while simmering.

9 After 10 minutes, add frozen peas/broad beans and fold in rather than stirring.

10 Simmer for a further 10 minutes then add capers, artichokes, olives, seasoning and fresh herbs.

11 Serve immediately with a glass of (vegan) wine.

Easy Berry Crumble Slices Base/crumble l 300g plain flour l 150g sugar (brown tastes best) l ¾ tsp baking powder l ¾ tsp cinnamon l 200g vegan spread or butter (our favourite is Naturli Vegan Block)

Blueberry filling l 350g blueberries (fresh or frozen, defrosted) l Zest of 1 lemon, finely chopped l 1½ tbsp lemon juice l 2 tsp cornflour l 2½ tbsp sugar l Pinch salt (optional) l 1½ tsp vanilla extract or paste

1 Preheat oven to 180⁰C (fan)/350⁰F/Gas Mark 4.

2 line a 20cm/8” square tin with baking parchment.

Base/crumble 1 In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together, apart from the butter/spread.

2 Add butter and work it in with your hands to a fine crumble.

3 Set aside 160g of crumble and press remainder into the baking tin.

4 Put the tin in oven for 10 minutes, remove and leave for 5-10 minutes before adding blueberry filling.

Blueberry filling 1 Mix everything together in a large bowl.

2 Pour blueberry filling onto the base, spreading evenly.

3 Sprinkle remaining crumble topping evenly over.

4 Put in the oven for 25-30 minutes (or until golden) but check after 20 minutes in case browning too quickly.

5 remove from oven and serve alone or with vegan ice cream, custard or fresh blueberries and mint.

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THE MAKING OF

A MODERN HORR OR S T ORY

Over the years, we have investigated many farms – perhaps too many for our own peace of mind.

But as the old saying has it – someone’s got to do it and Hogwood proved that

BY TONY WARDLE

e’re used to the lies and evasions that inevitably follow an exposé, usually from huge, supposedly reputable companies. ‘We don’t know that farm and have never dealt with it.’ But you have their name on your website. ‘Yes, but that’s from the past – we don’t buy from them any longer!’

Yes you do, here’s a bill of lading that we photographed at the farm dated two weeks ago. ‘Ah yes, but the shed you featured is not the shed that holds our animals.’ Yes it is, here’s your name chalked on the board at the entrance. ‘Well… you’ve manipulated the scene to make it look worse than it really is and that is outrageous.’

It’s not just the big retailers who are prepared to

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stretch credulity to breaking point. The Government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) have devised a fool-proof way of dealing with our complaints – they just ignore us ‘for reasons of commercial, sensitivity’.

The third leg in this unholy trinity of denial is Red Tractor, owned and operated by the very farmers we expose. Whatever we uncover, they always deny it, with claims such as, ‘Viva! is a vegan organisation’, a politeish way of saying we’re liars.

Hogwood is a classic example. Acting on a tip-off from an ex-worker, our first scouting investigation was shocking beyond belief. And so we went back again with a full team and found little had changed and went

Juliet Gellatley preparing to be interviewed for the Hogwood documentary

Filming outside a Tesco store – and ignored by the management

public and the Daily Mirror ran a picture story of the abject misery we had uncovered. As Viva! director Juliet Gellatley says: “I had stood amongst those pigs and expressed my disgust to the world on camera. How could anyone keep animals like this and how could we, as a society, allow it to happen? I had no doubt Tesco would drop the farm so it came as a shock when they went into denial mode, along with Red Tractor and APHA. I had promised those pigs I would not abandon them and so we went back again, for a third time, despite the risks.”

Little had changed but this time the investigation had to be abandoned as police and a vet were called to deal with a pig being cannibalised. They arrived but failed to intervene and it was all caught on camera. Again our findings were dismissed.

“I had made those pigs a promise,” says Juliet Gellatley, “and so I was determined Viva! would go back yet again but this time to leave hidden camera inside the sheds – I just knew we would expose animals being treated cruelly by staff. And we did!”

Finally, the unholy trinity confessed that animals on the farm were being abused. It was an epic campaign that unearthed all that’s wrong with intensive farming and those who defend it. We wanted our findings to go far and wide and so we decided that a documentary was the best way.

To make a professionally produced documentary can be expensive and so we turned to the public to crowdfund it – and they did, immediately on the first ask and so a huge thanks to them.

It’s years since I’ve made a documentary but old habits die hard and the starting point was to do an inventory of what we already had – and it was gold dust; hours of excruciating footage shot inside and outside Hogwood, the public’s reaction to it, damning newspaper clippings, footage of large Viva! demonstrations across the UK and serial letters of denial from the guilty.

We also had a copy of a Channel 4 documentary, the intention of which was to damn Viva! as an extremist organisation but which had spectacularly backfired. In

We decided to widen the remit of the film to include animals other than pigs, for which we also had shocking covert footage it, Hogwood owner Brian Hobill says to camera, without challenge: “I think the conditions on my farm are better than most nursing homes.” We had to have that, using a scheme known as ‘fair dealing’ to avoid copyright conflicts.

In film making, what you can never rely on but need is luck, and we had it. We cast around for a vet who would back up our claims that factory farming is despicably cruel and we found one – a commercial pig vet. Dr Alice Brough stepped cautiously to begin with but as trust grew so she started to speak out – and her contribution on camera is utterly damning.

We decided to widen the remit of the film to include animals other than pigs, for which we also had shocking covert footage, and to tackle health and environmental concerns. Just months earlier, Dr Josh Cullimore, GP and public health expert, had offered to write articles for Viva!life and he was the perfect contributor to 

Public Health expert and GP, Josh Cullimore, expresses his concerns

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‘You can see the suffering inn their eyes’

raise the health issues that stem from consuming animal products and the risks factory farming poses as a source of future pandemics.

Funny old thing is fate! Josh’s surgery in Brighton treated one of the very first Covid-19 cases in Britain and he immediately had to go into self-isolation. What’s the old Latin meme – quod erat demonstrandum (QED) – proving that which you wanted to prove?

At about this time, a massive piece of research was published in the journal Nature by the DTP Environment Centre at Oxford University which, astonishingly, looked at 40,000 farms across the world and essentially concluded that animal farming is destroying the planet. This was exactly the contribution we needed and eventually managed to contact the lead author, Joseph Poore. His response was: “I think Viva! is the best charity in the world”. And so he was also on board.

Our old friend Joe Murray in Brighton, camera operator and editor, who played a vital role in helping to produce Viva!’s video output in our early years, agreed to join us. We completed the crew with a producer (Juliet Gellatley), assistant producer (Roisin McAuley), production assistant (Jess Nunn) and a nepotistic camera assistant (Finn Wardle Gellatley) joining me as writer/director.

With the script now written, we asked Game of Thrones actor, Jerome Flynn, if he would be the presenter and he immediately agreed. More than that, he suggested important script changes that improved the film’s message and then provided all the time needed for voice recordings and location filming. His performance is a vital element of the film’s success.

Music can be crucial to enhancing the atmosphere of any film and we approached composer Billy Cowie who immediately agreed. Years before, Billy had composed a choral piece for our film on Polish horse exports to Italy and it had had an extraordinary impact – the

Cannibalism is utterly shocking but commonplace

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Joseph Poore of Oxford University talks of the environmental devastation caused by animal farming

Without warning, a large pickup truck swerved up onto the verge and boxed us in atmosphere it created seemed to surround you and drag emotion from every pore whether you liked it or not.

And he’s done it again with Hogwood.

We needed to film some additional exterior footage of Hogwood and so we returned in daylight. Juliet Gellatley’s face had clearly been imprinted on the minds of Hogwood’s workers as simply driving slowly past the place produced an extraordinary response – they dashed about, closing gates and doors and stared at us like we were the black death.

We pulled onto a wide grass verge about a mile from the farm to get some distance shots and without warning, a large pickup truck swerved up onto the verge and boxed us in. A screaming police siren announced the arrival of the law. God knows what the intention was but if it was intimidation, it singularly failed as you’ll see in the film.

A delay in starting filming meant that Joe Murray ran out of time and had to depart for Indonesia but almost seamlessly, we made contact with Bristol-based film maker Gary Thomas and Gary’s time, patience and creativity have made a vital contribution to the project.

Only the BBC could afford to go to the Amazon, film US mega-farms and Chinese wet markets but our crowdfunding budget did allow us to buy in hi-definition footage from these and other places to perfectly illustrate import points raised by the film’s contributors.

And so HOGWOOD – a modern horror story is finished and as soon as it was, the luck ran out. Covid19 meant that its March launch in the Houses of Parliament had to be cancelled. Plan B, however, is now underway and will, I’m sure, be a great success. We’d like to thank Peter Egan for his very generous review of our important documentary.

Getting it out there!

We think it is vital for HOGWOOD to be viewed as widely as possible, with its underlying message of go vegan, and we will be promoting it everywhere. With digital advertising we will focus on different population groups and each ad will be designed specifically for that group and each will receive a tailor-made trailer. We’ll also explore areas of digital advertising that we’ve never used before – web banners, sponsored content and paid links. And we’ll approach ‘influencers’ who regularly review films and documentaries.

Of course, traditional promotion through PR and media will be high on the list, including radio and national TV and Jerome Flynn will be assisting, offering himself for interview. Film reviewers and what’s on publications will also be on the list as will podcasts. And of course, our wonderful supporters, through word of mouth and, no doubt, their own ingenious ways of getting the film out there.

HOGWOOD has been selected for the British Documentary Film Festival and we’ll be entering it for many film festivals, including the Raindance Film Festival and the London Short Film Festival.

HOGWOOD is hugely important in three areas. It strips away the mask that producers and sellers of meat care about the animals they rear and slaughter. Most don’t. They avoid scrutiny and the Government assists them in that. It shows that animal agriculture is now the greatest threat to the global environment. It shows that the everyday diseases that kill us and the pandemics that increasingly threaten us all have their roots in animals – trading and farming. And it shows that the antidote to all this in blindingly obvious – go vegan.

Making HOGWOOD was a major commitment and we know it has the capability to influence all those who view it.

