Vicki and Tony Moore
2000 Liverpool Echo
Monday, February 7, 2000
By Paddy Shennan,
Liverpool ECHO feature writer
Merseyside animal rights campaigner Vicki Moore died yesterday at the age of 44.
Here PADDY SHENNAN pays tribute to a woman who was never afraid to risk
her life for what she believed in.
SELFLESS, tireless, fearless, passionate, devoted and determined Vicki Moore
was all these things and more. Much more.
She was a born fighter and, above everything else, she was compassionate. And she reserved that compassion for the countless, helpless animals across Europe who faced cruel and tortuous death.
Vicki spent so much time, so much effort and so much money fighting the good fight against the bloodthirsty bull-baiters and the sick sadists who bullied and slaughtered all kinds of creatures great and small in the name of fun and sport.
Why is she doing it? the cynics would ask. Why does she care? Perhaps it was because nobody else did.
The animal rights crusader became the scourge of the bloodthirsty bull-baiters of
Spain, in particular. She often found herself at the mercy of thugs who were furious that this lone woman from another country was intent on stopping their pleasure.
Intent and, often, successful. That she faced regular threats and occasional beatings was a tribute to the power and influence she developed over the years.
To the outsider, it looked like the achievements of a single white female but it wasn't. And Vicki Moore, who was recognised as an ECHO Mersey Marvel during her incredible life, was always the first to correct anybody who thought that was the case.
Vicki was able to go on her troubleshooting European tours because of her rock back home in Southport husband Tony Moore, the quiet campaigner who stayed firmly in the background. "We were two people who were one," a devastated Tony said after his wife's death. That was so true.
Twelve years ago, when the ECHO first told the story of
one of the region's most
incredible double acts, Tony Moore told me he was in debt. He told me his wife left him for weeks on end to stay in hotels across Europe. He was left alone to look after the house, two dogs, ten cats . . . and a bundle of bills. But he wouldn't have had it any other way.
Their lives had turned upside down about a year or so earlier,
when Vicki read a couple of lines in a newspaper
about what Spanish villagers
had in mind for a helpless donkey at their annual fiesta.
The animal, set to be ridden to its death in a ceremony at Villanueva de la Vera, was later christened Blackie. It seemed to be a story which had everything, even a happy ending. The interest generated in the media by the Moores helped save the donkey, who spent the rest of its life at a sanctuary in Devon. Things would never be the same again for Vicki and Tony Moore.
Vicki, a singer and a Shakespearean actress, met her husband-to-be on the cabaret circuit where they later worked together, putting on their own brand of musical comedy. Now it was time for Vicki to take a giant leap onto the world stage.
It was decided that Tony would keep things ticking over at home and he became the silent partner who shied away from the limelight, preferring to wait in the wings and act as prompter. He was also the anchorman of the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE), which the couple launched in August 1987.
Explaining how their roles were worked out, he said: "If I get upset when I'm talking to people, I tend to lose my rag, whereas Vicki can place an argument neatly and get her point across." Vicki spent the rest of her life putting her point across forcefully across the killing fields of Europe whether it was the "blood fiestas" in Spain or, much closer to home, at the Waterloo Cup at Altcar.
She often found herself at the mercy of drunken, rampaging hooligans during her many visits to Spain on one terrifying occasion she was clubbed on the head while shotguns were fired within inches of her face. One cowardly yob told her: "We want to blast your face to leave you with a souvenir of Villanueva!" It was something the campaigner got used to but it was something which never deflected her from her path.
Tragically, it wasn't a sick human but a frightened animal
which indirectly led to Vicki's premature death.
Husband Tony believes she had never fully recovered from being gored by a bull in 1995 a sickening incident captured by a film crew and shown around the world.
She was attacked by the animal during an annual fiesta at Coria, near to Spain's border with Portugal. During the summer, festival bulls are forced to run through the streets whilst being showered with sharp paper darts fired from blowpipes.
At the time of the attack she had been trying to secretly
film the event for British
television. Vicki was tossed into the air 10 times. She was gored 11 times in the, chest, back, groin, legs and also suffered a
punctured lung and 8 badly smashed ribs.
Vicki had kept her continuing health problems secret
she didn't want to deflect
attention away from animals in danger onto herself.
That was typical of a woman whose fighting spirit knew no boundaries.
In a tribute to Vicki, animal rights activist Carla Lane said: "There are millions who will feel the way she did, but there are only
a very few strong voices."
Vicki Moore spoke up for all kinds of animals in all kinds of situations and, at times, she was often a lone voice. But it was a powerful voice and, eventually, the world did begin to listen as TV crews followed the campaigner on her travels.
She was a woman of action. A woman who cared. A woman who will never be forgotten.
EDITORIAL
A LIFE OF HEROISM
But the only thing that mattered to Vicki Moore was the animals.
The premature death of Vicki Moore will be received with great sadness, not only by animal rights campaigners but by many people who have never marched in protest or held a banner aloft.
The vast majority of us emphatically agree that slaughtering bulls for sport or watching hares being torn to shreds by mad dogs is barbaric and intolerable.
Yet we leave it to rare men and women like Vicki to get up and do something about it all.
Vicki spoke quietly and softly in defence of the animals that the world exploits. Yet, if you listened hard enough, you could hear a real passion in her voice, one that explained why she was devoting her life to helping the creatures we treat with such contempt.
And then there were her actions.
Perhaps they seemed foolhardy at times to those who did not understand her but, to those who did, they amounted to bravery beyond belief as she fought on the front-line for the cause she believed in so deeply.
Time and again Vicki risked the wrath of the Spanish people and their authorities as she went undercover with her camera to gather evidence on bull fighting and bull running.
The ultimate irony therefore was that she should be gored within a whisker of death by a terrified bull five years ago. The fact that Vicki was able to survive her appalling injuries and continue the fight for animal rights proved just how strong and determined a woman she really was.
She struggled in pain for years with the legacy of those injuries but preferred not to talk about her own daily plight, for fear it would detract from that of the animals she championed.
That summed up her spirit and her focus.
Vicki was a hero to the cause, because to her the cause mattered far more than the heroics.
Copyrights
Article by
THE LIVERPOOL ECHO
Photo: FAACE
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