A heartfelt tribute to all who gave their everything to stop this vile trade.An historic event took place on 6 November 2023 when King Charles announced the plans of PM Rishi Sunak’s government. He declared that a bill will be introduced to ban the export of live animals from the UK for slaughter and fattening abroad. On 20th May 2024, The Animal Welfare (livestock exports) Act received a Royal Assent. Live export of animals from the UK is now illegal.
For 50 years animal rights campaigners have been trying to get this abominable trade banned. Transporting animals thousands of miles away to other countries involves immense cruelty. Packed into cramped conditions without adequate food or water, and suffering from many ailments, these poor animals had no hope. Mental exhaustion, physical injury, hunger, stress, dehydration and death during transport all took their toll.
Dead animals were just dumped in the sea. When they arrived at their destination these animals were subjected to brutal deaths so that their flesh could be eaten by humans. Around 1.6 million farm animals – cattle, calves, sheep, pigs and horses – were transported vast distances across Europe.
This despicable trade had to be stopped. It required dedicated, compassionate human beings to take up the fight to stop this activity which was a disgrace on the human race. The Royal Society for Protection of Animals (RSPCA) was amongst the first organisations to start a campaign against live exports. It had been campaigning for more than 50 years. In 1976-7 as a new Chairman of the RSPCA, Dr. Richard Ryder led the RSPCA on a street march around Dover. It was the RSPCA’s first official street march since 1914. He also led its first official meeting with a Government Minister (Mr Silkin). RSPCA collected millions of signatures on petitions, and thousands of supporters were arrested in protest marches. In the 1970’s the RSPCA created the Special Operations Unit of dedicated undercover officers to trail and track lorries carrying animals and record data. One voluntary undercover agent in France was David Whiting, step son of Lord Dowding. Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding was in charge of RAF Fighter Command during the 1940 Battle of Britain. Dowding was widely credited for defeating Hitler’s plans to invade Britain. Lord Dowding became a Theosophist. The teachings of the Theosophical Society are said to be based on Hinduism. He also became a vegetarian and espoused the cause of animal rights. David’s mother Muriel was a vegetarian who was influenced by the teachings of the Theosophical Society. Founder of the Beauty Without Cruelty charity, she was a visionary whose tireless work resulted in almost all beauty products today proudly claiming to be Vegan and not tested on animals.
In May 1999 David received an International Certificate of Appreciation from the RSPCA ‘For valuable assistance to the Special Operations Unit’. David was instrumental in getting India to ban the exports of frog legs. He carried out covert investigations into animal abuse in Nepal, Canada, South Africa, Iran, Ethiopia and India as well as in the Shoreham campaign to stop animal exports. David is a recipient of our Mahaveer Award. He now lives in Portugal with his wife Maria who also is an animal rights campaigner.
The current CEO of the RSPCA Chris Sherwood expressed his deep disappointment when the ‘Kept Animals Bill’, the forerunner of the current bill to ban live exports, was left in a limbo for 500 days. It looked like the gods wanted to further test the resolve of campaigners.
Another organisation that never gave up hope and continued to raise the voice for animals is Compassion in World Farming. Started by the late legendary Peter Roberts in 1967, CIWF has successfully fought to improve farm animal welfare for decades. In the 1960’s Peter had spent time in India at the Ashram of Sathya Sai Baba. CIWF has co-ordinated 14 June as ‘Ban Live Exports International Awareness Day’. Campaigners in over 40 countries take part in this protest. In 2022 CIWF supporters took over Parliament Square and called upon the government to ban live exports. They handed in 95,000 signatures calling for a ban on live exports to 10 Downing Street.
In a unique co-operation between animal rights groups Viva!, led by Juliet Gellatley and Tony Wardle, together with Animal Aid (the Late Andrew Tyler was director until 2016 and tirelessly devoted his time to battle against the trade), they teamed up with CIWF in 2020 to organise a protest march. Joyce D’ Silva who was the CEO of CIWF from 1991 to 2005 played a leading role in the fight to stop live exports along with the current CEO Philip Limbrey, Peter Stevenson and the late John Callaghan. PETA too has campaigned to abolish live exports. It collected tens of thousands of signatures to send to the Environmental Secretary in protest of the scrapping of the Kept Animals Bill.
Tragedy struck the animal rights movement when on 1 February 1995 Jill Phipps, an animal rights activist campaigning to stop the exports of calves by air from Coventry, was crushed to death by a lorry carrying the animals. She was 31 years old. Jill was determined to stop the exports of animals from Coventry. I had been to one of the protests at Coventry and also Shoreham. When the lorries arrived, protesters could make eye contact with the calves – it was heart-rending. The protestors would become desperate to stop the lorries going forward. They would try to block the lorries resulting in scuffles with the police breaking out. In the end, as the animals were loaded on the ship or aircraft, protesters would be left crying in despair. Jill will be remembered forever in the history of the animal rights movement. Our organisation presented a Mahaveer Award to Jill posthumously.
