Firstly, I apologise if people have been expecting this Summer edition to appear earlier. Although issue dates are always irregular, as they have to fit in with personal circumstances, we are also trying to avoid appearing in the same week as The Vegan magazine, so we try to come out a few weeks later.

I should also apologise if anyone had to pay excess postage on the last issue. This was probably due to thicker paper being used on the cover page. We will try to control this in future.

In our last issue we reported on the great media interest in the protests against the Live Export trade. Though protests by Animal Rights supporters are continuing, the exporters have used the law to enforce the continuation of what is classed as a legal trade. Compassion In World Farming is also using the law to try to convince the Government that an article in the Treaty of Rome allows certain exports to be banned on grounds of animal health and public morality.

Unfortunately, the news is being taken over by more human tragedies, some natural ones, others caused by the brutality of humans to their own kind. If humans cannot tolerate other humans, what hope is there for them to develop tolerance for the animals?

Humans consider themselves superior to the animals because they have developed their skills, can reason with intelligence and plan for the future. They have certainly developed their skills to an astonishing degree, but seem incapable of using them rationally and use high technology to dominate or destroy each other. Their industry pollutes the environment, but they seem incapable of adapting it to avoid fouling the environment. The problem is so bad that the future of the human race and even of the whole planet is threatened.

The future of mankind therefore depends on our ability to make rational changes that will lead us towards a bright, sensible future. One of the necessary changes to be made, and not the least important, is the change to veganism. We may feel we cannot do much to change the form of society, but we can change the way we live individually.

The change to veganism is something within our power. As each individual changes, so the world will change.

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Cross-reference: Animal Rights