 Rock icon rocks the boat on animal rights
She's seen as the ultimate rock chick, and at 55 Chrissie Hynde is still passionate about singing and performing. But there's also something the lead singer from The Pretenders rages against - cruelty to animals. Keith Lyons talks to the veteran rock 'n' roller. Chrissie Hynde was 38 years old and in the middle of her career as a singer-songwriter when she was asked at a Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors conference in London what she had done to save the environment. "I firebombed McDonald's," she replied jokingly. The next day a London McDonald's was firebombed and the multi-national corporation threatened legal action against her for making inflammatory statements in public. "Do you regret ever making that comment," I ask Chrissie down the phone line to her at her London flat. "Nope. After the reaction I got, I only wish I'd made a comment like that earlier." That throw-away line in 1989 led to Chrissie being approached by the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) - an organisation similar to SAFE operating in North America and Europe - to lend her support to its campaigns to end animal cruelty. She's called for an end to bullfighting and the medieval 'running of the bulls' in Spain. "It should be replaced by a kinder, more festive humans-only run," she says. In 2003 Chrissie was arrested in Paris during a protest against Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and its cruelty to chickens. She was also arrested in New York while protesting about the Gap's support of India's illegal skin and leather trade. More recently, during her recent tour of New Zealand and Australia she brought attention to the abusive practices of mutilating sheep without painkillers (known as mulesing) and the live export of sheep. Outside the Sydney Opera House she wore a portable TV playing undercover mulesing footage which showed chunks of skin being taken off a sheep's backside. Her actions have drawn much support, including the following comment posted on an online forum: We need more brave, strong women to be the voices for the animals that count on us to stand up for them when we know what is happening all around us right now to animals is downright, unequivocally cruel!  Chrissie herself is reluctant to use her fame as a music celebrity to endorse specific organisations. "I'm just an ordinary member of the public, so if I can take part in a protest or a picket, I'll do that. I am glad I can be a voice for the many like-minded people who oppose cruelty to animals. If I make a difference, that's great. But singing and performing is what I do."
She's been in the music business since the early 1970s. So what keeps her writing songs, performing and touring, nearly 30 years on from when The Pretenders were first formed? "It's what I do. I don't know what else I'd do." Hynde grew up in Ohio, and moved to London in 1973 where she started writing for New Musical Express. She formed The Pretenders in 1978 at the tail end of the British punk explosion, and the following year the four-piece band rose to critical acclaim with 'Stop your Sobbing' and the enduring chart-topper 'Brass in Pocket'. The rest, as they say, is history. The music, blending punk and melodic New Wave, spearheaded the second British Invasion into the US with hits like 'Message of Love' and ‘Don't Get Me Wrong'. But despite the band's success on both sides of the Atlantic and Hynde's prominence as one of the first women to front a popular pop band, things started to fall apart in the early 1980s. Two of the four original members of the band died from drug overdoses within a year. In between, Hynde recorded the 'can't-get-it-out-of-your-mind' single 'Back on the Chain Gang'.
The band's line-up has changed over the years with more than a dozen former and current members, yet Hynde has remained the one constant vocalist for the group, whose last big hit was 'I'll Stand by You', released in 1994. Around the time the Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, Chrissie remarked, "It's never been my intention to change the world or set an example for others to follow. I just wanted to play guitar in a rock and roll band and make music that people could dig." Despite her reluctance to convert her iconic position with the Pretenders into celebrity status, her strident concerns for animals, the environment and vegetarianism have been stridently voiced on stage. In front of a Boston audience in 1995 she once ranted:" All you hamburger-eating motherf**kers are gonna die." Chrissie turned vegetarian in her late teens, and enjoys 'hippie-food' like rice and vegetables. "I didn't want to be part of the slaughter of animals. Being vegetarian is the right way to live. I've been vegetarian for more than 35 years. You don't need meat. You don't need leather. It comes down to personal choice." For her, there's a simple link between animal rights and being vegetarian. "If you don't want to be part of the abuse, torture and killing of animals, then you can start by not eating meat." Why do so many people still eat meat? "Most people don't want to know. People who exploit animals are stupid. When it comes down to it, people are the problem. We've got to stop killing, wearing and eating animals."
 She despairs at the growth of factory farming and live shipments of animals. "I think one of the biggest tragedies of the human race is the way we mistreat animals. It's almost like we are near the end of time here on earth - you can see this by the way we use animals. It's like we've lost the right to live here."
She doesn't apologise for a no-nonsense approach to combating the mistreatment of animals. She once said: "We are never as confrontational as to trap an animal or put a gun to its head." She admires the work of the animal rights movement. "I think organisations like SAFE are fantastic. I was really impressed with the people from SAFE I met at my concerts. I think it is a very noble cause to be involved in, and I can see that SAFE is doing a wonderful job." And does she have any advice for anyone concerned about the issues of animal welfare and rights? "You can do something. You could send in a donation. You could get active and join SAFE. Perhaps you could investigate how animals are treated near where you live. Or you could go on the front line at protests and demonstrations." Chrissie calls me back from London later that day, after she's been for a long walk. She's about to go off to an animal shelter with her longtime friends the McCartneys. "There's another thing people can do - help out at an animal shelter or sanctuary."
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