And so it’s here, HOGWOOD – a modern horror story, ready to stream along with the names of the most generous donors listed in the credits. It is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play Movies. We particularly favour Amazon as it’s the most accessible and available platform and the more people who view or review it, the higher up the rankings it will climb – so please do all three.

Watch HOGWOOD Rate HOGWOOD Share HOGWOOD Details of the film can be viewed at IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt12185108.

A review of HOGWOOD – a modern horror story by actor and Viva! patron, Peter Egan For the greater part of my life, I lived in happy ignorance about my daily diet – oblivious to how the majority of food on my plate got there. What removed the blinkers was the 2005 documentary Earthlings – made by Shaun Monson and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

After watching all 108 minutes of its gruelling exposé of intensive animal agriculture, I was stunned. I couldn’t speak for three hours and I vowed never to eat meat again – and I didn’t.

I had a similar experience just now, when I watched Viva!’s new documentary, HOGWOOD – a modern horror story. In just 35 minutes, this remarkable film exposes intensive pig farming in the middle of supposedly idyllic rural England. Pastoral beauty surrounds a hell on earth for thousands of poor, intelligent pigs who suffer abysmally at the hands of stockmen and cruelly indifferent business practices.

It isn’t just the cruelty but how it is ignored by big organisations that pretend to you and me that they care about animal welfare when it is clear they don’t give a damn. The three culprits in this case are Tesco, the laughable Red Tractor ‘assurance’ scheme and the Government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency.

Three times Viva!’s brave investigators go secretly inside Hogwood and film appalling death, despair and suffering. Three times these huge organisations dismiss the findings and say there is nothing wrong with the farm. On a fourth visit, secret cameras are left behind and we see stockmen abusing the animals in their care and finally the protective palisades are breached and Tesco et al admit the farm is unacceptable.

The film goes on to look at other intensive animal farming with some extraordinary undercover footage and you realise that it isn’t just pigs who are abused but all farmed animals. A pig vet confirms your worst fears by calmly stating that all intensive farming is appalling and relates some of her own experiences. A public health doctor warns of the pandemics that are brewing in these unholy places. An Oxford environmental researcher states baldly that animal farming is destroying the planet. You can’t help but draw the conclusion that we face devastating consequences from ignoring the plight of animals.

With a beautifully measured commentary by Jerome Flynn, it is gut-wrenching to watch but should be compulsory viewing for all. I urge everyone to watch HOGWOOD – a modern horror story. We owe it to the animals; we owe it to our planet; and we owe it to ourselves.

Peter Egan

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And now

Morri

Rotting corpses and animal abuse – Viva! exposes two more pig farms but this time it’s the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket that’s in the frame e’ve always said that Hogwood was not an exception, not the odd rotten apple in the barrel but that the entire barrel was rotten – and here’s more proof of it.

Viva! Campaigns recently investigated two pig farms over the course of three weeks, using hidden cameras to reveal the atrocities taking place inside. The farms are Calvesley, a pig breeding facility, and Whiteshoot, a fattening and finishing centre – both owned by Winterbrook Farm Partners of Didcot. They supply British supermarket giant, Morrisons, and wouldn’t you know it, both carry the Red Tractor seal of approval, a scheme that pretends to consumers that their animals are well cared for.

The tip-off came from a local dog-walker in the beautiful countryside near Yattendon, Berkshire. Our undercover team barely needed a sat nav to find the place as once they neared it, an overpowering stench of disease, decay and excreta, accompanied by a cacophony of noise, led them the rest of the way.

In one of the most distressing scenes ever captured by Viva! Campaigns, farm workers were filmed ‘knocking’ young piglets at Calvesley Farm – killing them by slamming their tiny heads onto the concrete floor. A brutally cruel act followed by their bodies being tossed aside as trash.

This breeding unit is home to hundreds of female breeding sows who are routinely impregnated and forced to give birth to countless litters of piglets – producing 400 a week between them.

During each pregnancy, they are confined in barbaric farrowing crates for five weeks at a time, one week prior to giving birth and four weeks after. Barely able to move, all their natural maternal instincts and desires to bond with their babies are frustrated. Farrowing crates are barbarically cruel but entirely legal.

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In a dilapidated farrowing house, an expectant sow was four days overdue. Confined to a crate devoid of any bedding, she had almost no room to stand, let alone turn around. She was restless and lapsed into stereotypical behaviour, gnawing at the metal bars over and over again in a pointless set pattern in the hope of escaping – a sign of mental collapse. It was heartbreaking.

Above. An inquisitive sow desperate to nurture her young outside the confines of her cell

Their screams were like listening to the soundtrack of a horror film Selective breeding ensures that pigs now give birth to 13 or 14 piglets but for this sow, there were just four.

That meagre number was almost certainly her death sentence – she’d be marked with a green cross and moved to the ‘cull pen’ once her piglets were taken from her.

MUTILATIONS Our hidden cameras also revealed workers arriving onsite to carry out routine mutilations. Each newborn piglet was pulled from his or her stall and thrown carelessly into a metal trough and then wheeled to the hot knife, used to slice off their tails, leaving just a short, bleeding stump. With a pair of pliers, their main teeth were clipped off – all without pain relief. These cruel acts are supposed to prevent tail biting but often don’t – a ‘vice’ driven almost entirely by overcrowding and lack of stimulation. Their screams were like listening to the soundtrack of a horror film.

Put back in the farrowing crates, these babies spend the remainder of the four short weeks with their mum before being pulled up by their hind legs and thrown into the back of a transportation trailer and shipped off to Whiteshoot Farm in Oxfordshire. Every Wednesday,

sons… the farm descends into chaos with frightened piglets, separated from their mothers, crowding the walkways and making a break for freedom at any opportunity.

It’s quite illogical but while reviewing the footage from our hidden cameras, we were overjoyed to see several escapees, little piglets running free up and down the main drive. But of course, the joy was short-lived as workers chased them down, kicked them across the yard and vented their annoyance by throwing them with extra force into the trailer.

Following the trail to Whiteshoot Farm, our investigators discovered a piglet with an enormous growth on his stomach, dumped in a gangway and writhing in pain. The animal had been abandoned – left alone to suffer a slow and painful death.

SICK AND DYING They then stumbled upon an entire shed of sick animals; victims of bullying, cannibalism and suffering from ailments that are common on too many pig farms – prolapses and ruptures. Animals in the segregated pens were covered in lacerations and grotesque bites, injuries inflicted on them by other pigs who are driven mad by the barren environment they have to live in.

WHAT GUIDELINES? At Calvesley Farm, hidden away in an open-ended shed, was a large incinerator, a common sight on factory farms and used to dispose of dead animals. Workers had crammed corpses into the furnace, including fullygrown sows, piglets and afterbirth – with the door left wide open and no one present. Piles of dead piglets surrounded it, some stuffed into empty feed sacks and writhing with maggots. Piglet corpses were also found strewn across the entrance to an old farrowing house, making them easily accessible to foxes, badgers, rats

and corvids. On another day, a mother sow had been dumped in the incinerator with her placenta spewing out over the side and two dead piglets discarded on the floor.

Government guidance on how to handle ‘fallen stock’ is pretty clear: “While waiting for your fallen stock to be collected (or incinerated in this case), you must ensure that animals and birds cannot access the carcass.”

What happened here would be pretty bad at any time but in the middle of a global pandemic, it’s disgraceful – as if the overcrowding, filth, infections and diseases weren’t already enough of a threat.

Viva!’s founder and director Juliet Gellatley explains her concerns about factory farming: “This investigation reiterates the fact that supermarket welfare claims and regulatory bodies such as Red Tractor are nothing but a façade for the horrendous, brutal and cruel reality of intensive factory farming in this country.

Top left. A dead sow left in the grip of a bobcat, open to predation and spread of disease.

Top. Just one of the hundreds of breeding sows housed in the dilapidated cobweb strewn sheds at Calvesley, a supplier of Morrisons.

Bottom. The discarded tails of young mutilated piglets

“These are not aberrant farms – they are typical of what is permitted” “These are not aberrant farms – they are typical of what is permitted by government and retailers. I think the customers of Morrisons will be disgusted to see these conditions.

“Not only do factory farms raise serious welfare concerns, they also create an ideal environment for mutating viruses and antibiotic-resistant superbugs. In fact, most governments thought the next pandemic would be caused by an avian influenza (bird flu) virus emerging from poultry or pigs”.

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that’s h Helen Wilson talks to Game of Thrones actor and Viva! Patron, Jerome Flynn about how life on earth can move forward from the crucial point we have now reached might be the first to admit that I haven’t watched Game of Thrones – violence and blood are not really my kind of entertainment. But I know many people who have followed it religiously and speak passionately about how much they loved Jerome Flynn’s performance as Bronn, the sellsword, or mercenary. His portrayal of the tough but sensitive Sgt Bennet Drake in Ripper Street has had them reaching for superlatives.

Throughout my years of involvement with Viva!, Jerome’s has become a familiar face and I tend to know him more as an animal lover and advocate for veganism than as a film star.

So, when I arrange a Zoom meeting with him, it is the caring animal advocate who looks back at me from the screen. And I quickly learn that this articulate and thoughtful man is not afraid to speak from the heart.

How on earth do you start a conversation these days without mentioning coronavirus? It’s the issue that has eclipsed normal life as we know it but in reality, it is just one strand of a series of environmental crises facing us.

Chatting virtually, from our respective corners of Wales, it quickly becomes obvious that it is these wider threats that concern Jerome, the implications of which are far greater than just this particular virus.

He surprises me by saying that this unusual time should be seen as a great milestone for change. “If the death of over 40,000 people from Covid-19 isn’t enough of a motivator, then I do wonder what hope there is at all.

“My prayer is – and I know it’s shared by many people – that we’ve been afforded a gift and we should pause and consider where we’ve come to in our relationship with all living things; with the planet that sustains us; with this beautiful home we have. I have lost people close to me to this virus and of course I would want them back but my hope is that their lives are not wasted.

“Both my sense and my experience tell me that nature has a supreme intelligence. Just the fact that we are here, living and breathing in this life is testimony to the miracle of the creative energy that has brought us here.

Viruses historically have come at times when we have disregarded nature – and specifically our treatment of our beloved animals.

