June Question and Answer Session with ARAN Founder John Carmody

Q 1) So John, it has been over ten years since ARAN was formed, do you feel much has changed in Ireland for animal rights? Hi! I can honestly put hand on heart that huge changes have being made in this country for animals. Each and every single day now you can read or listen on the local radio or newspaper about cruelty to animals issues. Thanks in large part to the hard work of ARAN there is now more focus from the press on animal rights issues. In the last two weeks alone we have been doing radio and newspaper interviews about a variety of campaigns including a cruelty issue we’re currently working on in Kerry. Also for the first time in Irish history we are to get some vital legislation that I believe will help animals in some way, shape or form. The Ward Union are on the way out as is fur farming and we’ve also got the revised upcoming animal welfare bill which I hope will make meaningful changes to the lives of many animals and of course make life harder for those that get sick kicks out of their suffering. Other changes also include more people going vegetarian and a lot of vegetarians are also going vegan.

Q 2) What do you feel has been the biggest achievement in Ireland for ARAN?
ARAN has played a huge part in growing the Irish animal rights movement and that goes without saying. We have been hugely successful in many areas but I feel some of the areas where we work best is getting press attention for animal abuse issues. We also do tremendous work getting people from all walks of life in every corner of the country out on the streets helping animals and we are effective in our campaigns with getting many stores across Ireland to go fur free, pressuring government to ban fur farming, helping the campaign to ban the Ward Union hunt, encouraging people the country over to go vegetarian, educating students and school children to respect animals and of course supporting international campaigns such as closing down Canada’s seal hunt. Thanks to ARAN’s work we are without doubt leading the Irish call to end the world’s most viscous and brutal slaughter of baby seals.

Q3) What projects/campaigns are you working on right now?
Good question! There are always a thousand and one projects we are working on but right now we are working to make sure the Ward Union hunt ban goes ahead before the Dail government recess, but also we’re getting word that a badger ‘cull’ may take place in Northern Ireland – we’re working closely with officials and hope to have good news that this may not actually go ahead. We are also working in Dublin to get a popular ‘pet’ store to sign a statement that they will not purchase any monkeys or puppies in the future, but we also plan on getting them to stop selling Macaw birds too. Of course we are also doing lots of educational stuff, working with local activists and continue to work on other campaigns like Foie Gras Free Ireland, our Fur Free Ireland, Stop Circus Suffering in Ireland and supporting other international issues such as getting a ban on the fur trade in Israel. ARAN has been helping their campaign in Ireland to make sure that Israel may be one of the first countries in the world to adopt a modern countrywide fur free policy.

Q4) What are your views on Veganism and people who are not yet even vegetarian?
Many people who are members of ARAN or indeed a lot of animal rights groups are not actually vegan, let alone vegetarian. But of course what I have learned since my early days of eating my way through the animal kingdom is that we must give people a chance to change their ways. Much of society still view eating meat as normal and it’s our goal here at ARAN to change that mindset. For many centuries no one ever questioned eating meat or even treating animals kindly for that matter, but today thanks in large part to groups like ARAN, we are working flat out trying to compel industries to stop abusing animals but of course making people sit up and realize that animals deserve respect too.  Whilst I do believe that the entire world would benefit from being vegan, I am realistic and whilst my head is high in the clouds, my feet are on the ground when it comes to helping people to switch to a more compassionate diet. At ARAN we like to help people take simple steps in their everyday lives without scaring them off which means we lose any chance of them going vegetarian or vegan to save animals. I think our most important goal for our movement should be that we respect everyone’s level of commitment for the animals and realize that it often can take people longer than we would like to reach our many goals, so we must understand people and work with them as opposed to against them if they are not 100% vegan and more. One thing about being with ARAN is that I get to be in contact with countless people all the time and meet many vegans and I have learned quite quickly that there is no one perfect vegan for sure, I have many stories of that which I could tell you about!

