Campaigns

Stop Circus Suffering campaign

ADI is seeking a ban on animal circuses and is asking for regulations to be introduced for performing animal-training centres. Its 'Stop Circus Suffering' campaign has brought about bans on animal circuses around the world.

In the UK, it was the devastating ADI undercover investigation of the UK circus industry that kick-started the worldwide campaign to end the use of animals in circuses in 1998. This directly led to national bans in places as far afield as Costa Rica, Singapore and Austria and saw the UK animal circus industry halve in size in six months. Mary Chipperfield and others were convicted of cruelty based on ADI evidence and infant chimpanzee Trudy was saved. Europe's two largest suppliers of circus animals both closed down following investigations by ADI Field Officers. Despite overwhelming public support for a ban (86%) and over 200 Council bans already in place, the UK Government re yet to fulfil a promise made in 2006 that wild animals would be banned in travelling circuses under the Animal Welfare Act.
Stop Circus Suffering has been successfully launched in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and more recently in the USA in Summer 2008, and Brazil in Autumn 2008.

Directive 86/609/EEC campaign

Announced on 5th November 2008, the long-awaited revision of Directive 86/609 includes a ban on the use of apes and wild caught monkeys in laboratories, as called for by Animal Defenders International in its 'manifesto' of suggested improvements to the legislation.

It was ADI that championed Written Declaration 40, which was signed by a record-breaking 433 MEPs calling for the revision of the regulations to:

(a) make ending the use of apes and wild-caught monkeys in scientific experiments an urgent priority,
(b) establish a timetable for replacing the use of all primates in scientific experiments with alternatives.

ADI welcomes the ban on the use of apes and wild-caught monkeys. However, there remains concern that the opportunity for greater protection of laboratory animals and increased use of non-animal methods has not been seized.
In the coming months the NAVS and ADI will be stepping up efforts to ensure that the proposals are strengthened in Committee stage and when they go before the Council of Ministers.

The full version of ADI's manifesto can be found here in 5 languages: http://www.ad-international.org/mmap/go.php?ssi=72

International Primate Day

International Primate Day (IPD) was founded in 2005 by Animal Defenders International, as an alert to the major threats to the survival of non-human primates - bushmeat, laboratory, pet, and entertainment trades. It takes place on the 1st of September every year.
For IPD 2008, ADI and the Monkey Sanctuary Trust (MST) focused on the issue of the trade and keeping of primates as pets. A delegation from ADI and MST delivered a card from rescued primate Kodak to Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street together with a letter calling for the Government to end the keeping of primates as pets in the UK.
Kodak is a six-year old male capuchin monkey, who was caught from the wild in Guyana and supplied as a pet to a private owner in Greece. The latter realised that he could properly care for Kodak and the capuchin and ADI and the Monkey Sanctuary Trust have arranged for a permanent home at the sanctuary in Looe, Cornwall, where he is now enjoying his life with a group of other monkeys.

Kodak was made Primate Ambassador for all the primates kept and traded as pets in the world and the Prime Minister was invited to meet him in Cornwall. Click here to learn more about this campaign: http://www.ad-international.org/campaigns/go.php?id=1396&ssi=0

World Lab Animal Week

World Day for Laboratory Animals is commemorated on 24 April each year. It was founded by NAVS in 1979, and the date is in honour of the birthday of Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, a past president of NAVS. World Lab Animal Week is commemorated all over the world each year. To mark World Lab Animal Week in 2008 the NAVS launched a campaign to ban the use of animals for testing for household product. Click here to learn more about the 'Kick Animal Testing Out of the House' campaign: http://www.navs.org.uk/take_action/41/0/1174/.

Political Advertising Case

In June 2005, ADI applied to the High Court to declare that the ban on political advertising under the Communications Act 2003 was incompatible with the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ban has prevented ADI along with thousands of campaigning organisations from advertising on radio and TV, including Amnesty and Make Poverty History. However, such organisations can advertise freely in most other European and Commonwealth countries.

The UK law allows companies to use performing apes and monkeys to advertise anything from soft drinks to credit cards on television. Companies can also make claims about their green credentials. However organisations like ADI are not allowed to advertise what goes on behind the scenes to make these animals perform, and we cannot challenge claims made by the companies on TV.

Furthermore, when the Communication Act was passed, the Government effectively confessed that it was unlikely to comply with human rights legislation. In December 2006 the High Court refused ADI's application for a declaration of incompatibility under s.4 of the Human Rights Act 1998. However the Court felt that there was indeed a case for the Government to answer, and therefore cleared the way for ADI to appeal to the House of Lords. Unfortunately, the House of Lords dismissed the appeal in March 2008, a decision that was immediately condemned by Animal Defenders International and Amnesty International.
ADI is appealing against the United Kingdom to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

Animals in Advertising

One of ADI's most successful ongoing campaigns has been to protest at leading household brands' use of performing animals in their TV, cinema and print ads.

When performing animals appear on TV screens or in newspapers or magazines, many assume that 'someone' is looking after the welfare of the animals. Those who book animals for their promotions believe that their responsibility begins and ends with what happens on the set.

However as ADI's investigations have shown, it is what happens before (long before) the animal arrives on set that is important. This is where the actual training takes place, and where welfare is often compromised. Training is not just by reward, and further, the "reward" is not what most people would consider it to be. Withdrawal of food and water makes an animal compliant. Animals taken away from their own species at an early age, such as primates, develop and attachment to their trainer (even if the trainer is abusive), as that person is the only source of comfort, affection and approval - this control helps to make the animal comply. ADI has also gathered evidence of physical and emotional punishment in trainin of performing animals.

Therefore by the time the animal arrives on set, there may be no indication of how it was persuaded to perform the actions required for the script. Attendance on set by vets or others do not necessarily detect problems.

This campaign to persuade companies not to use performing animals in their advertisements has taken aim at some of the world's major brands such as Toyota, Diageo, D&G, Barclaycard, Sony Ericsson, Unilever, Saab, Coca-Cola as well as the UK Government's Revenue & Customs, Big Brother producer Endemol, Visa, Abbey and Uniliver. ADI investigates any adverts where performing animals are featured and writes to protest to the companies involved and condemn their irresponsible actions in the media, often calling for a boycott of the brands by supporters.