Date: Tuesday 24 November 2009
Time: 10:30am – 11:30am
Location: Centenary Square, Birmingham, UK
Animal Remembrance Day is an event organised by the newly-formed Birmingham Action For Animals. It is an opportunity for anybody to remember and lay a tribute to the thousands of non-human animals used and killed by the military since the beginning of the First World War. It is a day for you to come along, whether as an individual or part of a group, and remember the non-human lives forgotten by today’s Poppy Appeal.
Animal Remembrance Day will take place on 24 November as this is the 5th anniversary of the unveiling of the Animal War Memorial in London.
Please bring any tributes, flowers, purple poppies, wreathes etc along with you to this day of remembrance.
We enivsage this Day of Remembrance becoming an annual event. We also plan to develop a campaign against the use of animals in modern-day war and warfare experiments. The Animal Remembrance Day of 24 November is your chance to show respect and remember the loss of these forgotten non-human lives.
Where and When Is Animal Remembrance Day?
Animal Remembrance Day will be held at Centenary Sqaure, Birmingham, UK, and we’d love you to arrive for 10:30am on 24 Novemember 2009. Although Animal Remembrance Day will be held primarily in Birmingham, we realise that not everyone who would like to attend will be able to get there, so if you would like to organise Animal Remembrance Day to take place in your city or town, please email me at bafa@gmx.com for further details.
What Will Happen During This Day Of Remembrance?
Please note: We would appreciate it if you would leave all banners and megaphones at home as this is a day of remembrance, respect and peace.
Instead, please bring along any tributes, flowers, purple poppies, wreathes, poetry etc.
Specific details will not be released until 24 November but we ask you to arrive for 10:30 so that everything can be explained to you.
Why Are We Holding A Day Of Remembrance For Non-Human Animals?
For thousands of years, man has abused and exploited animals for their own despicable means but there are no means as evil as that of warfare. For thousands of years, man has been placing animals in the line of fire of a man-made war. Animals can have no true understanding of what they are being forced into and what they are risking their lives for. Yet, this outdated and unnecessary loss of sentient non-human life is still taking place in the militaries of our world today. No loss of animal life was as great as that during World War I and World War II where literally millions of animals were sent to their deaths in the name of war. This memorial day is intended to honour these innocent, forgotten, victims of warfare and to make it clear to all those that have forgotten, that we have not. Animals were used in these two wars specifically as messengers, as “beasts of burden”, for search and rescue, for detection, for guard duty, for attacking the enemy etc. Many of these animals, specifically dogs, were given over to the military by their own companions and forced into training programmes which would turn them into “war animals”.
In the first World War alone, this is the known count of used animals and of animals who died in “service” but no clear record was ever kept of these non-human sacrifices so many of these figures are only estimates:
- Pigeons
Britain had 100,000 pigeons, approximately 87,500 of those never returned or are known to have been killed.
- Horses
The official number of horses the British had possession of is unknown as it differs considerably. Some claim it was anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 but what we do know for sure is that 800,000 horses died on the Belgian Front with British forces.
- Dogs
Before the war began, the armed services trained 2,000 dogs, but as the war began, this number rocketed to 7,000 dogs.
- Mules
The number of mules also differs depending of which source you believe. An approximate number would be 210,000 mules. 10,000 mules died within a single two month period from tsetse fly. The official number of mules who died is unknown.
- Camels
Britain had 50,000 camels but any known death toll is almost impossible to get.
- Oxen
Britain had 11,000 oxen but again, any known death toll is not recorded.
- Cats
Cats were used to kill rats in trenches. However, we have no estimates whatsoever for how many cats were used.
- Canaries
Canaries were deployed to warn of poison gas attacks. But again, there are no known estimates for the numbers of canaries which were used.
In the Second World War, the numbers of animals becomes much harder to find but these are the estimated figures we know of:
- Horses
Britain had 6,500 horses as of 1942, but any more information is scarce.
- Mules
Britain began the war with 10,000 mules but later purchased a further 11,000 mules in Sicily and Southern Italy. Just as with horses, any more information is scarce.
- Camels
Britain had 1,700 camels but further information appears to have not been recorded.
- Dogs and Cats
At the outbreak of World War II, over 200,000 dogs and cats were killed due to food rationing and their owners believed they would steal food from people.
By 1944, Britain had 7,000 “war” dogs. How many of these dogs survived, seems to be completely unknown.
- We do know that the PDSA Animal Rescue Squads rescued and treated some 262,541 animals injured and caught up in bombing raids between 1940 through to the end of the war.
