Animal Aid : 30 years of campaigning for cruelty-free living

Alan Bates

I can trace my awareness of animal rights back to a family holiday in 1987. My parents had decided to take me (aged 8) to the circus. A protester handed me an RSPCA leaflet. I saw the show, but found it depressing to see elephants and other majestic animals performing clown-like tricks for the amusement of the crowd. I filled in the form on the back of the leaflet and became a junior member.

As I reached my teens, I wanted to find ways to campaign more actively. I started writing letters and articles for a young people’s newspaper, highlighting animal rights issues. I think it must have been as a result of this that I came to the attention of Animal Aid’s Education Officer, Ann Harriman, who wrote to me enclosing information about Animal Aid’s youth group. Ann did a great deal to encourage me to go vegetarian and to set up a local youth group. We enjoyed some notable successes, persuading the local council to adopt an animal welfare charter and taking part in the anti-live export protests in Shoreham in early 1997.

Now a barrister, I am involved with a group of lawyers who seek to use their time and skills to advance the humane treatment of animals. I recently represented a campaigner in a judicial review that led to commercial pet fairs being declared unlawful, and ultimately to the Government abandoning plans to legalise such fairs.

Looking back, I owe my involvement in the animal rights movement to Animal Aid’s consistent willingness to devote time and resources to working with young people, even when other groups were cutting back on their youth work.

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