J When and why did you become vegetarian?
I saw a documentary on television about the horrific treatment of farm animals when I was eleven, and it affected me enormously. I saw pigs and cows still thrashing about after they'd been supposedly stunned, it was so violent, so horrendous - I've never eaten meat since then.

T If animals were kept more humanely would you ever consider eating them?
Absolutely not. I could never, never eat meat - I think if I accidentally bit into something that contained meat, I would be very ill, I really would.

I don't believe that animals belong to humans. They are not here to be utilised and mutilated at our will.

T So you think they should be left alone.
In a little field, by a little tree, with a little bib on - yes!

J Do you think that all animals - including humans - are equal then?
The life of any animal is just as important to that animal as your life is to you, and mine to me.

I don't think that humans are more important than animals, I really don't. There are some animals, like wolves for instance, who actually have more commendable characteristics than humans. I get really outraged when I hear the term 'they're behaving like animals', because it generally refers to something that only humans do.

Animals are usually more civilised than human beings. Unfortunately, domesticated animals trust humans - a trust which is largely betrayed. Cows even trust the farmers who then leads them to the abattoir.

T How do you feel about wearing leather?
I stopped wearing leather jackets a number of years ago. I do wear leather shoes though because I can't really see that there is a sensible alternative.

J It is difficult as the shoe manufacturers tend only to make a decent range of synthetic shoes for women. Curtess are bringing out manmade shoes for men now though.
I didn't know about that.

T Would you go there now?
Today?!

Yes I would. I think that the synthetic shoes I've seen in the past looked very silly and that does come into it unfortunately.

T Are looks more important than animals?
No, but unfortunately it still comes into it.

T Do you still take Royal jelly?
No, it's the property of others isn't it? The bees work hard for it and I don't, so now I'm on ginseng which keeps me as young as I look!!

T What do you think about people wearing fur?
It's disgusting. They're disgusting.

If I'm in a hotel or restaurant and I see someone wearing fur, I ask them to take it out of public view. They usually do. They are deeply offended, wounded and humiliated and I think they feel a bit ridiculous, but they still remove it.

Morrissey and Tim (Sefton Photo Library)

J Why do you think when the vast majority of the population are against things like killing animals for fur, foxhunting and vivisection, that they are allowed to continue?
Because, for example, people who partake in foxhunting are enormously rich and powerful. If it was purely the pursuit of so-called 'lower' classes, then it would have been abolished a million years ago. Not surprisingly it is also very silly, uninformed people who participate in foxhunting, and who wear fur coats.

J Do you also think that about people who eat meat?
Yes, I can't help it, I really do find them silly.

J Do you feel equally strongly against experiments on animals?
Yes I do. I think anybody who has an inch of compassion in their body must.

I can't think of a single time when it has proved to be absolutely necessary to experiment on animals. To make matters worse vivisection has constantly proved misleading.

Thousands of drugs shown to be safe by animal tests have subsequently killed the people they were supposed to cure! Most medicines are totally useless - the drug industry is interested in making large profits, not in curing illness. Otherwise why would they sell drugs that have been banned in the UK, to the third world countries - knowing that they are tricking the very poor to spend what little they have on medicines that not only don't work, but that are dangerous! To them money matters more than life.

J For the drug and meat industries to get away with murder literally - they have to be able to indoctrinate people from an early age. How do you think they manage this?
Again it's largely connected with money... these are multi-million pound industries which therefore have control and power. One aspect of this which I get very depressed and angry about is the number of meat and drug ads on TV, which I find staunchly political and horrific.

I was very influenced, if it can be said, by Bernard Matthews horrible television advertisement in the writing of 'Meat is Murder'. I'm infuriated by TV ads which show chickens laughing as if they can't wait to get in the oven. It's also aggravating that there aren't enough programmes on factory farming or slaughter, yet we have numerous exotic documentaries on sharks and so forth... I mean people generally know more about exotic spiders than they know about sheep and cows and that really does annoy me.

previous | next