CCA St Francis & St Hubert Awards 2021

From left to right: Chris Fegan (CCA CE), Juliet Gellatley, Randal Plunkett and Prof. Clara Mancini.

CCA’s St Francis and St Hubert Awards were presented to Juliet Gellatley  and Randal Plunkett by CCA Chair, Prof. Clara Mancini at an awards ceremony held on Saturday 6th November 2021 at the Rembrandt Hotel in Kensington, London. 

The St Francis Award recognises individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving animal welfare and advancing animals’ status in human society. The St Hubert Award recognises individuals who have given up activities that exploit animals to become examples of compassionate living.

St Francis Award 2021 – Juliet Gellatley

Juliet Gellatley with the St Francis Award 2021

Juliet Gellatley is the founder and director of the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity Viva! and its sister group, Viva! Poland. Juliet went vegan in her twenties (having been vegetarian since her early teens), when she witnessed a male calf being torn away from his mother to be killed as the industry’s trash and resolved to dedicate her life to saving animals. After spending eight years campaigning for, and then directing, the Vegetarian Society, she left to form her own charity, Viva!, determined to show the world the brutal reality of factory farming. Since then, Juliet has conducted countless undercover investigations into factory farms, gaining extensive media coverage and numerous accolades. Her passion for campaigning still burns strong and, in this regard, a recent accomplishment is the creation of the award-winning documentary Hogwood: A Modern Horror Story, which is available to watch on Amazon Prime and launching on Netflix next spring. Juliet has initiated countless campaigns on all aspects of veganism, authored three books, multiple guides, and given hundreds of talks and made hundreds of media appearances.

Viva! is the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity, specialising in undercover investigations and high-profile animal campaigns. Founded in 1994 by Juliet Gellatley, Viva! has spent over 25 years creating a kinder, more sustainable world for humans and animals alike. The charity’s work is divided into four main areas:
Viva! Animals launches dynamic campaigns to expose factory farming – an atrocious industry which has taken over meat, dairy and egg production.
Viva! Planet highlights how livestock farming is destroying our planet and how it is at the heart of the climate crisis.
Viva! Health supports people on their journey into veganism, making scientific information accessible for everyone, creating easy to follow guides on food and health and combating misinformation about health and nutrition.
Viva! Lifestyle shows how positive and easy it is to go vegan, and includes the popular Vegan Recipe Club, V30 and V7 programme.

St Hubert Award 2021 – Randal Plunket

Randal Plunket receiving the St Hubert Award 2021 from CCA Chair, Prof. Clara Mancini

Randal Plunkett is an award-winning Irish film director and producer from Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland. He was brought up in the Plunkett family’s ancestral home, the historic Dunsany Castle. Growing up surrounded by 900 years of family history and a sprawling collection of art and antiquities has left an indelible impression on Randal’s work, which critics have described as ‘lush, macabre, gothic, and beautiful’. The Plunkett family boasts a long history in Ireland and many celebrated ancestors, including: St Oliver Plunkett, Ireland’s famous martyr and saint who perished at the hands of the British and whose head still resides in Drogheda today; Sir Horace Plunkett, cofounder of the Irish agricultural Co-operative movement; Randal’s great-Grandfather John Merton Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, esteemed play-write and Godfather of fantasy literature; Edward Plunkett, Randal’s father and respected modern artist. Upon the passing of Edward in 2011, Randal inherited the title of 21st Lord Dunsany and subsequently founded Dunsany Nature Reserve, Ireland’s first rewilding project which takes a vegan approach to rewilding.

The Dunsany Estate, which dates back to the 11th century and is located around 35 kilometres northwest of Dublin, covers approximately 1700 acres (650 hectares), of which about 750 acres (300 hectares) are now being rewilded as the reserve. There are also around 550 acres (220 hectares) of forest, with several springs and streams flowing through marshy areas. The land that is not forested or being rewilded is used to grow crops. The soil is very fertile, so the income from agriculture is enough to support the estate, along with the income from the film production facilities based on the estate. In 2014, all animal agriculture was abandoned and all fields and forests that once contained farm animals were left to rewild. There is a lot of wildlife on the estate, from foxes, badgers and otters to owls, red deer and various birds of prey. The estate is home to a film production company, called Dunsany Productions, and every film that comes through the company has a mandatory donation of a tree to be planted on the estate.

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