Felix Solidarity Day Today 3rd August
Live & let Live! | 04.08.2007 08:32
Discrimination or what?
"If nothing that we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."
from Angel, Epiphany (Episode 16, Season 2)
Watch a Czech version of the SPEAK Felix Film: http://www.otevrioci.cz/felix/
With just days to go before the Felix Solidarity Day on the 4th August, the FREE FELIX campaign is gathering momentum. In an amazing show of solidarity, campaigners around the world have added their voice to the growing numbers of people demanding the release of the young macaque held captive by Oxford University vivisectors.
International initiatives have been undertaken, and many groups are staging their own unique form of protest. All are unanimous in their condemnation of the torture of innocent victims like Felix whose eyes gaze hauntingly at us through the bars of the cage in which he is held at Oxford University. His gaze speaks volumes and needs no translation, and it is his gaze that has moved many into taking up the call to demand his liberty. His plight is the plight of all the millions of animals in vivisection laboratories around the world; his incarceration and his torture - and thus their collective incarceration and torture - shame us all.
The fight for his liberty is one we must not abandon. His gaze demands we see him for what he is: an individual with the same rights as you or I to live in dignity and freedom. He has become an avatar for everything that we fight for. It should be his face, and the countless thousands of others like him that we hold in our minds and in our hearts when we proclaim ourselves to be ambassadors for change. It is only with them firmly in our minds that we can truly find the courage and commitment to fight for what we know in our hearts is right. What inroads we make in this battle depend on what we are prepared to do both as individuals and as part of the collective initiative.
We are not alone in history: all pressure groups and movements for social and ethical change in any given era have faced ridicule and repression by the prevailing social order, yet they succeeded in bringing about progress. Their campaigns are now regarded through the eye of history as vital and important and courageous. The animal rights movement is fighting a long established and long accepted way of life that views all non-human animal life as expendable for our needs and wants. That credo has remained unchanged beyond memory, but change it can and change it must, for the sake of every Felix in this world, and every unnamed animal who suffers at the hands of our species.
Felix has already been brutalised by Oxford University vivisectors, but it is not too late to act. We must believe we can save Felix. Many people have contacted us to tell us how moved they were by the story of Malish. Many had seen his photos in the past, but not knowing his story, had believed he had died at the hands of his tormentors. But he didn’t die. He didn’t die, because a handful of brave and determined animal rights activists in Israel refused to abandon him to his fate at the hands of his tormentors. They refused to abandon him because they knew he would receive no mercy from his torturers just as we know Oxford University vivisectors will show no mercy to Felix.
The fate of Felix lies in our hands. We are the only ones that stand between him and that fate. We can all make a choice: we can abandon him to his fate or we can fight for him. Now is the time to decide what we are going to do. We have vowed to fight for a future where animals matter – that future is now.
When we stand together, we are stronger than when we stand alone. Each of us can make a difference if we determine that whatever we do counts for something. Every action, no matter how small, has a reaction. Even a feather falling on water causes a ripple effect. The journey towards animal liberation is a long one, but whatever seeds we sow along that journey will bear fruit in the future. Let us make sure that every one of us plays a part in that journey, and make our every action count for something. Felix is waiting. He does not have the luxury of time. The time to act is now. Join us and help us Free Felix.
Live & let Live!
e-mail:
kittyplant@btinternet.com
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