More News

This Easter, children’s TV presenter and actress Sarah-Jane Honeywell backed Viva!’s Cracked campaign to highlight that despite a ban on battery cages, 50 per cent of all Britain’s hens are still caged.

“There is no Happy Easter for millions of British hens. This year, battery cages were scrapped for just another cage. It sounds like a sick joke, but it’s true. A few inches more space is hardly a substitute for sunshine and freedom. However, whatever eggs you buy hens are killed young and males die at just a few days old because they are the wrong sex to lay. That’s why I’m supporting Viva!’s Cracked campaign to highlight the suffering of hens. Make their Easter – go vegan!” Read more in our media release.

For egg-free recipes, our shocking undercover exposés visit Viva!’s Cracked pages.

Today (20 March) John Griffiths (AM) has announced at the Senedd that Wales will not employ badger ‘culling’ as part of its policy to tackle TB spread in cattle. Instead they will commence a policy of vaccination of badgers instead. John Griffiths has said: “This is the right thing to do and the right course of action.”

Viva! congratulates the political strength of Mr Griffiths in taking this decision and not being bullied into persecuting Welsh wildlife because of the failings of farmers. The coalition Government in England is now increasingly isolated in their decision to pursue killing badgers; a decision that is now shown to be increasingly unsound. We call on English politicians to follow Wales’ lead and dump the badger ‘cull’. Read our statement.

Thank you to all Viva! supporters

A sincere thank you to all Viva! supporters that have campaigned with us to save badgers. This is testament to your commitment and perseverance.

>> Tell the Coalition Government to dump plans to ‘cull’ badgers in England

>> Thank the Welsh Government for choosing vaccination over ‘culling’

>> Find out more about Viva!’s campaigns for badgers.

Viva! patron Martin Shaw says dump dairy for badgers!

Today (14 December 2011) the Government announced that it was authorising two pilot ‘culls’ of badgers in England (to probably take place after August next year).

Viva! has condemned the move as political cowardice and as a disastrous and unjustified attack on British wildlife. Actor Martin Shaw has backed Viva!’s call to dump dairy to save badgers and join our national boycott. You can read our full statement here.

What you can do: sign our English and Welsh petitions to boycott dairy. Spread the word for badgers. Order our free door-drop leaflets and tell the country why badgers are being scapegoated.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Dump the dairy! Get involved at Milkmyths.org.uk and find cruelty-free alternatives to milk chocolates.

The pictures above are from a previous investigation of a farm connected to Midland Pig Producers

Council still taking objections

Thank you to everyone who helped fight this development the first time round. We won round one, but now the people behind what would be Britain’s largest ever pig farm (which will hold around 26,000 pigs) have resubmitted plans – this time to the county council. That’s why we need your help to fight this – again!

Although it would be wrong to think we don’t already have intensive farming of animals in the UK, the plans at Foston would be a lurch even further towards American style mega-farming and all that entails. As we have seen in the US, animals and local people often come a very distant second to the pursuit of profit. We should be getting rid of factory farming, not embracing it – and people power is the key to stopping such developments.

It only takes a minute to object to the council. Please object even if you did so before, as these are new plans. Every objection counts!

Viva! has launched a national boycott of English dairy products to show consumers the true price of their daily pint of milk. This move could cost the industry tens of millions of pounds each year.

Viva! have condemned the Government’s plans to kill badgers in two trial areas as a cynical and cowardly move to placate a farming industry that refuses to face up to a mess of its own making. It is a move that will condemn thousands of badgers to a violent and inhumane – not to mention needless – death by shooting.

Don’t let them get away with it. Dump dairy for badgers and sign our petitions against English and Welsh dairy! Also, write to your MP or AM with our template message and tell them that they will lose your support if they support killing badgers. Doordrop for badgers with our free leaflets! Find out more about the decision and the real reason badgers are being persecuted in England and read our fully updated factsheet. More details at www.viva.org.uk/badgers.

Each year in the Forest of Dean wild boar are being hunted and shot – a policy that has now extended to killing suckling babies and their mothers. They are blamed for everything from environmental degradation to aggression to other animals and humans. However, this is merely a smoke-screen for a disastrous and terminally misguided environmental policy by the Forestry Commission.

Contact the Forestry Commission and demand an end to the killing using our pre-prepared message.

Cadbury Day of Action: Saturday, 1 October 2011
Thanks to all who joined Viva! to expose the bloody fate of the Cadbury calves

Viva! undercover investigators have filmed inside numerous dairy farms that supply Cadbury with milk. We exposed the bloody secrets kept by one of the nation’s favourite confectionary brands. Thank you to all who joined us on Saturday, October 1 to take the message to consumers everywhere asking them to dump dairy products and save lives. Don't forget that you can still order our free new leaflet for door-dropping or organise your own awareness raising exercise near you from our new Milk Myths website.

