Peter Roberts (CIWF)

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Peter Roberts, fondateur et directeur (jusqu'en 91) de Compassion in World Farming est décédé le 15 novembre, à l'age de 82 ans.




Peter Roberts, who has died aged 82, was the founder and director of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) from its inception in 1967 until his retirement in 1991. CIWF was the first organisation devoted solely to the welfare of farm animals, and one of Peter's greatest achievements was the formal recognition of animals as "sentient beings" by the European Union. In 1995, he told CIWF's membership: "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Compassion in world farming was, and is, such an idea."

His concern for animals had started when, after wartime service, he settled down, with his wife, Anna, to dairy farming in Hampshire. Peter began to take his old, barren cows to the slaughterhouse and stayed with them to the end. The couple refused to send their surplus calves to market, fearing they might be bought for the live export trade and end up in veal crates in France or Holland.

When they heard of the new system, imported from the US, of intensive farming of broilers, they decided postwar farming was moving in the wrong direction. Peter wrote a strong letter to the press and it generated a huge response. Realising that there was a groundswell of feeling against intensive farming, he approached the major animal welfare societies, urging them to campaign against the keeping of hens in battery cages. They declined. Peter was despairing of their response to a solicitor friend, who said: "Peter, you'll just have to do it yourself. Come to my office and we'll set up a trust." Compassion in World Farming was born.


...Peter stopped farming, and in 1978, he opened the Bran Tub in Petersfield, still one of the best independent health food shops. He also set up Direct Foods, marketing the early meat substitute TVP (textured vegetable protein). He himself had become a vegetarian, although CIWF encourages people to make their own informed dietary choices and to eat welfare-friendly products.

(...)


Peter Roberts, Founder and director of Compassion in World Farming - 23/11/06
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1954844,00.html