Adam Peditto
Using her veterinary degree and experience, The Humane League's first female president has dedicated her career to reducing the suffering of animals on factory farms.
Vicky Bond has persuaded major food companies to change their animal welfare policies in order to eradicate the worst forms of cruelty. In this video, she reflects on her journey as an activist.
Transcript
Vicky Bond: As a child, I always loved animals, and of course, if you love animals as a child, you pretty much navigate towards being a vet, and that was kind of all I wanted to do. And I've always just had a really strong affinity for animals and wanted to help them, and that was really all I cared about. So at fourteen, I gave up eating meat. And then in vet school, very few people were vegetarian. And when I left vet school and then was working on advocacy, and I was working on laying hens specifically, and I knew all these things about broken bones and that we macerate the chicks, and I was like, "What am I doing? The reason I'm not eating meat is because I don't want to eat animals because I care about them. And so if I care about them, then I should probably stop eating eggs and dairy as well." So that's when I became vegan.
The real pinnacle of knowing the food system was so horribly broken was going to a slaughterhouse. There have been numerous times when I've just been like, "I can't quite believe this is what we do to animals." I really remember just the horror, and I think it really represents just the commodity of animals that we have now. And so it very much made me want to fight for animals, which is what we do. So I ended up at The Humane League after meeting Dave.
So, I used to work for another animal advocacy organization. I've been working across Europe and in some parts of Africa with food businesses to improve welfare in their supply chain. I met Dave; he told me about The Humane League and that it would be starting up in the UK, and would I be interested. And I very much was. So in the UK, I first started off in the corporate campaigning element. And then Prue, who was the campaigner, and now we're nearly at 30 in the UK. I really feel that in the UK, it's a perfect time for someone to come in with a fresh pair of eyes with a wealth of campaigning experience to take us to the next level as we work on public policy work there as well as the campaigning work. So, pushing for legislation.
And the US organization was just at that critical point, having grown to now nearly a hundred people, that again, a new fresh pair of eyes coming in for the next phase of The Humane League. And the reality is that Dave and I have been talking about this for a number of years. It was always something that he wants to make sure he had a succession plan for. And we both felt a time had come in both our lives and with THL UK as it is, as a time that I could move away from the UK and move to THL here in the US.
I'm really looking forward to getting to know the team better but also getting to know our volunteer base better. I think it's a really exciting time within THL but also the movement with the work that we're doing on policy work that's going to be starting now and the accountability and making sure we get these companies to follow through on what they've said they will do and working on that global work. So, you know, as a supporter, it's not just impact in the US; it's impacting the world. It's empowering other organizations to grow in countries where there's never been animal advocacy or very little animal advocacy before, and we're beginning to see massive changes in these countries. And that's down to the support that you're giving, and I hope that you continue to give. And I'm really looking forward to welcoming new supporters as well and getting to know you all.
I think THL has always been seen as an organization not to mess with, and we're going to get bigger. And we are building a very powerful movement, and it's only getting stronger. And so there is only one direction, which is improving the welfare of animals.
