Jill`s Day 2005

[Trendygirl]

Saturday 5th February 2005

Jill Phipps campaigned tirelessly for animals in her home town of Coventry and across the country. On 1st February 1995, whilst protesting against the export of veal calves from Coventry(Baginton) Airport, she was tragically killed under the wheels of a livestock transporter.

Jill`s Day 2005 will be a day to commemorate Jill`s horrific death, celebrate her life and remember all that she fought for. Jill`s Day will open to the public at 10am at Coventry Central Hall with information stalls, cruelty-free merchandise, an exhibition, film of Jill`s life and speakers. Hot and cold vegan food and drinks will be available. At 2pm a dignified march will begin, pausing at Coventry Cathedral for tributes, and continuing through the streets to the beat of a samba band. From 4.15pm till late, the day will end at the West Indian Club where there`ll be live music, more speeches, stalls and FREE vegan food. Please do all that you can to support this national event and be there on the day if you possibly can.

www.jillsday2005.co.uk

info@jillsday2005.co.uk
The day will start at Central Hall from 10am when animal rights & animal rescue groups from around the country will have stalls promoting their work, selling cruelty-free merchandise, raising funds for their future campaigns/animal care etc. Groups that have pledged to attend so far include Viva!, Animal Aid, The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, Animals Asia Foundation, Peta and CIWF A variety of hot and cold vegan food will be available.

[tails4wagging]

Plan to go to that, with a couple of friends. I have met Nancy Phipps a couple of times, wonderful woman, inspirational. :)

[gertvegan]

Just a reminder to say Jill's day is coming up.

[PinkFluffyCloud]

I used to live/work with her sister, prior to Jill's death. I remember it well, and aswell as feeling sympathy and anger, thinking "that could have been me" - or any of us involved with Animal Rights issues. :(

[tails4wagging]

Anybody going?. Perhaps we an meet up?

[Billy]

Please check the website for updates! A lot has changed, since the Town Hall has pulled out, so there won't be any stalls etc :( Also the church has been funny about meeting up there. There'll still be a march and a social afterwards, but please check website for latest details.

See ya,
Billy

[gertvegan]

Memorial marks campaigner's death (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/4224947.stm)

Tuesday, 1 February, 2005

Friends and relatives of an animal rights campaigner killed during a protest in Coventry are to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.
Jill Phipps, a mother-of-one, was crushed under the wheels of a livestock transporter at Coventry's Baginton Airport on 1 February 1995.

The 31-year-old had been protesting against the live exports of veal calves from the airport.

Her mother, Nancy, and supporters will lay flowers near where she died.

'Celebrate life'

Family friend John Curtin said the flower-laying ceremony would be low-key at a memorial stone erected to Miss Phipps at the airport site.

A march has also been planned through Coventry city centre on Saturday.

Organisers said they were expecting hundreds of people from across the country to attend the event at the weekend and pay their respects.

A film about the protester's life will also be shown for the first time while a poem about her by Benjamin Zephaniah will be read.

Mr Curtin said: "It will be emotional for Nancy. Mothers never get over losing their children.

"It's tragic in every sense but we are determined to celebrate her life, to celebrate the courage she showed.

"Jill wouldn't have wanted to give up the fight."

Miss Phipps, from the Hillfields area of Coventry, and her partner, Justin, were among 34 campaigners trying to prevent freight company Phoenix Aviation exporting veal calves from the airport.

Her funeral was held at Coventry Cathedral on St Valentines Day and was attended by more than 1,000 people, including film star Brigitte Bardot.

[Kevster]

Woman who died in veal protest becomes martyr of wider cause

Ten years on and the tragedy spurs animal rights activists

Mark Honigsbaum
Saturday February 5, 2005
The Guardian

This morning, at a simple stone marker beside Baginton airport near Coventry, veterans of the protests against live veal exports at the airport 10 years ago will gather to remember a beautiful young woman with long brown hair and dark mournful eyes.

Ever since Jill Phipps, a 31-year-old protester, was crushed to death under the wheels of a veal transporter at Baginton on February 1 1995 her image has been frozen in time - a reminder of the practices then rife in British dairy farming and the veal transport industry.

Today she is fast becoming the symbol of a new campaign by animal rights activists opposed to the breeding of guinea pigs for medical research at a farm in Staffordshire.

Ten years ago Ms Phipps was a regular feature at the Baginton airport demonstrations, frequently breaking through the police cordon in an attempt to slow or halt the lorries delivering calves to be flown in cramped crates to Amsterdam for distribution to farms across Europe.

But on Wednesday February 1 1995 something went terribly wrong. Jill ran on to the road to block the progress of a convoy of trucks and was crushed under a lorry. Her spine was broken in two, killing her instantly.

At the inquest it emerged that the driver, Stephen Yates, might have been distracted by a protester who had run into the road and been dragged out of harm's way by a policeman.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr Yates for dangerous driving. The officer in charge of policing told the inquest that Ms Phipps appeared to "slip or perhaps deliberately fall".

Mrs Phipps believes her daughter's death was the fault of West Midlands police, who had taken over policing the demonstrations from the local Warwickshire constabulary the night before.

"Whatever happened they were determined to keep the convoys going. They had no contingency plan for people running into the road. That's why Jill was killed."

Her death renewed activists' determination to put the "animal torturers" out of business. Soon after, demonstrators invaded the Frankton mansion of Christopher Barrett-Jolley, the pilot responsible for the veal flights.

Mr Barrett-Jolly fired an air rifle at the protesters but within a matter of months his aviation firm had been declared bankrupt and the convoys at Baginton airport had come to an end.

