WRITE Off
Personal Opinion Tony Wardle
Every time Britain goes to war, the first casualty is truth. Months, perhaps years later the facts emerge and we realise we have been manipulated and deceived. Foot and mouth saw Britain at war, every bit as much as the bombing of Serbia or the action against Iraq. And truth bit the dust just as surely.
There was only one agenda and that was weeping farmers. There was no explanation as to why a tourist industry worth billions and hotels, B&Bs, craft and gift shops and other rural industries were being torched on the same funeral pyres as countless animals – young and old, nursing and pregnant. All to salvage farmers’ meat exports worth a paltry £1.2 billion, with no demand for them to justify their cruel selfishness.
Terrorists
Instead, the media turned on the animal rights movement en masse. Take Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian who described our record as ‘appalling’. Were we supposed to blockade the thousands of farms involved? I don’t know! He clearly sees us as having only marginally fewer resources than the brigade of guards and the clairvoyant gift of knowing the location of each outbreak.
And if we had turned up outside infected farms – or even worse, gone on to them – can you imagine the field day the writer would have had? We would have been ranked somewhere between Hitler and Saddam Hussein.
Bella Thomas in Prospect magazine claimed we were ‘strangely absent’ because we’re more concerned about fox hunting than factory farming. To Alice Thompson in the Telegraph we were the anti-Christ: “… animal rights activists have exposed themselves for what they really are – terrorists without a cause.” Please don’t hold back, Alice.
Crazed Fanatics
David Cox’s words in the New Statesman dripped with contempt for ‘the crazed fanatics’ who ‘routinely resort to letter and car bombs’ but have done nothing on foot and mouth. That’s us! Trying to persuade people to go veggie was a complete waste of time as they would all go back to eating meat eventually.
Alice Thompson even had a second bite at the cherry: “They would prefer to hurl abuse at Elizabeth Hurley for wearing white fur than do anything constructive to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease.” Good god, was that my responsibility? Why didn’t someone tell me?
Lack of Action
Even our dear old friend Vernon Coleman – who has for years ploughed a lonely anti-vivisection furrow at The People and should know better – jumped on the bandwagon and accused us of inaction. Madeleine Bunting in The Guardian followed suit with an incoherent rant.
None of these people (with the exception of Vernon) have ever shown the remotest interest in animals and has never used their columns to rail against the daily cruelty to which they’re subjected. Not one of them bothered to pick up the ‘phone or look at our web sites nor offered us their column to ensure our voices were heard.
Impressionistic Drivel
What we were treated to was ignorant, self-indulgent rhetoric. It was born out of disinterest and revealed not a glimmering of understanding of animal cruelty. This impressionistic drivel was by the same people who have ignored every single press release, exposé, opinion and letter with which we have inundated them. We are condemned by middle-class morons trying to assuage their own guilt – Vernon excepted.
The editorial shutters were dropped on any view that might remotely be considered critical of our boys the farmers. It was for this reason that Viva! decided to by-pass the media and take our message directly to the public with door drops, demonstrations and bill boards. It was a major gamble for Viva! but has been a phenomenal success.
Saint Barbara
I will, however, give the last word to Barbara Ellen in the Observer. “It astonishes me that the same people who are snivelling at the sight of mass graves, have never been able to feel compassion for the countless animals who routinely suffer just as much, if not more, behind the closed slaughterhouse doors.” You get my vote, Barbara.