07/06/06 Meat is Murder
Animal Friends announces and invites on a concert of a veggie icon Morrissey on July 6 in Zagreb
The cult singer of the British music band the Smiths and a successful solo musician differs from the majority of famous people by strong ethical principals and strong advocacy of animal rights for over 20 years. As a vegetarian since age 11 Morissey went through a change when he saw a British documentary about a slaughterhouse that terrified him. He has always considered animals to be like children who need our help and protection. He explains his vegetarianism with simple logic: "If you love animals obviously there is no point in hurting them."
Death for no reason is murder
Even though he is famous for not giving interviews very often, when it is for the sake of animals he accepts them gladly. Morissey points out that he reads fan letters daily and they say the song Meat is Murder changed their lives and they stopped eating meat for that reason.
The album Meat is Murder released in October 1985 reached the tops of the music charts. However, due to the strong and direct message against killing animals for their meat, the song was never released on the radio. With the lyrics like, "This beautiful creature must die And death for no reason is MURDER And the flesh you so fancifully fry is not succulent, tasty, or kind It's death for no reason and death for no reason is MURDER," the song became the hymn of the vegetarian movement and to this day inspires people to stop eating animals.
Morissey believes that nobody can come up with a good argument for eating animals - nobody can. People as some kind of a joke say, well, "It's tasty," but it's only tasty once you garnish it and you put salt and pepper and you cook it and you have to do 300 things to it to disguise its true taste. If you put garnishes on a chair or fabric it would probably taste quite nice.
Animal rights activist
Morisssey strongly stands behind animal rights even when that hurts his career. He never mails a letter without applying an activist stamp with a message and believes that those small gestures make a difference. He strongly criticizes public personalities who promote meat eating such as The Naked Cook Jamie Oliver.
In 2002, along with the Dalai Lama and Imogen Bailey, the australian model, he called for a boycott of Thailand until their government banns the cruel treatment, keeping and training of elephants, and their usage for commercial purposes and entertainment. In 2004 he participated in PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) campaign against IAMS cruel cats and dogs testing, while in 2005 on his DVD Put t the "M" in Manchester he included PETA's scientific documentary Meet Your Meet. In September of 2005, on its 25th anniversary PETA awarded him with the memorial award Linda McCartney.
Morissey commented the recent media accusations on his support of terrorist tactics for animal rights: "I understand why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence - it is because they deal in violence themselves and it's the only language they understand."
In March 2006 he announced that he will not include Canada in his world tour that promotes his latest album Ringleader of the Tormentors in the name of the protest of Canadian annual "barbaric and brutal slaughtering" of seals and therefore called for the boycott of the Canadian products.
