More News

In a shocking development, people who eat processed meat may have eaten dog, cat or even rat. The authorities and supermarkets in Britain don’t know because they don’t yet test for it! Read our major exposé in the Daily Mail.

In a scandal that threatens dwarf the horse meat one, authorities in Spain have uncovered evidence of criminal gangs collecting animals for incineration from vets, shelters and even zoos  but instead selling them to processors (which ship across Europe) for animal and ‘pet’ feed, and perhaps even human food.  Read more.

It really is time to go veggie. Viva! can offer free help to go veggie or even better vegan.

The shocking secrets behind the trade in 'novelty' reindeer meat

Harvey Nichols, Fortnum & Mason and Lidl are - or have recently been - selling reindeer meat in many of their stores across the UK. The reindeer industry causes huge suffering both to reindeers and wild animals, such as wolves, lynxes and bears (with cubs), that are killed to protect it.

Tell them to stop. Find out what you can do. Read our media release. Read Viva!'s major exposé in The Sun.

Badger 'cull' delayed - thanks to you!

> Watch a powerful video about the 'cull'

> Sign Brian May's petition

Whilst it is fantastic news that there will be no 'culling' of badgers for now, the threat has not gone away. The Government is now saying that 'culling' could start as soon as next summer. That is why we ask you to keep campaigning for badgers!

Thank you to everyone who signed Brian May's petition! Thanks to you - and everyone in Team Badger - we secured a debate in parliament that resulted in an overwhelming vote for badgers! However, only time will tell if the Government listens. Please continue to write to your MP and tell them to vote "No!" to badger 'culling' (you can adapt the letter here).

'Back the Badger' merchandise!: A good way to help us raise funds to continue our campaigns is by buying our merchandise - it is also a great way to spread awareness. Purchase our badger brooch or t-shirt - and back the badger!

Since 2008, Viva! has campaigned against the persecution of badgers: with a national rally in Wales, Days of Action and we've printed hundreds of thousands of leaflets (distributed by people just like you) to let the public know that badgers are under threat to protect the dairy industry - and more! .

Find out more about Viva!’s campaigns for badgers and please pledge to boycott dairy today!

Tell Makro to stop selling live animals!

Viva! and Animal Aid have joined forces to try and persuade Makro to end the sale of live animals at the their stores across the UK. Watch our undercover investigation and read our press release.

Currently live lobsters and crabs are being sold to whoever wants them; with Makro having no control over how they are killed. Once home most are boiled or hacked apart with knives whilst still alive. It can be a prolonged and excruciating death.

Contact Makro today with our suggested message. Get active for lobsters with our handy guide.

Exposed: the Royal hunt that takes 'unwanted' dairy calves to feed to the hounds

Viva! undercover investigators 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. With Viva!, The Express and Daily Mail have now revealed how baby bull calves are shot in the head and fed the hounds at a local hunt popular with the Royal family. They are part of the 100,000 calves killed each year in Britain simply because they are the wrong sex to produce milk.

Watch footage of this ground-breaking investigation. You can order our free leaflet for door-dropping or organise your own awareness raising exercise near you from our Milk Myths website. Also, find out how to dump dairy with Viva!.

Help us make Britain foie-gras free!

Every year in France, around 38 million ducks are kept trapped and helpless; a metal tube is thrust down their throats and vast quantities of food are forcibly pumped into their stomachs so that their livers swell painfully to up to 10 times their natural size. Most are forced into cages so small they can't even stretch their wings. It is illegal to produce in Britain, but not illegal to import and sell it. We believe that is wrong.

This Christmas we did a major push to make Britain foie-gras-free! Thank you to everyone who helped. You can still help end suffering by getting active: order our free materials and put pressure on the places that sell it and politicians that allow it. Watch and share our film The Wonderful World of Gavage and find out more on our fully updated factsheet.

In the past five years Viva! has printed - and with your help - distributed nearly half a million leaflets. Donate today to end foie-gras cruelty.

Kizz & Cazz

A spoof of Justin Bieber – Mistletoe!

Viva!'s very own Kizz & Cazz have filmed another music video to raise awareness of the plight of animals at Christmas.

It was release on the 7th December so please spread far & wide!

Wild Boar Under Fire in Forest of Dean

URGENT!: Wild boar are now again under threat in the Forest of Dean. With 100 planned to be shot by January 2013. Estimates on numbers within the Forest vary but could be as little as 200 or lower. Again, the Forestry Commission has got its sums wrong and once again wild boar in the Forest of Dean are under threat of extinction. Stop the War on Wildlife. Write to the Forestry Commission with our suggested email to help save the wild boars of the Forest of Dean.

Find out more.

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Victory: Adidas kicked into touch!

