| Messages of Support |
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"I am delighted to hear of your grant concerning factory farming. I sincerely hope it will be one further step in bringing this appalling practice to an end." Jeffrey Poacher, NSW, 2008 "Congratulations on taking the prize for the 2008 Postcard of the Year award! It is wonderful news! We’re thrilled to see a partner of ours being recognised for their exceptional works. Well done. I hope that your entire team are giving yourselves a big pat on the back! You deserve it…" Casey Weathers, Lush Australisia, 2008 So many of us are quietly helping animals in our own small way; through donations, fostering abandoned animals, boycotting products, and educating our children. There are so many of us, probably a majority of the population, wanting a kinder world, yet our convictions have been unheard by politicians and media. You give us a voice, too. Thank you for your vision and dedication. Karen Johnston, NSW, 2008 "I just wanted to congratulate you and the team at Voiceless on your organisation and the work you are doing. I truly appreciate the challenges in shifting people behaviour and views toward treating animals with respect, and your organisation serves as an inspiration of sorts. Keep up the great work." Paul Redman-Brown, VIC, 2008 "I was very pleased to find that Voiceless is providing really meaningful support to those fighting the cause of animals. It's critical that the message get out there, so that people may then stop looking the other way and pretending that the atrocities in our midst don't happen." Paul Mahony, VIC, 2008 "I read the article in the Financial Review Magazine – I thought it was fascinating and inspiring. I have heard of your organisation previously (linked with the factory farming of pigs) but hadn’t looked any further. I just visited the website which is really great." Alia Bawden, NSW, 2008 "I just wanted to thank you for your email outlining the political parties response (or no response) to major animal issues. Thank you again for keeping me up to date with the concerns of animal welfare." Geraldine Robertson, Tasmania, 2008 "Love your website, inspiring and full of good information, and JM Coetzee's address is wonderful, so glad you have articulate dedicated people associated with you. Always great to hear about the good people trying to help the animal kingdom, so easy to get depressed by the horror stories the media prefers to report." Kristine Edwards, NSW, 2008 "I am sure I speak for many when I say congratulations on the wonderful work Voiceless is doing." Susanne Briggs, NSW, 2008 "I'd like to congratulate your organisation's involvement in a stunningly effective advertising campaign and can only hope that its message was far reaching and effective. Although I've been a vegetarian and animal right's advocator since I was 13 years old (35 years ago) my teenage children have not heeded the message. Showing them your ad was a powerful vehicle in getting my concerns across to them in a clever and succinct fashion. Please keep up the good work....and keep spreading the word so that people consciously question where their food comes from and of course the unacceptable plight of animals every day." Sylvia Griffin, Balmain, NSW, 2007 "Would just like to let you know I think what Voiceless is doing is so fantastic-educating us about the horrific conditions of factory farmed pigs." Kate Paterson, Balgowlah Hts, NSW, 2007 "Thank you so much for all you are doing for the animals." Jenny Moxham, Monbulk VIC, 2006 "By the way, your website is fantastic. The more I read about factory farming the easier it is to be a vegetarian!" Wilson Fernandez, NSW, 2006 "I have just subscribed to Voiceless and have been following the media coverage of your organisation with interest, as well as reading the well compiled and researched reports on your website. Like all the other people who have left messages of support, I am overwhelmed by gratitude to you all for taking on this struggle, and for choosing to shoulder the burden of grief that comes with it. I also want to congratulate you on your campaign strategy. You have managed to keep at bay the polemical and emotive quality that often (and of course naturally) attaches to campaigns for animals, making you accessible to a wider audience and encouraging of a reflective rather than reactive attitude in those who are exposed to your work. I think this means that people can be informed without being impugned, and so hopefully empowered to change their consumer practices. It also means that you are in a position to engage in rational and informed debate with the relevant companies and legislators. I also appreciate that you have mainly chosen not to post graphic images of animal cruelty on your site. I am one of many people I think who find the experience of viewing these images so traumatic that it means one tends to support animal campaigns blindly, as it were. Rather than live always with the inarticulate knowing of animal suffering, it is of course much better to face the targets with full information." Nandi Theunissen, Sydney NSW, 2006
