On Saturday Esme and I took the OneKind message to a local Staffie Rescue fun day and dog show at the Archerfield Estate in East Lothian. We met people and their pets of all different shapes and sizes, from a 4 month old puppy to Lucy, a gentle and serene 16-year-old greyhound.

One thing we all had in common was knowing that our canine friends are capable of thoughts and feelings (and wrapping us around their wee paws).

I felt some sympathy for the contestants on BBC One’s Junior Apprentice last night. Split into two teams, this week the candidates were set with the task of organising a cupcake sale.

Now I’m not running a cupcake sale for Lord Sugar, but Heléna and I have been planning the OneKind events you’ve been hearing a lot about lately: the FireWalk and OneKind Live. I could relate to the teen-entrepreneurs; the nervousness associated with hoping that everyone will enjoy the final offering.

"A what?"

"A fire walk."

"You mean, walking on a fiery bed of hot coals?"

"Exactly."

"And why would any of our supporters want to do that?"

"Because they want to raise money for animals. Oh, and maybe because they're a little bit mad."

"Is it safe?"

"Of course! These specialists have been running these events for 20 years with no problems. Besides, people have been walking on fire since prehistoric times."

"Right."

"Right."

"This should be interesting."

On Saturday Libby, Jo and I, along with Harriet Hare and the gorgeous Mr Foxy, made a trip up to Perth for the Scottish Liberal Democrat party conference. Our purpose? To show party members our vision of a Snare-Free Scotland, a vision shared by a huge majority of the Scottish public. These events and publicity stunts aim to get our message across to politicians, so that when a vote on snaring takes place later on this year our vision can become reality.

All in all we had a really successful day. For one, it didn't rain, so Harriet and Foxy didn't need to run for cover. No one could deny how well they looked standing outside Perth Concert Hall. Little children especially seemed to enjoy our furry friends – it was not what they were expecting on a quiet Saturday morning! We spoke to so many people passing by, and everyone agreed that a Snare-Free Scotland is the way to go. I spoke with one lady with a lovely Labrador puppy, and she was shocked and appalled to learn that pets can also be snared, such is the indiscriminate nature of the devices. I even had a chat with a group of gamekeepers who were totally against snaring. It was very interesting to hear everyone's opinions. If you stopped by on Saturday, it was a pleasure to meet you and thank you!

For millions of people around the world the 25th of January means one thing - the birthday of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. It may be 251 years since he was born, but somehow his passion, his compassion and his humanity still give us cause to celebrate.

We at Advocates for Animals think that, instinctively, Burns would have ‘got’ OneKind - might even be claimed as the first of the OneKind poets (alongside Benjamin Zephaniah, the latest famous face in the OneKind campaign).  We decided to analyse this a bit further; so on Saturday night we gathered with friends around a candlelit table, down by the Water of Leith in Edinburgh.  My first ever Burns Supper! We had vegan haggis, a few drams and plenty of talk.  There was a wee bit of singing too, which we think Rabbie would have enjoyed, once we’d introduced him to the karaoke machine…

This was a man who delighted in nature and in the animals that shared his world, whose verses were composed while he worked outdoors, and only committed to paper when he got home at night.  One day when Rab was out at the plough with his brothers he learned that his pet sheep Mailie had taken a tumble over her tether, and was lying in the ditch.  Mailie was set to rights and they went back to their work.  But as he ploughed, Rab was imagining how Mailie might have died, and how she would have had to bid farewell to her lambs.  By the end of the day, he had composed the wry Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie, the Author’s Only Pet Yowe (ewe) – and taken a dig at himself for being so foolish as to leave a sheep tethered where she could get in difficulties.  It was, as he said, an ‘unco mournful tale’.

To a Mouse – a OneKind poem if ever there was one – tells of the time when he turned up the nest of a field mouse with his plough. Long before ‘empathy’ was invented, Burns talks to the little creature in tones of exceptional sweetness – recognising the terror he has caused her, promising not to harm her, and accepting that she should have her tiny share of the crop.  I was recently compiling a potted history of Advocates for Animals, and through my research I rediscovered that for many years, two lines of this poem- summing up the inequality between humans and animals- appeared on Advocates for Animals’ annual reports (or the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection, as it then was):  

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union.

We so often wish there was a bit more acknowledgment of that ‘social union’ and the fact that we’re all ‘earth-born companions’ and ‘fellow mortals’.  Burns’ compassion and understanding touched a chord then, as it does today. 

But he could get angry too.  In The Wounded Hare, he rails against ‘inhuman Man’ with his ‘barb’rous art’ and his ‘murder-aiming eye’ for shooting and maiming a hare.   These were days when animals were killed without much thought, but Burns was tormented by the suffering of the wounded animal and the thought that, at that time of year, her young might be left to die without her.   But, he promised, he would not forget her:

Oft as by winding Nith I, musing, wait
The sober eve, or hail the cheerful dawn
I’ll miss thee sporting o’er the dewy lawn,
And curse the ruffian’s aim, and mourn thy hapless fate.

I absolutely loved my first Burns Night. It was perhaps an alternative one, with colleagues and friends from all over the UK, from Poland, Spain and the United States.  All brought together by the OneKind spirit of one man – thank you, Rabbie!

Ooh it’s snowing!! And it has been since Thursday past, day one at The Edinburgh Ethical Christmas Fair. Heléna and myself were frozen solid after only a couple of hours at our OneKind stand but the Fair soon warmed up as the crazy Christmas crowds started flooding in. Of course, the delicious veggie curry we scoffed from the Mosque Kitchen also helped to get our blood flowing again.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at Fair, including little Rosa above, and to all the lovely Advocates for Animals volunteers and staff members who gave up their weekend to spread the OneKind message; Alistair, Barbra, Donna, Edna, Gillian, Helena, James, John, Kat, Libby, Pauline, Ryan and Viv – you guys rock!

All set for Christmas? For those of you who have Christmas planned with precision, well done! For the more haphazard among us, myself included, wish us luck braving the shops!

This week the office is looking forward to our Christmas get-together on Friday. It will be fantastic to have everyone under one roof as we’ve all been so busy over the past 12 months. For some of us this will be the first Advocates for Animals Christmas shindig- it’s mine, so it’s all very exciting! Like any other Christmas do, we’ll be reflecting on and celebrating our efforts in 2009. No doubt some of us will also be nursing sore heads afterwards!

It’s certainly been a busy week for us here at Advocates for Animals, and what an exciting time! We took the OneKind campaign out on the road for the first time this weekend, to Scotland’s first ever Girls’ Day Out event at the Glasgow SECC, and what a fantastic response we had.

The idea of 15,000 women all together in an exhibition hall packed with high fashion, hair, handbags and general hilarity was enough to fill our male staff members with a mix of fear, fascination and bewilderment. But for us girls, it was a great opportunity to stick on lashings of extra (animal-friendly) slap, fashion our own personalised OneKind tees (http://onekind.spreadshirt.co.uk/) and sing out for OneKind living!