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12 March 2002
British Youth Revolt Against Factory Farming
ACT! - Animal Campaigns for Teenagers - is the new,
straight-talking anti-factory farming campaign from Viva!’s
youth department. It will be launched on March 12 and will
trigger nationwide action as young people take to the streets
to decry Britain’s intensive animal agriculture.
Spearheading the notion that tea and sympathy are not sufficient,
angry youngsters will be relying on more ‘proactive’
methods to alert the public to the current state of factory
farmed animals. Raging activists will stage colourful street
theatre, fundraising events and costumed leafleting to secure
public attention.
Grace Dawson (16) from Suffolk says: “Factory
farming is a barbaric practice devoid of compassion. Innocent
creatures are locked up and their short lives are full of
pain and misery. All in the name of profit”.
Holly Maguire (11) from Sussex agrees: “It’s
really bad that children are tricked into thinking that animals
live happily in fields and barnyards when most of them are
kept in sheds and cages. Say no to factory farming, say no
to pain and death”.
Says Sarah Lucas, Viva!’s Youth Campaigner: “It’s
a damning state of affairs that the British public, whilst
priding themselves as animal-lovers, are content to turn a
blind eye as animals are systematically abused. Factory farming
is nothing other than institutionalised animal cruelty”.
ACT! highlights the fact that factory farming regards animals
as commodities to be exploited for profit. Hidden away from
the public eye, farmed animals are confined to small cages
and overcrowded windowless sheds, ammonia-filled air and artificial
lighting. Animals are selectively bred to produce more than
nature intended; pumped full of drugs to ensure a speedy yield
of meat; subjected to horrible mutilations and deprived of
exercise.
Ms Lucas added: “Young people, not hoodwinked by the
meat and dairy industry, respond to the facts of factory farming
with revulsion. Appalled by its savagery, they are adamant
that the UK needs to end factory farming now!”.
For further information and photographs or to interview Grace
or Holly, contact Sarah Lucas at Viva! HQ - 0117 944 1000
Nationwide Youth Action
A total of 30 Viva! youth groups will be campaigning across
the UK. The following activists are available for interview:
Saturday 23rd March
Felicity Harwood (13) Staffordshire
Lichfield activists dressed as battery hens squeeze into telephone
box
Holly Maguire (11) Sussex
Brighton activists stage ‘slaughterhouse’ street
theatre
Saturday 30th March
Andrea Wooly (16) Norfolk
Norwich activists enact the lives of ‘sick’ battery
chickens
Wednesday 3rd April
James Rodgers (12) Cambridgeshire
Cambridge activists stage a sponsored three-legged chicken
race through the city
Saturday 6th April
Rosie Graham (13) Scotland
Edinburgh activists ‘imprisoned’ in a wire cage
for a day dressed as pigs
Friday 12th April
Charlotte England (11) Sussex
Sussex activists perform slaughter on ice skates in animal
costumes
Monday 15th April
Claire Jenkins (17) Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire activists stage the ‘slaughter’
of a pig
Saturday 20th April
Lelia Bridgeland Stephens (8) Ryde
Isle of Wight primary school activists demonstrate in the
town centre
Laura Stevens (12) Exeter
Devonshire activists hold a ‘sick’ piggy ‘lie-in’
Click here to read the text of
the "Revolting" leaflet
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Campaigns 
