What NOAH has achieved

Pioneering work for animal rights

NOAH has put animal rights on the agenda in Norway. In 1999, Norway’s first animal rights conference was held, with well-known Norwegian lecturers. The year after, Norway’s first march for animal rights was held on the streets of Oslo with hundreds of people taking part. The world’s only Declaration of Animal Rights with a clear focus on the rights of all animals was put together by NOAH in 1999. When the first Norwegian Parliamentary Report on animal welfare was published in 2003, animal rights issues were included, thanks to NOAH’s many years of effort.
Fur thrown out of shops

NOAH’s furOUT campaign has since 2001 encouraged clothing stores to turn their backs on fur. In the course of just a few years, the campaign has made breakthroughs with several dozen international clothing retail chains, while Northern Europe’s three largest clothing concerns have now agreed to refrain from using real fur.
More vegetarians

In line with NOAH’s focus on a vegetarian lifestyle in Norway, the number of vegetarians in the country has quadrupled in the past 10 years. 50% of the population feel that meat is something one can live without and 40% have misgivings about their meat consumption. One in ten young women are now entirely or partially vegetarian.

Ethics Committee says no to animal experimentation in teaching

NOAH’s steady pressure to put an end to animal experimentation in education is beginning to show results. In addition to contributing to allowing more students to complete their education without the use of laboratory animals, NOAH gained support in 2004 from the National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT) - that such experimentation should be discontinued.

Statement of opposition in principle to battery cages

The fight against battery egg production is one of the main issues NOAH campaigns on. In 1996, NOAH contributed to the Norwegian Council for Animal Ethics coming out with strong criticism of the industry. In 2003, we gained the support of Parliament in principle that the practice of keeping hens in cages for egg production is unjustifiable and it is desirable that it be discontinued. NOAH is now working to make sure that the principle is translated to action!

Fur industry greatly reduced

NOAH has always had a strong focus on the fur industry: step by step, we have struggled to bring the industry to a halt. In 1991, a NOAH demonstration resulted in a large fur fashion show going bankrupt. And thanks to NOAH’s demonstrations over the years, fur fashion shows are now a rare occurrence. In 1994, NOAH contributed to a highly critical statement on the industry from the Norwegian Council for Animal Ethics. In addition, tens of thousands of signatures against fur have been delivered to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Innumerable demonstrations outside fur stores have contributed to a steady decrease in the number of such establishments. Frequent media initiatives, opinion pieces, and campaigns over the past 15 years have led to a majority of the Norwegian population now favouring the elimination of fur farms. The fur industry itself admits that NOAH’s efforts have resulted in fewer fur farms and thereby less animals being killed for fur.

Parliament opposed to the exhibition of fur animals

The first time NOAH launched a demonstration against the exhibition of live foxes and minks arranged by the Norwegian Fur Breeders’ Association, it came as a surprise to the industry. Year after year, demonstrators stood out in the cold in Hamar, coming up with ever more creative ways to protest. Finally, the Association was beaten; they themselves decided to stop holding the exhibitions because they gave so much publicity to NOAH’s anti-fur campaign. The final victory came in 2003, when Parliament said it agreed with NOAH’s point of view and gave its support to a ban on such exhibitions on animal welfare grounds.

Dolphinariums banned

In 1995 NOAH put a stop to plans to establish a dolphinarium in Norway. NOAH’s protests against the dolphinarium plans were supported by both the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Norwegian Council for Animal Ethics. The plans for a dolphinarium were stopped, meaning that many dolphins avoided being captured and spending their lives swimming around in a little pool in Norway.

Alternatives to animal experimentation

NOAH has worked for years to put pressure on the government to establish and fund an official committee with the sole purpose of finding ways to replace animal experimentation with alternatives. Some of the demands were heard in connection with the Parliamentary Report on Animal Welfare in 2003, in which Parliament resolved to establish a committee for alternatives to animal experimentation.

Penguins saved from capture

In 1997, NOAH’s efforts contributed to the Ministry of the Environment rescinding permission to capture wild penguins in Antarctica. Penguins targeted for Norwegian zoos were thus allowed to remain free.