Watch footage of this ground-breaking investigation that shows the brutal reality of what happens to many of the nation’s dairy male calves: the wrong sex for milk and too skinny for beef. Taken from their mothers, for some a bullet to the head is their horrific end; killed to feed hounds at the hunt. A tragic waste of life – and often just to keep the shelves full of milk chocolate. Find out more. Read the full story in the Sun newspaper (27 July, 2011).

Countdown to a Very Veggie Christmas with Viva! Check out the Viva! Shop's online advent calendar every day until Christmas for new special offers on ethical gifts. Each offer only lasts a day, so get 'em before they disappear!

Today (December 16) The Sun and The Daily Mail have reported our concerns about the upmarket department store selling reindeer meat on the run up to Christmas.

Passed off as 'festive fun', the reindeer industry can cause huge amounts of suffering to these gentle wild animals - and can also put at risk other indigenous wildlife. Harvey Nichols claims that the reindeer they sell are farmed, but this again could be highly problematic as reindeer are highly susceptible to stress. Elsewhere, traditional methods of herding have given way to chasing them via snowmobile and helicopter.

Read more and contact Harvey Nichols demanding that they take reindeer off the shelves with our pre-prepared email.

Each year, around 16 million turkeys are slaughtered in the UK - with around 10 million killed for the Christmas market alone. The vast majority of them spend their short lives in vast industrial sheds and never go outside.

Read more in our updated factsheet. Find out what you can do to help turkeys from door-dropping free leaflets to taking the Christmas Veg Pledge. Have a cruelty-free Christmas with Viva! and discover our mouth-watering festive recipes.

Viva! does it for ducks – again!

Great news. Viva! have persuaded Thomson Cruises to remove foie-gras from all their ships! We're also going to be writing to all other major cruise lines and asking them to keep high cruelty off the high seas, too. Read more about this victory.

Viva! and Watership Down author nix plans for intensive rabbit farms

Good news! The last of the plans for intensive rabbit farms have been withdrawn.

This follows pressure by Viva! and other groups - and comes after we contacted Richard Adams (author of Watership Down) who joined us in opposing plans!

Read our media release.

Badgers are earmarked for slaughter in Wales because they are being blamed for spreading TB in cattle. However, as Viva!'s shocking new investigation at three Welsh cattle markets shows, biosecurity failings may be at the real heart of the problem. We are calling on the new Welsh Labour administration to abandon plans to kill badgers and focus on the real problems - caused by bad farming and the intensification of the cattle industry.

Watch our shocking investigation and then decide: do you think badgers are to blame? Read our media release.

Urgent action!: Email Carywn Jones (Wales' new First Minister) and ask him to abandon plans to kill badgers!

Fears that badger slaughter could drive holiday makers away in droves

Read our latest media release which demonstrates figures generated by the tourism industry dwarf those of the dairy industry - yet a 'cull' of badgers is not only cruel and pointless it could also decimate tourism revenues in the South West. We are calling on tourism chiefs, councils and politicians to intervene before the Government steamrolls into a disastrous policy of mass badger slaughter in England.

Find out more about Viva! 'battle for the badgers' and how you can help at www.viva.org.uk/badgers.

Badger 'cull' in Wales put on hold

Badger 'cull' in Wales "put on hold". Whilst this is, as it sounds, a holding measure it means that Welsh badgers are safe for the time-being and that the new Government in Wales is not convinced by the scaremongering of the farming unions and is not convinced that science backs killing badgers. This is also likely to have a significant effect on any decision in England. We'll keep fighting! See this news story for more details or our campaign Stop the English badger 'cull' here.

But they are anything but funny

Crammed into vehicles too small and travelling the breadth of Europe and sometimes further, the wellbeing of these poor animals is often completely disregarded. Even the low welfare standards on UK farms are arguably lowered even further on the road. There are now live exports from Ramsgate and Dover in the UK.

Find out what some of the issues are and what you can do to help put an end to this disgusting trade!

Viva! does it for ducks – again!

Great news. Viva! have persuaded Thomson Cruises to remove foie-gras from all their ships! We're also going to be writing to all other major cruise lines and asking them to keep high cruelty off the high seas, too. Read more about this victory.

Viva! and Watership Down author nix plans for intensive rabbit farms

Good news! The last of the plans for intensive rabbit farms have been withdrawn.

This follows pressure by Viva! and other groups - and comes after we contacted Richard Adams (author of Watership Down) who joined us in opposing plans!

Read our media release.