Pro-animal group protests at expo despite permit block
A FEW Vact (Vegan Activists Cape Town) members attended the AgriExpo at Sandringham Farm to document the exploitation of animals.
After attending the event for an hour, they took part in a peaceful protest outside the venue on the corner of Sandringham Road and the R304.
Vact is a vegan activist group that aims to help educate the public on the need to abolish all forms of animal exploitation. Vact, therefore, does not focus on welfare but rather on total animal liberation.
On hearing of the Agri-Expo Livestock event at Sandringham Farm, Vact applied for a permit on October 10 to peacefully protest outside the venue. On October 11, we received notice from the Stellenbosch Municipality to attend a meeting at their offices the following day.
At the meeting, the municipality, traffic and police departments gave reasons why the permission to protest would be denied. In an e-mail, the Agri-Expo Livestock organisers had said the protest should not go ahead because of roadworks on Sandringham Road and the road’s topography. Other concerns were the safety of protesters, motorists and event-goers.
The meeting concluded with the municipality stating that they would send a formal letter denying the permit, and if Vact wished to contest the decision they were to take it to the high court.
The Regulation of Gatherings Act of 1933 states that when the number of protesters exceeds 15, an application is to be submitted to local authorities in order to ensure the safety of all concerned. As it happened, the municipality could not provide sufficient evidence that safety would be compromised.
Later that day (October 12), Vact received a formal letter from Stellenbosch Municipality denying them their right to protest – with the threat of potential arrest should they continue with their planned protest. All points in their reasoning were exactly the same as the event organiser’s e-mail to the municipality, further indicating organisers had swayed the local municipality’s decision.
Vact then consulted their legal team who agreed that there were no grounds to deny a peaceful protest. On October 13, Vact’s legal team sent a lawyer’s letter to the municipality stating that Vact would be there and that the municipality’s reasoning was unsubstantiated.
On Saturday, October 14, a few Vact members attended the expo and bore witness to the exploited animals and documented their harsh realities. Thereafter, they held a peaceful protest with a reduced number of 15 people in order to still legally protest.
The protest had a positive response from the majority of event-goers, both those going to and those leaving Sandringham Farm. No motorists, protesters or eventgoers were endangered and in no way was their safety compromised.
As an organisation that focuses on the abolition of animal exploitation, Vact does not focus on the welfare of animals, but rather the fact that they are being used. What Vact saw at the expo was heartbreaking, driving home the meaning of the word exploitation.
The animals were clearly terrified, shown off, paraded like commodities and man-handled. But regardless of how animals are treated, even if their conditions were better, it is still morally unjustifiable to use animals.
This usage plagues our society in everyday life, not only at this expo. We are desensitised to the fact that animals are used for their labour, skins, hair, lactations, flesh, etc.
Speciesism is bias and discrimination against non-human animals, and not affording them the same fundamental right to life, freedom and protection. All forms of discrimination are linked, whether they be speciesism, racism, sexism, heterosexualism, etc, and should all be abolished.
Streit and Banfield are co-founders of Vact