The Egg Industry Campaign
In June 2007, the Israeli government decided on a reform of the egg industry in Israel, whose main points were the dismantling of smaller battery-cage facilities and the construction of new, massive ones, while totally ignoring the Animal Welfare Law. In 2009, the Anonymous egg campaign has entered its second year, having raised much awareness in the Israeli mass media almost on a weekly basis; weekly pickets were held in Israel's three main cities, five videos were produced starring celebrities, a dedicated website was launched, and a Facebook group was created under the management of actress Orna Banai; this group today has 5,400 friends.
At Anonymous' picket against the Ministry of Agriculture egg industry reform
In early 2009, Anonymous submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture a report comparing the Israeli egg industry with similar industries abroad, based on criteria such as caging systems, chicken welfare, public health and costs. The pressure exerted by Anonymous earlier still on the ministry had led in early 2009 to the appointment of "a professional committee to examine layer welfare". That committee, comprised of egg industry and Ministry of Agriculture representatives, with no external experts, had placed a rather marginal emphasis on "the layers' welfare", and in July it submitted, quite as expected, a recommendation to keep housing layers in battery cages. Yet, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, the committee recommended allocating each caged chicken an area of 550 sq.cm. It presented this recommendation to the media as one that improves the living standards of layers, since it means a modest, yet unprecedented, increase of the area allocated to them today. In practice, this means less than the size of an A4 page, and so preserving all the injuries caused by crowded caging and trailing behind the European standard, which is also problematic.
In September, Anonymous appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court (together with Noah [the Israeli Federation of Animal Protection Societies] and the Society for Farm Animals) petitioning it to freeze the egg industry reform until a new decision had been reached in this matter and new provisions added regarding chicken welfare. On 29 November 2009, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal and issued a temporary interim order forbidding government ministries to transfer funds to farmers as part of this reform, to sign contracts with battery cage owners wishing to take part in that reform, and to give them any undertakings in this matter. On 13 January 2010, the Supreme Court had it first hearing on this issue, and the judges made it clear to the government that continuing with this reform is contingent on matching the standard of living of Israeli chicken to that of the European standard. the matter is still being debated.
Anonymous in the Media
This year, the level of media exposure that Anonymous attracted grew tremendously, thanks to a team maintaining regular contact with dozens of reporters and columnists. In 2009, Anonymous was the inspiration to over 100 published stories, columns and articles – on the internet, on television, in the printed media and on radio.Most major exposés dealt with that reform, emphasizing the way hens have been suffering inside battery cages, the way the Ministry of Agriculture ignored the Animal Welfare Law and the European standards, the intention to waste public funds on a failing project where dubious business interests are involved, and what the Main Ashkenazi Rabbi had said. The print media also devoted wide coverage to a presentation by Anonymous for Animal Rights Day, and published articles on speciesism, on one of Anonymous' activists as a social leader and on Anonymous' field activities in various cities.
In addition to articles published by professional journalists, this year Anonymous has published a regular column in Walla!, in addition to occasional columns on animal rights issues which activists had written in the Ynet and nrg-Maariv news sites, and the re-publishing of about 10 articles from the "Animal Rights This Week" webzine.
The egg industry reform on TV: Ben Caspit interviews Anonymous representative Ronen Bar, and Nadia Ram Mogilevsky from The Association for Distributive Justice.
Anonymous on the Internet
For years, the Anonymous website has been the largest collection in Hebrew of animal rights-related materials. Today, it contains over 670 articles and hundreds of additional content pages. Most of the website was completely redesigned by end-2009, and during the year, over a million visits were registered. For example, the average number of daily visits in December was over 3,000. the website includes several sub-sites:• The Israeli Vegetarian Website, which is the main attraction for visitors. This year, it underwent massive redesign, and reopened in early 2010 in a new format;
• An Arabic website, based mostly on translations of Anonymous' information leaflets. This site was created with help from PETA. This year it had been visited by people from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Belgium, Syria and other countries;
• The "Israel Leaves the Cage" website was inaugurated in 2009, and is updated dynamically following developments in the anti-egg industry reform campaign.
In 2009, the "Animal Rights This Week" webzine, sent to thousands of subscribers, celebrated it's ninth year. Each issue includes an original article, a news summary from Israel and a column on nutrition. The main investigations published there this year dealt with: Animal-Based Industries as Water Pollutants in Israel; Cheap Meat (Why Chicken Meat is Sold Cheaply and who Pays the Price); Scientific Research vs. Undercover Investigations; Animals in Egypt; Promoting Vegetarianism in Belgium, USA, Israel and Other Countries; and Animals under Automatic Management – a Historical Context.