"Congrats - you folks are doing such fantastic work; it is an honor and a privilege to be involved, even tangentially, with the great stuff you are doing". Bruce Wagman, USA, 2005 “It was a fine story for the public to know. I believe this phase of Brian's life will be one of the most rewarding and leave a long-standing public legacy.” Bernice Murphy, 2005 “I enjoyed the feature on your life the other evening and I was so thankful to find someone of some influence who has the same attitude as myself. I have been a vegetarian for almost 23 years for the primary reason of being against animal cruelty and have spread the word about factory farming personally as much as possible. I totally agree with you that people and their children are ignorant and mislead as to what they eat in supermarkets. I've always maintained that if people had to go out and kill their dinner, there'd be a lot more vegetarians in the world.” “Congratulations on your Australian Story episode and keep up the humanitarian work for animal welfare.” Tony Mosman and Staff, Bondi Junction Veterinary hospital, 2005 “Just a short note to commend you and Ondine on the wonderful work you are performing. Charlene and my eldest daughter Noa and I watched the show last night whilst we were in the Snowy Mountains and were very moved by what we saw. Charlene, who has been a vegetarian since her teens, has now resolved to do a little token more and going forward will only buy free range eggs.” Jeff Zulman - Lexicon Partners Pty Limited, 2005 “I watched the program last night. You are my brother.” “I must say that I feel strongly supportive of your stance on animal rights and I feel that our community at large is lucky to have you to champion this issue. I think that the origin of our foodstuffs, meat in particular, is in need of much more information. I think it is also most important to educate the community as to the vast resources necessary to produce a kilo of meat when compared with a kilo of grain or vegetables. I think that with the passage of time attitudes towards animal rights, food labelling and proper use of resources in the production of food can be turned around as has happened with smoking tobacco.” “Congratulations on a wonderful program. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I will make a greater effort to buy meats and dairy products that engage in "better practices". In the business world, we have the Standards Australia etc that promote the company's best practices. In the publishing world there is the audit bureau, which certifies publisher’s claims of distribution etc. Is there is a similar (uniform) standard for animal maintenance? If so perhaps it should be promoted more aggressively, so that people are encouraged only to buy meat and dairy products from organisations that treat the animals in a proper way. Just my thoughts. Congratulations again.” “…last night's piece on Australian Story was tremendous. Well done.” Jennifer Byrne, 2005 "Congratulations on Australia Story last night - I was moved, inspired and filled with hope that the animal right's movement has you and Ondine in it. I felt a welter of emotions - obviously admiration for your manifold achievements, stunned with relief and gladness that someone with your "clout," tenacity, daring and can do is in this for the long haul. I felt empathy for your year of grief being suffused with the knowledge of the suffering of millions upon millions of nonhumans and the blinkered apathy that the predominance of humans still feel about their food and clothing. And your own family's tragedies and challenges. … I wish you both the very best and I am so glad you're firmly in the midst of this - the last frontier of darkness.” Lynda Stoner, 2005 “You have done more in a short time to spread the word of compassion for all animals than I can say, and you have done it with diplomacy and tact. I know some might disagree with this approach (!) But this morning I've had two phone calls from vegans saying how much they loved the show, so you're definitely doing something right.” Sienna Blake, Editor - Vegan Voice Magazine: 'Promoting Compassion for All Beings' “May your and Ondine's Voiceless project go from strength to strength - the protection of animals is central to Judaism (and could be further developed) so I look forward to being of whatever support for Voiceless as possible and learning with you in the future...with all best wishes.” “You made a comment something like "....when was the last time you saw a pig rolling around in the mud in the countryside or chickens walking around." and it really hit home for me. Not since I was a child - I hate to think how "desensitized" I have become to not even think about this issue. But your story has now opened my eyes. Keep up the great work. People like you and your daughter do make a difference.” Geoff de Weaver, 2005 “I grew up in the '60s and '70s on a farm in the Riverina where my parents had a large, rambling chookyard. It was a great place to adventure as a boy and as I got older I often helped to gather the eggs at night, with a collection of dogs and cats in tow, climbing into old drums and other farmyard junk to find all the eggs. My dad had all sorts of animals on the farm, including ducks, geese, peacocks and Guinea fowl, all roaming around the yard. He also had pigs in a paddock with old shelters made from sleepers and straw. The pigs had their own dam and slopped about in their mess as only pigs can. How farming has changed over the past 30 years.” Geoffrey Adams, 2005 “Loved the program - I hadn't realized that you and your family were so active in animal rights. I really liked the showing of the battery farms hidden from view and then straight on to the supermarket shelves of what appears to be freshly cut red packaged meat. Your visit to the free range farm hopefully showed the viewer that animals can and should live in an open environment. I really liked the reference to slaves in the program - absolutely right that animals today have no souls in a similar way to the slaves of the past. … The way of the world today is that most inhabitants of it don't question the fact that what they eat is inhumane, they just try to justify it quoting the bible or doctors advice that they need more protein, iron or whatever. … Having the first Australian lawyer for animal rights is well overdue.” Steve Ridall, Head of Pos Projects - Pulse, 2005 International “It was very, very moving. What is most admirable about the way you conduct yourself is your calm, dignified intelligence. It has won you many supporters and will gather many more. If the animals had a voice, I'm sure they would be grateful. Of course, they do have a voice, through Ondine and yourself.” Peter and Victoria Thompson, 2005 "You give corporate Australia a good name." Virginia Kelson, Canberra, 2005 “I'm so glad I was able to catch the Australian Story on you last Saturday. It was very moving and