18/05/2023, 12:41
Why did we protest at the Grand National? To finally make Britain talk about our treatment of animals I Alex Lockwood I The
This broken relationship is at the heart of our climate and nature crisis. We're devouring nature through animal farming and fishing, killing our rivers with slurry from industrial chicken and pig farms, and watching our beloved wildlife disappear in front of our eyes. All because we are stuck in a pattern of outdated beliefs that it is OK to control animals, using them for profit. The Grand National is emblematic of this uncomfortable and one-sided dominance - that's why we tried to stop it. There is a solution: repairing this broken relationship, beginning where most harm is done, in our food system. A food system without animals is already known to be safer, more secure and more sovereign, providing all the calories and nutrients we need and, in fact, using less land. This freed-up land could be rewilded for nature to recover, and we could see wildlife - including wild horses - return and flourish. It shouldn't take a committed bunch of caring individuals to put this solution at the centre of national debate. But it has. Up and down the country, everyone is talking about our treatment of animals. This national conversation is essential to challenge the fast decline into climate inaction. Some prefer to focus on the protests rather than the issues. So let's talk about them. Animal Rising is a peaceful movement; our actions are focused on stopping harm, particularly in the food system, where we breed and kill more than 1.2bn animals in the UK every year. All of our planned actions on Saturday were nonviolent. That's different from being disruptive, of course, but the two have long been compatible: just look at Gandhi or Martin Luther King.
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https://www.theguardisn.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/16/grand-nationaI-animaI-rising-horse-deaths
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