Brussels blood red during the March for the Closing down of all Slaughterhouses
11-06-2018

For the fourth consecutive year, Bite Back organized the Slaughterhouse Closing March on Sunday June 10th. Some 800 motivated activists formed a blood-red mass that chanted slogans in the streets of Brussels for a fairer world for animals. On the Place de la Monnaie, other cries during the die-in: we heard the cries and howls of animals in the slaughterhouses, while our activists lay on the ground, in silence, to symbolize the death of millions of animals who die each year in the slaughterhouses.

A global campaign

The 7th edition of the March to Close Slaughterhouses will take place in June in some forty cities around the world: in Paris, but also in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Helsinki, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, Sydney and Tokyo.

This march aims to denounce the atrocities that animals suffer on a daily basis, particularly in farms, slaughterhouses and on fishing boats. It also symbolizes the hope of a collective awareness that will lead us to a world where human beings will no longer exploit animals and treat them as cohabitants of our planet.

A request for abolition

"We demand the abolition of farming, fishing and slaughterhouses because meat production involves killing the animals we eat. Because the consumption of animal products is not a necessity and because susceptible animals should not be abused or killed unnecessarily. Let us evolve together towards the end of animal exploitation and put an end to this useless violence against sentient beings. "Benjamin Loison, spokesman for the Bite Back association that organises the march in Brussels, says.

Every x months, food scandals, cases of fraud or horrible images of what is happening in slaughterhouses make us startle (think of the shocking images in the Tielt and Izegem slaughterhouses, the Veviba scandal or the closure of the Geel slaughterhouse).

There is no such thing as humane slaughter. That's what happens when you kill millions of animals a year in a slaughterhouse.

Alternatives exist!

Animal products are not necessary for our health: the world's largest association of nutritionists, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND - 100,000 health professionals), states, for example, that vegetarian (including vegan) diets conducted appropriately are healthy, nutritionally adequate and beneficial for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. In Belgium and in several countries of the world, the number of vegetarians and vegans is constantly growing.

"If, as a society, we want to evolve towards a respectful and peaceful world, without discrimination against the weakest, this implies that we include animals in our circle of moral consideration and that we do not exclude them because they belong to another species. In concrete terms, this means that they are no longer considered as food for humans and therefore implies the closure of slaughterhouses," adds Benjamin Loison.

In the media

The March to Close Slaughterhouses was well covered by the media. Our message has reached tens of thousands of people through articles written on VRT, RTL, Bruzz, RTBF, Metro, La Libre, BX1, Het Laatste Nieuws, La Dernière Heure, 7sur7, Newsmonkey, and Skynet.

We would like to warmly thank all those present, sponsors, volunteers, members and supporters for their support! You made this fourth Brussels edition of the March a great success!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator