Roger Yates is a British academic and activist with a long history of fighting for animal rights. He has been vegan since 1979.
Yates bevame a committee member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1982, with the intention of using the BUAV to provide funds and information to grassroots anti-vivisection and anti-fur groups.
In Liverpool, Yates organised Merseyside Animal Rights Committee and helped with the Hunt Saboteurs Association.
In 1983, Yates was asked by the founder of the Animal LIberation Front (ALF), Ronnie Lee, to become the ALF’s press officer and he also founded the Rescued Animals Sanctuary Fund.
However, in 1987, alongside 11 other defendants, he was convicted of conspiracy to cause criminal damage when incendiary devices were found by the police, and sentenced to four years in prison.
On his release, Yates co-founded Vegan Ireland: The Vegan Society of Ireland and became a representative of Animal Education Outreach.
In 2013, Yates left Vegan Ireland and co-founded The Vegan Information Project (VIP), which focuses on different forms of educational outreach and workshops.1Animal Rights Ireland. 2013. Vegetarian of 27-Years Goes Vegan After Vegan Interview. Available: http://animalrightsireland.blogspot.com/2013/11/vegetarian-of-27-years-goes-vegan-after.html?view=classic [Accessed 2 November 2021].
Yates also has a PhD in Sociology and lectures at University College Dublin and the University of Wales. His Masters thesis was an examination of the British animal protection movement and his 2005 PhD dissertation was titled, “The Social Construction of Human Beings and Other Animals in Human-Nonhuman Relations. Welfare and Rights: A Contemporary Sociological Analysis.”
People will concentrate on what vegans and animal rights people are against but there are a lot of things that we’re for. And that’s the driving force. So, we’re for less or non-violence, we’re for justice, we’re for feeding the world, we’re for trying not to damage the environment. These are strong motivating forces.
References
References
- 1Animal Rights Ireland. 2013. Vegetarian of 27-Years Goes Vegan After Vegan Interview. Available: http://animalrightsireland.blogspot.com/2013/11/vegetarian-of-27-years-goes-vegan-after.html?view=classic [Accessed 2 November 2021].