A member of Animal Equality demonstrates the VR system Sam Harrison

The international animal welfare campaign Animal Equality visited Cambridge this week, bringing with it its virtual reality project iAnimal to offer students a thought-provoking insight into the lives of farmed animals.

The iAnimal system immerses its user in the life of a pig or a chicken being raised for meat. It follows the creature from birth through to the slaughterhouse in order to illuminate every facet of the animal’s life.

iAnimal is intended to allow its user “to access the day-to-day abuses that are hidden from the public by the agricultural industry.” It includes footage from the campaign’s investigations into conditions in slaughter-houses and factory farms in the UK, Mexico, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

The campaign, which is touring European and US universities at the invitation of individual university vegan societies, hopes that seeing the experience of livestock will persuade people to reduce the amount of meat in their diet, or to go vegetarian or vegan entirely.

They and the Cambridge University Vegan Society, which invited the campaign to the University and helped to man the stand, were keen to emphasise, however, that they do not put any pressure on those who talk to them to change their lifestyle. A member of the Vegan Society told Varsity: “We are encouraging people to make changes towards reducing their meat intake – we do not expect people to give up overnight.”

He added that, to this end, they were not soliciting the attention of passers-by, but were allowing them to approach the stand themselves and make their own inquiries.

He was pleased with the impact the stand had had, saying: “People have been quite shocked by what they’ve seen, and very interested – it’s been really quite productive.”

A member of Animal Equality echoed these sentiments, describing the exhibit as “an open invitation to come into a farm and reflect, and potentially think about alternatives.”

He also emphasised the “no-pressure approach,” saying: “we’re all about conversation.”

He described the response to the VR experience as “profound,” telling Varsity that many who had visited the stand as omnivores had gone away resolving to look into vegan diets.

He said that for many it was a learning experience, pointing out that “many have not had an opportunity to go into a modern farm and see for themselves what it’s like.”

Animal Equality is an international campaign for the protection of animals which operates in eight countries. One of its missions is to inform people of the conditions which prevail in farms and slaughterhouses, “so that consumers can make an informed choice.”

It has previously conducted prominent campaigns in the mistreatment of cows, pigs and chickens on British farms. It is particularly keen to campaign on campuses, however, because of the success of such campaigns amongst students: the organisation’s research has found that one out of 50 students given literature on vegetarianism becomes vegetarian or pescatarian, while 12 per cent reduced their meat consumption