Martin Balluch studied Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy and worked for 12 years as researcher and lecturer in this field at 3 Universities in Austria, Germany and the UK. Later he studied philosophy and finished with a PhD on animal rights in 2004 in Vienna. His career as a political activist began in 1978 with a campaign to ban nuclear power stations in Austria. After preventing the destruction of a primeval forest by participating in an occupation of it for a month in December 1984, he founded an animal rights student group and proceeded to join the Hunt Saboteurs Association in England, where he served as a council member for 8 years. Since 2002, he is the spokesperson of the Austrian Association Against Animal Factories (VGT), known for their confrontational campaigns to gain animal welfare reforms like a ban on fur farming, a ban on wild animal circuses, a ban on ape experiments, a ban on battery farms, a ban on caging rabbits for meat production and others. In May 2008, he was arrested and put on remand prison for 105 days and later on trial for 14 months being charged with conspiracy to coerce companies and politicians to improve animal welfare. After being found not guilty in 2011, he received the international ethics Myschkin award in Paris for his ongoing work in the field of animal advocacy. He wrote 4 books on the topics of animal rights, civil disobedience and the animal rights trial in Austria.
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Back to the roots: we need non-violent direct action and confrontational campaigns!
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Self-determination and an autonomous life: the basic right for nonhuman animals