Viva! is a British animal rights group, which focuses on promoting veganism. It was founded by Juliet Gellatley in 1994. Viva! carries out undercover investigations to expose the abuse of factory farmed animals and produces information on how to go vegan, including recipes and shopping guides. It is a registered charity.
Overview
Viva! is an animal rights' campaigning organisation, working on issues such as factory farming and slaughter and is based in Bristol, with a branch office in Poland. Campaigns include End Factory Farming, Eat Green, Foie-Gras free Britain, Exotic Meat, Ban the Farrowing Crate, Dark Side of Dairy and youth campaigns including The Big Coverup. Campaigns in 2018 included an investigation into Hogwood Pig Farm in Warwickshire, and Scary Dairy's "Trash" campaign, highlighting the dairy industry's forgotten victims: male calves.
Events
Following on from its success with the former biannual national "Incredible Vegan Roadshow" in London, Viva! now organises six annual festivals across the UK designed to help people become vegetarian or vegan. These are: Bristol Viva! Vegan Festival, Cardiff Viva! Vegan Festival, Swansea Viva! Vegan Festival, Stockport Viva! Vegan Festival, Birmingham Viva! Vegan Festival and Coventry Viva! Vegan Festival. Viva! also do a number of outreach events each year to raise awareness and support of its current campaigns.
In addition to producing leaflets, factsheets, guides, posters, wallcharts, health and nutrition reports, websites, podcasts, blogs and other resources, the group publishes a triannual journal entitled Viva! LIFE, which includes recent campaign updates, as well as vegan recipes, vegan lifestyle articles, information about new vegan products and businesses, and vegan health and nutrition advice. It also published a Viva! Cookbook in 2014.
In 2009, Viva! criticised supermarket chainTesco for turning 5,000 tonnes of meat that had passed its sell-by date into electricity by burning it. Viva! argued the meat industry was cruel and wasteful, and converting out-of-date meat into heat with CO2 as byproduct was not environmentally sustainable, but Tesco defended its decision. In 2012, Viva! stated that it favoured the development of cultured meat. "Certainly, with over 950 million land animals slaughtered in the UK each year, and the vast majority of them factory farmed in awful conditions, anything that saves animals from suffering is to be welcomed," former Viva! spokesman and campaign manager Justin Kerswell said, adding that individuals should make up their own mind on whether or not they would consume it themselves, because 'vegetarianism and veganism aren't religions'.