What did these animals do in these wars?
Due to the fact that so little data was ever recorded about the animals forced into war by people “fighting for their country” it is very easy to believe that these people, in fact, did not care at all about the immense loss of non-human life. If this is the case, it is heart-wrenching to believe these people have intentionally forgotten the sacrifices animals made to save the lives of their human “companions”. Here are a few examples from World Wars I and II of the true bravery shown by animals which is conveniently ignored by all those celebrating the “sacrifices” of the human soldiers in these wars:
- Red Cross dogs searched battlefields at night and successfully located wounded men. These dogs were equipped with brandy bottles and coiled rope attached to their collars. Allied rescue dogs founded wounded soldiers who tied the ropes to their bodies to the dogs could drag them to safety.
- Cher Ami was a messenger pigeon who delivered twelve messages during World War I. Whilst delivering his twelfth message he was severely injured (he was shot through the breast, and lost one eye and one leg) but he delivered his message, thus saving hundreds of lives and died only a few months afterwards from his wounds.
- A dog, whose name is not recorded in history, carried messages for several weeks enduring a gunshot wound to his/her lungs and a piece of shrapnel embedded deep in his/her spine.
- Penny, a search and rescue dog, detected a baby buried under several feet of rubble. Penny dug an air hole to allow the little baby to breathe so she would not suffocate and waited with her until help arrived.
- Beauty, another search and rescue dog, was awarded the PDSA Dicken Medal for detecting and saving the lives of 63 animals who were buried under rubble and would have died without her quick reactions and canine courage.
- Judy, a Royal Navy gunboat mascot was awarded the PDSA Dicken Medal for protecting the men she was devoted to after her entire crew was captured and thrown into a POW camp. Judy came to their rescue several times by diverting attention away from guards who were going to beat the men she was so devoted to.
- A dog named Daisy was aboard a Norwegian ship when it was torpedoed. The surviving crew members of the vessel were thrown into the icy sea. Throughout the night, before any rescuers came, Daisy swam from one man to another to another, comforting and encouraging them by licking their faces. If it had not been for Daisy that night, those men would have died in those waters. Daisy was awarded an RSPCA medal for keeping those men alive.
What happened to these animals after the Wars ended?
Many would assume that animals who fought for man in conflicts would be honoured for their bravery, courage and devotion but this is not the case. Although a few animals were awarded medals such as the PDSA Dicken Medal and medals from the RSPCA, the majority of animals used by the military never saw their homes again.
- Horses
After World War I ended, thousands of horses were abandoned or sold into hard labour in the countries where they were used.
When food shortages led to soldiers killing their own animals used for war service, they also stripped the flesh from the bones of horses killed by shellfire which spread disease among the trenches.
- Dogs
Not every dog that was trained for military service “made the grade”. The fate of dogs who did not meet military requirements is recorded in history: Dogs such as the Collies Nell, Cosy and Surefoot were euthanised after training for not making the grade and lurchers King and Sea were shot “for being useless”.
Those dogs which did make it through the war, some did indeed return home with the soldiers whom they fought alongside but many more dogs (and cats) were abandoned to scavenge for themselves.
- Mules
When soldiers were rescued from Dunkirk in 1940, they abandoned their mules on the shore.
- Elephants
In the Second World War, the British deliberately bombed elephants who were being used by the Japanese to transport equipment.
The present day.
This year, we have seen a shift in the Poppy Appeal from what the original objective of the campaign was. Originally, the Poppy Appeal was set up to aid veterans of the First World War and later, the Second World War. But now, we see a shift in the money raised no longer even going to veterans of conflicts decades old but to the soldiers being injured in the latest conflict. With this shift, I see it as important to also remember the victims of our modern wars. At this time of year, people are too busy thinking of red poppies and soldiers with missing limbs to think of the wider context of any war. The number of innocent victims killed and further more, the lives never remembered by history. In sixty years time, who will remember the dolphins and the sea lions who were used by the military? Or the dogs, cats, birds and horses? Nobody wants to remember this sacrifice of non-human life because it doesn’t fit in with the modern day appeal for donations. So what of now? What animals are being used by our military in the latest man-made conflict?
- Dogs
As of February 2005, approximately 2,300 dogs were being used in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan as sentries, to detect bombs and to perform searches and rescue and recovery tasks.
- Birds
Birds such as pigeons and chickens were used in Iraq as “early-warning alerts” in the event of a chemical or biological attack.
