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Animal rights activists have shocked the general public in Central London, as a pro-vegan protest displayed what’s believed to be an actual lifeless cat, canine, and pig hanging side-by-side from butcher’s hooks.
The protest was organised by Viva! – a marketing campaign group finest identified for its investigations into situations on manufacturing facility farms – and was designed to problem individuals’s perceptions on how they considered animals. The stunt noticed the three displayed on the again of a lorry, beneath an indication studying ‘Are You an Animal Lover?’ The cat and canine have been marked as pets, however the pig as simply ‘animal’.
Footage of the general public’s response to the protest confirmed numerous individuals recoiling in seen disgust because the truck drives previous, parking at key London landmarks just like the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square. Social media response has additionally been combined, with one posting on X – previously often known as Twitter – that this was the easiest way to make individuals perceive, whereas one other slammed it as a “low-cost and pathetic stunt”.
NationalWorld has approached Viva! to substantiate whether or not the animal’s our bodies have been actual, however they’re at present believed to be.
Viva! mentioned the stunt marked the beginning of a brand new wave of campaigning, which can use extra provocative techniques to encourage individuals to go vegan. The protest motion’s fundamental intention was to “evoke a robust response from passers-by as they have been confronted with the fact that the pigs they eat are similar to their beloved pets”.
The group’s founder, Juliet Gellatley, defended their use of shock techniques. “As a society we treat cats and dogs as part of our families but see animals such as pigs, chickens and cows as commodities,” she said. “Tens of millions of people in the UK eat factory farmed animals, but very few are happy to look at them dead, see how they are farmed or witness how they are killed.”
The stunt served as a reminder that “the beef burger you order or the bacon sandwich you cook isn’t a faceless ingredient”, she continued, but came from a living creature not all too different from beloved pets. “Pigs are sensitive, emotional and highly intelligent,” she said.
“The only distinction between a deceased pig and a deceased cat or dog is your perception. If the sight of a dead cat or dog disgusts you, that same sentiment should be applied when seeing a dead pig.”
While many discovered the protest surprising, Ms Gellatley mentioned the “excessive struggling” she had seen in her 30-year profession investigating manufacturing facility farms was much more so. “How can we declare to be nation of animal lovers after we have interaction in such ethical hypocrisy? It’s time we apply the identical consideration to farmed animals, as we do our pets at home,” she mentioned.
