Suzanne Barnard -
Education Manager
Suzanne Barnard is the education manager for the PETA Foundation, where she produces humane-education materials to help teachers encourage empathy in young people. She has been an animal rights supporter and activist for most of her life, having gone vegetarian at the age of 8 and vegan at 17. She ran a successful animal rights club in high school, did her work experience placement at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) and was an active anti-hunting protester. Suzanne grew up in London but has lived and worked in various places, including Bolton, Italy and Israel. She studied English literature at university and then taught English as a second language for a number of years before starting her career in charity work.
It’s all well and good to talk about a weekly meat-free day, but what’s it like in practice for a hotel, restaurant or school – or an entire city? How would Meat-Free Monday work in a UK city? I went to Ghent, Belgium, to learn more.
My first stop is breakfast at one of Ghent’s most prestigious hotels – NH Gent Belfort, which was the first hotel to implement “Donderdag Veggiedag”. The meat-free programme has been going strong there for two months. “It was a marketing decision”,… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / WoodyUpstate
You may have heard recent news reports or seen the distressing images of two gulls who were shot through the head with bolts from a crossbow in Scarborough. Over the last month, both birds have been spotted flying in the area despite being impaled with the bolts.
PETA are offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for these vicious attacks. A reward may also deter the attacker from attacking again.
Animal… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / Spauln
It’s no surprise that Stephen Griffiths – who was charged last week with murdering three women in Bradford – allegedly abused animals in the past. According to news reports, Griffiths, now known as the “crossbow killer”, bred rats to feed to his lizards. A former friend claimed that on one occasion, Griffiths ate a live baby rat whole and found this cruel act amusing.
Child-killers Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables as well as multiple murderers Ian Huntley,… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / GlobalP
If you have children or work with children, you know how much animals fascinate them and how animals feature heavily in children’s stories, games and toys. I always think it must be confusing for children when they eventually come to the realisation that much of the food they eat is animal flesh and that the lives of animals on factory farms are not remotely like the rosy or fantastic pictures painted in their storybooks. In… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / Anyka
One year ago, the northern Belgium city of Ghent became the first city in the world to declare a weekly meat-free day to promote sustainable and healthy living. Today, the city is celebrating a year of “Donderdag Veggiedag” (Thursday Veggie Day) with stalls, entertainment, music and vegetarian food in the Groentenmarkt.
Since Ghent started this initiative, other cities as well as restaurants, schools and universities in countries such as Germany, the US,… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / MShep2
During my time at PETA, I’ve heard about a lot of cruelty-to-animals incidents involving children and teenagers. From shooting geese with air guns to kicking dogs and drowning cats, the cruelty that people show towards other living beings is always shocking.
Just a couple of weeks ago, five teenagers were arrested for allegedly killing a duckling in Salisbury.
When I hear about cases such as these, I… Read more.
