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The Accidental Secretary

Many of us feel powerless, faced with the enormity of the suffering all around us. Adhering to your principles can seem particularly difficult when you want to study biological or health sciences and find that the harming and killing of animals is an entrenched part of your course. Active campaigner and former Biology student Vivien Pomfrey shows what a difference one person can make.

I never set out to run a university anti-vivisection group, although I have always opposed cruelty to animals whenever I have learned of it.

I was not much good at science at school - maybe it was the way it was taught - and my highest qualification was a mediocre biology O-level.

25 years later, by then an ethical vegan, fed up with dead-end, mind-numbing jobs and wanting to work helping animals and/or the environment, I enrolled with the Open University with the aim of gaining a biology-based degree.

When I read that slides of animal tissue were to be sent to all students on my second course, I wrote to the course team chair (later to become the OU's Head of Biology) to enquire about the origins of the tissue and asked for the slides not to be sent to me. (They were.)

The course team chair's reply filled me with dismay, as it included claims that I would find it difficult to avoid animal tissue in the course and should consider withdrawing from it. As it was the basic biology course that I needed to take in order to gain my coveted degree, I was left feeling that I would never be able to achieve my goals. But being a stubborn so-and-so, I continued, and joined the OU anti-vivisection society Students for Ethical Science (SES).

When I arrived at the summer school for the course, I read in the notes that "rats will be killed for you"! No way would I allow this to happen, and I had an interview with the summer school director where I was grilled on my views on various animal issues, including diet. To my immense relief I was given computer simulations of the unethical experiments, and was granted the full credit for attending the school - essential for passing the course.

I have since found that the OU's position is typical of educational institutions, in that they insist that alternatives are available, but they fail to publicise the fact. They are also resistant to demands to provide adequate information about animal use in courses, so that it is difficult for students to make informed choices, and they can find themselves in the very-stressful situation that I encountered - having to stand up to the system on their own. My article Psychological Issues in the Educational Use of Animal Experimentation looks at the effect of this on students.

This is the kind of thing which groups such as SES can help with - providing the information that the educational institution fails to provide, researching and publicising alternatives, and enabling students to support each other in requesting these.

A few years later, having not heard from SES for a while, I made several attempts to contact them and was eventually phoned by founder Sally Horn, who told me that it was in danger of being wound up. I produced a short newsletter based on info that Sally gave me, and agreed for my contact details to appear in the society's ad in the university magazine Sesame and to be given to the OU student association (OUSA), who started to treat me as the secretary! I became secretary by default, having never been secretary of anything before. Eek - what a responsibility!

As animals and humane students now depended on me to a considerable extent, I set about reviving the Society, contacting past members to see if they wanted to renew, creating stationery, including factsheets and forms, instigating a network for members who wanted to be able to contact each other, and finding out all I could about OU animal experiments and suitable alternatives. I drafted motions for the annual conference of the students' association OUSA, and lobbied various people within the OU and OUSA.

When the head of biology decided to ban our innocuous ad in Sesame, a 19-month battle ended in victory, with the ad reinstated and useful publicity generated via BUAV, whose lawyer helped us free of charge.

Over a few years I managed to recruit some new committee members, eventually passed on the secretaryship and am now scientific advisor, having gained a general-sciences BSc (Hons) and an MSc based on 3 medical science modules. I have since worked in a paid capacity providing scientific support to anti-vivisection charities.

I was struck by the impact that one person could have. I had more success lobbying the biology department and animal ethical committee directly than by going through OUSA, and successfully challenged some claims made by the department, including that there was no vivisection at the OU! I also became aware that many people regarded as experts in their field are in fact surprisingly ignorant, unreliable and unreasonable.

So you think that you couldn't do what I did? Remember that I knew little about science when I started. It may also surprise some of you that I am disabled, with M.E. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) which means that I can't do public speaking, attend conferences or do any face-to-face stuff, and have limited mental and physical energy. I was particularly unwell during the censorship battle. I do almost all my anti-vivisection work through the written/typed word, plus occasional phone calls (although I find these very tiring).

Tips Based On Experience

• Don't be put off doing anything if you can only manage a little. A little is better than nothing and, if lots of people do a little, it adds up to a lot.
• Gentle cajoling combined, where appropriate, with praise works better than bullying, which can turn people off completely. This applies both to colleagues and those whose views/positions you are trying to change. It's easy to get a bit carried away in view of what is at stake, but try to stay calm and polite at all times.
• Be prepared to encounter hostility. Animal rights has a dodgy reputation due largely to the media choosing to focus on a tiny minority of extremists. In addition, many scientists appear to have forgotten the importance of being open to new ideas, and/or they have vested interests in continuing with guaranteed, conventional, lucrative work rather than having to learn new skills, and/or they fear of loss of status. My article Psychological Issues in the Educational Use of Animal Experimentation (See above for URL) throws some light on this. There is also brief reference to resistance to change in Alternatives to the Use of Animals in Higher Education The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 33, which features other useful information.
• Get your facts right! There is a huge amount of reliable information out there. Make sure to stick to reputable sources, ideally referenced scientific papers. Don't make any claims that you can't back up. You might be surprised how many scientists make seriously-flawed claims, and you will be able to catch them out if you acquire basic scientific skills and knowledge. My own came from a combination of formal study and independent searching. Try the links from the SAAC website. Among others I would recommend InterNICHE for educational issues and Vivisection Absurd for research issues.
• Try to get representation for your group on your institution's animal ethics committee or similar. Don't worry if your rep isn't fully au fait with the issues (although obviously it is better if s/he is) as there will be other committee members who are not well-versed in science.
• Be sure to differentiate between animal use in education and animal use in research. The purposes are different, the alternatives are different and the regulations are different. My summary of such differences in the case of the Open University can be found here.
• Remember that ethical sourcing is only relevant if one is talking about using animal materials in experiments as opposed to live animals. (NB I use the term 'materials' as there are materials such as DNA which may be unethically sourced but may not fall within the definition 'tissue'.)

So what are you waiting for? If there isn't an animal rights group at your institution, start one. If there is, join it, and get active. If no one challenges the cruel orthodoxy, it will NEVER change.

You will meet resistance, hostility, and 'brick walls'. Progress may be painfully slow, and you may see little or none during your own involvement in the campaigns. But, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi: