As most lesbians are very outspoken and head strong women, we tend to make great activists, I found this great article about animal activists, not that there is anything wrong with it, I love animals just as much as the next lesbian but I am talking about those women who send out the animal adoption information and then tell tell you, you are not responsible enough to take the animal.....I am of the opinion that the reason lesbians are such animal activists is because they dont have children and it fills the nurturing side of them, that ticking clock, that need to be a mom.
Dykes for Animal Rights
First published in Diva, November 1999,
©Katrina Fox 2001
The animal rights movement has always attracted a fair proportion of lesbians, and with the women's and gay movements becoming less politicized, more and more dykes are joining the struggle to end animal oppression. KATRINA FOX finds out just how far some girls will go
The Demonstrator
The animal rights movement is not made up only of young free-thinking anarchists, the pensioners are out there with a vengeance too. Norma Benny is 73 and has been actively involved in animal rights for about 20 years. She founded two groups in the late 1970 s - Lair (Lesbians for Animals' Inalienable Rights) and Sequel, which produced a magazine for isolated lesbians. "The real watershed for me was reading Peter Singer's book, Animal Liberation," she explains in a broad New Zealand accent. "I became vegetarian and then vegan. I joined Animal Aid and used to walk for miles up and down the country with a megaphone."
Although she hasn't committed any criminal acts herself, Norma is a strong supporter of militant direct-action group the Animal Liberation Front. "Everything will go to them when I die," she says. As a radical feminist, she firmly believes that direct action, such as setting fire to buildings where animal abuse is taking place, is perfectly acceptable. "If I were younger, I'd light the match myself," she says passionately.
Her reaction to those who say peaceful means are the only way forward is one of exasperation. 'Animals can't congregate, they don't know there's a demo on. We have to compensate for the fact that animals can't do a bloody thing to help themselves. Of course we have to lean towards using violence." Lesbians have a duty to end animal oppression, reckons Norma. "We're judged by who we are, and it helps our lesbian feminist cause if we're known to be compassionate." The dyke who orders meat in a restaurant is just going along with men, she adds. "Lesbians have always been radical, but if we eat meat or support animal abuse, then we're no longer radical."
Norma's friend Elsa Becket, 60, has been a keen demonstrator, too - although she admits her asthma has slowed her down over the past few years. "I used to protest at Club Road in east London in the late 1970s. It was a notorious pet market, where they'd literally produce a puppy from under a raincoat and dump any animals that weren't sold." As with many protesters, Eisa got mixed reactions from people, the most usual one being that they thought animal rights activists didn't care about human beings. "One woman came up to me and said,"Why don't you put your energy into women?' And I said, 'But I do, I'm a lesbian feminist'- but I don't know if she was convinced."
In the early days there was a lot of correlation between the abuse of women and that of animals, says Elsa. "Some of it stemmed from women being called names like 'cow' or 'bitch' but a lot of it was to do with ecology - the fact that a meat-based dietary structure is destructive to the planet and doesn't feed the world." But some dykes' reactions to vegetarianism bordered on the ridiculous, she says. "At the Camden Lesbian Centre, there used to be a policy of no meat in the building - and one lesbian complained, saying 'I'll get ill if I don't eat meat' and we would say 'but the meeting is only for three hours, surely you can last that long!'"
The Direct Action Dyke
The mainstream media does its best to convince us that direct action groups like the Animal Liberation Front are nothing but terrorists and as such, a danger to nice ordinary people. But, unlike the Blair or Clinton administrations, the ALF has never killed anyone with its bombs, says Melanie, 33 and a member of the ALF since the age of 18. "An ALF action is not about storming in and trashing a place or freeing animals with no forethought," she says. "Weeks, and sometimes months, of reconnaissance visits take place. Many operations are aborted as a result of finding people living nearby or fox or badger lairs, birds, mice and so on."
Despite the predominantly male-dominated image of animal rights activism, Melanie says that most of the ALF cells she has worked with have been primarily made up of women, who are better at planning and organising. "Many of the women involved in direct action came from Greenham Common," she says. "In fact, the older women are much more militant than the younger ones."
In 1995 Melanie was sentenced to three and a half years for burning down an abbatoir and blowing up 12 meat lorries in Gloucestershire. Friendly, positive and articulate, she is nothing like the violent terrorist the government would have us believe in. In fact, she explains, her actions were not violent. "A building doesn't have a nervous system, therefore it doesn't feel pain, so how can setting fire to it be a violent act?"
She justifies her actions by comparing the struggle to end animal abuse to other civil rights movements. "It is an animal holocaust - no one would complain if the Nazis were put out of a job because their (place of) work was destroyed. We are doing nothing different to what the black or women's movements did - there were arsons, direct action and building destruction as (part of the campaigns for) women getting the vote or blacks being freed from slavery."
