Carole and Kaylie Receive Award 2001
At a presentation ceremony on Sunday 17th June 2001, Farm Animal
Rescue Sanctuary Founder Carole Webb and Trustee Kaylie Day were
jointly honoured with the Mahaveer award "In recognition of
their tireless work for animals over many years."
As a life member of FAR, I was delighted to have been present at
the Rally for Compassionate Living, which was organised by the Young
Indian Vegetarians, and held at Trafalgar Square among the pigeons
- the biblical symbol of peace.
The event, which is held annually, was opened by Nitin Mehta of
YIV. He started by welcoming everybody, and gave a rousing speech
appealing for compassion for our fellow creatures and an end to
the destruction of the rainforests.
We were then treated to a succession of guest Speakers:
Andrew Tyler of Animal Aid condemned the hypocrisy of farmers during
the current foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Tony Wardle of Viva! (standing in for Juliet Fiellatley) described
the terrific response to their door-to-door leaflets to 'go veggie'.
Gerry Reece of CIWF said he was inspired to move here from New Zealand
to campaign against the shameful treatment of farm animals Jenny
Jones of the Green Party denounced Ken Livingstone's treatment of
the pigeons of Trafalgar Square.
At this time, there was a special ceremony at which Tony Benn was
given a candle, lit by the World Peace Flame, and presented with
an award for a lifetime fostering peace. He held everybody's attention
as he described how his young son Hilary converted him to vegetarianism
20 years ago, and he has never touched meat since. He stood down
his parliamentary seat after 50 years as an MP so that he could
devote more time to politics, he said to a ripple of laughter. One
of his fondest memories as a boy was meeting Mahatma Gandhi in London;
he recounted Gandhi's reply, when asked what he thought of British
civilisation; "I think it would be a good idea," he said,
as he was conducted from one prison in India, to another in Britain.
The next speaker was Uri Geller. He produced a spoon from his pocket
and demonstrated his famous trick of spoon bending before our very
eyes. That spoon raised £125 for Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary
when it was later auctioned.
And so finally, to the highlight of the day. As we proudly watched,
Carole and Kaylie were asked to step forward and receive their richly
deserved award from Gulab Shah, Religious Chairperson of the Oshwal
Association of UK, a Jain charity.
"I didn't know what to say," Kaylie confessed afterwards,
"I think I just said that Carole and I were delighted to receive
the award in recognition of what we have achieved at the sanctuary.
I do hope that it will raise awareness among the wider public of
the plight of our 600 rescued farm animals, and how much support
we need Just to survive from day to day."
It was a very moving occasion for Carole as it was her first visit
to London for 30 years! It was also her first day off in 14 years,
and she missed her animals terribly. No doubt, they all missed her,
too, but it was for a good cause.
The award, a statuette of Lord Mahaveer, a deity of the Jain religion,
bears an appropriate inscription. It will be displayed proudly at
Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary.
"If only people could come and see Wiggy VIP (Very Important
Pig), Just once," Kaylie sighed, "they would stop eating
meat right away. Pigs are such individual characters and no less
intelligent than dogs. People would never dream of eating a dog,
would they?"
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