98 per cent of kangaroo leather phased out over the next 12 months

This is a major victory in our long running campaign and will save the lives of countless kangaroos and their baby joeys. Thank you to everyone who has written and kept up the pressure on the company! Read more about our joint success with The Australian Wildlife Protection Council.

We're almost there! Help us get Adidas to dump that last 2 per cent and encourage other football boot manufacturers to do the same - and adopt cruelty-free synthetic alternatives instead. Get active!

Lidl are have been selling kangaroo meat in some of their stores. Please contact them and ask them to stop!

The Kids are NOT alright

Viva! goes undercover with another groundbreaking undercover investigation to expose what really happens on Britain’s dairy goat farms. What we found may shock you.

Goats' milk comes from happy animals on small rural farms. Right? Well, that's what the industry wants you to believe. However, you don't have to scratch very far beneath the surface to find a far more unpalatable truth. Routine mutilations of baby animals without anaesthetic; mothers separated from their young; intensive farming; early death and disease are often the norm.

Watch our shocking investigation footage. Find out more on our new Nanny State pages including what you can do to help end farmed animal mutilations. Order your FREE Goat Action Pack (including leaflets, postcard to the Government and poster). Help us end cruelty to animals: donate to our goat campaign.

Our Nanny State campaign has had major exposure in the Daily Mail!

Hamish & Dougal arrive at Hillside!

Still donate to provide for upkeep at their new home

Click here to donate and to read a message from supporter Heidi Stephenson who escorted the adorable duo from Cornwall to their new home - and see the photos!

Hamish and Dougal are two Highland steers that needed your help – and you gave it! The farmer who owned them was willing to spare them - if the funds were raised to purchase and transport them to Hillside Animal Sanctuary. We reached that target – with your help! A massive thank you to everyone who donated.

Please continue to give towards this appeal. Click here to donate. Any money raised from now on will be split between Viva! and Hillside.

They Swam for Life!

Team Viva! are over half way to their goal of raising £5,000 to save animals

Despite being scared and well out of their comfort zone, a Viva! team all swam a mile outdoors in the inclement British summer on Sunday 24 June 2012!

It was their determination to save animals and save the planet that kept them going – as well as your generosity.

If you haven’t already sponsored them you can still reward their hard work with a donation and see more about the event.

A plea from the heart from Juliet (who like all team Viva! completed the challenge)! “I do question my sanity taking on this challenge, after all it is voluntary. I am a rubbish swimmer and on holiday always take a lilo in the water! I’m doing this in the hope that Viva! Supporters will take pity on us and sponsor us so we can raise funds for our animal campaigns which are so crucial for the world. I’m also looking forward to looking really sexy in my wet suit, swimming cap and goggles. It’s a look!”

"Good luck to all. A&E on standby! Jules you and the team are mad but brave!" - £25.00 from Jenny Carter

Will you help us help Viva!?

Tell the Government that it must end

The Daily Mail carries our investigation into how at least 80 per cent of piglets are mutilated every year in Britain.

Earlier this year, Viva! filmed young piglets pulled out of their pens, having their back teeth cut off with pliers and their tails cut off with scissors. This despite routine mutilations supposedly being banned in the UK and Europe.

Experts say that it causes needless pain and suffering – yet it usually happens without anaesthetic! Ask yourself: would we allow human babies to be treated this way? View the footage.

Tell the Government it must stop!

Please remember, the best way to end the suffering of animals is to stop eating them. Viva! is here to help

National Dairy Boycott as badger ‘cull’ gets the go-ahead

Growing consumer boycott could already be costing the industry over £1 million a year

Viva! has pledged to bolster its consumer boycott of English dairy products in light of today’s decision (12 July) at the High Court to allow two trial ‘culls’ of badgers to go ahead in England later this year.

This is a blow for science, common sense and most of all the thousands of badgers that will die if these trials lead to even more ‘culling’ across England next year.

Our petition to boycott dairy has already been signed by over 2,000 people. If you care about badgers, please pledge to boycott dairy today! Read more here. Find out more about Viva!’s campaigns for badgers.

A massive three billion fewer meaty meals were eaten in Britain in 2011 when compared to 2005, according to recently released government statistics. The good news doesn’t stop there. The new report shows that last year, 695,000 fewer land animals overall were slaughtered in Britain compared to 2010. Read more.

Join the veggie revolution! Find out how you can cut down on how much meat you eat with Viva!. We can help with moving towards, being and staying vegetarian – or even better vegan. Join us and help more people change.

Although many see it as the ultimate in free-range farming, the seemingly idyllic scene of a ewe and her lambs grazing is misleading. These animals spend their entire lives under human control. Behind the pastoral image lies an industry that relies on the mutilation of baby animals – and where life for many sheep and lambs is short and filled with pain, disease and fear.

