Dyrenes Alliance at Folkemødet 2023

Baby rye on the grill, cow's milk for coffee and a minimal selection of vegan food on site. This is what visitors were greeted with at this year's Folkemøde on Bornholm.
Once again, the animal-friendly and green transition was not really at the forefront this year. However, this is not something that knocked activists from Dyrenes Alliance off course, rather it was something that gives us beetroot juice in our teeth. And beetroot juice on the tooth we got - and activism was given free rein over the three days.

Thursday: Animal Rights Square, demonstration by Dansk Folkeparti, disruption by Dyrenes Beskyttelses and Venstre, sign action and our own panel debate on fish with youth politicians

Animal Rights Square in front of Danish Crown's food stalls

Folkemødet had Danish Crown as its main sponsor again this year. Pork roast sandwiches were in high demand at the very attractive location at Allinge harbour. Therefore, every day we stood in front of Danish Crown's booths with TV screens and talked to people about the consequences for pigs. This generated a lot of debate and attention, including from Mette Frederiksen, who came by for two days in a row and couldn't help but see our message.

Disruption of Zoo event by the Danish Animal Protection Society

We sent an activist, an elephant costume and a sign that read "Zoo is prison" to a debate about the future of the zoo. The event was called 'The Zoo of the Future - Who is it for?' and was a debate between Britta Riis, Director of the Danish Animal Protection Society, and Bengt Holst, former Scientific Director of Copenhagen Zoo. Our activism led to a debate about our angle and sent a signal that the zoo in no way feels like freedom for the animals that live there. Many of the animals in the zoo are in no way required to be there to maintain the survival of the species.

Our disruption was right in front of a journalist from Jyllands-Posten who was present in the tent. This meant that we got an interview about our attitude towards the zoo (which she could read from the sign). Our slightly longer opinion will be published as an article in Jyllands-Posten one of these days.

Disruption of the Danish People's Party's meat event

We had a "nice chat" with the Danish People's Party and audience members while they grilled poplar pigs for their event 'Should Denmark still be able to produce meat? Can we eat it?'. Emotions ran high at times as our activists called out the Danish People's Party on their speciesist approach to pigs. Obviously, we didn't want animals to be reduced to objects, so we continued to inform the crowd about animal rights. However, DF didn't like the fact that they weren't allowed to welfare-wash the topic, so the police were quickly called. After long talks with the police, we were gently asked not to use audio aids (megaphones) in the future and our activist in a pig costume was almost detained. You can read more about this in the media below:

📰📸Seearticle from Bornholms tidende:
https://tidende.dk/politik/politiet-fjernede-veganere-fra-dfs-grillkoekken/134124

📰📸Seearticle from BornholmNyt:
https://bornholmnyt.dk/unge-aktivister-ikke-populaere-paa-folkemoedet/

Disruption of the Liberal Party's Bornholmergrisen event

Armed with a sign reading "Smager dit kød af gaskammer" (Does your meat taste like gas chamber) and a pig costume, the audience danced and mimed to their hearts' content in front of the stage. On the Liberal Party's stage, Erling Bonnesen, member of parliament for the Liberal Party and vice-chairman of the Environment and Food Committee, painted a pink picture of the conditions under which Bornholm pigs live and die. Of course, we had a different view on that. Our performance art and pig costume were met with interested looks and some wonder and giggles, but at the same time, the cute costume worked incredibly well as a contrast to the dramatic reality we mimed in front of the stage.

📰📸 Read more and see the coverage of our action on BornholmNyt: https://bornholmnyt.dk/unge-taler-dyrenes-sag/

Does your meat taste like a gas chamber?

Our activist in a pig costume was out making politicians and celebrities aware that Danish pigs are gassed by default when they are killed in slaughterhouses. This is done to the pigs because it is said to be a humane way to lull them to sleep. However, they still suffer in the process and the whole system is unnecessary if we eat plants instead. We therefore got many opinion leaders to reflect on what we are exposing pigs to. Because gassing can't be the mildest thing we can do - that would be not eating them at all. Unfortunately, most politicians kindly declined to hold the sign, but here are some pictures of those who wanted to be on camera, such as those we spoke to from Alternativet, Enhedslisten and SF, all of whom wanted to support us.