your deep compassion and concern for animals that shone through gives new meaning to the term bright eyes. Thank you for all you do to help them.” Patty Mark, Animal Liberation, VIC, 2005 “It was a very well-done and quite moving portrait. Of course I understood and sympathized with your animal rights work. But, as a father of a daughter just starting college (as well as three seven year olds), I was struck by the close personal and working relationship you have with your daughter. What a lovely accent to both your lives!” Steven M. Wise, 2005 “Your resolve was in a way like a watershed as it put into perspective, thoughts that I have long-carried, but had not properly concluded. You have a long hard road ahead of you, but then again, you know that. It is so very hard to challenge traditional beliefs, especially when there is an established economic base that can shaky at the best of times.” Michael Hatrick, Executive Producer - Commercial Films, 2005 “We went organic some years back with our fruit and veg purchase (weekly delivery), free range eggs and organic free range meat. The program reinforced that we are on the right track, especially the footage on the battery farms. Very enlightening. …Your story of the "tongue" sparking your reality re eating animals and vegetarian etc, reminded me of my 6 year old daughter similar discovery. Saskia was sitting at the table and asked about meat and we had to explain. Saskia made the correlation of where it actually comes from and stated that she did not want to eat chickens, cows, lambs etc. … This was just a brief note to say congratulations to you, your Dad and your family on the work you are doing. It was very eloquently put and made so much moral sense. Your website is terrific and we will spread the word.” Nigel Fleming, Perth, Western Australia, 2005 “Congratulations and thank you for your very impressive appearance on Australian Story last night. Please also pass on my thanks to Brian. As the only vegetarian at my workplace I have quietly spoken for animal rights without aggressive pushiness. But today I have had several colleagues, at their initiation, discuss the program and even go so far as to say that they wanted to become vegetarian but would look for free range food until they felt able to take that step. I accept that I am the minority but would prefer those who cannot consider “life without meat” to at least recognize where it comes from and what practices are used to deliver it to their table. Your program has obviously achieved so much. The program calmly and rationally exposed the conditions that today’s farming practices have adopted as acceptable and through this acceptance, the past respect that we had for animals has been eroded. If we lose our respect for animals, what is next? Many of today’s frightening attitudes could easily be attributed to a loss of respect for life!” Karen Beck “I saw the "Sherman" Story on Australian Story, the part considering Factory Farming. I am 15 and have been vegetarian for about 2 and a half months. What was on last night was exactly the reason I went veg. I’ve always thought that the reason nothing is changing was because people were hiding from the facts. And that without seeing the injustices nothing would change. Sure enough as soon as the film came on of the animals in factory farms, my step-dad said to turn it over… My mother told him to watch it because this is the reason nothing changes because everybody turns it over as soon as something they don’t like comes on. Before I went vegetarian, I sat through multiple movies and articles depicting what actually happened to animals on factory farms and my friends are now amazed that I can run off so many facts about animal rights/welfare. I heard from my mum today that my step-dad was actually really shocked by what is going on in factory farming and it actually really got to him. My mum still cooks all my meals so I have to admire her for cooking two meals every night or just changing them to suit me. I really admire Voiceless and just wanted to show my support, you do not have to reply but I guess knowing one more person Supports you can help.” Maggie Scarvell, 2005 “Thank you for the great work Voiceless does for the animals. Raising awareness is the most important thing for animals today. I really believe people want a more compassionate world but first they must be made aware of what terrible things are being done in their name. From factory farms, laboratories- not just vivisection but cruel psychology research too, live animal exports, the appalling death toll of our companions fallen from favour, sometimes it just makes me cry and cry. Sometimes I find life very hard in this cruel world and it is people like you who make it seem more just and worthwhile. You empower individuals like me to feel there is always something that can be done. Like Joan Baez said, the antidote to despair is action. And I feel better for knowing I am not alone in this struggle although it really feels that way at times. I work in aged care where companion animals live in. I'm starting animal assisted therapy and will do a (nursing) honors research project on it next year and hope to do a PhD on the relationship between people and animals. I am a vegan and member of several animal rights groups, and when I can I support charities to give me the feeling I am helping someone, somewhere. Voiceless helps people who want to help animals and I thank you for myself and for the animals.” Philippa Valentine, 2005 “I am still stunned by the ABC program "Australian Story" where you aired the plight of Animals. I WAS a meat eater up till then, and may still eat some meat for a while provided it is from Free Range Animals BUT we had our first Vegetarian meals yesterday - delicious! I feel better in myself too - maybe the meat we ate was from stressed animals? I live in lovely Glen Innes NSW and am sure I will follow up on your website re subscriptions etc very soon - this is all very new to me indeed!” Les Reibelt, Glen Innes NSW, 2005 |
