Key events and activities during the Show are:-

* How to conserve animals, and our planet

* Film festival

* Natural world art exhibition

* Fashion & beauty, without cruelty

* Animal and environment-friendly holidays

* Food, drink & cooking

* Natural health for people & animals

*Alternative medicine & non-animal medical research

* Interactive displays, competitions

* Fashion shows

* Celebrity Charity Gala Evening

Up to 100 exhibitors and sponsors will be able to show an expected 10,000+ visitors a wide range of products and services, and advise about campaigns relating to every aspect of animal welfare, conservation and nature.

In May 2000, the Animal+World Show (AWS) will be staged at the Novotel London West Exhibition Centre. This is the fourth and most ambitious staging of Animal+World to date. The non-stop three-day event will have something for everyone - from a film festival to an internet cafe - from cookery demonstrations to ethical investments- all under one roof with leading speakers from the worlds of politics, industry, and environmental and animal campaigns. This will be where to find out about everything from GM foods and animals, to rainforests and marine conservation, to factory-farming, the British countryside, and animal experiments. Aimed at a young, ethically-aware audience, AWS usually attracts around 10,000 visitors. For the year 2000 we aim to see that figure rise dramatically. Exhibitors from across the UK and Europe are taking part, offering a range of ethically sound products alongside inspiration and commitment. AWS is the only event of its kind in the world. For visitors, it offers the chance to meet the people who make the news - leading campaigners and organisations will talk about their work and their aims. For exhibitors and sponsors, it offers an opportunity to present their organisations' products, services or campaigns to a receptive, discerning and influential consumer audience. AWS stipulates that only organisations campaigning within the law may exhibit, and all exhibiting companies must pass our ethical criteria.

BACKGROUND

The Animal+World Show is hosted by two of the country's leading and most respected campaigning groups, The Animal Defenders (the 'Chipperfield' trial group), and the 124-year-old National Anti-Vivisection Society, the world's premier anti-vivisection organisation. However, AWS is a separate entity and all promotion of the event is strictly under the banner of the Animal+World Show, alongside names of sponsors as appropriate. From humble beginnings as an annual exhibition to mark World Lab Animal Day, Animal World Show Limited was established and launched in its own right in 1994; the Show has grown to become the foremost European animal and environmental show aimed at a young (15-35) and dedicated audience. Following the success of the 1994 event, further Shows were staged in 1995 and 1996; both were a huge success, attracting thousands of visitors and media attention. Although aimed at the young and ethically-aware audience, the event's visitors have included businessmen and women, pensioners as well as families, alongside specially-invited school and youth groups. Perhaps the AWS audience could better be described as the enthusiastic young-at-heart.

The Animal Defenders and the National Anti-vivisection Society:

Who They Are and What They Do

Originally founded in 1990 as the youth branch of the NAVS, the Animal Defenders (ADs) is now an independent adult campaigning group in its own right with supporters spanning the globe. The ADs work internationally with government representatives to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and with other animal and conservation groups around the world, winning an international award for elephant protection in 1998. The Animal Defenders is the group responsible for securing criminal convictions against top circus trainer Mary Chipperfield, her husband Roger Cawley and employee Michael Stephen Gills. The convictions were the result of an eighteen month study carried out by the ADs into the husbandry, accommodation, health and welfare of circus animals. The report and recommendations of the study have been adopted by the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, and AD representatives are currently in discussions on new legislation with the Home Office and the Department of the Environment. Through a high-profile media campaign the Animal Defenders firmly placed animal circuses on the public and political agenda. The group is calling for a ban on animal circuses, and for performing animal training centres (winter quarters) to be brought under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981; 270 Members of Parliament have joined the campaign. Education is an important element of the work, and The Animal Defenders provide educational literature on animals, conservation and the environment. The group has also leapt into the forefront of rescue operations: In 1996, the ADs rescued 18 circus animals, abandoned by their owner in Mozambique. Some of animals saved are believed to be from an extinct-listed subspecies of lion, the Barbary (the last wild specimen was killed in 1921). The Animal Defenders are now leading a long-term project to eventually re-introduce the sub-species into protected wild environments.

The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is the world's premier anti-vivisection group, founded in 1875 by the same social reformers who founded the child protection and anti-slavery societies; early supporters included Lord Shaftesbury and Queen Victoria. The NAVS is supported by members of the general public, MPs and MEPs from all the major political parties and our long tradition of attracting high-profile support continues, with support from a host of celebrities including Sir John Gielgud, Pam St. Clement, Sir Elton John, Jenny Seagrove, Hayley Mills and Meg Mathews. The NAVS campaigns within the law through political education and lobbying, public awareness, education, and publicity. It produces technical reports, educational films, funds non-animal scientific and medical research, and employs Field Officers to investigate laboratories, producing detailed reports for parliament and public. The largest of the single-issue animal groups, the NAVS is a well-respected organisation looked on by the media and parliament for comment on animal research, non-animal research and animal welfare issues.

The Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research is the research-funding wing of the NAVS. The Fund awards grants to scientists developing non-animal methods, and research projects in a wide range of medical and scientific fields which do not involve animals. The Fund is named after Air Chief Marshal the Lord Dowding, (of Battle of Britain fame), a past president and strong supporter of the Society during his lifetime. Over the years, the Lord Dowding Fund has given in excess of £1 million in grants for projects such as drug design, cancer, cot deaths, kidney dialysis, surgery techniques, arthritis, student teaching, safety tests and more. Successful projects include a new test for the toxicity testing of dental filling materials, which became a British Standard Test, and replaced painful experiments on animals. Another huge success was the development of Quantum Pharmacology, for computer-aided drug design. More recently, our funding of interactive computer teaching has resulted in the development of award-winning computer teaching packages to replace the use of animals in pharmacology and biological science courses in colleges and universities worldwide.