So, what motivates people to cross that line and commit illegal acts? "The legal way has failed us - the animal welfare laws don't protect animals," says Melanie. "There is a risk of being caught but once you've seen animals in labs with scars all over them, fresh stitches, parts of their brains exposed, hanging upside down in abbatoirs with their throats slit and bleeding, you have to decide how far you will go."
Some would say you can't help the animals if you're in prison but Melanie, who's just finished a separate 10-month sentence for violent disorder at Hillgrove Farm which bred cats for vivisection until it closed down recently, disputes that. "Prison can be a positive experience - it's all about attitude." She managed to convert several prisoners to become vegetarian and even one prison officer to veganism.
The police can be a different matter, though. "They've always been extremely hostile to animal rights campaigners. At the station, before they go out on a demo, they're given a lot of rhetoric. On one live exports demo, they were particularly vindictive. They arrested me, put me in the van, threatened to break my arms and legs and called me a 'cunt' - and then drove me to where the calves were being electronically goaded into trucks and made me watch."
Melanie is keen to counter what she sees as the mainstream media's propaganda. Animal rights hit the headlines earlier this year, when activist Barry Horne went on hunger strike to protest at the government's failure to keep its election promise of a Royal Commission on animal experiments. It was reported that an extreme group, the Animal Rights Militia Group, issued a hit list of ten animal abusers who would be killed if Horne died. "Absolute rubbish," says Melanie. "The AR Militia Group doesn't even exist in this country. The media knew that if Barry died, the shit would hit the fan, and they wanted to make us look like idiots."
Even if it were true, Melanie believes such a group would get little support. "For all sorts of spiritual and tactical reasons, I disagree with violence and I believe that is the ALF's strength - that we don't resort to the type of butchery and savagery that our enemies show every day in their work. We would never lower ourselves to their level."
The Lesbian Vet
If you want a date, look no further than the Celia Hammond Animal Trust in Lewisham. Set up by a former 60s super-model, it provides low-cost neutering for cats and dogs and also rescues stray and abused cats. Annie Hughes, 38, is the resident vet and proudly announces that she met the love of her life there. "It didn't last long, but it was definitely the most passionate affair of my life." The old cliche about lesbians and their love of pussies could easily have started at CHAT. Women arrive by the bus-load to have their cats neutered, and Annie always enjoys exercising her dyke-spotting skills. "If I'm doing a vaccination clinic, I clock lesbians coming through and can't help having a little smile on my face." And if the grin isn't a big enough hint, there are other ways to come out, says Annie. "Sometimes I think to myself, 'How can I check this cat in a lesbian way?...'"
And if you're a bit shy, no problem. CHAT has its own resident matchmaker on hand - Celia herself. "She's always trying to match people up," says Annie. "There was one time when a lesbian couple came in to home a cat. I was in the back at the time and Celia shouted to me, 'Annie, Annie, come and
see where your favourite cat is going'. And I had never seen this cat before! They started asking me questions like,'What's her favourite food? What's her
name?'And I hadn't got a clue!"
Annie believes she has the perfect job. "I get to cuddle dogs and cats all day long," she says. A lot of the staff at CHAT are vegans, and Annie became a convert in January 1998 when she went to Goa for four months to work in a neutering clinic set up by International Animal Rescue. "I became a vegetarian at vet college. We had to work in a meat factory for two weeks to study meat hygiene, and I went off it in a very emotional way. In Goa, everyone else was vegan - I took some coffee whitener with me, but ended up developing a taste for black coffee instead!"
The veggie and the vegan
If you thought being a vegan meant giving up all those sweet, sticky oozing with chocolate sauce and other delicious fillings, think again. Elizabeth, 30, used to work in an ordinary cake shop. When she became a vegan, she didn't see why you couldn't conjure up all those delights without using eggs or other animal-based products. So successful were her efforts that she set up her own business, a few years ago, catering for birthdays, weddings or other special occasions.
So, what kind of reaction does she get from friends? "They roll their eyes and make fun of me," says Elizabeth, who's originally from the US. "But they're so surprised when they find out I can make really nice cakes and scones!"
Elizabeth comes from an agricultural background, and her family are hostile to her passion for animals. "They can't stand the fact I'm vegan. My father will try and give me things, like slipping meat into my food. I don't trust him anymore and won't eat anything he gives me."
Elizabeth's girlfriend, Sarah, 36, has been involved in animal rights for ten years. "My brother was a hunt sab and got a job at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. He got our whole family involved - we went vegetarian overnight."
Sarah now works for a graphic designer firm that has a rather innovative PC policy. "We have a rule of no meat in the office." Despite going out with a vegan, Sarah remains vegetarian. "I don't eat dairy in front of her though," she smiles. "And if we go out to eat, we go to restaurants where there's a vegan option." Take note, gay cafes!
Resources
ALF Supporters Group - legal group which provides support for animal rights prisoners and produces quarterly newsletter. BM 1160, London WC1N 3XX
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