Guerrilla Film Screening to mark International Animal Rights Day

bristol | protests | news report Monday December 10, 2012 23:51 by Bristol Animal Rights Collective barc at hotmail dot co dot uk

Today members of Bristol Animal Rights Collective staged a guerrilla film screening in The Bear Pit to mark International Animal Rights Day, which happens annually on December 10th. International Animal Rights Day (IARD) aims to remember the animal victims of human domination and calls for the recognition of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR). IARD has taken place every year since 1998. It shares it’s place in the calender with International Human Rights Day – which is no coincidence – as it pays tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and seeks to extend the declaration one step further to include all sentient life.

We set up a screen in The Bear Pit around 3:00PM just as it was starting to get dark. A stall was set-up nearby offering people more information on veganism and animal liberation issues as well as hot chocolate and vegan muffins! Our presence was welcomed by some of the regular stall holders who joined us for hot drinks and some rather interesting chats.

The first film of the evening was “Meet Your Meat” which, despite being made by and an advertisement for PETA, showcased the inherent problems with the animal agriculture industry showing graphic footage of the cruelty involved in these businesses. Despite the cold numerous people stopped to take leaflets and have conversations with more than a few people saying they’d been moved by what they’d seen and were thinking of making the change to vegetarianism/veganism!

Next up was “Earthlings” which is a feature-length films exposing the problems and abhorrent cruelty that exists within all forms of animal industry – from pets to food; entertainment to clothing. A similarly moving film it uses dramatic footage to showcase how these industries exploit animals as well as making the links between the various forms of hierarchy and exploitation that exist under the current capitalist system (racism, sexism, homophobia, speciesism etc.).

Throughout both of these movies there was a clear message that you too can help stop these atrocities from happening – by going vegan! We believe that the first step towards animal liberation is to stop accepting animals as products to be used and abused by humans. This means refusing to partake in the consumption of animals either for food, entertainment, clothing or scientific research. Animals exist for their own purposes and not to fulfill the hedonistic desires of human society.

If you’d like more information about going vegan you can visit the Vegan Starter Kit website or read BARC’s “Vegan Beginner Guide” (available online here or from one of our stalls/events). If you’d like to join us in the struggle for animal liberation you can contact us or join us at our next meeting on Wednesday 12th December at Kebele, 14 Robertson Road, Easton.