Activism
In 2005, Mills became a patron of the British animal rights organisation Viva!, and the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, which are both run by Juliet Gellatley. In 2006, Mills and Gellatley attended a debate on fur at the Oxford Union, where she presented a video depicting the skinning of a dog. She posed with her own dog in an anti-fur advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which read: "If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear fur".
In March 2006, Mills and McCartney travelled to Canada to bring attention to the country's annual seal hunt. Sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, they complained that the hunt was inhumane, and called on the Canadian government to put an end to it. Their arrival on the floes sparked much attention in Newfoundland and Labrador, where 90 per cent of the sealers live. Mills and McCartney protested against seals being clubbed to death, pierced with boat hooks and sometimes skinned alive. Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier, Danny Williams, debated the issue with them on Larry King Live, the issue being that seals are no longer hunted that way, and have not been for a while. Mills joined a Viva! film team at a pig farm in Somerset, in February 2007, to publicise the use of restrictive farrowing crates, which are used for sows who are suckling piglets. A video of the investigation was made available on the Internet.
Mills's relationship with PETA ended in 2007, when McCartney's daughter, Mary, said she would not continue to take photographs for the organisation if Mills was involved with them. A PETA representative told the New York Post: "Heather's exposé of the Chinese fur industry remains one of most popular videos on our site, but we don't have any imminent campaigns planned with her".
Mills spoke in Hyde Park, London, on 19 November 2007, wearing a green t-shirt saying, "Vegan, you can't get greener", arguing in favour of veganism on the grounds that livestock create more carbon emissions than transport (although she drove a Mercedes four-wheel drive car to the press conference, keeping the engine running for part of the morning). Mills said: "Eighty per cent of global warming comes from livestock and deforestation. I'm not telling people to go vegan overnight. But if they stop drinking their cows' milk lattes, maybe this sort of thing won't have to happen". She went on to say: "You have 25 other alternate milks in many health stores and supermarkets. It's kind of bizarre. Why don't we drink rat's milk or dog's milk or cat's milk? You know, there are many, many other options". This led The Daily Telegraph, among others, to report the press conference under the headline, "Drink Rats' Milk, says Heather Mills".
In 2008, an old video surfaced of Mills wearing a mink coat she had owned in 1989, but explained to reporters that she had bought it years before becoming involved in animal rights organisations or vegetarianism. Although she had separated from McCartney, Mills said: "It's only since I met Paul that I really got to understand how vegetarianism not only benefits your health massively but also makes a huge difference to the planet, to animals, and to feeding the world." In August 2008, she was honoured by the organisation Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), with the Celebrity Animal Activist Award, presented at the Animal Rights National Conference. On 28 August 2009, at the Celebrity Catwalk event in Hollywood, Mills showed off her new "recycled clothes from charity shops" range, called Be@one. It has not been well received by either critics or the public. After her divorce, Mills pledged to give a "large portion" of her £24.3 million divorce settlement to Adopt-A-Minefield, but the charity has not received any to date. In June 2008, Mills was asked to talk at a New York party about the cruelty of puppy farms and to promote her book about animals, but was angry about the guests speaking over her speech, saying: "Listen up at the back. I haven’t been up for 24 hours and flew here from London to be ignored". Mills's publicist of four years, Michele Elyzabeth, stopped representing her on 25 July 2008.
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