2015…
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2015…

We hope that everyone has had a good winter break! Thank you to everyone who came along to our events last year. We had a really good semester and have lots planned for 2015. Make sure to come by to our weekly meetings Tuesdays 7pm – 9pm in the Chaplaincy starting 13th January. In the meantime, please do check out our library page as we have a huge collection of really informative books on everything animal rights that anyone is welcome to borrow. Here’s a little picture from our very successful ‘Cowspiracy’ screening at the end of last term!

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Upcoming events

Hi all! We have lots of exciting events this week. It would be great if you joined us! Tomorrow Dr Brett Cochrane, the Group Head of Science for Dr. Hadwen Trust, has kindly travelled up to Edinburgh to give a talk on non-animal medical research. This will be a brilliant opportunity to learn more about current scientific research and the growing shift towards alternative non-animal methods. Be sure to invite all your friends and share the event! Find all the details here!

We also have some more light hearted events this week so if you need a break from studying come along to the Ecology Society’s Big Green Evening (Friday 5-11pm, Teviot Debating Hall). It’s a showcase of sustainability groups, followed by a ceilidh!

And finally on Sunday we have a comedy showcase from Edinburgh Revue to raise funds for the society. Find out about that here!

Hope you can join us.

World Day For Animals In Laboratories: Institutions Must Divest From Animal Testing
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World Day For Animals In Laboratories: Institutions Must Divest From Animal Testing

On Saturday 26th April SVAR hosted a World Day for Animals in Laboratories demonstration in Edinburgh, as an act of solidarity with the millions of animals that are killed due to vivisection in the UK and internationally. The demo was attended by numerous University of Edinburgh students and non-students alike who gathered to hear speakers Philippa Johnstone (SVAR), Kevin Newell (Humane Wildlife Solutions) and John Patrick (Scotland for Animals), concluding with slam-style poetry from Agnes Torek. In addition, Rabbits Require Rights and Scotland for Animals hosted information stalls whilst SVAR ran a vegan cake sale in aid of The Dr. Hayden Trust.

It is difficult to obtain accurate statistics regarding the number of animals used in animal testing each year however estimates calculate that approximately one hundred million animals are used worldwide. This figure means that a staggering 274,000 animals are used every day for vivisection purposes; or to put it another way, three animals every second. (However this estimate only includes vertebrates therefore the true figure for all animals used is considerably greater). Each year demonstrations on World Day for Animals in Laboratories are held across the globe from Nottingham to New York in order to protest against the cruelty inherent in vivisection.

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It’s official!

Congratulations to all the members and the committee of SVAR. We are now an official EUSA society! In other news the annual AGM recently took place and we welcomed our new committee for 2014/15. They are as follows:

President: Tamasin Cook
Vice President/Charities Outreach: Hannah Chandler
Secretary: Tao Oat
Treasurer: Padryk Merkl
Librarian/Welfare Officer: Eloise Rahman
Campaigns Manager: Samantha Magor
Media Outreach/Advertising: Helena Bevan

We have lots planned for the next academic year but there’s still a few more events this term:

Monday 24th March – Radical Activism within the Animal Rights Movement. 

Presentations and discussion on the 269 campaign and vegan anarchism. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/222660857937281/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

Thursday 3rd April – SVAR First Big Night Out!

It’s time for our first social as an official society so do come along (in animal costume!) for food, drinks and chats. The facebook event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1430257833882777/.

Saturday 26th April – World Day for Animals in Laboratories.

Join us at Bristo Square, Edinburgh to campaign against vivisection. We will be petitioning for The University of Edinburgh to have a freedom of information policy, to develop alternative methods of research that are cruelty free, and to abolish vivisection within the University. Details to be confirmed.

Edinburgh 269

269 SOLIDARITY

21.03.2013
International Solidarity Day
SVAR helped to organise a solidarity event with the 269 campaign, created by Sasha Boojor. The tattoos were all done by Morag of Tribe Studios, Edinburgh. One of our own committee members joined the participants.

For those of you not familiar with 269, this campaign was started on October 2nd of 2012, ‘World Farm Animals day’, at Rabin Square in central Tel-Aviv, when animal rights activists performed an act of solidarity and empathy towards abused animals exploited by the human race. The display’s aim is to call for empathy towards the most oppressed sector of our society and call into question the deep disconnect we as a society, have towards sanctioned animal cruelty. The activists got branded with a hot steel brand, in the same way farm animals are branded in farms all over the world. The number 269, which was burned on their skin, was the designated number of a calf they had encountered in one of Israel’s dairy farms. 

“This anonymous male calf will be forever immortalized on our bodies, and hopefully this message of solidarity will somehow bring a new way of looking at non-human animals.
No animal should be exploited to satisfy the selfish needs and whimsical desires of humans, and that is why we chose to use the industry’s own method of objectifying living beings as this symbolic means to convey our idea” – Sasha Boojor, 269 founder

Across the world, animal rights activists have been branded in solidarity with Sasha’s campaign. Many choose to be tattooed or scarred instead of branded, as was the case in our campaign.

The 269 campaign was, and will continue to be, a controversial movement, and Student Voice for Animal Rights does not endorse all of the views expressed by the official movement.

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