Nice to meet you! My name is Lara Brooks, I’m a 24 year old volunteer activist from Bristol – and I’m here to introduce myself and tell you why I give my time and money to help Open Cages.
I have been Vegan for nearly 4 years, motivated by my life long love for animals. Eventually this is what brought me to animal activism; I started questioning if I was doing enough to help the animals I felt so strongly for. The CEO of Open Cages pitched to me how the organisation worked and that was that!
One thing that I have always felt proud of is that the UK is a nation of animal lovers. We have the spending habits to prove it, £10 billion a year in charitable donations and 26% of those are to animal welfare organisations. Most of these charities look after our pets and the exotic animals far afield that need our help, but only a few charities in the UK care for the millions of farmed animals that suffer on our shores.
This is something that has always troubled me, how could we be a nation of animal lovers if we didn’t care for ALL animals? Open Cages fills that gap and advocates tirelessly for the rights of farmed animals!
Open Cages is a pragmatic and focused organisation. We protest, campaign, investigate, lobby, meet, email and call our way to lasting change for animals via welfare policy, law making and industry change. I believe that this unique approach is sorely needed in the animal advocate community and it seems the community agrees; as part of Anima International, Open Cages has been recognised by Animal Charity Evaluators, an independent organisation, as one of the top 4 animal charities in the world in 2019!
Whilst I donate my time to support Open Cages, I donate money every month to the organisation too. It’s so important for me to help further the amazing work of my fellow activists that I see first hand every day. We currently only have ONE paid employee, with our other activists working tirelessly in our spare time. Our jobs are so much easier with money behind us, it opens so many doors, gives us the tools we need and helps our message reach further.
I truly believe in the ethos and progress of Open Cages and I can personally promise you that we are worth your support!
The biggest annual spike in charitable donations happens in December, many charities depend on your acts of festive kindness to set themselves up for the new year and finish off the previous year with a bang. Open Cages needs you to open your hearts (and your wallets) for our cause this December and help us round off a fantastic year, our most successful yet!
This winter, one of our biggest campaigns is all about fur. Although the UK banned fur farms years back, we still accept fur imports from other countries where the practice continues to be allowed. This industry is one of the greatest sources of suffering in the world, claiming the lives of millions of animals every year. That’s why we’re taking on fur this winter, in a hope to one day ban fur imports to the UK and stop the industry in its tracks.
I know the Open Cages team, and I know we can do this. But we’re going to need all the help we can get – from animal lovers like you.
That’s why I’m asking you to sign up to be a donor or give us a one off gift today! Every penny gets us closer to achieving our goals. Let’s do this together.
From me and from all of the team at Open Cages – Happy New Year!
Lara Brooks
Open Cages Activist