“We have jeopardised sustainable life on earth and need to acknowledging the precipice that we are now standing on. I consider it a gentle warning and an

Photo © Tiger Aspect

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The h appening in our world extraordinary opportunity to consider how we are living. We have forgotten who we are. We have fallen out of love with life.”

Jerome believes that change needs to start with young people being taught to understand the connection between life and nature and how to live in harmony with it. His message is both political and compassionate.

“There is a huge groundswell of change and as always, those who sit at the top of society feel they have the most to lose. Our consciousness has been colonised in much the same way that the world was colonised and that has produced a materialistic, capitalist society and any connection to our land and how it relates to us has been wiped out.

“How do we move forward? We can’t force change from the same consciousness that caused the problem – it has to come from our own hearts and our understanding of who we are. Only then will we naturally want to care for the sanctity of the life that surrounds us and upon which we rely”.

I see his vision, as I think most of the people I work with do, because we all understand that veganism is much more than a diet. I admire his optimism that the human race has the capacity to do this – to change.

“Too many people are disconnected from life, from the natural world that supports us and that includes our relationship with animals. It is hard to believe that in 2020 we are still cramming millions of animals into desperate conditions, taking away from them all their freedoms, allowing them not even a taste of a natural life and giving them only suffering in return. But there is an awakening happening.

“There has been a huge swing to veganism and with it has come much more education about the reality of the lives of the animals we’ve been eating. Compared to 10 years ago, there is enormous change.

“Just one per cent of people on this planet have 90 per cent of the wealth but I am certain that the one per cent is not truly happy. A new opportunity to fall back in love with life is there for everyone, for the entire planet, including these people. We could be living in bliss compared to where we’re at now. I feel we need to grasp this opportunity to immerse ourselves in nature again and come back home to her.”

Jerome tells me he recognises that there are many people stepping forward from all ages who are calling for widespread transformation of the systems that are failing us. I think he might be referring to Greta Thunberg as I recall he joined the Climate Strike in London last year.

He believes there’s a blueprint within us and within nature that will bring us back to a state of harmony with the earth.

“I see it like a garden planet. One of the things that gives us the most joy in life is to walk around a garden where man is living in concert with nature. There are some wild parts and some parts where we are working with nature to amplify its beauty. I feel this is the highest vision and it’s inbuilt in our creativity, it’s within us, it’s in our hearts and it’s in nature.”

As he speaks, I can’t help but think of his big, rambling walled garden in West Wales, with its fruit and vegetables coexisting alongside wild plants in a wonderful hotch-potch of tamed and untamed. And in the centre is the pool – it is a swimming pool without tiles or concrete but a deep, natural pool filled and flushed by spring water, crystal clear and which you share with bright green water plants at one end and undoubtedly, the odd water boatman.

Jerome Flynn has narrated the commentary to Viva!’s documentary, HOGWOOD: a modern horror story, which was released in June this year.

You can listen to my full interview with Jerome in the June episode of The Viva!

Vegan Podcast.

”Look at what this crisis has brought out in people – there is so much love there” “Part of it is having our hearts broken; it makes us vulnerable to allow emotion and suffering in but it’s important for the heart to break so the love can awaken and allow nature to do its thing – to restore us. There’s an extraordinary marriage waiting. The mother is waiting for us to come back to the most beautiful relationship there is. I think it’s entirely possible. It can seem like a long, long way but look at what this crisis has brought out in people – there is so much love there”.

Jerome’s vision leaves me somewhat lost for words.

He has managed to encapsulate the desperate need for action and change that many of us have been feeling throughout these worrying times. Speaking with him has certainly left me feeling more optimistic for the future of this planet and its animals.

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Eating animals will be the deat DR JUSTINE BUTLER, VIVA! HEALTH SENIOR RESEARCHER & WRITER

t’s a once-in-a-hundred year event, people keep saying but sadly the coronavirus pandemic is probably just a warm-up. The next one may be coming soon from a factory farm near you!

Until recently, not many of us had heard of zoonotic diseases – illnesses and diseases spread from animals to humans. They include familiar ones, such as the common cold, influenza (flu), polio, AIDS and measles and other lesser known ones such as SARS, MERS, Nipah virus and Ebola. Covid-19 has recently joined this growing list.

There are over 200 zoonotic diseases that we know of and just over 50 of them affect two-and-a-half billion people and cause nearly three million deaths every year.

They are emerging with increasing frequency and three out of every four new ones come from animals.

Scientists think that Covid-19 likely jumped from bats, pangolins or other wild animals to humans, possibly in a Chinese wet market. It has focussed the world’s attention on how our mistreatment of wild and farmed animals can have dire consequences for human health.

We’ve been here before! In 2003, the severe acute respiratory disease, SARS, jumped from bats to humans via civet cats that had been captured in the wild and brought to market. In 2012, Middle East respiratory

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syndrome (MERS), was again spread from bats but this time via the increasing number of farmed camels, some bred for racing.

Ebola and AIDS came about through people eating ‘bushmeat’ – the name for any wild animal that is killed for food, including monkeys, chimpanzees, rats, porcupines, snakes and bats. In Africa’s Congo Basin, people eat an estimated five million tonnes of bushmeat every year. Dr Olivier Restif from the University of Cambridge found that in Ghana, more than 100,000 bats are killed and sold every year.

Scientists warn that invading and disrupting ecosystems will inevitably shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. Our relationship with animals can no longer be just focussed on exploitation because the way meat is produced is now considered to be a global threat to health. It’s not just a case of banning wildlife markets, although that can’t come soon enough, we also need to end factory farming.

In Britain alone, over a billion farmed animals are killed every year in slaughterhouses. Every day in the UK over two-and-a-half million chickens are slaughtered for meat – that’s 30 deaths every second. Viva! have filmed in a number of intensive broiler ‘meat’ chicken units, finding the grim, windowless sheds crammed with thousands of miserable birds kept under artificial light.

We estimate that there could have been up to a quarter of a million chickens on one farm we visited.

h of us Why is this a threat to human health? Factory farms provide an ideal environment for mutating viruses and other diseases. In fact, most governments thought the next pandemic would be caused by an avian influenza (bird flu) virus emerging from poultry or pigs.

In the late 1990s, bird flu came to public attention when, in China, infection jumped from wild water birds to domestic poultry and then to humans, causing a number of deaths. Millions of birds were slaughtered but the virus had already mutated and its many forms are now travelling around the world in migratory birds, infecting domestic poultry, pigs and all manner of other animals, including humans. The virus has been jumping species for years but now, thanks to our insatiable hunger for meat, it poses a greater pandemic threat than ever before.

The highly-pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus spreads mainly from poultry to people with just a very small handful of person-to-person cases. However, a few small mutations could change all that. Concerned that if it became more easily spread between humans, David Nabarro, one of the most senior public health experts at the World Health Organisation, said: “The range of deaths could be anything between five and 150 million”.

Why is this virus so dangerous? Because H5N1 kills 60 per cent of those infected compared to seasonal flu that kills 0.1 per cent!

In Britain, 10 million pigs a year are slaughtered for food. Pigs are susceptible to infection from influenza viruses, not only from other pigs but from birds and humans, too. Pig farming provides an ideal environment for viruses to mix and mutate into more deadly forms.

This is what happened in the 2009 swine flu pandemic

when a virus containing elements from North American and Eurasian pigs, humans and birds jumped from pigs to humans in Mexico and then spread across the world.

Viva!’s recent investigation at Hogwood pig farm, in Warwickshire, exposed extreme overcrowding, routine mutilation, cruel farrowing crates, sick and dying pigs abandoned in gangways, the dead left to rot amongst the living, painful lacerations from brutal assaults and live cannibalism. We were successful in getting Red Tractor and Tesco to drop Hogwood farm but we know there are many, many other farms just like it, providing an ideal breeding ground for the next pandemic.

We are playing Russian roulette with our diet Add to that the problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and we are playing Russian roulette with our diet! Experts have been warning us for years about the overuse of antibiotics, leading to the emergence of resistant superbugs that don’t respond to normal medical treatment. The majority of antibiotics globally are used in animal agriculture.

The conditions in which we keep farmed animals today, packed into filthy, overcrowded sheds, standing on top of each other and in their own faeces, physically stressed, pushed to the limit, provides the potential for a pandemic of devastating proportions – a storm of our own making!

The link between eating animals and pandemic risk is well-established scientifically, but the political will to curtail this risk is lacking. It’s a conversation that is long overdue. There are stark parallels between the current crisis and the climate emergency – animal agriculture lies at the heart of both. We have a chance now to reassess our values, our way of life and our priorities.

Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva! and zoologist says: “We must have a societal shift in the way we view animals, the environment and our diets. We must stop eating animals. It is time to finally make the connection between animal agriculture and environmental destruction, antibiotic resistance and disease outbreak. We must stop tearing down forests to make way for animal farming or to grow animal feed. We must protect ecosystems and prioritise the safety and freedom of wild animals, leaving them to live their lives away from human contact. If we don’t take urgent and far-reaching action now, eating animals will be the death of us”.

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‘I’m goIng to JOin viVa!’s UNdeRcoVer teAm!’ Cynthia’s a realist and knows her time is now limited. She has always supported Viva!’s campaigns against animal cruelty but with few resources. When she finally goes, Cynthia knows she’ll leave some decent money and wants to use some of it to save animals from suffering. That’s why she intends to support Viva!’s exposés of factory farming. Viva! is changing the face of Britain and Cynthia still wants to be a part of it – wherever she is.

Please remember Viva! in your will so we can go on saving animals For information on leaving a Will, see viva.org.uk/legacies or ring 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri). To make a Will free of charge*, call The Goodwill Partnership on 0844 669 6148, quoting ‘Viva!’ (see page 6).

The woman pictured is a model but we want to thank Cynthia Harper for her extraordinary generosity. * For straightforward Wills

CONTINUED FROM P13 of the demand for their meat and their scales and blood for traditional Chinese medicine, pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world.

Although the Huanan market reportedly did not sell bats, others markets certainly did, and Huanan traded in pangolins.

