Our first two months: an update!
Thank you so much to all those who have signed our petition and supported Crustacean Compassion! We read every one of your comments, tweets and emails and it really does spur us on to know so many people care about decapod crustaceans, and are prepared to fight for their protection.
Below, we’ve shared a little update on our activities so far. However, we’d also like to ask you to do something for us. Can you get ONE more person to sign our petition, and help take our total signatures to 10,000?
A demonstration of public support is crucial to win this campaign. The authorities think the public don’t care about crustaceans. Even though our scientific and legal argument is sound, they won’t prioritise this issue unless we reach critical mass. Can you help get more people involved?
Please share our petition: https://www.change.org/p/george-eustice-mp-protect-crabs-and-lobsters-under-the-animal-welfare-act-england-and-wales
Update
We’re thrilled at how much support has been shown for crustaceans in just a couple of months! Our petition now stands at over 5,500 signatures, and we’ve been featured in numerous publications from the Huffington Post to the Ecologist. Big players like the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming have shared our petition on their Twitter and Facebook timelines; and our blog on the scientist and naturalist Mark Avery’s site was hit 1,200 times in just one day, sparking a great debate on the comments section. We’re also delighted to see how many eminent vets and scientists have shared our petition on social media. Check out our coverage here: https://www.crustaceancompassion.org.uk/press-1
Last week we were invited to Edinburgh to the Fish Veterinary Society’s annual conference (the aquatic section of the British Veterinary Association), where we talked about our campaign and were positively received. Next month we’ve been invited to speak at AWSELVA (Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association), and are looking forward to meeting so many influential and hardworking professionals in animal welfare and law.
Maisie Tomlinson speaking at the Fish Veterinary Society
We’re also pleased to have been invited by the Association of Lawyers for Animal Welfare (ALAW) to join an alliance with a number of prominent animal welfare organisations including the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming, Humane Society International, and Naturewatch Foundation. The alliance is looking at ways to secure and strengthen the animal welfare protections of EU law following Brexit. Needless to say, including decapods in the UK’s Animal Welfare Act is top of our agenda, and we made our case when we participated in the group’s submission of evidence to the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee inquiry: “Brexit: farm animal welfare”.
We’ll be back in touch soon with more news and opportunities for you to get involved. In the meantime, please do help crustaceans by sharing our petition. And don’t forget to let us know you’ve done it! Tag @crab_welfare in your tweet or @Crustacean Compassion in your Facebook post, use the hashtag #crustaceancompassion or just drop us a line at campaigns@crustaceancompassion.org.uk.
Best wishes,
Maisie, Juliette, Claire, Ann, Joanna and Gemma
Crustacean Compassion
P.S. We couldn’t go without sharing our current favourite fun fact about crustaceans with you. Did you know that female lobsters can carry over 100,000 eggs? Much respect to the Easter Bunnies of the ocean!
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