Compassion in World Farming (helping animals everywhere!)
Roaming Wild is the story of how the charity CIWF (Compassion in World Farming) was founded. It’s not a vegan charity, but was in fact founded by concerned dairy farmers, and has gone onto achieve huge milestones like banning fur farming and sow crates in the UK and educating on which labels to trust, and which food labels are rubbish.
Read about Compassion in World Farming’s campaign to get shops to take on its 6-tier food labelling system (consumers would then know which animal foods to avoid, if they eat them).
Anna and Peter started the world’s most successful animal welfare charity from a back room with few funds. Both born in the 1920s, they lived through World War II and married in the 1950s, then worked as dairy/chicken farmers in rural Hampshire.
After going vegetarian, they became aware of cruel battery egg and broiler systems, so set up a charity to help all farmed animals, believing everyone (no matter what their diet) would support them – and they did.
From challenging EU legislation to battling corporate giants like McDonald’s, this is a truly inspiring story of one humble couple, who decided they would try to help animals.
They even challenged the British Royal Family to go free-range and also put animal welfare on the agenda of all major political parties.
Their most famed case was against an order of Catholic monks who were raising veal calves in crates not big enough to turn around in (Jesus would not be pleased).
They actually lost the case, but the resulting furore led to the banning of veal crates in the UK. An ‘ordinary couple with an extraordinary mission’, this book is also a story of 50 years of love.
Author Emma Silverthorn is the granddaughter of the founders of Compassion in World Farming. She also runs courses at Write Owls.
She has worked as a writer and educator since 2011, her interests focusing on animal sentience, nature and the environment. As well as the effects of post-war agriculture systems on biodiversity and the lives of farm workers.
It’s perfectly possible to ban factory farming, it is already happening at grassroots level in the Californian county of Sonoma with a similar thing happening in Berkeley, near San Francisco. This is having a knock-on effect with Denver (Colorado) considering a similar measure.
CIWF is a Charity That Gets Things Done!
This is a charity that not only has clout, but has instrumented tremendous success. Here are just a few things this marvellous charity has done:
- Banned the live export of farmed animals (after a campaign lasting 50 years). They never gave up.
- Carried out undercover investigations, leading to better welfare for farmed animals
- Campaigned for animals to be recognised as sentient beings (capable of feeling pain and suffering).
- A ban on battery cages for hens in the egg industry.
- A ban on veal crates.
- A ban on sow (mother pig) stalls across Europe.
- A ban on fur farming in the UK
There are lots more ongoing campaigns, which you can read about and support on the site. The charity has many high-profile supporters including:
- Dame Joanna Lumley (actress)
- Peter Egan (actor)
- Dame Penelope Keith (actress)
- Rose Elliot (veggie cookbook author)
- Chris Packham (wildlife presenter)
- Deborah Meaden (businesswoman)
- Dr Marc Abraham (vet)
- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (chef)
- Virginia MacKenna OBE (wildlife campaigner)
- Pauline McLynn (‘Mrs Doyle’ in Father Ted!)
How to Support Compassion in World Farming
Obviously either eat plants, or free-range organic foods if you eat animal foods. Other ways to support CIWF include:
Buy organic cotton clothing (t-shirts and sweatshirts and plastic-free shopping totes), all with slogans promoting CIWF). Everything’s made with clean energy and sent in zero-waste packaging.
The same shop also sells other eco staples like reusable water bottles, with profits helping the charity’s essential work.
List CIWF as your chosen charity at easyfundraising. Then whenever you buy a product or service from participating retailers, the company donates to the charity on your behalf, at no cost to you. It does not affect loyalty points.
If you play the National Lottery, switch to their Compassion Lottery, which costs £1 and has prizes from £5 to £10,000.