Panel debate on aquaculture, animal rights and fish with youth politicians

At Ungdommens Scene, we held a panel debate with youth politicians from Alternativet, SF, Ny Borgerlige, Liberal Alliance and Radikale Venstre. We also had a representative from Dyrenes Alliance on stage to speak on behalf of the fish. We did this as part of our latest campaign, Free Fins, which aims to shut down the fishing industry one sector at a time. We start with aquaculture, which in Denmark is 19 giant nets where fish swim on top of each other their entire lives. We need 10,000 signatures to make a difference. Give yours in the link below.

Friday: Demonstration in front of Danish Crown CEO and Minister of Food, commemoration of killed deer, talks and animal rights quiz

Disruption of food minister, Danish Crown CEO and NNF

Friday started with a visit to Fødevareforbundet NNF (the union for industrial butchers). Here we drew attention to the fact that almost all pigs in Denmark end their days in gas chambers. We did this with TV screens and signs. Jais Valeur (CEO, Danish Crown) and Jacob Jensen (Minister of Food, Venstre) tried to discuss the future of the Danish slaughterhouses, but we pointed out that there should not be a future for the slaughter industry in Denmark. After the panel debate, we encouraged the participants to come out and watch the slaughter process on the TV screens, but neither Jais Valeur nor the minister wanted to face the truth. However, we were invited to the panel debate the next day in the NNF tent where the topic was "Animal Welfare or Workplaces - Which is more important?".

See what they wrote about us on Twitter below:
📲 Twitter from NNF:
https://twitter.com/NNFdk/status/1669634848846233601

📲 Tweet from Public Affairs Manager at NNF:
https://twitter.com/SorenSandKirk/status/1669637650700021761

Memorial service for killed and hanged deer at Jægerforbundet

The hunters' association had planned a public cutting and cooking of a deer on the open-air stage - an event and an assault that we, of course, would not allow to be portrayed as they wanted. We therefore arranged a more respectful farewell to the animal, where we apologized on behalf of the humans. We circled the slain man and honoured him in a quiet and calm manner until the police were called. The bystanders, and especially the hunter who had shot the animal, were visibly aggressive, and our photographer was almost attacked by the hunter who tried to knock the camera out of his hands. However, the hunter was pulled away by the organizer and the camera survived with minor scratches. After a good dialogue with the officers, who were now starting to know us, we went to the Danish Vegetarian Association's tent to eat.

📰📸 Read more about the incident on Jægerforbundet:
https://www.jaegerforbundet.dk/om-dj/dj-medier/nyhedsarkiv/2023/demokratifestival-pa-solskinsoen/

Talk: Should we stop eating fish? 🐟

Our local coordinator in Odense, Simon Nyborg Jensen, gave an interactive talk about fish and aquaculture in the tent of the Danish Vegetarian Association and the Plant Industry. The audience had lots of questions and Simon answered people's prejudices about fish.

Another chat with Mette Frederiksen

We met Mette for the second time while doing Animal Rights Square. Our Copenhagen District Coordinator, Adam Samy, had a longer chat with her about the suffering of pigs and how we can stop it by eating plant-based.

Youth quiz on animal rights 📝

Prizes and useful knowledge about the Animal Welfare Act were up for grabs when our Press and Digital Coordinator, Lars Corvinius Olesen, held a youth quiz on animal rights in the tent of the Danish Vegetarian Association and the Plant Industry.

Vegan association goulash at DUF🍛

After the day's activities, we met other young people for Foreningsgullash at the Danish Youth Council in Spejderhytten, where we had vegan goulash. As a youth organization, we are a member of the Danish Youth Council, which unites and activates young people all over Denmark to get involved in our community and local associations.

Saturday: Panel debates, UN Youth Summit, activism and after-hours fun

Since we had an extra event in the calendar from the day before at NNF, we were busy from the morning. Therefore, Saturday started out with us having to eat breakfast and pack up at the same time. 

