Anyone who’s going from the station in Bruges to ‘t Zand in the coming week cannot miss this. There are about a dozen big bords with a photo on each side of a ‘forgotten’ animal in the food industry, with next to each photo a description of the fate of the animal.

Het Vergeten Dier – The Forgotten Animal, Bruges

The photo exhibit is originally made by the Dutch organisations Varkens in Nood (Pigs in distress) and Dier en Recht (Animal & Law) and we already saw it in Amsterdam in 2013 (see our impression on our Dutch blog here). At that point, we wrote ‘Would this be possible on the Burg in Bruges or next to the Saint-Baafscathedral in Ghent?’. And now the exhibition is actually in Belgium, and in Bruges even! Fantastic! 🙂

A forgotten animal, and a bit of a selfie …

The exhibit uses the same images as the ones that were used in the Netherlands, but the texts are adapted to the Belgian context. The Forgotten Animal is brought to Bruges by a cooperation of different organisations*, and can be seen for a week in the Albertpark.   One of the charts explains the different aspects of the food industry (health, animal welfare, environmental aspects, …) and what you can do about it. The first suggestion reads: replace animal products as much as possible with plant-based products. Great! I think that’s a much better suggestion than the one that was given during the Dutch campaign, when it was stated to ‘buy animal friendly meat’, which we think is a contradictio in terminis. Another suggestion given is to buy locally as much as possible ‘at farmers and producers who care about nature and animal welfare’. Agreed with the local aspect, although this does again hint at the notion of ‘animal friendly meat’. Buy local and buy plant based! No need for animals in any way 🙂

Het Vergeten Dier, Wat kan je er zelf aan doen?

Maybe I’ll be heading to the Albertpark again next week, just to observe the reactions of passers by. I hope it can inspire a lot of people to move to a more animal friendly world. And hopefully the The Forgotten Animal will also be shown in other Belgian cities!

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The Forgotten Animal / Het Vergeten Dier, May 22 till June 2015, Brugge / Bruges.
Albertpark. That’s in between the station and the concertbuilding on ‘t Zand (the exhibit is a the side of the station). Location.

Deze blog kan je ook hier in het Nederlands lezen op onze andere blog, Veggieleven.be.

The exhibit is supported by a cooperation of the following organisations: West Vlaamse Milieufederatie vzw, GAIA, Natuurpunt & partners Meetjesland, Natuurpunt Brugs ommeland, Natuurkoepel Zuid West Vlaanderen, Natuurpunt De Torenvalk, Natuurpunt Gent en  EVAvzw.

See: Boerderijen geen veefabrieken