CLUB SANDWICH 73

AND IN THE GREEN CORNER

When arrested time and again during the years of Civil Rights struggles Martin Luther King Jr used to say that it cannot be a crime to break what is so plainly an unjust law.
It also used to be against East German law to cross from one side of Berlin to the other.
Unjust laws, rules and regulations - enacted for years longer than necessary (if they ever were so) – have been much in the British news this year over the export of live animals to mainland Europe. Willing to raise her voice and speak out against this barbaric trade is writer Carla Lane, who offers here an argument to counter the right-wing tabloid headlines decrying "mob violence" but not the trade itself

            So now we have an animal activist locked up for 14 years.
            He 'was said to have in his possession the means to make explosives. This, combined with the fact that he was a known "animal person" who had already been in jail for damaging a slaughterhouse, created the need for a sentence twice as long as that given in the same week to a woman who beat a young girl to death.
            "Good," the world shouts. "A menace to society," they cry, as the learned judge, allegedly a member of a Hunt, puts Keith Mann away.
            But he has not silenced the passion.

Carla Lane "A man who hunts a fox and watches it being torn to bits by his dogs is law abiding, but the man who tries to stop this obscenity is a criminal"

            Now, before you accuse me of condoning violence, let me say that I am not an animal activist and I belong to no group or society. My weapons are words, and my question is: shouldn't we be asking why this man, described as quiet and gentle by all who know him, has been driven to allowing his sorrow to consume his freedom? Shouldn't we be asking: "What has he seen? What is going on in those dark sheds where he and others are found trespassing and vandalising?"
            Or is it that deep in our guts we know what is going on because we are that voracious animal nicknamed the consumer? A great deal of what we stuff our bellies with comes from those dark sheds and no-one must make us openly aware that -we are a part of it.
            Cruelty to animals is now more than just a faint cry - it is a heartbeat throughout Britain and the world. Our conscience is shifting uncomfortably at the sight of a week-old calf or lamb being borne away in a slatted truck, at the sight of all the grossly overfed turkeys hanging pale and bloodless on our butchers' rails, at the sight of supermarkets carpeted with bits of dead animal, the aseptic wrapping designed to show the culinary aspects and hide the tragedy. But not from Keith Mann. He has acquainted himself with the true horrors. When he views sausages and beef and chops he sees utter fear, he sees trusting faces walking towards a bloodbath, he hears the sounds of the slaughterhouse, and he can't believe that people can so coldly buy and eat the end products of the nightmare.
            He is not alone. There are millions like Keith Mann. Most keep their anger and frustration hidden, some shout, and a few others campaign and spread the word. A growing number cannot cope with the emotions of what they know, and it is then that the fine line between the acceptable and the unacceptable is broken. After all, to be hurt by the knowledge of cruelty and to want to put an end to it is highly commendable, but the law lies low when it comes to other animals and for some it is impossible to divide their feelings. A man who hunts a fox and watches it being torn to bits by his dogs is law abiding, but the man who tries to stop this obscenity is a criminal. Only because cruel men say so. This is why we must listen to these animal activists, who have much higher perceptions than the law, and who sometimes may do foolish things.
            We must listen because they will always be there and they will grow in numbers and a new kind of terrorism will be born. The difference being that when the reasons for this particular terrorism are properly revealed, it is more likely to be understood, if not to promote compassion.
            And unless the hunters, the factory farmers, the scientists and those others in the ever widening cruelty game, clean up their act, they are going to find themselves without their most important commodity - the consumer.

WIN A YEAR'S FREE SANDWICHES

            Other newspapers and magazines tempt their readers with holidays in the sun or a night out at the theatre. We go one better and offer three of you the chance to have your Sandwiches free for a whole year. Imagine: you might not go hungry (for fun-filled information) for a whole 12 months.
            Yes! You can win a free year's subscription to your favourite organ, Club Sandwich. Simply send us your answer to the following question and you might be one of the three lucky winners.

What make is Paul's famous violin-shaped bass guitar?

            Entries on a postcard please to The Spring Sandwich Draw, The Paul McCartney Fun Club, PO Box 110, Westcuff, Essex, SSO 8NW, England.