This Easter, Viva! blew apart the cosy image of British sheep farming – thanks to everyone who joined in with our Easter action! We know that the sight of lambs gambolling in Spring can prick the conscience of meat-eaters, which is why we have produced a fantastic new door-drop leaflet to help them change. Door-drop throughout Spring and save lambs with our free leaflets. Order today!

>> Watch our special Easter appeal from Viva! founder and director, Juliet Gellatley

>> See our Watch our shocking new exposé

>> Find out more about more about our campaign

>> Plus read our Lambing fact sheet

Viva! is one of the signatories of a joint letter from leading animal groups to the Olympic committee asking them not to use real farmed animals during the opening ceremony. Click here to read it. The letter’s co-signatories are: Animal Aid, Animal Defenders International, Captive Animals Protection Society, CIWF and PETA.

Celebrations this Sunday (July 1), as California officially bans the sale of foie-gras! Viva!USA was at the forefront of the campaign, and was one of the four groups that sponsored the original bill that led to then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger agreeing to a ban. After seven years the ban will finally come into effect. Read more.

This is great news for ducks and geese – but there is still so much to be done to end the cruelty of foie-gras production. Find out how you can help.

Viva! has criticised plans to feature live farmed animals – including sheep, ducks and chickens – at the Olympic opening ceremony in London as “exploitative and potentially cruel”.

The plans – unveiled today by artistic director Danny Boyle – perpetuate the myth of small scale farming when the reality is that most farmed animals are now intensively reared in Britain.

See our press release or read more and find out how you can complain to the Olympic Committee and tell them to not used farmed animals as live props at the opening ceremony. Read today’s (13 June 2012) front page article in The Metro.

As you might have heard, Tom Parker Bowles said that raising children on a vegan diet is child abuse on ITV’s This Morning show earlier this week. It went unchallenged but as it’s a serious accusation, we felt it would be appropriate to react to it. Read our letter to ITV. If you want to support our message, please write to thismorning@itv.com.

Still donate to provide for upkeep at their new home

Click here to donate and to read a message from supporter Heidi Stephenson who is spearheading the effort to save these two from the slaughterhouse.

Hamish and Dougal are two Highland steers that needed your help – and you gave it! The farmer who owns was willing to spare them - if the funds were raised to purchase and transport them to Hillside Animal Sanctuary. We have reached that target – with your help! A massive thank you to everyone who donated.

Please continue to give towards this appeal. Click here to donate. Any money raised from now on will be split between Hillside for their amish and Dougal’s care and Viva!’s campaigns for farmed animals.

You can still also buy a special ‘Save Hamish & Dougal’ t-shirt from those lovely people at the Compassionate Tee-Shop – with all profits going to the campaign! Click for unisex tees | click for women's tees

Shaking what ya mamma gave you!
A massive thank you to Heidi and all those who took part in the Newton Abbot Zumbathon, raising £174!

Beautiful paintings of Hamish & Dougal – place your bid now!

Gary and Ingrid Taylor completed a 70 mile stretch of the SW Coastal Path earlier this month in order to raise funds for the Farm Animal Sanctuary in memory of their 16 year old daughter, Isabel, who sadly died in September 2011.

Find out how the walk went and how you can still donate.

Despite neither being British nor legal to produce in this country, the BBC has allowed foie-gras to feature extensively in the series The Great British Menu.

Please contact them to demand they take an ethical decision that foie-gras is not to be used on their cookery shows and not promoted via their websites. Use our suggested email.

The campaign is now featured in the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

Thanks to local group Friends of the Wild Boar and the letters to the Forestry Commission from Viva! supporters, wildlife has a temporary reprieve in the Forest of Dean.

Shooting of wild boar has been stopped until at least September this year, when the local council finishes an inquiry and numbers of the animals has been officially estimated. This comes after fears that the Forestry Commission had all but wiped out the wild population. Whilst we welcome this moratorium, we will be working with local campaigners to ensure that the wild boar are protected and kept safe for good.

Please contact the Forestry Commission and ask for a permanent end to the shooting of wild boar. Read more here. Please also contact the local council and ask them to approve an increase in the population of the boar in the Forest.

It is a fact that hunting with hounds is most prevalent in areas of England and Wales where TB in cattle is at its worst. Yet badgers are blamed for the spread of TB! Read more about this potential link and demand that Governments in both countries abandon plans to ‘cull’ badgers and improve biosecurity in the countryside to tackle TB.

Adidas on the run over kangaroo leather

Viva!’s longrunning campaign to kick cruelty out of football is paying divdends and making headlines (The Observer and The Daily Star).

News has reached us that Adidas and the other main football boot manufacturers are reducing the amount of kangaroo leather they are using. However, Adidas, Umbro, Puma and Nike still all use it to differing extents. We are working closely with the Australian Wildlife Protection Council to end this terrible trade once and for all, which helps drive the slaughter of over a million baby kangaroos each year.

Read more.

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.