Animal Liberation (SA) campaigns
Background
Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation was first published in 1975. Soon after that the first Animal Liberation group was started in Sydney. The group in South Australia began around 1980. Each state, including the ACT, now has an independent Animal Liberation group.
Animal Liberation (SA) doesn't receive government grants or
subsidies of any kind. Money is raised through membership fees,
donations, trash and treasure stalls, raffles, quiz nights, vegetarian
food stalls, and AL merchandise such as badges, stickers and T-shirts.
If you would like to financially support Animal Liberation (SA) by including us in your will, go to Bequest .
You can also support us by becoming a member and/or making a donation. For details, go to Membership .
There is no typical Animal Liberation member. Men and women of all ages, from teenagers to senior citizens, join our group. The majority live in Adelaide, although we have quite a few country members. Members have a variety of jobs and interests.
What we have in common is a deep concern for animals, a desire to stop their suffering, and to follow a cruelty-free lifestyle. For information on cruelty-free living, go to What Can I Do .
Current campaigns
Duck shooting
Since 1990 we have attended every shoot at Bool Lagoon in the south
east of SA to rescue wounded ducks. They receive veterinary treatment
and once they have recovered from their injuries are released in
protected areas. There has been good television coverage of our
rescues. For more information about our duck rescues, go to
Ducks
.
We have lobbied politicians for many years to ban duck shooting on the grounds of cruelty. The second largest petition ever has been presented to the SA parliament, calling for a ban on duck shooting. By the end of 1997, 52,000 signatures had been presented.
In October 1997 our Public Relations Officer stood for the upper house in the State elections on a platform of banning duck shooting.
Our duck campaign coordinator has written a computer simulation of duck shooting. The simulation clearly shows the cruelty of this so-called sport. If you would like to see this simulation, go to Ducks .
In 1996 we commissioned a Roy Morgan opinion poll, which showed that 69% of South Australians are opposed to recreational duck shooting. You can see the results of this poll in Ducks .
Circuses and rodeos
In 1994 we wrote to local councils in Adelaide, asking them not to lease council land to animal circuses. Six councils passed motions to this effect. During this time there was very good coverage of the circus issue in the local Messenger Press.
We regularly hold protests outside circuses to remind people that
circus animals live in a restricted environment where they can't carry
out their natural behaviour. For more information, go to the section on
Animals in Sport and Entertainment
.
For several months we hired a large display board in Adelaide railway station, featuring a caged circus monkey and the question: Where do you think I live when I'm not in the ring?
Vets and pet shops in Adelaide were asked to display a small sign opposing the use of animals in circuses.
We have attended rodeos in SA and videoed incidents such as calves being jerked off their feet in calf roping, a steer being knocked unconscious by running into a fence, a bucking horse tripping and falling heavily, and several animals going down in the chutes. For more information, go to the section on Animals in Sport and Entertainment .
We are lobbying rodeo sponsors and Adelaide City Council, who leased the land to the rodeo, to withdraw their support. We're hopeful that the Adelaide rodeo won't be held in 1998.
Animal experimentation
For several years AL members sat on 4 Ethics Committees. These Committees examine applications to use animals in research and teaching, and are only supposed to approve applications if they follow the Code of Practice. However, 2 members have now resigned because the Committees are not doing the job they are supposed to. For more details on this point, go to the section on Animals in Laboratories .
We have presented information to Ethics Committees on alternatives to animals, for example, in producing monoclonal antibodies and in teaching.
We have addressed schools Ethics Committees and lobbied the Minister for Education to stop dissection in schools. If you would like to support this campaign, go to What Can I Do .
We joined in a world-wide letter writing campaign to lobby Proctor and Gamble to stop testing their products on animals. If you would like to support this campaign, go to What Can I Do .
We have visited all the animal houses in Adelaide and made suggestions to improve the animals' environment.
Live sheep export
We have held protests on the steps of Parliament House to draw
attention to the Uniceb disaster, when 67,000 sheep burned to death en
route to the Middle East.
We have lobbied the Minister for Primary Industries in Canberra to stop the export of live animals and all the suffering that this causes. If you would like to support this campaign, go to What Can I Do .
We have contributed to an advertisement in a national newspaper, highlighting the cruelty of live export. For more information, go to the section on Farm Animals .
Other campaigns
-
We have regularly protested against jump racing at the
Oakbank Easter racing carnival. An average of 1 horse a year is killed
in the steeplechases and hurdles on this one weekend. For more
information, go to the section on
Animals in Sport and Entertainment
.
-
We have
lobbied the government to ban battery cages for laying hens, as
happened in Switzerland and, more recently, in the ACT. We have also
set up library displays and letterboxed leaflets telling people about
the cruelty of cages, and encouraging them to buy only free range eggs.
For more information, go to the section on
Farm Animals
.
- While there were fur shops in Adelaide we regularly held a protest in Rundle Mall on the first day of winter to highlight the cruelty of fur. For more information, go to the section on Wild Animals .
Progress and the future
We have been very pleased to see changes such as the following:
- the number of vegetarians continues to increase;
- there are no fur shops left in Adelaide;
- there are more and more cruelty-free cosmetic companies;
- there is an open-range zoo in Adelaide, where animals have much more space;
- fewer and fewer teachers do dissections;
- the majority of South Australians are opposed to duck shooting, and it is a matter of time before it is banned;
- many students choose to do projects on animal cruelty, and show great concern for animals, a good sign for the future.
Farming is the main area where virtually no progress has been made. Hens are still in cages, pigs in stalls or crowded pens, and sheep in paddocks without shade or shelter. Millions of sheep are still exported to the Middle East.
Another such area is fishing. Thousands of people do to fish what they wouldn't dream of doing to any other animal. There is widespread ignorance of the fact that fish feel pain and fear like other animals.
So-called pest animals are killed in the cruelest ways, through traps, poisons and diseases. They suffer enormously, but once they are labelled "pests" no-one seems to care.
Animal Liberation will continue to lobby for these animals until their treatment improves. Why don't you join us? Go to Membership to find out how.
You can help by becoming informed, finding out how you can avoid cruelty in your own life, and spreading the message to your friends and family. Apart from this web site, a good resource is the book:
P. Singer and B. Dover, Save the Animals - 101 Easy Things You Can Do , Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1991