During this time the fight moved to Britain’s ports from where the animals were transported by sea. In the port town of Brightlingsea a series of protests took place against the live exports between 16 January and 30 October 1995. It came to be known as the Battle of Brightlingsea. At the time, European regulations allowed livestock to be transported for up to 24 hours without food or water. Brightlingsea Against Live Exports (BALE) was started by sisters Maria Wilby and Francesca D’Silva, the daughters of Joyce D’Silva, former CEO of CIWF and the current Ambassador for the organisation. The protests led to clashes with the police. Students, pensioners and even children took part in the protests. According to the Gazette Standard, (Essex County 19 January 2020), Maria Wilby was arrested 8 times. Her husband was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer. He was represented by none other than the present leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Sir Keir at the time was a Human Rights lawyer. The bill to ban the exports of live animals met with the approval of the Labour Party which gave it an overwhelming majority.
It is strange how things eventually fall in place when your goal is nothing but compassion. Over 600 people were arrested from January to October 1995. A group known as the Brightlingsea 14 were taken to the High Court by farmer Roger Mills, the main exporter of the animals. He tried to sue them for £1million each. He did not succeed. BALE eventually won the battle when the export companies stopped using the Brightlingsea port due to rising costs.
A similar campaign took place in Shoreham. Carla Lane and Celia Hammond were amongst the famous names which supported the Shoreham protests. Mark Glover of Respect For Animals, Jaine Wild of Sussex, an anti-hunt campaigner, and Sue Baumgardt, an animal rights campaigner, were also actively supporting the campaign. Wenda Shehata was so affected by what she witnessed that she invested everything to set up Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary. On Wednesday 4 January 1995 around 1000 police officers were present in Shoreham to avoid repetition of disturbances that had taken place on the previous two nights. Hundreds of protesters had prevented the lorries loading the animals onto the ship. The Young Indian Vegetarians organised a vegan dinner party for the protesters one evening in Shoreham. BALE eventually won their battle when on 6 July 1995 the export companies stopped using the Brightlingsea port due to rising costs. The policing cost of the protests was £150,000 a day.
Kent Action Against Live Exports (KAALE) had organised protests against the export of animals from Dover and Ramsgate for the last 28 years. KAALE, founded by Yvonne & Ian Birchall, have tenaciously fought to stop the export of calves from Dover and Ramsgate. Activist Liz Long published the Animal Protesters Bulletin.
Exports of live animals came to a temporary halt after the outbreak of BSE disease also known as ‘mad cow disease’. The exports started again in 2006 after the lifting of a decade-long EU ban imposed to prevent the spread of BSE. On 12 September 2012 the RSPCA inspected a ship carrying livestock in Ramsgate and found that 41 sheep were severely injured and had to be put down. Another 2 had drowned. Thanet Council which owned the Port banned any further exports from taking place. However Ramsgate port was designated as a ‘free port’. The exporting companies sued Thanet Council for loss of business. The court judgement went in their favour with the Council paying £5.1 million to the exporting companies and others involved in the trade. The Council can look back and be proud of the fact that they did what was morally right. One of the Thanet Councillors who had supported the campaign to ban live exports was Ian Driver. He was of the opinion that only peaceful direct action would halt the exports. In 2011 and 2014 huge protests took place in Ramsgate.
In the absence of any success to ban the live exports the RSPCA, CIWF and KAALE pushed for a law to substantially reduce travelling times of animals. Yvonne Birchall said in 2019, ‘We believe no animal should travel for more than 8 hours to have their throat cut’.
It is said that the night is the darkest before dawn. Just as it seemed that there was no hope for the animals, the government of Rishi Sunak passed a parliamentary bill to ban the vile trade. Lorraine Platt Co-founder of Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation had secured a pledge from Rishi Sunak who was standing for the leadership contest for the Conservative Party. Rishi’s Sunak pledged to champion the Kept Animals Bill and Action Plan For Animal at an event in Surrey on 30th July 2022.The Kept Animals Bill will ban live exports for slaughter and fattening, outlaw keeping primates as pets, and aims to curb puppy-smuggling.
The icing on the vegan cake is that meat consumption in the UK has fallen to its lowest since records began. Fish consumption has gone down too.
The RSPCA has labelled the ban on live exports, “one of the biggest days for animal welfare in modern history”.
World Horse Welfare too has campaigned for almost 100 years to stop the export of Horses for slaughter. Roly Owers Chief Executive of the organisation said:
‘Today is a defining moment in our nearly century-long and founding campaign. The passage of this law ensures that no horse, pony or donkey will legally be exported from Great Britain for slaughter and while this is a monumental step forward, plenty more needs to be achieved to effectively combat the illegal export of equines from the country’.
The fight will continue until the human race declares peace with the animal kingdom. What we want is a fundamental change in human behaviour. It transcends nations, races, religions and ideologies. It is a new dawn in human civilization that we are seeking. It is our tryst with destiny. We will pass on the baton to the next generation when we can no longer fight.
Nitin Mehta
www.nitinmehta.co.uk
August 2024
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