BAT AND MAN There are over 1,400 species of bats and they are the only true flying mammal and more manoeuvrable than birds thanks to their long digits covered with a thin membrane or ‘patagium’. But what makes them truly special is their strange immune systems that acts as a reservoir for certain viruses.

Bats need three to five times more energy than other mammals their size. Their incredibly fast metabolic rate would, in any other mammal, result in a short life of just a few years but not them – they can live up to 40.

They have evolved a set of physiological pathways that reduces stress to their bodies, repairs DNA damage and dampens inflammation. They also manage to produce high levels of interferon-alpha which signals their cells to go into an anti-viral state, halting the progress of an infection. As a consequence, this strong immune response can drive viruses to greater virulence which can then wreak havoc in animals with tamer immune systems – such as us.

The reason bat viruses are increasingly coming into contact with us and other animals is our own fault – shockingly, 170 species of bats are hunted and eaten

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worldwide. Andrew Cunningham, Professor of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Zoological Society of London, says: “The underlying causes of zoonotic spill-over from bats or from other wild species have always been shown to be human behaviour.”

When a bat is being hunted, or its home is damaged by deforestation, its immune system is challenged and cannot cope with pathogens it otherwise took in its stride. “The impact of stress on bats would be much as it would be on people,” said Cunningham. “It would allow infections to increase and to be shed. If bats are being shipped or held in markets in close proximity to other animals or humans then there is a chance those viruses are being shed in large numbers.” He added that other animals in the market are also more vulnerable to infection as they, too, are stressed.

“We are increasing the transport of animals for medicine, for pets, for food at a scale that we have never done before,” Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London told CNN. “We are also destroying their habitats into landscapes that are more human-dominated. Animals are mixing in weird ways that have never happened before. So in a wet market, you are going to have a load of animals in cages on top of each other.”

Just that one animal, with a mix of deadly viruses brewing inside him or her, providing that one meal or that one medication, has made humanity pay the dearest of prices. And all for its mindless greed and cruelty, for its complete disregard of the warnings and for its unabated destruction of animals and nature.

V-Biz

The latest businesses to join our Supporters’ Discount Scheme or to carry a Viva! Vegan Symbol. Join Viva! to get these great discounts at viva.org.uk/join To claim your discounts at shops, take along your Supporters’ card

Viva! Supporter’s Discount Here viva.org.uk

Full Circle Shop A completely vegan business and Cambridge’s first zero-waste shop, selling reusable, local and plasticfree lifestyle items, refillable cleaning products and packagefree food. Full Circle has a site on both Norfolk Street and Cambridge Market – check them out if you’re in Cambridge!

Fullcircleshop.co.uk 10% DISCOUNT WITH CODE “VIVA2020”

Sanskruti Restaurant

Offering premium quality accessories, handmade and low impact using sustainable and vegan materials. They have luxury wallets, belts, card holders and more – plus a personalisation service, which is great to include as a present for that special occasion!

Watsonwolfe.com 15% DISCOUNT (NOT ON SALE ITEMS OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANY OTHER OFFERS) WITH CODE “SUPERVIVA”

Vivo Life

Manchester’s first vegetarian and vegan Indian restaurant back in 2013! They feature lots of vegan options and most of the vegetarian options can be veganised. In central Liverpool and Manchester.

Sanskrutirestaurant.co.uk 15% DISCOUNT ON FOOD

Offers 100 per cent plant-based and cruelty-free nutrition. Products include high-quality protein powder blends, superfood powders and vitamin supplements, all free from additives, preservatives and colours that you wouldn’t want in your food! With the environment in mind, they are working towards completely compostable packaging, carbon neutral delivery and plant a tree with every order. vivolife.co.uk 10% DISCOUNT WITH CODE “VIVA10”.

Gopal’s Curry Shack

Spotless Leopard Comforting but nutritious vegan meals from a van in Bristol. Our favourite has to be their Mac N Cheeze and all their cakes! Find them at their regular spot on Alma Road in Clifton, Bristol, or book them for your wedding or special event.

Thespotlessleopard.co.uk 50% DISCOUNT WITH CODE “R7LM”

A vegetarian and vegan Indian street food vendor in Bristol! Find them in Wapping Wharf or catch them around the country at festivals, fairs and events.

Vibrant and fresh food focussing on seasonal vegetables and always wonderfully aromatic. gopalscurryshack.co.uk 10% DISCOUNT WITH MEMBERSHIP CARD.

Sunrise Organic A vegan health food store on St Michael’s Road in central Bournemouth. They specialise in organic foods, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, and freshly baked sourdough, too! They also have a large and very popular zero waste section, offering people the chance to buy plastic-free food – important in this increasingly plastic world!

Sunrise-organics.co.uk 10% DISCOUNT WITH MEMBERSHIP CARD

Watson & Wolfe

Viva! is proud to work with like-minded people to promote a cruelty-free lifestyle and bring you the latest info on vegan products and services – plus amazing discounts

Resbite Café An independent plant-based, wellbeing cafe and community space based in the Arc building on Broad Street, Bristol. They specialise in fresh, organic, and gluten-free food full of wholefoods, vitamins and minerals for maximum nutrition. resbitecafe.com 30% DISCOUNT WITH MEMBERSHIP CARD

Want to partner with Viva! to offer your vegan products and services to new audiences? See viva.org.uk/resources/businesses or email business@viva.org.uk viva.org.uk 35

lifeSCIENCE

Viva! Health unravels scientific research and makes it easy to understand.

Here we update you on the latest findings…

BY DR JUSTINE BUTLER, VIVA! HEALTH MANAGER

Factory farming Increasing the risk of pandemics Factory farming provides the perfect conditions for viruses and bacteria to adapt and spread from animals to humans, increasing the risk of epidemics. An international team of scientists, led by the Universities of Bath and Sheffield, investigated the evolution of Campylobacter jejuni, a bacterium carried by 20 per cent of cattle worldwide. They found that the overuse of antibiotics, high animal numbers and low genetic diversity has led to the emergence of cattle-specific variants that can infect humans too, triggering a major public health problem.

This bug is the leading cause of gastroenteritis in high-income countries.

Infection usually results from eating contaminated meat and poultry and it causes bloody diarrhoea, serious illness and even death in vulnerable groups.

Professor Sam Sheppard, from the University of Bath, said: “Over the past few decades, there have been several viruses and pathogenic bacteria that have switched species from wild animals to humans: HIV started in monkeys; H5N1 came from birds; now Covid-19 is suspected to have come from bats. Our work shows that environmental change and increased contact with farm animals has caused bacterial infections to cross over to humans too. I think this is a wake-up call to be more responsible about farming methods so we can reduce the risk of outbreaks of problematic pathogens in the future”.

Mourkas E, Taylor AJ, M¨Ļric G et al. 2020. Agricultural intensification and the evolution of host specialism in the enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 117 (20) 11018Š\11028.

Deadly white stuff Cow’s milk link with breast cancer revealed Drinking even small amounts of cow’s milk can increase your risk of breast cancer, according to new research from Loma Linda University, California.

Researchers followed 53,000 cancer-free women, with an average age of 57, over eight years, during which time there were over 1,000 new breast cancer cases. They found that drinking as little as a quarter to a third of a cup of dairy milk per day was linked to a 30 per cent increased risk of breast cancer.

One cup a day increased the risk by 50 per cent and two to three cups a day were linked to a 70-80 per cent higher risk. It made no difference if it was fullfat or low-fat milk.

Lead author, Dr Gary Fraser, says the increased risk may have something to do with the sex hormone content of dairy milk. No such association was found between soya and breast cancer, in fact, soya foods show a protective effect.

Fraser GE, Jaceldo-Siegl K, Orlich M et al. 2020. Dairy, soy, and risk of breast cancer: those confounded milks.

International Journal of Epidemiology. [published online ahead of print].

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Final warning Covid-19 is a shot across the bows More and more scientists are acknowledging the role that eating animals plays in the emergence of infectious diseases. In this study, scientists from Iran say, given that the probable origin of Covid-19 was animal consumption, the world must now implement stricter rules on food hygiene and consumption globally. They say: “International communities and organisations have strict rules against atomic bombs, chemical and biological weapons, wars, and many other traumatic events and all are more or less adhering to the rules.

However, there are no such international rules on food consumption”.

There’s no guarantee, they warn, that in the future, the consumption of another animal will not lead to the creation of a pandemic and endanger lives around the world. The best way to prevent the spread of these contagious and deadly diseases, they say, is to modify food culture worldwide. That means ending factory farming as well as wildlife markets.

Farnoosh G, Zarei S, Hosseini Zijoud SS et al. 2020. Is there a guarantee that the crisis of COVID-19 will not be repeated? Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. 1Š\2. [published online ahead of print].

The problem with protein Disease link with animal protein explained Going vegan isn’t only good for animals and the environment, but good for your health, too. Diets rich in meat and dairy are linked to heart disease, strokes, diabetes and some cancers and people who eat lots of animal foods also tend to live shorter lives.

A new study suggests that the sulphur-containing amino acids found in animal protein may be partly to blame. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein but ones that contain sulphur, typically found in high amounts in eggs, fish, red meat and chicken, are linked to a higher risk of disease. This study, published in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine looked at over 11,500 adults over six years and found that those eating diets high in sulphur amino acids had higher cholesterol, insulin resistance and blood glucose – increasing their risk of these diseases. Those eating low levels had significantly lower levels of markers and disease.

This may explain some of the observed health benefits of a vegan diet and why swapping meat, dairy, fish and eggs for wholegrains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds can help protect your health.

Dong Z, Gao X, Chinchilli VM et al. 2020. Association of sulfur amino acid consumption with cardiometabolic risk factors: Cross-sectional findings from NHANES III. EClinicalMedicine. 19, 100248.

Stone age thinking Paleo diet was not so meaty after all Charred remains of roasted root vegetables found in 170,000-year-old ashes in a cave near the Swaziland border in South Africa suggest the real Paleo diet included carbohydrates. Researchers found the charred remains of rhizomes (underground storage parts) of Hypoxis plants, which can be as rich in carbs as potatoes, although they taste more like yams, says lead author, Professor Lyn Wadley of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. The amount of charred remains found suggests that roasted root vegetables were a common part of the diet, contrary to the popular notion that early humans didn’t eat carbs. Writing in New Scientist, Wadley said: “I’m afraid the paleo diet is really a misnomer”.

