Eating meat; fish and dairy causes environmental destruction, damages human health, contributes to global hunger and inflicts immense suffering on billions of animals across the world.

Viva! believes that the solution to all these problems is in our own hands: the best way to stop the destruction and the cruelty is to stop eating animals now – go vegetarian, or better still, vegan.

Through popular campaigns, solid research, undercover exposés and effective media skills we have brought the reality of modern farming into people's living rooms. We have enlightened millions, shocked most and changed the diets of many. You can help with these successes.

Latest news

UPDATED: Viva! hits out at Budgens for permitting the sale of Squirrel meat

As reported earlier, Europe’s largest campaigning group Viva!, say Budgens are supporting the barbaric and needless ‘cull’ of thousands of grey Squirrels across the UK, alongside the cruel and needless fashion of eating ‘wild meat’, by permitting the independently owned branch in Crouch End, North London, to sell the animal.

The story is today been reported widely, with articles being featured by The Telegraph, The Guardian and in today’s Daily Mail – as well as some other news sites!

To find out more about Squirrels, read our press releases here and here, and the factsheet here!

Art for Animals

Celebrating nature!

As the launch event of Viva!’s Art for Animals (where artists are invited to support Viva! through their work), Viva! supporters are invited to a champagne reception and private viewing on Tuesday, 14 September 2010, 6.30pm-9pm in London.

More information about Art for Animals

Vegan Cake Bake

Monday, 26 July – Sunday, 1 August 2010

Ever wanted a simple, fun and inspiring way to raise money to help save the lives of millions of farmed animals with Viva!? Well now’s the chance! Viva! is funded entirely by your donations and is the largest campaigning-based vegetarian and vegan organisation in the UK.
Details and cake recipes

Viva! & VVF Peaks Challenge

STOP PRESS!! Five out of seven of the Viva! team successfully completed the final 15 peaks in 24 hours. It was the most gruelling challenge any of them have undertaken.

It’s not too late to sponsor us! Please give generously to help us reach our target of £5000 for the animals.

School Speaker Training Day

Become a School Speaker and Make a Real Difference to the Future!

Viva! and the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation School Speaker Training Day

Saturday, September 11, 2010 at the Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

Details

Join Viva!'s Door-drop Army!
Become a new recruit this July

Viva! is working hard to keep animal issues in the headlines (see below). So, now is the ideal time to get people thinking about what they can do to help end animal suffering - and we all know the best way is simply to stop eating them.

As a purely donations funded organisation we simply don't have the money to take out big adverts. However, we know information promotes change and door-dropping leaflets is a fantastic way to reach people who might not otherwise hear about our life-saving campaigns. This July we are giving it a major push.

It's as easy as it sounds! Order as many free leaflets as you want and simply put them through letterboxes near where you live. People then contact us for help going veggie. Simple but effective! Order your leaflets today.
 

Viva! in the Daily Mail
Fight to stop US-style mega factory farming

Following on from the recent front page in The Independent, The Daily Mail takes a look at the misery - for both people and animals - that factory farming has caused in the United States. It also offers the timely warning that we must fight to stop the same from happening here.

Viva! is committed to ending factory farming, and after defeating developers in South Witham (see below) we are now taking on the pig industry. A gigantic intensive farm is planned right next to a small, sleepy village in Derbyshire. It will house around 26,000 pigs indoors, with 2,500 sows permanently incarcerated. An awful irony is that it is being built right next door to a women's prison.

Just like the dairy industry, the pig sector is following America's lead and increasingly forcing animals inside into unnatural environments. In fact, the company behind this boasts that there will be no more animals left outside in the British countryside within ten years!

The consultation period is now closed, but over 1,700 of you objected! For this and more details on the development click here.
 

Victory as Nike kick kangaroo cruelty into touch!
Top sports retail brand to stop using kangaroo leather

In light of the exposé (below) Nike have announced that – ahead of a possible EU ban –  they are working towards stopping using kangaroo leather altogether in their football boots. This is a major victory and will heap pressure of those companies – such as Adidas – that persist if profiting from this cruel and bloody trade. Read more here.

Viva! in the Daily Mail (22 June 2010): Viva! has been working with Philip Woolley from the AWPC (Australian Wildlife Protection Council) to highlight the fact that some of the world's top stars are wearing boots made out of kangaroo skin. We are calling on them to kick off their cruel kangaroo leather boots and slip on some goal winning synthetic ones instead. Read the hard-hitting story here.