The transformation of Ms Phipps - once dubbed the Joan of Arc of British veal - into the martyr for this new cause opposed to the breeding of guinea pigs began two weeks ago when her mother Nancy was told that the Central Methodist Hall had withdrawn from an agreement to allow Coventry Animal Alliance to hold a 10th anniversary memorial event there.

She was told that the police were concerned that the memorial would attract "yobs with banners" to the city centre.

She was also told that local animal activists were suspected of being behind the desecration last October of the grave of Gladys Hammond, the mother-in-law of the owner of Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, which has been at the centre of protests about the breeding of guinea pigs for medical testing.

Mrs Phipps telephoned two other potential venues but was told that they too had received objections to the event as well as mystery telephone calls warning of violence.

"We're absolutely gutted," Mrs Phipps said.

"It's like a conspiracy. I don't know who is ringing up but I find it frightening."

Last night a spokesman for West Midlands police denied that they were trying to stop the event and said that the advice they had given venue owners was related only to health and safety.

He added: "We are aware that there is likely to be a march in Coventry in memory of Jill Phipps, which we have not sought to prevent."

A spokesman for one of the venues approached by the activists, Coventry University, said that while its sympathies lay with Jill Phipps's family it felt the event might provoke "an emotive reaction" on campus.

Today Coventry Animal Alliance will go ahead with an open-air assembly at noon outside the Methodist hall attended by upwards of 300 protesters, followed by a march to a nearby park.

The experience, which has left Mrs Phipps and her colleagues in the Midlands animal rights movement feeling bitter and resentful, comes just five months after the police arrested one of the co-organisers of the memorial event, John Curtin, and two other local animal rights activists on suspicion of the grave desecration, although all three men were subsequently released.

Mr Curtin has several convictions for animal rights offencesbut he has since converted to Buddhism and denies any involvement in the latest desecration. But he told the Guardian that he supported the direct actions against the owner and employees of the guinea pig farm and believed Ms Phipps would too.

"I hate violence and I hate what's happening to the people of Newchurch. But what do you do when vulnerable creatures are being tortured and nobody listens?"

While Ms Phipps's death provoked widespread public sympathy for direct action against the veal transports, some animal welfarists believe she would not have approved of the tactics being employed against the owner and employees of Darley Hall farm.

"I think the movement has gone too far, to be honest," said Joyce d'Silva, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming. "Verbal and physical abuse of people can never be justified."

At her daughter's memorial this week Mrs Phipps said: "We haven't got yobs in our movement." But she acknowledged that she protested outside Darley Hall farm every Sunday, and if Jill were still alive she would be there too.

[Kevster]

'a reminder of the practices then rife in British dairy farming and the veal transport industry.'

Says the Guardian, not Then, but Still.

[tails4wagging]

I went yesterday, about 200 people there, wonderful march and speeches from Robin Webb and Mel Broughton. Jills partner played the didgeridoo wonderfully.

The venue for the stalls, was cancelled as the church minister of the hall did not approve of actions of the animal rights. and was quoted as saying that animals were put on this earth for humans to use!!!!!. (bitch!!) :mad: They had been so much bad publicity about it previously that all the venues for the day was cancelled. But there was still loads of vegan food (free)in tents and the mood was a happy one in remembrance of Jill.

[Love]

:eek: Wow :eek: ,we were there too,wonder if we brushed shoulders ?
That day was inspiring and upsetting in equal measures :) / :(
Did you see the wonderful film of her life that was played,it's going to be available to the public soon and is on my list ;)
By the way,I have an album by"Seize The Day"with a song dedicated to Jill on it named"Only Doing My Job",incase anybody is interested ;)
With love from Love.XXX.

[tails4wagging]

As there was over 100 there, I was likely to have missed you anyway!!! :)

[Kevster]

Thought i'd pass this on.....

Your help is needed promoting Nancy Phipps book

Jill Phipps mother Nancy has been an active campaigner for animal rights for over 20 years, and despite now being over 70 years of age, she is still an active member of Coventry Animal Alliance. Jill adored reading and her favourite author was Stephen King. One day Jill challenged Nancy to write a horror story for her! Nancy took the challenge and the result was Mother Likes Making Dolls, a spine-chilling horror. Although written many years ago, the book has only recently been published. Read a short review of the book here

New leaflets which promote the book are now being produced and will soon need to be distributed around the country. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go into the Jill Phipps Fund, which was originally set up to raise funds for Jill`s Day 2005(the amazing 10th anniversary tribute to Jill), but is now an ongoing fundraiser for campaigns and sanctuaries.

Ways you can help
If your local group produces a newsletter/magazine, and would be willing to insert the new leaflets, please get in touch.
If you don`t have a newsletter, can you distribute the leaflets amongst your group, friends etc or on stalls?
If you have a website, display a link to the page about the book on the Jill`s Day website http://www.geocities.com/jillsday2005/book.html
Ask your local library to order a copy of the book for their shelves.
Order a copy of the book for yourself today!
Please send your address and how many leaflets you require to the following address. Order copies of the book from the same address - each book costs £6 plus £2 p&p, please make cheques payable to the `Jill Phipps Fund` and send your order to:
Coventry Animal Alliance, PO Box 3605, Coventry CV1 3WS or email jillsday2005@hotmail.com

For a full report from Jill`s Day 2005 and a detailed history of Coventry Animal Alliance and the campaign against live exports, see www.jillsday2005.co.uk


Jill`s Day 2005
PO Box 3605,
Coventry
CV1 3WS
Tel: 07771 953465
jillsday2005@hotmail.com
www.jillsday2005.co.uk