Wadley L, Backwell L, d'Errico F et al. 2020. Cooked starchy rhizomes in Africa 170 thousand years ago.

Science. 367 (6473) 87Š\91.

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June’s podcast features all the news and updates from Viva! – including an exclusive interview with Game of Thrones actor and Viva! patron, Jerome Flynn. We also chat with poet and author, Jane Mann, as she reads her poem Warning from Wuhan.

Hosted

by Helen Wilson

How to help animals and promote veganism during lockdown with the Viva! campaigns team.

Gavin Chappell-Bates hosts his regular music feature. This month he chats to singer-songwriter and musician Kitty Stewart.

Inspiration for budding homecooks comes from Viva!’s Maryanne Hall of the Vegan Recipe Club, with some delicious recipe inspiration for June.

Juliet updates us on the 3 in 4 campaign highlighting that 3 in 4 new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals

About Our Show Interview with Jerome Flynn

Get the latest episode every month, straight to your mobile device or computer. It's automatic and completely free.

You can hear our show via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and on lots of other apps and websites.

Spread the word! Don't forget to share us on Facebook and Twitter!

listen now: viva.org.uk/podcast 38

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Viva!’s media blitz for the animals

BY TONY WARDLE, EDITOR

The French Connection Another big success on the 3 in 4 campaign came from Juliet’s 20-minute interview on the hugely prestigious Radio France International. It has an audience within France but is also broadcast around the world.

Our Own Expert Working with us on the 3 in 4 campaign was the PR agency, Higginson PR. They have launched an Expert Bureau offering journalists a string of notable contacts they can call on for specific areas of expertise. Included in the list is the Rt Hon Vince Cable and Ben Fogle and now joining them is Viva! director Juliet Gellatley.

Reaching the Foodies You may not have heard of it but the New Food Magazine is a wellestablished publication for the food and drinks industry in Britain and Europe, with a readership of 34,000.

They called on Juliet to provide a long and referenced article on why, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, agriculture should switch to vegan farming.

The magazine goes to key decision makers throughout Europe. Typical job functions include managing directors, process engineers, chief engineers, production directors and the like.

Much of our media coverage has been of our successful 3 in 4 campaign (see page 10) but there is much more to report

Compelling Report by FAIRR – We’re in Trouble Viva!’s senior health researcher, Dr Justine Butler, wrote a disturbing article on why the meat industry had done too little to manage the pandemic risk from Covid-19 and what the future holds. It was published by PBN and based on a shocking report by FAIRR called An Industry Infected which says: “Intensive animal production systems involve high stocking density, indoor confinement, chronic stress, lowered immunity and live transport. Together these factors create the perfect environment for deadly diseases to mutate and spread rapidly”. It then identified that 70 per cent of global producers fell into this category.

No one could dismiss the authors as being one of the ‘usual suspects’ as the Coller FAIRR network has $20 trillion in assets and its index assesses the risk from animal farming, essentially advising investors where they should and shouldn’t put their money. It has a ‘pandemic ranking’ for meat, fish and dairy producers (including eggs), scoring companies against seven factors including deforestation and biodiversity loss, antibiotic use, waste and pollution, working conditions, food safety, animal welfare and sustainable (plant protein) production.

Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Processors Association, called the report “…anti-meat propaganda designed to alarm investors”.

One of the report’s conclusions is that: “Plant-based proteins are more efficient to produce and don’t have the disease risks associated with livestock”.

To add to the meat industries woes, investment bank Goldman Sachs has now listed livestock as one of the two most precarious commodities for investors next year, alongside oil.

Jenas’s Genius It’s not new but it seems to have escaped attention and is well worth a watch. Football Goes Vegan is an upbeat mini TV doc that’s brilliant for meat reducers and new vegans. Former England international, Jermaine Jenas, investigates the rise of veganism in football, experiments with it at home and explores how veganism is spreading in the professional game.

Features the only vegan football club, Forest Green Rovers, and its owner (and Viva!’s Patron), Dale Vince. Find it on BBC iPlayer.

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This is the third year of our MooFree May campaign and it has been a huge success, says Laura Lisa Hellwig, reaching more people every year ormally, we visit towns across the UK and together with our volunteers, we reach thousands of people with our Street Action events. The threat of Covid-19 and lockdown made this year very different but we still made a big splash online.

It’s ironic that there has never been a greater need to raise awareness of the devastating impact animal agriculture is having, with three-quarters of the world’s new or emerging infectious diseases coming from animals, mainly through trade in wildlife and factory farming.

Despite the idyll we’re brought up believing, dairy cows are subjected to a perpetual cycle of artificial insemination, calving and milking, year after year, in order to keep their milk flowing.

After a nine-month pregnancy, all dairy cows are separated from their young within 48 hours of birth whatever the system – organic, free-range or zerograzing. If a boy, he’ll likely be shot in the head as a useless by-product; if born a girl, she’ll become a milk machine and part of the milking herd.

This continuous exploitation of a dairy cow’s reproductive system causes suffering on an industrial scale but with so many amazing plant-based alternatives now available to us, it’s never been easier to go dairyfree – and that’s the message we have been tirelessly promoting.

People from across the world have joined our online campaign. Our graphics and videos have been shared thousands of times, including our latest video which is deeply distressing. It shows a dairy cow giving birth in an idyllic field. She licks her new-born calf and encourages him to stand on his wobbly feet.

A farmer drives a tractor and trailer up to the cow, lifts the calf into the trailer and drives away. The mother runs after it and minutes later, in solidarity, the whole herd follows her and her stolen calf. She will, of course, never see her baby again. This video alone had over 45,000 views within a few days.

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People were shocked by it. Deb F. wrote: “So heartbreaking and watching mum following made me cry!” Another social media user said: “People don’t realise how cruel the dairy industry really is. This is heartbreaking”.

As part of this campaign, we asked people to act locally.

1. Leave a little dairy-free taster on your friend’s doorstep. Surprise them with delicious vegan chocolate and write a card with a fact or two about cows that they probably didn’t know.

2. Bake a vegan cake or cook a meal and leave that. We have plenty of easy vegan recipes which won’t fail to impress your nonvegan friends.

3. Make a short cookery video or share one of ours. (We were posting them on our social media throughout the month).

Lots of people took part but, of course, it didn’t have to end with May and can continue throughout the year.

Viva! have a terrific collection of resources to help anyone go dairy-free – and they’re all in one place at scarydairy.org.uk 40

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Social media

comes of age It has become a part of everyone’s life and has embedded itself in the global psyche over the past 20 years – it also provides vital communication for Viva!’s work, says Louisa Kendal, Viva!’s digital communications officer ocial media has morphed into something much more than just a digitally connected photo album.

While we are physically apart, it plays an especially crucial role in keeping us all connected and informed.

For campaigning, gone are the days when our message reached just those who happen to pass our demo on a busy high street – important as that is. Social media empowers us to share our entertaining memes, emotive videos and powerful campaign information with people all over the world – and with just a few clicks on a keyboard. For those who don’t know – a meme is an idea, image or video file that spreads ‘virally from one person to another’.

Take our current ‘3 in 4’ campaign, currently running on social media. Every day, I have the opportunity to promote our entire campaign online. We’ve reached over two million people with a single campaign video so far in this campaign. Combine this with our other daily output content including memes, infographics and blogs and suddenly our vegan message is being absorbed by an amazing number of people who we may prompt to change their life.

This incredible opportunity to share the vegan message is what makes social media so exciting. With powerful content creation and inspiring messaging, we can run empowering campaigns that positively demonstrate that veganism is the answer to so many problems.

In my past year-and-a-half working at Viva!, I’ve been lucky enough to work on numerous campaigns that have made a real difference for animals, the environment and health. Whether it’s our World Vegan Day campaign, which Fearne Cotton supported and James May went vegan for the day, or the daily comments of new vegans pledging their commitment to the movement, it’s fantastic to see how effective our social media content is at creating our vegan world.

Beyond our content, we can now also offer people a place to come for advice in real-time. New vegans can message us directly and receive expert advice from seasoned vegans, which can be crucial for people during the first stages of changing their diet.

Imagine having a support network right at your fingertips, with people just waiting to share recipes, tips and ideas with you!

The coronavirus lockdown has shown

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us that while we may be physically distanced, the world we live in is never further than a few clicks away. Being able to harness this to save animals, protect the environment and promote better health is the most meaningful way to engage with the online world.

It’s our online presence that allows our message to be shared with millions of people I’m able to curate Viva!’s social media in order to educate people on how they could be making kinder decisions, how veganism will help the world and then help them to make the transition. This has allowed us to grow in influence and reach infinitely more people than other forms of campaigning can.

Physical activism will always be an important and loved part of Viva!, but it’s our online presence that allows our message to be shared with millions of people and will create the vegan world in the end.

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Fighting off a

factory farm

BY WILL SORFLATEN, VIVA! CAMPAIGNER

very month, the campaigns team receives a number of urgent emails: “Help, an intensive farming unit is going to be built in my area!”

It’s a devastating prospect as not only do these farms spell misery for the animals locked up inside, they also negatively impact the environment and local communities. Idyllic countryside is scarred with lorries carrying animals to and from the units, there’s noise from high-powered ventilation systems and automatic feeders and eye-watering smells of ammonia from farm waste.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO Your council will have a planning applications website on which to voice your objections – but it’s often only locals they’ll listen to as outsiders aren’t directly affected. It’s therefore crucial to rally your community, which has a common enemy and a common interest.

Meat-eaters or not, most people don’t want to live near a factory farm and so the hairdresser, baker and, yes, even the local butcher, can become your allies. Every local’s voice is crucial!

WRITING AN OBJECTION Unbelievably, animal welfare concerns are mostly not considered by councils, no matter how strong your case that animals will suffer.

They are more concerned with how the unit directly affects people in the area. Be specific in your objections.

Is the unit near a national cycle route, therefore threatening lives with increased lorry traffic? Is it near to dog-walking spots or hiking routes, which would be polluted through noise, smell and visually? Are there schools nearby that will be affected by increased traffic, pollutants and noise?