Nearly every chicken died within days of being let out into the blistering heat of the Iraqi desert from heat exhaustion, stress, illness or injury. Some may have even been killed and eaten by troops stationed there.
- Dolphins
Dolphins are trained and used to detect mines underwater, to film objects underwater, retrieve and deliver equipment, guard vessels against enemy divers, and to detect and restrain enemy divers.
- Sea Lions
Sea Lions are trained to pursue fleeing divers who go ashore.
As if this abuse of non-human life by our military is not bad enough, the abuse and exploitation does not stop with training animals to do tasks which go against their very nature and place them in extreme danger when computers and drones could do a much better job. No, our militaries then have to experiment on animals and expose them to compounds and biological weapons we cannot even begin to fathom the horror of. Nearly ever chemical and biological weapon which has been deployed against ordinary people during conflicts will have been tested on animals first. Vivisection is the single biggest fraud and lie mankind has ever seen but this does not stop mad scientists from creating ever more deadly weapons by exposing them to non-human animals before deploying them on the population of a foreign country.
This is what happens inside Porton Down, the British Ministry of Defence Laboratory….
- In 2005, more that 21,000 animals (including monkeys, ferrets and pigs) were used in military experiments at Porton Down, the secret biological and chemical research centre in Wiltshire.
- Porton Down was opened in 1916, and since then, millions of animals have died their in the name of warfare.
- Sheep, goats, mice, rats, guinea pigs, dogs and cats are used in Porton Down to test the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons and to test the strength of the antidotes for these weapons.
- Pigs have been left with pendulous blisters after mustard gas experiments.
- Guinea Pigs have been driven to uncontrollable defecations and convulsions after being exposed to a poisonous gas known as Soman (this gas is similar to Sarin gas and causes complete loss of control of the bowel and bowel movements, as well as leading to coma and death – it was used predominantly in the Second World War).
- Dogs have been reduced to shivering wrecks during experiments using riot control gas.
- Pigs have had their blood drained and been injected with E Coli.
- Monkeys have been exposed to Anthrax.
- Pigs have been drugged, tied up and shot so that doctors can practice “battlefield surgery”.
These are only examples of the lunacy going on behind closed doors and the barbarism animals are subjected to in order to find ever more “effective” mechanisms of killing people. Whether you agree with war or not becomes irrelevant in the presence of such awful information. If the world’s militaries really want to produce weapons of killing then using animals is not the way to be going about it. As any anti-vivisectionist will tell you, animals are not humans and our bodies react differently, there are even difference between a single species. Using animals to test these weapons does not take into account what would happen if the wind direction changed after these weapons were deployed, or other adverse weather conditions. Also, “battlefield surgery” cannot be improved by torturing animals. The great battlefield surgeons of antiquity such as Pare, did not cut open animals in the middle of a battle to find the best way of saving his patients lives. Instead, he relied on common sense and experience. No two war wounds are the same and they cannot be treated the same. For centuries, battlefield surgeons relied on what was at hand to save the lives of the injured, they relied on clinical expertise and medical knowledge, something which seems to have been forgotten by our modern day military. All those millions of animals have been tortured to death inside Porton Down for absolutely no reason but for the ever present blood lust which modern “science” seems obsessed with. To kill more animals in order to kill more people is lunacy at its finest.
All of these reasons, from the animals used and forgotten in warfare to the animals still used and tortured today, is why I wish to hold a day of remembrance for these non-human lives which so few people seem to care about. We always talk of the “fallen” at this time of year but what about the forgotten? What about all those animals who were abandoned by the “heroes” when they fled the battlefield for home? What about all those animals still used by today’s military because they are cheaper than hi-tech equipment? What about all those animals tortured to death in the name of biological and chemical warfare? Why should we forget their sacrifices? I don’t believe we should, I believe these are the true sacrifices of our war-torn world and I wish to remember these lives, gone but not forgotten, in the month of remembrance. Our society ignored non-human animal sacrifice too often but I do not believe this can or should be ignored. So please, join me in our Animal Day of Remembrance, light a candle for the lives so easily forgotten, write a poem in their memory, whatever you feel is the right thing to do. Join me, and let us never forget the true cost of war – the innocent life taken without remorse…
What can I do if I can’t attend this event?
1/. Purchase a purple poppy from Animal Aid (http://www.animalaidshop.org.uk/accessories.htm) and wear it with pride.
2/. Organise this event in your own town or city. Email bafa@gmx.com for further details.
3/. Hold a 2 minute silence at 11am on 24 November, wherever you are or whatever you are doing. Just for those two minutes, remember those forgotten non-human lives.
