Animal Rights Campaigns

After exploring various campaigns to help with my project, I came across this through my researching. I was extremely intrigued in how they reversed the roles, especially to emphasise awareness of the brutality inflicted upon these endangered species.

Tessa Osner was the artist who designed these three campaigns, here was the concept:

Concept

As I have heard many people say, “who cares if the Rhino goes extinct”, I decided to bring the issue home and pose that same question from a human’s perspective, thus essentially asking what if they were in the same position. To further emphasise the question I took it from a man’s perspective, a woman’s perspective, and finally a parent’s perspective to encourage the campaign from all angles of human life that is personal to us.

As a make up artist point of view, I think this works really well for the campaign. Multiple people would be more concerned if this sort of act was inflicted on a human rather than an animal, and I think this is what people aren’t coming to terms with. Such harsh acts are inflicted upon animals for their features, such as horns, fur and even teeth, all for our purposes.

Poaching

Makeover The world

Many people believe that cosmetics testing on animals is a thing of the past, yet thousands of animals worldwide still suffer in the name of beauty.Around 27,000 animals are estimated to still be used for cosmetics testing across the world. This includes the use of mice, rats and rabbits in tests which can cause pain and distress. We believe this is unacceptable!

In the EU, using animals for testing cosmetics products and their ingredients has been banned since 2009. In March 2013 an EU-wide sales ban came into force, which prohibits cosmetics products or ingredients newly tested on animals outside of the EU from ending up on our shelves.However, consumers should be aware that many well-known cosmetics companies continue to test their products or ingredients on animals outside of the EU to sell in other parts of the world or choose to introduce new products to countries where the authorities require mandatory animal testing.

There are already more than 20,000 chemical ingredients available to producers of cosmetics products that are considered to be safe, so there is no excuse for any more animals to suffer. If we can end animal testing for the EU - why not everywhere?The EU sales ban has already had a knock-on-effect with countries like Israel, India and Brazil introducing improved practices and legislation. But we still have a way to go!

Stop the seal slaughter

For centuries, pregnant harp seals have migrated from Greenland down the coast of Canada, stopping each spring to give birth on the ice floes off Newfoundland. And every year, the Canadian government funds a trade in which the baby seals are massacred by club-wielding sealers from the local fishing community while their pelts remain soft enough to sell on the international fur market. The commercial seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples but an off-season fishing industry cash grab, and it accounts for less than 1 per cent of Newfoundland's economy.

Over the last few years, all major markets have banned seal-pelt imports, including the US, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan and even Russia, which had been importing 95 per cent of Canadian sealskins. The only reason the Canadian government continues to defend this dead industry is because political parties crave Newfoundland's swing seats in Parliament. But now even local sentiment is turning, and Canadian officials are seriously examining whether the slaughter should end.

Archeological evidence indicates the Native Americans and First Nations People in Canada have been hunting seals for at least 4,000 years. Traditionally, when an Inuit boy killed his first seal or caribou, a feast was held. The meat was an important source of fat, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and iron, and the pelts were prized for their warmth. The Inuit diet is rich in fish, whale, and seal.Traditional Inuit seal hunting accounts for three percent of the total hunt; it is excluded from the European Commission's call in 2006 for a ban on the import, export and sale of all harp and hooded seal products. Ringed seals were once the main staple for food, and have been used for clothing, boots, fuel for lamps, as delicacy, containers, igloo windows, and in harnesses for huskies. Though no longer used to this extent, ringed seals are still an important food source for the people of Nunavut. Called nayiq by the Central Alaskan Yup'ik people, the ringed seal is also hunted and eaten in Alaska.

Animal testing ( Main Focus )

Did you know that dishwasher detergent, furniture polish, air freshener and laundry products all contain chemicals that may be tested on animals in cruel experiments?

Every day around the world, animals such as rats, mice, rabbits and guinea pigs are used in toxicity (poisoning) tests for chemicals which may be used in household products. In these tests, animals have chemicals applied or injected into their skin, dripped into their eyes or forced down their throats via a tube to check for effects such as vomiting, tremors, organ failure, paralysis and even death

It doesn't have to be this way. Progressive countries such as India and Israel have banned household product testing on animals. Now we're asking the UK to do the same.Following the welcome ban on animal testing for cosmetics in the EU, ending animal tests for household products is the next logical step – and would save countless lives. There are thousands of ingredients that have already been proved safe for use in household products as well as an increasing number of alternative testing methods for new ingredients which don't use animals and are more reliable.There's no excuse for allowing these cruel experiments to continue.The government promised it would ban them but is now stalling. In the meantime, animals are still suffering in laboratories in painful toxicity tests every day.

This will be my main focus point, my passion for animals thrives me to want to produce an outcome that means something personal to myself, I also have had mice in the past, and now own 5 rabbits of my own, and I couldn't possibly think of anyone putting them through pain and suffering.

Circus animals

Animals don't want to ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls or jump through rings of fire. Elephants, big cats, monkeys and other animals used in circuses perform tricks because they have no choice.If circus audiences knew the truth about the violence and suffering that goes on behind the scenes, they would find these shows anything but entertaining.

