If you’re a vicar and your church consistently refuses to see animal
abuse as important, what do you do?
If you’re Christa Blanke you resign
and found…
Animals’ Angels
They are women and there are just six of them. They are quiet talking and never shout or hurl abuse. Their public profile is extremely low and they don’t campaign. And in the hearts of many who work to end animal abuse throughout Europe, they are admired and deeply respected. They are a group called Animals’ Angels and their primary concern is the long-distance, live transport of animals.
Swelling their numbers are 45 volunteers – most of whom are also female – and they work as teams, doggedly following consignments of animals from one end of Europe to the other, recording what happens to them, filming the animals distress and doing what they can to alleviate it. That, at least, is how it all started but because of their professionalism, reliability and low profile, their credibility with governments and regulatory authorities has grown and they are now able to use their knowledge to improve conditions in lairages, at border crossings and markets, ports and slaughterhouses.
When Viva! decided that our first Polish campaign
would be to try and end the live export of horses, one of the first calls
we made was to Animals’ Angels. Not directly active in Poland, they
had tracked and filmed horse transports on their tortuous routes through
six European countries. They had the video, photographic and eye witness
evidence we needed and offered it immediately. It was with this footage (plus
some from the International League for the Protection of Horses and some
we shot ourselves) that enabled us to make our shockingly powerful video.
It was also one of Animals’ Angels teams who, at our request, flew into Hungary just before Christmas last year and filmed yet more appalling scenes on board a Polish lorry, despite official claims that the trade is now well controlled. It was their pictures of abuse that we used in the last edition of Viva!Life. Animals’ Angels have become an important ally in our battle to save Poland’s horses.
Their story began in Germany with the formation of a charity called AKUT (Church and Animals) and its first campaign carried the name TierTodesTransport (AnimalDeathTransport). The founder was an ordained vicar called Christa Blanke, supported by her husband Michael, also a vicar. Christa soon realised that it was all animals and no church as she struggled vainly to get the Lutheran denomination to accept the importance of animal abuse and the need to end it. Convinced that it never would, she resigned her ministry and in 1996 at the age of 47, founded Animals’ Angels. It was a painful decision as her family ties with the church dated back generations.
Confrontation with a lorry driver and the police
With a uniquely idiosyncratic management style, Chista now lives in the countryside near Frankfurt – with three rescued Pyrenian mountain dogs, two cats, a Norwegian pony, and a horse – while the head office is in the historic Bavarian Black Forest town of Freiburg, 500 kilometres away.
“I don’t want to spend my time thinking about administration, answering letters and being called to the ‘phone, I need to spend it thinking strategically about what needs to be done for the animals. I have an excellent manager who is much better at running an office than I am. She can contact me during office hours if necessary but the teams, of course, who are out on the road, can contact me whenever they want – 24 hours a day.”
We’ve all faced the accusation that we care more about animals than people and as an ex-minister, Christa has also heard it plenty of times.
“The first thing I ask them is what they are doing for people and unless they say they are members of Amnesty International or something similar, I refuse to discuss it with them. If they are members, then I will enter into a debate. But they never are.”Christa talks quietly in fluent English but even though the volume is low, it is passion which binds her words together and gives meaning to her work.
Trying to prevent cruelty in a market
Is the predominance of women at Animals’ Angels an accident or a calculated decision – a feminist statement. Of course, a similar question could be asked about Viva! and our supporters, who are 80 per cent female.
“No, I’m not a feminist and it is entirely chance that this has happened. I think it is probably because women are not so concerned about status and hierarchy and are not so driven by ego as men. The animal rights movement is the last place from which to exercise power or build an empire so it deters men while it attracts women, who are not so competitive. Having said that, I have some excellent male investigators.”
The downside of working for animals are the sights and sounds you so frequently have to endure. There are occasions, many of them, when I despair of the human race. But I’m an atheist so it’s comparatively easy for me to see humankind as an aberration of nature which will one day get its come-uppance. Christa, who has retained her faith, sees us all as God’s creations and is therefore denied my opt out clause.
“I never despair of the human race otherwise I couldn’t do what I do. Why would I have had my three beautiful children?”
An ‘angel’ checks out the condition of a lorryload of crated chickens
Again, Chista agrees and I am sure I can hear a trace of eagerness in her voice.
Maybe her belief in a divine plan has been shaken by her experiences and perhaps there are fears lurking beneath the surface that creation has gone just a tiny bit wobbly. But thank God for that because a little doubt is one of humanity’s finer features.
You can read more about Animals’ Angels and the work they do on www.animals-angels.de