Ruth Harrison

About Ruth Harrison

Ruth Harrison (24 June 1920 – 13 June 2000), daughter of author Stephen Winsten, was a leading British animal-welfare activist and author.

As a Quaker and as a conscientious objector during the Second World War, she served in the Friends Ambulance Unit, first in Hackney, London, and then with displaced persons in Schleswig-Holstein and Bochum in Germany.

In 1964 she published Animal Machines, which describes intensive poultry and livestock farming. The book was said to have exposed the whole reality of intensive farming. It was published in seven countries and was the inspiration for the European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes. In 1986 she was awarded an OBE.

The Australian ethicist Peter Singer has said that reading Animal Machines was important in his becoming a vegetarian and adopting the views that he sets out in Animal Liberation.

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Quotes By Ruth Harrison

In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.

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1 Follow

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2 Share

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3 Print

Print, print and print out what you like. Add one to that space on the noticeboard at work. How about that billboard on the way to the café? If there's room and it's legal, print out a few posters and tape them to boards, lamp posts and bus shelters.

4 Give

Got a friend's birthday coming up? Or just want to treat your sister? It's pretty cost effective to print out your favourite posters (even at a professional printers), throw it in a suitable frame and wrap it up - gift sorted!


Quote Of The Day

It is not your right — based on your traditions, your customs and your habits — to deny animals their freedom so you can harm them, enslave them and kill them. That’s not what rights are about. That’s injustice.

Gary Yourofsky