Farmed animals aren’t considered in planning applications but wildlife is. Is the unit near a river, crucial in supporting wild animals who might be killed by slurry run-off from the farm? Is there an important nature reserve nearby? These are the kinds of issues to address in your objection.

Planning applications often boast that the unit will bring employment opportunities. Read the details on the council’s website and test the claim – it often involves just two or three low-paid jobs. On the other hand, the unit might destroy local tourism and make people redundant, reducing rather than adding to jobs and it might send house prices plummeting.

Raise the risk of zoonotic diseases – an increasingly real and topical point. Covid-19 did not come from a factory farm but other pandemics have, such as bird and swine flu. Erecting new farm units increases the risk of future pandemics – a severe risk to people’s health, both locally, nationally and globally.

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Once you’ve drafted an objection, get as many local people as possible to send in similar objections. The more people who kick up a fuss, the more likely the council will listen.

As well as your application, get a propaganda war going – email your council and make it clear that they risk losing support if they accept the application. If there are public meetings, rally the troops and make sure all your voices are heard.

Rally the troops and make sure all your voices are heard Objecting to planning can be a gruelling process but remind yourself that graft now is far better than living permanently next to a stinking animal prison. And it may well save animals from a hellish existence.

If you’re confronting a planning application, don’t hesitate to contact us, we are always happy to help.

Rose Elliot – Complete Vegan Rose Elliot is the queen of meat-free cooking – and, of course, a patron of Viva!. Many of you will have Rose’s New Complete Vegetarian on your bookshelves but now’s the time to get your hands on her new and totally vegan offering!

It offers a masterclass in vegan cookery, offering basics such as nut milks, butters, cheeses and creams, to recipes for breakfasts, light bites, lunches, labour-light midweek mains, spectacular dishes for entertaining, delicious desserts and tempting baked goods. Rose highlights that vegan diets are better for the planet and also healthier – and she includes the daily food groups you should include in your diet.

The book is gorgeously bound and has beautiful photography of mouth-watering recipes. Rose’s classic, chic style is there throughout and recipes are presented in an exciting, yet effortless, way. Choose from 150 recipes, with some unusual ones – Easy Vegan Sushi and fragrant Aubergine Pilaff Cake. £25.00

Fearne Cotton – Happy Vegan Fearne Cotton has exploded into the wellness scene over the last few years and we love her venture into vegan cooking. Based on recipes she loves cooking for her children and husband, Happy Vegan is one for all kitchen bookshelves!

Fearne writes in the introduction: “This is a pure celebration for food” – and that it is. From burgers to brownies, casseroles to cakes, Happy Vegan shows you that vegan food is for everyone. Recipes include delicious classics and fresh ideas such as lazy, slow-cooking casseroles, quick one-pot classics, sharing feasts and indulgent baked treats for a self-care Sunday! My absolute favourites are Piri Piri Tofu, Broccoli Katsu Curry and Pomegranate Yoghurt Cake – preferably all in one day! It will definitely inspire the happy vegan in you. £20.00

All Viva! Vegan Book Club choices are available from vivashop.org.uk/books or by post: Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH. Tel: 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm)

There is nothing more humbling than a pandemic The mighty oak of the human race may not have quite been felled yet but it has been brought to a confused new reality by almost invisible strands of RNA. There we were, the human race, all puffed up with our own self-importance, like giant marshmallows strutting around the planet. We were detached from nature and full of hi-tech, hirise, highfalutin self-importance.

We were superior, smart gods existing above the planet itself.

Animals were scurrying around only because we allowed them to and if we felt hungry, we would eat them. They were furry snacks to be hunted to extinction, herds of sustenance to be crammed into ugly and cruel factory farms or the now famous wet markets.

Just there to be slaughtered.

The world was run by the most giant of these bloated and puffed up marshmallows of supreme self-importance like the Trump populists and their measly fellow presidents. These flaccid fools were caught in the glare of a new reality and found utterly wanting. Dimmer and dumber than the strands of RNA, with each of their money-grubbing priorities shown up for what they really were.

These giant man-babies threw their tantrums and took the pandemic as a personal affront to their flatulent Nero careers and dragged their nations deeper into the Covid mire. These strange middle-aged men, full of the carnivorous attitude and diet were denying the apocalypse as it unfolded around them.

Suddenly, we were jolted back into our place. The uppity human race had been busy filling the planet with filth and fumes and fury and believing that nature was a fleshy meal to be murdered on an industrial scale. But the vicious home truth is that the hunter is now the hunted… Far from being our slave, nature was now our master and we were just another scared species.

Our cities saw nature as an inconvenience – something to be pushed aside, brown stuff that was stuffed into a burger, or ‘weeds’ in a garden. We ignored, pulverised and vandalised the ecosystem and we somehow thought we were above all that. Our lives had poisoned the wheezing planet and we ran amok in the ruins.

Nature was vanquished, conquered and thrown away – hey, who cares if the pangolin goes extinct?! Most people didn’t even know what it was until…

THE VIRUS CAME! It arrived and we were humbled and cornered by strands of RNA, the humblest half-life form on the planet that took over the whole world in about two weeks flat and pinned us back into our caves, paralysed.

The viruses and bacteria own the planet and they just let us share it. They placed the human race firmly back into the ecosystem and reminded us of just how weak and vulnerable we really are.

A wake up call for the sleep walkers…

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Photo © Melanie Smith

Media man, punk-bred John Robb

lifestyle

Viva!’s

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Plastic-free edition

A handful of tips and plastic-free products to get you ready for the summer weather.

By Emily Coster

Vegan Amazinc – SPF50 Mineral Suncream- 100ml This amazing brand have created a vegan SPF50 plasticfree suncream! It’s a liquid that claims to keep your skin hydrated and protected from harmful sun-rays. It contains natural ingredients and only mineral filters, which makes it ocean friendly too!

Packed in 100 per cent recyclable aluminium, the bottles weigh very little and no-spill closures protect your luggage while traveling. £18.50.

Available here: plasticfreedom.co.uk

Perform – Salted Maca Caramel by Vivo Life Finally! A 100 per cent, plant-based protein powder that is great for your health, tastes incredible and apparently delivers epic results. It also comes in a home compostable bag so it’s practically perfect!

It is vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, plastic-free, nonGMO, ethically and sustainably sourced and is grown without pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. This powder tastes great on its own with 250ml liquid (water, coconut water, nut milk) or added into a smoothie.

I have been making a smoothie to kick start my mornings: ½ frozen banana, ½ cup of frozen berries, 1 ½ cups of plant milk, 1 tbsp nut butter, 1 scoop of Vivo Life salted maca caramel protein and a pinch of salt.

So tasty and easy to make! £34.99 (for 988g).

Available here: vivolife.co.uk

Beco Pets – Flyer There is nothing better than having hours of fun with your canine friend outside with their favourite toy. This durable, sustainable rubber flyer is a tough toy for even the heaviest of chewers!

The bright orange makes it hard to lose while it is soft and flexible, so gentle against doggo’s teeth and is non-toxic with a vanilla scent. It is good for your dog and the planet and is even fun to play with – no doggo required! £9.99.

Available here: vivashop.org.uk

Passenger – Turkish Towel, Florence Indigo I love these Turkish towels from Passenger Clothing, they’re so versatile – a beach towel, a blanket, a wall hanging, a scarf, a throw on the sofa (so many uses). This colourway is Florence Indigo.

They are soft, absorbent and my favourite thing about them is, they are 100 per cent premium cotton so no plastic/synthetic fibres

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which means you can travel anywhere with it and not risk it shedding microfibres that might end up in the ocean.

This season’s patterns are inspired by the New Forest and for every order, Passenger plant a tree! So no other reason needed to justify this purchase! £22.50.

Available here: passenger-clothing.com

s e b i v r e mm Chilly’s – Water Bottle, Tropical Toucan

The Bee Revival Kit – (Black & Gold) The Bee Revival Kit is great to have when you are out and about to help a tired bee with some sugar water to get it back on its feet. We all know how important bees are to the environment and so it’s lovely to have this emergency pack attached to your keys or backpack! It makes a brilliant present for a bee lover, a friend or child, or simply treat yourself to prepare for any spontaneous encounter. £10.99.

Available here: vivashop.org.uk

In the UK, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used each year, with the average person using 150 plastic water bottles annually – which works out at more than three a week!

(2018, Water UK) The easiest swap is to pick up a reusable water bottle and my favourite is a Chilly’s. Its sleek design, keeping water cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours, is a great option whether you fancy cold water or a hot brew! It is made from durable, high-grade 304 stainless steel which, it is claimed, preserves the flavour and freshness of your drink, with no tainting. Most importantly, it is leak proof and sweat free – keeping your drink in and your bag dry. Chilly’s have a range of different colours and designs to choose from. £25.00.

Available here: chillysbottles.com/uk

Waves UK – Blue Two Tone Flip Flops Currently, around three billion people purchase a new set of flip flops every year.

Polyurethane foam is the primary constituent of most flip flops and one of the most significant pollutants of the ocean! These flip flops, by Waves UK, are made with durable natural Sri Lankan rubber, which is said to be 100 per cent biodegradable, 100 per cent recyclable and 100 per cent vegan. They are

comfy and great to throw on for beach days or just to walk around your garden!

By buying these flip flops, you are helping to support the rubber farming communities of Sri Lanka, providing them with a fair, safe and sustainable livelihood. So, you can look after the planet and still enjoy your favourite beach footwear! £16.00.

Available here: wavesflipflops.co.uk

Bamboo sunglasses By Fresh for Pandas – Roscoe These retro sunglasses combine classic 60s style with an eco-friendly twist! All Fresh by Pandas sunglasses are made from plant-based biodegradable acetate, wood, bamboo and titanium which are all eco-friendly, renewable and responsibly sourced. They use polarised UV400 lenses, which block up to 100% of UV light.

Another great purchase, which won’t harm the earth when you are finished with them! £69.00.

Available here: freshforpandas.com

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Be kind burgundy tops: ÂŁ16.99 comes in Small, Medium and Large As worn by Jerome Flynn on our front cover

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Restaurant review

The Village Takeaway What with travel bans and lockdowns and closed restaurants we’ve had to stay close to home for this review – and what an eye-opener it’s been. Just a seven minute walk from Viva!’s offices is Picton Street and its continuation into York Road, in the Montpelier locality of Bristol. Actually, it’s more of a village than a street and within 100 metres of each other is a selection of takeaways that would make any vegan’s heart sing.

THE THALI (also a restaurant) has been there for years.

It’s not entirely vegan. You can get your usual thali takeaway but much better to invest in a traditional Indian tiffin – a tier of four stainless steel containers costing about £20. You hand it in and comes back full with the day’s vegan choices – typically Basmati rice, dhal, pumpkin and coconut orlan and chana masala (or a subji – vegetables in tomato sauce). It costs £10 and there’s enough for two. This is Indian food rather than the usual Bangladeshi.

41 Picton Street BS6 5QE, 0117 942 6687. Delivers.

However, if you do like Bangladeshi food then you will love the MELA takeway just across the road.

They have a big vegan menu – including, unusually, korma. The Mela also does a great thali and for just £6 you get a mixed vegetable bhaji, Bombay aloo, tarka dhal chapatti and rice. Now that’s value!

19 York Road BS6 5QB, 0117 924 9272. Delivers.

Again, metres away, is PICTON STORES. Quite small, with just two aisles, it manages to pack in a fair old range of vegan products – plant milks and yoghurts, cheeses, sausages, pâtés and spreads, mock meats and slices, numerous things in jars and the more you look the more you find and currently open until 10pm. It also sells delicious bread by the local Herbert’s Bakery.

I 62 Bath Buildings BS6 5PU, 0117 329 1755.

Just around the corner is OOWEE VEGAN – a takeaway vegan burger bar with a short but delicious vegan menu. You can have crispy fried chic’n burgers, Beyond Meat quarter pounders, dirty fries and tater tots (a bit like croquettes). I had the Beyond Burger with all the trimmings and it was gorgeous. Not cheap at £8.50 but definitely worth it.

54 Picton Street BS6 5QA, 0117 280 0154. Delivers.

Across the street is RADFORD MILL FARM SHOP, delightfully cluttered with baskets of fruit and vegetables, wooden shelves piled with products and a display counter filled to capacity. It’s not solely vegan but there is a cracking choice and much of the produce is organic. Massive vegetable samosas, big spiced potato balls, falafel, deli, raw cakes, carrot cake and others dripping with sweetness. Some of the best soups I’ve ever tasted – try chickpea Madras and super green vegetable soup. Super crusty organic bread delivered daily by bike from Mark’s Bread. It’s used in their thick, gorgeous sandwiches such as tofu and spicy satay. There is also an organic fruit and veg box delivery service.

41 Picton Street BS6 5PZ, 0117 942 6644.

Next door, through an archway, is MR LAHEY’S ORGANIC JUICE BAR. You have never seen such a selection of juices, smoothies and shakes – and everything is organic and vegan. Tea and coffee, toasties such as BBQ jackfruit and cashew cream slaw or hazelnut & roasted red pepper sauce with grilled aubergine, peppers and courgette. They also use Mark’s bread and have a delightful garden at the back.

39 Picton Street BS6 5PZ. Delivers but not currently.

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From his lockdown home office, Tony Wardle reckons that science has become like a magician’s trick – subject to a sleight of hand designed to deceive

now you see it, now you don’t!

ovid-19, or one of its mates, wasn’t only inevitable it was predictable. It hovered on the horizon like a huge black cloud, so obvious that even Mystic Meg could have foreseen what was to come. In the event, it was nowhere near as lethal as it might have been, but that was pure luck. Make no mistake, there are other viruses queueing up to make our lives hell.

Did you ever get a warning from Government that something like this was brewing? Did you get any advice about how you could avoid it – like when they told us to shelter beneath our dining tables with sandwiches and a flask of tea in the event of a nuclear holocaust? If they did, I must have missed it.

We’re talking science here not clairvoyance because the evidence has for years been waving red flags at us, sticking its tongue out and jumping up and down like a four-year-old at the swimming pool shouting, ‘look at me, look at me’. Forget about scientists supposedly

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cooking up a noxious brew in a Chinese laboratory – that’s just a diversion, it’s facts I’m after.

Boris et al stand and clap for NHS and frontline workers, call them heroes and tell us to be ‘vigilant’.

What they don’t tell us is how this and other viruses have come about, what part our lifestyle has played and what we need to do to reduce the chances of another unwelcome visitor. This and so much more is in the science and has been for decades but our ‘leaders’ have been ignoring it because it wasn’t convenient.

What this boils down to is a simple question – why do they ignore science when it suits them? The answer is surprisingly simple – to protect their votes, vested interests and the ‘economy’ – your life, your health have in the past mostly come way down the list. The joke is that on this occasion, their refusal to acknowledge science in order to protect the economy has now crashed it. The Holy Grail is looking a bit peeky.

Science has told us so many things: that songbird numbers have dramatically collapsed because of farming practices; that insect numbers are in free fall because of pesticide use; soil fertility is rapidly declining because of unsustainable farming methods; erosion on our uplands is at crisis point from overgrazing; and British rivers are being constantly poisoned by manure run-offs from animal farming. And that’s just a little hors d’oeuvre, an amuse bouche of the unsustainable madness that afflicts our countryside – our planet. And what do our leaders think about it? “Our farmers are guardians of the British countryside”. The reality is that our life-support systems are dying.

You may have noticed that on TV, farming is a rather lovely occupation. Countryfile, and titles like The Farmer Wants a Wife, Love in the Countryside and Country Life all have a common backdrop of rolling pastures and animals freely ranging. Lovely dovely minority stuff that represents the few per cent. My programme proposals look at the reality of animal farming, the big majority – titles like I Shovel Shit All Day, How to Kill Pigs With a Hammer and The Filth Behind Closed Doors. Sadly, they’ve failed so far but I’m ever hopeful.

Of course, it’s not the first time science has been put on the back burner with disastrous results – in fact the hob is covered with simmering, festering inconvenient pans. I could go back decades but let’s start with the science around global warming, particularly the contribution made by livestock to greenhouse gases (GHG). I’m going with the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation’s original research figure of 18 per cent – before the meat industry’s lobbyists got to work and argued it down to 15 per cent.

Clearly, the UK is doing better than the rest of the world because our livestock produce only 3.5 per cent of GHG according to the government. Wow – didn’t we do well? No, we didn’t actually, we cooked the science!

By leaving out all the fodder grown for animals, the fertilisers and tractors and other farm diesel and electricity, transport, anything that happens in the slaughterhouse, chilling, packing and transport to the shops, imported high protein supplements and meat brought in from environmentally dodgy countries, you may be able to get to 3.5 per cent (although I even doubt that). The real figure is 17 per cent, according to Cranfield University and near enough to the FAO’s.

Diminishing the problem enables the Government to say that no action is necessary. They (and Labour before them) have ignored the science because they’re terrified that telling people to avoid meat and dairy will cost them votes. For the Tories, it’s even more unthinkable as most of their votes come from rural communities so to hell with fulfilling their promise of zero carbon by 2050.

On current trends, it ain’t gonna happen.

But suddenly, our health is important to them (unless you reside in a nursing home, in which case it’s a bit more of a lottery). Why now when it’s been ignored for years? Because Covid-19 is so in your face that to ignore it would bring the Government down.

The science has long been telling us that the big killers of heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes (and increasingly Alzheimer’s disease) and others, all have their roots in animal products. Did anyone in Government tell you that? No they didn’t but they did tell you that “meat is essential to good health.” They can blag that one because degenerative diseases have

developed insidiously over decades but constitute a pandemic nevertheless.

Viva! regularly goes into factory farms, clattering over discarded antibiotic bottles, stepping around dead bodies, trying not to gag on the foetid air, confronting the cacophony of distressed voices and trying to contain our anger at the scale of this authorised, institutionalised animal abuse. Again, the science supports our protestations but not the Government. “We have the best animal welfare in the world,” – over and over and over like a parrot on steroids.

Factory-farmed animals suffer from a whole battery of diseases including little corkers such as TB, meningitis and pneumonia and a bonus pack of other bacteria and viruses that already sicken millions of humans and kill thousands. Again, the science is clear and global bodies keep repeating it – industrial farming poses a major threat to human health – and they’re ignored.

We are facing an antibiotic apocalypse on a par with global warming In an often futile attempt to keep these animal diseases at bay, a battery of antibiotics is thrown at them – and has been since the 1940s. The first warning that bacteria were developing antibiotic resistance came in 1969. “You have been warned”, said Professor Swann. The Government largely ignored him, too. And now, 50 years later, Dame Sally Davis, Chief Medical Officer of Health for England (not a member of the Government) says: “We are facing an antibiotic apocalypse on a par with global warming”.

By 2050, she says, more people in Britain will die from antibiotic resistance than from cancer – and that annual total currently sits at 165,000. And what does the Government say? “Sales of veterinary antibiotics are at their lowest level in 25 years”. Whooppie doodie – 50 years after first being warned, they have managed to slash farm antibiotics to just 35 per cent of the total used (human and animal use combined). That’ll do the trick then!

It isn’t just heart disease and cancer and antibiotic resistance that threaten us, there is something potentially far more deadly brewing. The stinking reservoirs of 

viva.org.uk 49

filth and disease in factory farms are mutation heaven for viruses and bacteria. Funnily enough, a coronavirus wasn’t what the Government was expecting – it was a flu virus, the kind that wiped out possibly 50 million people in 1918/19.

Our factory farms are the equivalent of Asia’s wet markets and all flu viruses stem from aquatic birds which, via chickens and pigs, have mutated to infect and kill humans. And the Government’s position: “Wash your hands!”

What on earth has happened to our society, where spivs and wide boys can sit in the City flogging dodgy global ‘investments’ to one another but which enrich us not one jot. They often count their bonuses in millions while care workers, on the other hand, who look after the most vulnerable in society, are lucky to earn the minimum wage – not even a living wage. This just about sums it up for me. Is this how we want society to be?