We are also major supporters of the AWPC's call for a ban on all kangaroo products across the EU. If you haven't signed the petition please do so now, as we must show Brussels that there is demand for a ban! Also visit Viva!'s savethekangaroo.com and join the new kangaroo Facebook group. (photo copyright Ray Drew)

Love Squirrels? Then Boycott Duchy Originals!

Prince Charles’ call for a cull of grey squirrels in Cornwall has prompted animal protection groups to describe him as ‘a man who doesn’t let his education get in the way of his ignorance’. Animal Aid and Viva! believe that the Prince’s campaign to eradicate grey squirrels – through poisoning, shooting or bludgeoning them to death in a sack – is ‘irrational, inhumane and doomed to fail’, and have called for everyone who opposes animal cruelty to boycott the Prince’s Duchy Originals range of products in protest. Read full story

Read factsheet

Viva! claims victory as second zero-grazing development goes kaput!
Plans for mega-dairy development in Lincolnshire withdrawn after outcry

Viva! – Britain’s largest campaigning vegetarian group – and local residents in South Witham, Lincolnshire, have been celebrating the news that plans for the proposed 3,000 cow mega-dairy on the outskirts of the village have been abandoned. It follows a letter writing campaign organised by Viva! to the landowners, Buckminster Estates.

This comes just months after similar plans for a massive zero-grazing development in the same county (outside Nocton) were withdrawn after pressure from Viva! and other campaigners. This is another major victory in our fight to stop the spread of the mega-dairy in Britain!

Read more about this good news here.

UN calls for world to go vegan!
Ground-breaking new report says reduction of meat and dairy vital to our future

A new report from the influential United Nations Environment Programme has called for "... a significant shift in diets away from animal based proteins towards more vegetable-based foods in order to dramatically reduce pressures on the environment." This is great news, and backs up what Viva! has been saying for the last 15 years. With our supporters, Viva! has been at the forefront of pushing the benefits of vegetarianism – and especially veganism – onto the environmental agenda with our HOT! campaign. If you want help going vegan Viva! is here to help! If you're looking for help to cut down on how much meat and dairy you eat, take our Fruity Fundays pledge.

Britain fast losing its appetite for meat
Annual consumption down quarter of a million tonnes in four years

Finally some good news! The latest government agricultural figures show that Britain continues to go veggie, with a huge drop in meat consumption (of both domestic and imported) – resulting in 37 million fewer animals being killed in the UK in 2009 compared to 2005.

Find out more here.

Reprieve for badgers?
Landmark court ruling might banish 'cull' for good

The recent Appeal Court ruling favouring The Badger Trust squashing the Welsh Assembly’s plans to kill 1,500 badgers in parts of Wales will have far reaching consequences. Not least the fact that the judges ruled that a 9 per cent reduction of bTB infection in cattle was not enough to justify what amounted to wildlife genocide.

This also means that the coalition in England will find it difficult to ‘cull’ badgers! However, we will be closely watching developments.

Check out Viva!’s campaigns for badgers and read our fully updated fact sheet.

Cookery competition

Get your creative juices flowing for Fruity Fundays!

Get cooking for Viva! and VVF’s national competition as part of our Fruity Fundays campaign encouraging people to go veggie or vegan one or more day(s) a week.

The challenge is to create the most delicious Fruity Fundays three-course vegan meal that uses the five-a-day (or more) recommended portions of fruit and vegetables. We are looking for something tasty, inventive but not too over-complicated.
Details

Nocton Dairy Plans Dumped!

Farmers behind mega-dairy head for the hills

Thanks to the overwhelming public outcry against the proposed intensive dairy farm in Lincolnshire, the consortium behind it appears to have pulled out of the project for now.

This is a major vindication of our concerns that the farm - where over 8,000 cows were due to be zero-grazed for most of the year - would be bad for animal welfare and bad for the environment. However, we expect a resubmittal in the summer of altered plans. So, watch this space!

Viva!'s campaign has attracted major national coverage in The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, BBC (including Farming Today) and LBC radio!

View our planning objections to read about the issues. For more information see our media release. Join our Facebook group.

Viva! Animals Photo Competition

This spring, we’re looking for the very best photos of farmed animals (or any wild animals whose cousins are killed for food such as horses, geese or ducks) - whether in transport, at market, on farms, out in the field, ponds or in sanctuaries.

Enter the Photo Competition

Martin Shaw and Viva! fight for ducks!

Watch our patron's heartfelt plea to save Britain's favourite bird:

Watch Viva!'s Ducks Out of Water campaign film (4 mins), with footage from our recent investigation into the slaughter of ducks. Read the heartache of our undercover investigator here.