Thoughts on
Animal Advocacy

Activism Starts with Ourselves

The animal advocacy movement is as much about changing our own selves as it is about changing the world and the way our societies regard animals.

Before we can ask others to adopt animal-friendly habits, we must strive to remove our own support from the industries that exploit animals.

If you still eat meat, eggs, and dairy products, please click here for a free Vegetarian Starter Guide.

The Nature of Animal Advocacy

Once we’ve made a commitment to animal liberation by adopting a gentler, more compassionate lifestyle, the question then becomes: How can we best encourage others to do the same?

While there isn’t a single tactic guaranteed to make animal liberation a reality, our movement’s strategies can benefit by looking at the nature of animal advocacy, our place in history, and social justice activism in general.

Unlike most other social justice efforts, such as civil rights and women’s rights, the animal advocacy movement lacks the benefit of self-interested voices. In other words, the victims of animal exploitation cannot consciously take part in the struggle for their own freedom. Even more, animals can’t even offer us their ideas as to what is the fastest, most effective way to achieve their liberation. (This isn’t to imply that animals don’t protest their enslavement—many do individually. However, animals cannot collectively organize to fight their oppression and change societies’ attitudes toward them in the way we can on their behalf.)

The U.S. anti-slavery movement took more than a century to finally abolish human enslavement. Imagine how long it would have taken without the participation of slaves and ex-slaves. The women’s suffrage movement took even longer to attain its goal and it, too, had the benefit of self-interested voices—that is, women themselves.

The modern animal advocacy movement has existed for only 30 years in the United States. Considering how dramatically society must change in order to achieve animal liberation, how young the movement is, and the fact that animals are completely dependent on humans to speak on their behalf, it seems extremely unlikely that serious, status quo-challenging changes will be made in the immediate future.

While unfortunate and dismaying, this is a hard reality activists need to face if we wish to avoid disillusionment and suffering from burn-out. As much as we might like to see the Animal Emancipation Proclamation signed by the current president, the chance of this happening is virtually nonexistent.

But, there is still reason to be hopeful. The fact that millions of people in the United States have already changed their lives in order to stop animal abuse is extremely inspiring. For a movement still in its infancy, we’re making relatively large strides and should not use the fact that this is a long-distance run as an excuse to give up now.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Animal Advocacy

Imagine you pass by an anti-death penalty rally. After reading the literature and thinking about the pros and cons for a short while, you decide you agree and would like to see the end of capital punishment in the United States. In what way are you required to change your life? You may have an uncomfortable dinner conversation with pro-death penalty relatives at some point; you may take the time to write letters to your congressional representatives; you may even attend rallies and engage in civil disobedience. But, none of these is required for one to be against the death penalty. In other words, the only essential life-altering change to make is to say you oppose the death penalty.

Now, presume you walk by an animal advocacy rally. After reading the literature and maybe watching a video, you decide it’s unconscionable how we treat other animals and their exploitation must be stopped. How does this require you to change your life? In nearly every way.

You must change the foods you eat, the clothes you wear, the personal care products you buy, the types of entertainment you support … and it also means you must acknowledge that you’ve been contributing to atrocities your whole life and, indeed, most of your loved ones still do.

Clearly, this is a huge drawback for the animal advocacy movement. In order for people to participate, it involves a relatively significant level of change in their lives. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote that “privileged groups seldom give up their privilege voluntarily.” Well, that is exactly what the animal advocacy movement demands: that humans voluntarily give up the power we’ve inherited as a result of being born into the “right” species.

Despite this, we can easily view this aspect of the movement as positive, instead of as a drawback. Other social justice movements often are plagued by a sense of powerlessness amongst their activists. For example, if we oppose what the Chinese government does in Tibet, aside from changing our view on the matter, what else can we do? Write our representatives? Protest at the Chinese embassy? These are not the most inspirational tactics for social justice activists.

Animal advocacy, on the other hand, offers extremely empowering steps we can all take to resist animal cruelty. If you oppose animal abuse, you don’t need to wait a single second to start acting on your beliefs. In order to make the world a better place for animals, all you have to do is take a look at yourself and make changes. Whether it is by eating a vegetarian meal or returning products that were tested on animals to their manufacturers, all of us can take direct steps toward ending the oppression of animals right now.

Leading by Example

As we learn about the ways animals are exploited for food, it’s all-too-common to feel so passionately about ending animal suffering that we let that fervor override effective communication with those who aren’t yet vegetarian. Anger and frustration may be understandable, but we need to take care not to let them overwhelm us, overshadow all of the positive steps we can take towards making a difference for animals, and, most importantly, prevent us from being teachers, rather than fighters.

The vast majority of us weren’t raised as vegetarians. While we learn more about animal exploitation and move further along the path to cruelty-free living, it’s often difficult to remember that—just like our family members, friends, colleagues, and co-workers who aren’t yet vegetarian—we, too, once contributed to animal suffering.

Because of this, it’s often helpful to ask ourselves, “Why did I become vegetarian?” Chances are, we didn’t choose cruelty-free living because someone called us murderers or condemned our food choices. Likely, we adopted vegetarianism because someone helped us see that choosing compassion over killing was a simple way to end suffering, while improving our health and the environment.

We’re in a great position to affect positive change for animals by being their most effective ambassadors. Lead by example and teach others with patience. The animals would thank you if they could

Focusing on Animals, Not Activists

The U.S. civil rights movement often showed the public the injustice of white supremacy by engaging in tactics that were likely to bring overt repression in front of television cameras. The scenes of white fire fighters turning their high-powered hoses on nonviolent black protesters, along with those of police dogs attacking black children, are forever branded on our national consciousness. These tactics exposed the nation to the true oppressive nature of the racial situation. It shocked much of “moderate” America into sympathizing with the civil rights movement.

The animal advocacy movement, however, does not seek to dramatize the oppression of animal activists. This is not the animal activist movement, but rather the animal advocacy movement. Yet, since animal activists are the only ones who can participate in the movement, the public tends to focus on us rather than the reason for our activism: animal abuse.

While difficult, we need to constantly ensure that the focus of the public’s attention is on the animals, not us as their defenders. The movement has no room for those who are more interested in personal glory than building a better world for all of us, both human and nonhuman.

Conclusion

If you believe abusing animals is unacceptable, the time is now to act. The very first thing we can do to promote animal liberation is to look within ourselves and try to lead more cruelty-free lives by refusing to support animal exploitative industries, such as those producing meat, eggs, and dairy. The violence we inflict on animals must first stop with us before we can effectively encourages others to follow our example.

With so many willing to exploit animals and support their abuse, animals have few friends. We are their only advocates. It’s up to each one of us to provide a voice for the voiceless and demand their freedom just as vigorously as they would could they themselves speak. While the movement is still young and has a long way to go, the number of people who have already made changes in their lives out of respect for animals is truly inspiring. There’s no reason to wait another day before expanding our circle of moral concern further than just our own species or the dogs and cats we cherish. All we’ve got to lose is our position as oppressors—a status we should be eager to get rid of.