We boast of our parliamentary democracy but it has failed us dramatically by ignoring science. And into that vacuum of truth has crawled the flat earthists, 5G doom

We continue to slaughter and abuse animals without hindrance and they don’t care

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mongers, chem trail fantasists, global warming deniers while chronic creationism is becoming as contagious as Covid-19. They have been covertly encouraged by a large section of the press to whom destabilisation, ignorance, the undermining of democratic structures and the destruction of trade unionism is part of their mission statement.

Freedom of the press for most titles is freedom to advance the political interests of their billionaire owners.

Do you really think that your essential interests are the same as Rupert Murdoch’s? He is owner of the Sun and Times and worth £7.1 billion (he also owns Fox News, which tells you everything). The Daily Telegraph is owned by the knighted Barclay brothers (worth £3 billion), the Daily Mail by Jonathan Harmsworth, the Viscount Rothermere (worth £1.3 billion) while the Daily Express and the Star were, until recently, owned by former pornographer Richard Desmond (worth £2.6 billion). It is no surprise that the majority of these papers overwhelmingly backed Brexit. They want a lowwage, low-expectation, poorly-organised society where environmental, animal and employment protections are shredded so that industrialist’s profits can be maximised.

And make no mistake, that is what Brexit was all about – divide and rule.

These obscenely rich people and their political champions have dragged us to the brink of survival by numbing our senses, dulling our critical faculties. We have entered the sixth mass extinction without them so much as blinking, because they don’t care. Our oceans are collapsing from a cocktail of causes and they don’t care.

Every life support system of the global environment is failing and they don’t care. Planet Earth is heating up and catastrophe lies less than 20 years away but they don’t care. We continue to slaughter and abuse animals without hindrance and they don’t care. The only thing – the only thing – that will make them care is if they can turn these disasters into money-making enterprises. We are heading towards a Trumpian dystopia although Trump himself is not the cause, merely a symptom of what happens when we trash science in favour of ‘gut instinct’.

Our stewardship of this planet has been disastrous because petty self-interest has triumphed over science and knowledge. We know it cannot continue like this so the big question is – what kind of society do we want when this is all over? If science is not to be our lodestone, then what is? The alternatives – cynicism, money fetishism, propaganda, vested interests, consumerism – have failed spectacularly, to the point where our planet is imperilled.

I don’t say this lightly – small as we are, Viva! is in the forefront of creating the kind of change that is essential for our survival. Mainstream environmental organisations have purposely failed to make the connection between our abuse of animals and our abuse of the planet and its people. Some animal welfare organisations tiptoe cravenly around the issue, pleading with us to be a bit kinder to animals before we cut their throats. The biggest of them all, set up to protect animals from cruelty, actively encourages us to eat their brand of factory-farmed animals as opposed to other people’s.

How the hell did we get here? Those who we should be able to trust are dancing to the consumerist tune with all the abandon of a Saturday night at the Hacienda.

There must be no going back – but that will entail a battle of epic proportions because those who hold power never surrender it willingly. Are you up for the fight?

Obituary

Regan Russell n June 19, 2020, a beautiful soul was taken from us. Regan Russell spent her last few hours showing compassion, bearing witness and giving water to thirsty pigs. She was tragically struck and killed by a pig transport truck while standing peacefully on public property outside Fearmans slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. On a scorching hot day, she offered the pigs a final moment of respite – as she has done at weekly animal vigils for years. She died fighting against cruelty and protesting against agricultural gag ‘ag gag’ legislation, Bill 156, that had just passed in the Ontario parliament.

The Bill (Security From Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act) will cover up animal cruelty on farms and during transport, will prevent whistle-blowers from speaking out against their employers and animal advocates from exposing animal abuse. Those exposing cruelty can be fined $15,000 for a first offence and $25,000 for subsequent offences. It also allows for farmers to recover full costs against activists in private prosecutions. The government can designate areas as ‘animal protection zones’, including slaughterhouses and factory farms and in the future, possibly labs and zoos.

The new law is designed to stop the peaceful vigils at slaughterhouses across the province and have been denounced an unconstitutional restriction of rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was this that Regan, age 65, was protesting on the day she was killed.

Regan had been an animal advocate since 1979.

“Regan was a kind, elegant, strong, and courageous person,” said Anita Krajnc, co-founder of Toronto Pig Save and the Animal Save Movement. “She always did activism with kindness in her heart and fought for animal equality and racial justice – last week she attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Hamilton”.

Ten thousand pigs are killed at the Fearmans slaughterhouse in Burlington every day and Toronto Pig Save activists have been holding vigils outside it since 2011.

Regan was deeply loved and her husband, Mark Powell, said he will spend the rest of his days trying to get rid of the bill that haunted her.

On the day before she died, Regan posted her thoughts about Bill 156 on Facebook: “Now, any time an animal is suffering on a farm in Ontario, no one has the right to expose it.”

The Bill, Mark said, is a ‘bio-security’ measure and makes it illegal to gain access to a farm under ‘false pretences,’ which makes undercover filming an offence.

There has been an international outpouring over Regan’s death and this, Mark says, has helped make the grief a little lighter. On Friday, June 26, Animal Save and Animal Rebellion in several countries, including Viva! in the UK, held commemorations in honour of Regan. In London, Juliet Gellatley called for “solidarity in order to fight ag-gag laws wherever they appear – dangerous, fascistic pieces of legislation specifically designed to prevent farmed animal cruelty from being exposed”.

Regan’s friend Donna Caprice described her tall,

O

beautiful friend as “fearless and intelligent.

She was always willing to go out on a limb, for the animals, for the people she loved.”

Regan was arrested on 11 occasions for “various acts of civil disobedience” over several decades, said her husband, Mark, who strategically stayed out of the fray. “I was the bail money,” he said. Mark has now hired a lawyer to seek justice for Regan and to try to get the Bill repealed.

“Fearless and intelligent. She was always willing to go out on a limb for the animals” “I’ll fight it the rest of my life,” he said. “My life ended on Friday so for as long as I’m here, we have to pick up the torch and fight things like Bill 156.”

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Lockdown has not stopped

Viva! Poland

Below and bottom.

Tightly tethered horses were everywhere

Viva! Poland has had some quite remarkable successes in its 10-year lifespan and persistence is one of the reasons why. Tony Wardle talks to Viva! Poland manager, Cezary Wyszynski

The Horror of Horse Markets

The lifelong cramped conditions for a fur fox

Shocking Investigation into Fox Fur Farm In the early days of visiting Viva! Poland, I was shocked to see huge glass cabinets displaying fur clothing at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport.

Apparently, a huge proportion of the population would clad themselves in fur every winter. That popularity, however, did not deter Viva! Poland from launching anti-fur campaigns and going undercover to expose the appalling cruelty inherent in fur farming.

And public opinion has dramatically begun to change. Fur prices have crashed, 192 fur farms have closed in the last four years – about one-third of the total – and this year, 5.5 million animals are expected to be slaughtered, down from 10 million five years ago. Viva! Poland’s latest investigation will accelerate that change. Cezary explains what they saw.

“We investigated the killing of foxes and racoon dogs at a farm in Stara Dąbrowa. They were electrocuted in front of each other and as they were slaughtered, workers cracked what they thought were jokes: “Ha, this one farted”, “You’re a female – fuck all females”, “Remember how last year I said I’d get my own back…”

“We have rescued some foxes and they now live at our 52-acre Korabiewicach sanctuary and they are beautiful animals. They remind us how we desperately need to end this trade completely. We are hoping to be allowed to prosecute – anything to keep the pressure on”.

Beautiful animals electrocuted for their fur

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One place that has defied Viva! Poland’s constant attention is Skaryszew horse market – a place I know well. I visited it to film footage for our disturbing video on the Polish live horse trade, Journey to Death, and I found it almost medieval, like a Bruegel painting. I had a hidden camera in a bag but seeing the hard faces, the drunkenness and lack of compassion, I thought my life might be short-lived if anyone rumbled me so I took it out of the bag and pretended to be a tourist. It worked.

Cezary updates us on what’s been happening.

“The infamous annual horse market in Skaryszew has a history of animal welfare violations and this year was held in early March, despite the growing Covid-19 pandemic that originated in, well, ... an animal market. Multiple NGOs, including Viva!, have asked the mayor of Skaryszew to cancel the event but we have all been ignored.

“We arrived at dawn to check on the horses and the majority of the traders were already there and drunk. Horses were overcrowded, often kicking and biting each other with clear signs of stress and panic. They were mishandled, dragged and beaten up truck ramps and it’s much the same picture every year – and the authorities keep turning a blind eye.

“Viva! published a report in 2016 that detailed the violations taking place in this and other , Polish markets and it was ignored by the authorities. But the pressure is increasing and we won’t back off.”

CONTINUED FROM P9 The most recent sales data for this type of plant-based food has shown an amazing 128 per cent growth rate over the past year.

And Seth is convinced it’s a great time for new businesses to jump in as there is still massive growth to be had.

The taste and texture of meat-alternatives has much improved but in the US, they still account for only about one per cent of meat-based sales, while plant milks make up a whopping 13 per cent of the dairy market.

Tofurky now have a plant-based burger to rival the Beyond Meat burger and are soon to launch a vegan cheese brand but it’s not about cut-throat competition.

“We want all the plant-based products to succeed,” says Seth, “and don’t view it as competition – it’s the tide that floats all boats. We need a vegan world and it’s a bigger job than any one brand can do – we need everybody’s help. It’s an emergency!”

You can’t talk to anyone at the moment without coronavirus cropping up. I asked Seth what his thoughts were: “The deeper the crisis, the deeper the opportunity for change.

There are three reasons why people buy plant-based meats.

Number one has always been health. Number two has been the animals and the third the environmental. Before the pandemic, more and more people were taking actions such as the climate strike. It’s going to be a slow process but I think more people will start connecting the dots which will boost plant-based eating. We have to get out of this despicable and hugely inefficient way of raising animal protein and I really think change will come.”

The full story is in Seth’s book, In Search of the Wild Turkey. the Tofurky Story: How a business misfit pioneered plant based foods before they were cool. Available from Amazon £24.99 (hardcover).

Hear Seth tell his story to me on the June episode of The Viva!

Vegan Podcast.

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