Oil-soaked birds saved

In 2004, NOAH initiated co-operation between Norwegian and foreign organisations to save the lives of birds affected by oil following the Rocknes shipwreck. As a result of this, approximately 80 birds were saved and rehabilitated and the importance of life-saving preparations for wild animals was put on the political agenda. Previously NOAH, together with environmental organisations, helped save 100 birds after an oil spill in the Aker River in Oslo.

Cats’ rights go to court

In 2002, NOAH saved 17 old, sick and badly neglected wild cats that had been locked in a dilapidated, collapsing house. After a long process of trying to free the cats in an amicable manner, the case landed in court - where NOAH was sued for having “taken property”. NOAH won the case in six different courts - and the final decision stated that a person must be able to show that they can take care of wild cats in order to call themselves the “owner”. This judgement cemented an important principle: that animals cannot just be treated as property without rights. And the cats were allowed to live a good life!

Killer whales saved from capture

In 1999, NOAH discovered that the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs was negotiating the sale of six wild killer whales which were to be captured off the Norwegian coast to an aquarium in Japan. NOAH’s offensive to stop these plans resulted in a full retreat by the Ministry - and the whales were left in peace in their rightful element.

Aquarium exposed for ape smuggling

In 1999, the Bergen Aquarium was exposed by NOAH, which filmed silk apes that the aquarium had smuggled in and locked in its cellar. After confronting yielding officials and a cynical aquarium leadership, NOAH was able to ensure that the head of the aquarium was fired and taken to court. Although the aquarium’s terrible treatment of the animals ended in tragedy, the bad publicity stopped the Aquarium from acquiring more of the animals.

Dog-sled racing kept out of the Olympic Games

Every year NOAH and a range of international animal rights organisations stage campaigns against dog-sledding sports like “Iditarod”, in which dogs run until they die, and are used only as a way to fulfil the ambitions of human beings. NOAH has managed to get these extreme races, which have been criticised by veterinarians, banned from the Olympic Games when their supporters tried to get them introduced.

Polar bears saved from experimentation

Pressure from NOAH led to the decision by researchers at the University of Tromsø to drop plans to capture polar bears to conduct experiments on. No such plans have been put forward again since.

Ban on castration without anaesthesia

For many years, NOAH has protested against the practice of allowing the castration of deer and piglets without anaesthesia. These painful operations were assessed by several committees, and - after a long campaign by all the animal welfare and animal rights organisations in Norway - Parliament finally approved a ban on such operations in 2002.

Political opposition to cow trainers and stalls

One of the first issues NOAH took up politically was getting cow trainers banned. Cow trainers are electric clamps that give cows a shock when they have bowel movement in the stall. NOAH gained the support of the Norwegian Council for Animal Ethics on this issue in 1994. In the meantime, NOAH worked continually to get Norwegian politicians to admit that keeping animals tied to a wall for months at a time, in addition to the electric shocks, was a breech of the animal welfare laws. In the 2003 Parliamentary Report on Animal Welfare, NOAH finally received support for its position that both stalls and cow trainers should be eliminated - but we are still fighting against the indefinite postponement of the ban.

Fish given higher status as animals

NOAH was the first organisation in Norway to put the status of fish on the agenda. Thanks to NOAH bringing attention to research that has shown that fish feel pain, this fact has become more and more widely accepted by the public. Amongst other things, NOAH has represented all Norwegian animal welfare and animal rights organisations on a committee to institute stricter rules for fish farming, contributed to fish gaining higher status in the Parliamentary Report on Animal Welfare, reported on fish-farming facilities and held lectures on fish and animal rights at the first official conference on fish and pain in Norway in 2004.

Animals in circuses — on the way out

Since the early 1990s, NOAH demonstrators have been turning up outside circuses that use animals. Also, media reports on and by NOAH have drawn attention to the unbearable situation circus animals find themselves in. Comprehensive documentation on film and in photographs of the conditions circus animals are kept in all over the country proved to be a decisive factor in NOAH beginning to get a sympathetic hearing from politicians for a ban on the use of animals in circuses.