Just over 3 weeks ago, I made the 5 hour train journey from Edinburgh to London- my purpose? To meet my newest friend Esme. She’s a (roughly!) seven year old Staffy girl, who has obviously been used for breeding – for she has mammary glands to rival a glamour girl- and was found as a stray in Croydon in January this year. So to cut a long story short..

I make no secret of how much I love dogs, in particular my beloved Staffies. We have two pampered lumps back home in Derry; the only dangerous thing they’re capable of is omitting pungent gasses after dinner. When I moved to Edinburgh last summer I found a gaping big dog-shaped hole in my life, and after starting work here at Advocates for Animals, I began to look into fostering.

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!

It’s been a hectic start to 2010 at the Advocates for Animals office with passage of the Marine (Scotland) Bill last week. The Scottish Parliament discussed a number of amendments to the Bill that would make sure seals get the protection they deserve.

If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, visiting our website, following us on Twitter or on Facebook then you’re sure to know all about the LOOK OUT for SEALS campaign.

Since I started working for Advocates for Animals last year, seals have been at the forefront of our work and day-to-day office life. But in truth, ever since the first mention of a Marine Bill for Scotland in early 2007, and our seeing an opportunity to lobby for some formal protection for the estimated 200,000 seals in Scottish waters, the issue has not been at rest.

The constant discussions and updates led by our policy director, Libby, have kept the issue in the spotlight even when we've been focussing on other campaigns. Even during those 'quiet' periods between parliamentary debates on the Bill, Libby has been unwavering in her dedication to the issue, spending endless hours with MSPs discussing and debating amendments to the Bill.

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!