Beaten Into Submission

Trainers often go to extreme lengths to make animals perform stunts in the ring. They beat elephants with bullhooks and shock them with electric prods. They hit big cats with sticks and drag them around by heavy chains on their necks. They restrain bears with tight collars and muzzles and whack them with long poles. They kick chimpanzees and smack them with riding crops.Often, a barbaric regime of physical punishment begins when the animals are still babies. Baby elephants are forcibly removed from their mothers when they are 18 to 24 months old, breaking their spirits early in preparation for a lifetime of abuse.

A Lifetime of Confinement

Animals in circuses have often been taken from the wild and enslaved – solely for the purpose of "entertainment". They are condemned to a sad and frustrating existence, living out their days in constant confinement, often in cramped and filthy cages.Elephants, for example, will walk long distances, swim, explore, play and enjoy complex social relationships in the wild. But in the circus, chained inside tents or confined to lonely concrete enclosures, they are denied everything that is natural and important to them.

The Situation in the UK and Around the World

Keeping wild animals in circuses is to be banned in England from 2015. But around the world, the cruel show is still going on. The US, for example, is home to notorious elephant abusers such as Ringling Bros, while the atrocities documented in Indian circuses include animals being driven mad from confinement and kept in rusty cages without access to food or water.

bull fighting

In a typical bullfight, the bull enters an arena and is approached by men on blindfolded horses who drive lances into his back and neck, which impairs his ability to lift his head. Then, more men enter on foot and proceed to distract the bull and dart around him while plunging banderillas – bright sticks with harpoon points on their ends – into his back. When the bull has become weakened from blood loss, finally, the matador appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword. If he misses, succeeding only in further mutilating the animal, an executioner is called in to stab the exhausted animal to death.

The dagger is supposed to cut the animal's spinal cord, but even this cruel stroke can be botched, leaving the bull conscious but paralysed as he is chained by his horns and dragged out of the arena. If the crowd is happy with the matador, the bull's ears and tail are cut off and presented as a trophy.

Every year, more than 40,000 animals are massacred in this way in Spain's bullrings, as part of a barbaric tradition that has no place in the modern world.

An Unfair Fight

Before bullfights, bulls are often deliberately weakened and never escape with their lives. It's apt to describe bullfighting as a "sport" for cowards. Bulls sometimes have their horns shaved down in order to disorient them, sandbags dropped on their backs and petroleum jelly rubbed into their eyes to blur their vision. The maimed, bewildered animal doesn't stand a chance against the sword-wielding matador, who will try to kill him slowly, prolonging his torment in order to create more of a "spectacle".

Running of the Bulls

During the annual "running of the bulls" in Pamplona, frightened animals are chased through the streets by a terrifying mob. The bulls are kept in crowded, dark enclosures, and when they are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks, they are momentarily blinded by the sunlight. Runners hit the animals with rolled-up newspapers and twist their tails. The panicked animals often lose their footing on corners and crash into walls, breaking bones and otherwise injuring themselves. Most tourists don't realise that all the bulls who slip and slide down the narrow streets of Pamplona will later be killed in the bullring.

Growing Opposition

Since 2002, PETA has been teaming up with Spanish animal rights groups to stageeye-catching protests in Pamplona, with hundreds of activists baring all to draw attention to the vicious cruelty of the bull run and subsequent bullfights. These feisty activists are not alone in their distaste for tormenting bulls: in 2010, the Catalan Parliament made the landmark decision to ban bullfighting in the region, and many other Spanish and French towns are implementing bans of their own. According to a Gallop survey, 76 per cent of Spaniards have no interest in bullfights – recognising that, while Spain has many cultural traditions to be proud of, bullfighting is certainly not one of them.

FUR TRADE

When undercover investigators made their way onto Chinese fur farms, they found that many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur off an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stamp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard in order to make a clean cut.

When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.

Because a fur garment's origin can't be traced, anyone who wears any fur at all shares the blame for the horrific conditions on Chinese fur farms. The only way to prevent such unimaginable cruelty is by never wearing any fur.

Angora Fur - The agony behind it

Investigators found that sickening abuse of animals is standard practice on Chinese angora farms:• Rabbits – who are extremely clean by nature – are kept for their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages, surrounded by their own waste, with little protection from the elements. The thin cage wires constantly cut into their sensitive footpads, and they never have the chance to run around, jump or play.

Rabbits are in extreme shock after having their fur plucked out. One farmer admitted that about 60 per cent of rabbits who are plucked die within one to two years. Animals who have their fur cut or sheared also suffer. During the cutting process, they have ropes tied to their front and back legs so that they can be stretched across a board. Some are even suspended in the air, while panting heavily and struggling to escape.

If they don't die from the trauma of plucking or shearing, rabbits on these farms are generally killed after between two and five years. They have their necks broken and then are hung upside down and have their throats slit. Their meat is sold to local markets.

Rabbits are sensitive, smart, social animals. They can hop faster than a cat or human can run, have individual personalities and form lifelong bonds with one another. As you can imagine, they suffer intense pain and terror when they are imprisoned in tiny cages, are manhandled and have the fur torn from their bodies.

WARNING! , some upsetting images!

After researching into multiple conditions any animal faces in today's world, it was extremely upsetting to see the life some animals face, and not being able to live a normal life, being kept in captivity and being tortured into doing stunts/acts they didn't want to do, really upset me. I know if it upset me ( an animal lover ) , it would gain the same reaction to the public if I produced a campaign.

I wanted to study rabbits in general, but having an insight to other brutal acts gave me different pathways to explore through my research.