Anonymous At Schools
Since 2004, Anonymous has been running introductory lectures on animal rights in schools and other institutions. The lectures in Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva were recommended by the local education boards. In 2009, 18 lecturers, all experienced trainers, in addition to having received specific training by Anonymous, gave about 190 lectures in 78 institutions, mostly to several classes grouped together or a whole age group. About 65% of the lectures were held in junior high schools, and the rest in high schools and elementary schools, as well as for adult audiences. A donation by WSPA (world Society for the Protection of Animals) for printing the appropriate materials helped increasing the number of lectures.After the lectures, Anonymous keeps in touch with those from the audience who were interested in its activities, as well as the institutions themselves. An Anonymous liaison person supported students throughout the year, helping them with local initiatives: a wall-magazine on animal rights, distributing leaflets, convincing others sign petitions, etc. The school staff also cooperated enthusiastically: several institutions initiated follow-up activities, such as "The Animal Trial", stalls and film screenings; one teacher started sending her pupils the "Animal Rights This Week" webzine, and another asked her students to summarize a page from the Anonymous website and decide how they are going to promote that issue. Several lectures were integrated into a wide-ranging educational project run by the schools.
A new double-sided leaflet published by Anonymous this year, based on an introduction in the Anonymous website. (Designed by Naomi Zamir)
Street Stalls
In Tel Aviv, Anonymous street stalls were active 2-3 times a week. Each stall exposed hundreds of people to information leaflets, and scores of people stopped by to discuss animal rights and learn about how animals are treated and about vegetarianism, to receive leaflets, to sign petitions and to subscribe to "Animal Rights This Week".The stalls are staffed by suitably trained activists; one or twice a month training workshops are held in Tel Aviv – some deal with the principles of patiently and effectively convincing others, while others provide information on animal exploitation in industrial farming. In February, similar workshops were started in Jerusalem – with an emphasis on how to get organised for activism. Now weekly stalls are also held in that city. In Haifa and Petah Tikva such workshops started last summer, and these cities now also have their own weekly stalls.
In addition to the stalls, weekly pickets were also held in the three largest cities, focusing mainly on the egg industry, handing out leaflets and displaying posters created specifically for that purpose.
The stalls and pickets are the main distribution channels for information leaflets, and these too have enjoyed some serious rejuvenation in 2009: the organisation's two main basic leaflets, "Animal Food: the Real Story" and "What to Wear?" were updated and redesigned; a new one was added too: "Animal Rights: What Exactly Is It?" as well as one devoted to nutrition, another on the egg industry reform, etc.
Services to the Public
A new office, rented in Tel Aviv in 2009, is Anonymous' main activity hub. It is manned about 12 hours daily, and during the previous months the 11 office phones and pcs were inundated with calls. In this office contact is maintained with thousands of people asking for advice regarding moral consumerism, reporting cases where problematic products (such as foie gras or furs) are sold, and on the welfare of animals in industrialised farms, requesting information etc.Halfway through 2009, Anonymous has started offering subsidised nutritional advice to vegetarians and vegans wishing to boost their health. Dozens of satisfied patients enjoyed these consultations provided by clinical nutritionists in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Front cover of a leaflet published by Anonymous this year, which enjoyed much press coverage. (Designed by Alice Gorochovsky)
Legal Work
In addition to legal work centering on the egg industry, 2009 saw the continuation of proceedings regarding the sea journey of calves from Australia to Israel on the ship Maisura in 2006. An exceptionally high proportion of the calves became sick and died during that journey and in quarantine in Israel, and Anonymous demanded detailed information about this. The importers delayed providing such information in a campaign of petitions and pleas, which this year reached the Supreme Court. The importers asked the court to approve withholding such information, while Anonymous requested it to force these importers to pay its own legal fees for this unnecessary campaign. The next court session has been scheduled to May 2010.In October 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture published draft regulations based on the Animal Welfare Law regarding the transfer of chicken, and Anonymous submitted its remarks regarding that draft. It is (at least) the third draft, after a committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture delivered its recommendations already in 2001. From one draft to the next, the protection offered by the regulation to chicken has become weaker and weaker.
The Activists and Volunteering
Considering Anonymous' annual budget, its range of activities is huge – thanks to volunteering. A report by Haaretz published in late 2009 had shown that Anonymous is exceptional among the main non-profit organisations in Israel in that it devotes the smallest slice of its budget (less than 10%) to salaries; also exceptional is the fact that that the members of Anonymous Board of Management are not paid any salary. Some of the activists receive modest rewards and salaries (the main arrangement is living in a small room, or two per room, in exchange for 20 hours of activity per week). These activists share three Tel Aviv flats, having between them ten beds in total, which were fully (or almost fully) occupied throughout the year. Another financial arrangement involves three university grants received by students this year in exchange for being active in Anonymous. Four volunteers were active this year as part of their national service, one of whom continues into his second year.A substantial part of the organisation's activities – from tasks not demanding any training to professional tasks such as computer programming, legal work, training, design work etc. – is done by volunteers, each one contributing dozens of monthly hours. In addition to those active within the organisation, Anonymous also provides information leaflets and advice to about 550 people who run various animal rights activities independently.