Animal Rebellion is an international animal rights group which is part of a rebel alliance with Extinction Rebellion. On October 7th, Animal Rebellion groups all over the world will be starting to take action against the animal crisis, most notably in London where activists will blockade the Smithfield Meat market and continue protest at various sites.

On the 7th of October 2019 at 12.30pm, Animal Rebellion New Zealand staged a demonstration at the Fonterra building calling for Fonterra to tell the public the truth about the dark side of the dairy industry. At the same time, protests by our sister groups were happening around the Fonterra plant in Hawera. Our ultimate goal is for Fonterra, as well as other animal agriculture giants in New Zealand, to tell the public the truth, and work toward transitioning to a plant based food system for the sake of the animals, the planet and our future.

What the dairy industry doesn’t tell us, is that around 1.7 million calves are sent to slaughter in New Zealand every year due to being a ‘by product’ of the dairy industry ( safe.org.nz -Calf Welfare)

What they don’t tell us, is that 49% of greenhouse emissions in New Zealand are from the agriculture sector, with 23% being from the diary industry alone. (Ministry for the Environment)

They don’t tell us that dairy foods have been shown to have negative impacts on health with studies linking dairy food consumption to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, as well as increased risks of developing breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. This is reflected in Canada’s decision to remove dairy foods from their National Nutrition Guidelines. (Canada Nutrition Guidelines)

We are not against farmers, animal agriculture workers or the consumer public. We believe there are great opportunities for New Zealand to flourish by transitioning to a plant based food system. Aotearoa has around 2 million hectares of land suitable for growing plant based proteins, and a report from Plants and Food Research has shown a potential for plant based agriculture to generate $80 million, compared to the $28 million generated by animal agriculture. (SAFE NZ and Plant and Food Research : Opportunities in Plant Based Food-PROTEIN report)

We believe we all need to work together to take advantage of these opportunities, and to ensure the protection of the planet, the animals and our future. We call on the government to support our agriculture organisations to make this plant based, vegan future happen and we will not stop until we achieve this vision; for the animals, for the planet and for our people.

Animal Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand

Animal Rebellion is an international mass volunteer movement in partnership with extinction Rebellion that uses methods of nonviolent civil disobedience to end the animal agriculture and fishing industries, halt mass extinction and minimize the risk of climate breakdown and social collapse, in partnership with Extinction Rebellion. For more information about Animal Rebellion, visit www.animalrebellion.org.

© Scoop Media