Record-breaking animal rights march
12,000 vegan activists took part in a record-breaking march in London last month
Friends from Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) were among the 12,000 vegan activists who took part in a record-breaking march last month demanding ‘an end to all animal oppression’ and blockading Trafalgar Square for almost an hour.
The annual Official Animal Rights March on 17 August, which this year took place in forty cities across the world, showed a huge upswing in numbers in London since the march was first held in 2016. Around 10,000 people are thought to have attended the march from Hyde Park to Parliament Square last year, compared to 2,500 when it first began.
The event was organised by activist groups Surge and Animal Rebellion. The latter is planning a two-week blockade of Smithfield Market in October.
Vegan activist Jacqui Robins, who organised a march in Truro, Cornwall, said: ‘This was the time for us to let it all out. It’s not about aggression, it’s about passion, which I think gets misconstrued. The movement is growing. The world is changing and we need to step up as individuals, but also as a county.’
The increase in numbers reflects the increased popularity in veganism. According to The Vegan Society, the number of vegans in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2018.
QCA has also highlighted the fact that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report encouraged people to eat less meat and also dairy, which is often overlooked. It said on its Facebook page, ‘dairy… is also bad for carbon and methane production and use of land’.
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