Invited to debate at NNF: 'Animal Welfare or Workplaces - Which is more important?' 🐷

Our disruption of a debate on Friday led to an invitation to this panel debate, which instead became a debate between Jim Jensen, Vice-Chairman of Fødevareforbundet NNF (slaughterhouse workers), Britta Riis, Director of Animal Protection, Peter Kiær, Chairman of Sustainable Agriculture and our country coordinator in Dyrenes Alliance, Maria Nørgaard 🙌 We can reveal that the debate was lively. The debate went as you would imagine: NNF and L&F talked a lot about cooperation between agriculture and slaughterhouses to improve animal welfare by keeping jobs in Denmark. However, we made a big deal out of the fact that you can't talk about real animal welfare as long as animals don't have the basic right to their own life and body. The other panelists did not agree with this fact.

Read the coverage of our debate on the industry's own pages below.
📰📰📸 Review on NNF's website:
https://www.nnf.dk/nyheder/2023/juni/naestformand-der-vil-vaere-faerre-kunder-til-kodet-hvis-vi-ikke-far-styr-pa-dyrevelfaerden/

📰📸 Article from Bæredygtigt Landbrug:
https://blb.dk/2023/06/folkemoedet-baeredygtigt-landbrug-laerte-fra-sig-om-de-baeredygtige-landmaend/

Screen activism ahead of debate: "This is what gassing pigs looks like - what do you think?"

While the debate raged inside the tent, we brought the TV screens outside to show how the gassing of the pigs takes place - a so-called pincer movement. Many passers-by were shocked by how brutally we treat animals in the industry. We also had great conversations with current and former slaughterhouse workers, and we even agreed to organize a tug-of-war competition between the butchers and the vegans at next year's Folkemøde. So if you're a strong vegan, we could use your hand in the tug-of-war next year, as some of the industrial butchers are in a completely different weight class than those of us who were at Folkemødet this year.

Dyrenes Alliance to the UN Youth Summit🌎

The UN Youth Summit took place at Folkemødet. Together with young people from the Global South, activists from Dyrenes Alliance presented recommendations for achieving the SDGs most effectively - including leaving animals off our industrial production and plates. Danida Fellowship Centre and 2030beyond had arranged exciting workshops and opportunities to speak to global organizations, industry and UN representatives including Anne Poulsen, Director of UN World Food Programme Denmark.

Debate with Effective Altruism Denmark: Global crises in our time 🎤

In debate with President for Effective Altruism Denmark, Mathias Bonde, Press and Digital Coordinator for Dyrenes Alliance, Lars Corvinius Olesen, discussed the global crises of our time and what challenges, opportunities and solutions are associated with these current crises. Our current food system and way of treating animals was a major topic, drawing connections to global poverty, pandemics, resource waste, the climate crisis.

Debate: Effective animal protection - Where should the focus be? 🐾

In a panel debate with Britta Riis, Director of Animal Protection Denmark, and Amanda Dahl Hansen, Vice President for Effective Altruism Denmark, our Country Coordinator, Maria Nørgaard, discussed the most effective ways to protect animals. Many approaches are needed. The most important thing for us to say in the debate was that it is necessary to stop using animals as an end in themselves.

If you are interested in discussing collaboration in the movement and meeting a lot of other animal rights activists and international actors, buy a ticket to our animal rights conference in August.

Summer house, fun and Werewolf card games

After a few cold, and for some of us, wet nights, we were offered to borrow some beds in a cottage. This was much needed and we accepted with open arms. Some fantastic days at Folkemødet ended with a few hours of couch cozy with "Werewolf" (card game) and a good, but short night's sleep in a proper bed.

Huge success at this year's Folkemøde

Participation in six planned events, activism every day, demonstrations, media coverage, invitations to extra debates, international networking and a lot of attention. We accomplished an insane amount. And there is still plenty of video material and many other activities from our activists that have not been mentioned in this blog, including the fact that we may have started an internal discussion in the Alternative about whether cow's milk should be paid for by the party at the Alternative's regular events.

If you'd like to help us make even more this summer or cover our expenses for our Folkemøde efforts, any amount counts

Festivals are not cheap for us to go to, but we try to create as many results as possible.
We would be super happy for your support so that we can continue our work for the animals at an ever-increasing pace.