Q5) How do you feel about the current government and the latest ‘New Programme for Government’?
At ARAN we have been fighting for many years to get fur farming banned in this country. From staging demonstrations and letter writing campaigns and meeting with TD’s countrywide we now welcome the news that fur farming in Ireland is on the way out and rightly so. We’ll be joining the ranks of Northern Ireland and the UK in progressive legislation, but also we welcome the upcoming Ward Union hunt ban and of course humane badger control along with the ‘Dog Breeding Establishment Bill’ so for the first time in my life I want the current government to stay in power as if it breaks up before any of this above legislation takes place then we lose all these opportunities that we have fought so long and hard for. Our work is not done however, ARAN’s goal is to see an end to all blood sports in Ireland and we believe that with the support of our members hare coursing and foxhunting will be next, these are pastimes for a minority that have been around for far too long and along with bullfighting, should have been consigned to the history books.
Q6) You’ve taken part in nude and crazy events for animals’ rights before, tell us what it was like?
Being involved with animal rights has taken me to some of the most amazing events and demonstrations held for animals! From Croatia to Iceland I have been there using my voice to help those with none. Some of my many memories are of when I dressed as a horse and lay on a huge manure dump of horse dung outside of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant in London calling on him to stop selling horse meat, to peacefully disrupting a top PRADA fashion show to urge the company to stop selling fur to dressing as a butcher in Times Square in New York to protest against Indian Leather cruelty. Of course throughout my years of involvement with animal rights I have stripped nude, been covered with ‘fake’ blood, dressed in the weirdest costumes and of course some of the perks are that I get invited to many parties for animals and often get to meet compassionate celebrities most recently being Heather Mills.
Q7) What do you enjoy doing best at ARAN?
It has got to be working with our hundreds of supporters across the country, advising them, getting them active and keeping in touch with them on what we are doing for the animals. I must add ARAN members are some of the most amazing people I have truly met, these are people who are loyal to our campaigns work and many have supported our work as far back as 2004 just a couple of years after ARAN went nationwide. It’s great and I send my heartfelt thanks out to everyone who is reading this now, you know who you are!
Q8) For those who do not know, how does ARAN’s campaigns function?
Sometimes I get the feeling that people think ARAN is a huge organization with staff and a budget of millions, but the reality is that we are still very much a small grassroots group. No one at ARAN gets paid, including me, we are all volunteers. Our work and campaigns are made up of many volunteers working across the country in their own homes lobbying and doing various research and outreach activities for us, anyone with experience is welcome to contact ARAN so that they can get involved, we welcome everyone’s support!
Q9) What is ARAN’s views on animal liberation?
ARAN believes in animal liberation and it’s our core value and remains part of our integrity. We do not believe in animal welfare changes to for example making slaughterhouses slaughter animals more ‘gentle’ or having bigger chains on the elephant that has been ripped from their home in the wild. Although we can understand why some groups do advocate for welfare changes in slaughterhouses as much of the planet won’t go vegan overnight, so we must at least get rid of the worst abuses in the slaughterhouse. But although we believe in animal liberation our work to fulfil that goal remains a professional one. At ARAN we like to do things in a manner that the public will understand and we like to keep all our work mainstream and take everyone’s offer of help and support as a means to a long relationship of helping animals. We will also continue to work with animal welfare groups on various campaigns but it does not always mean we agree with everything they may do – at ARAN we deeply believe in working together to help all animals.
10) What are your plans for the coming months?
We’ve got so much planned including a national ‘Stop Circus Suffering in Ireland’ campaign road show, an animal rights road show, a new campaign to ban horse-drawn carriages, stepping up our anti-fur campaign and supporting the campaign to close down the fur stores in Dublin. We are also planning to increase the amount of events we organize and protests we plan, we also want far more information stands out on the streets and we plan on getting into more schools this year too – so for anyone reading, we cannot do any of the above without your support!
11) And finally is there anyone you would like to thank or anything else you would like to add?
Yes, have you a week? First of all I want to send out my biggest thanks to all our active volunteers who work on our campaigns, I want to thank all the active supporters who attend our protests and take part in our online campaign appeals for letter and email writing and of course making phone calls for immediate campaign issues. There is also a very unique and special group of ARAN members that financially donate to our group and to this end I want to pay my highest regards to all the people who trust in ARAN to get out on the streets and be the animals’ most fearless defender. Thanks to their kind support we no longer have to make banners from bed sheets or cardboard boxes, but we can now print all our materials professionally, stage demonstrations around the country, support activists in their local community, fund cruelty investigations, fund animal sanctuaries and so much more. You are ARAN!