Your free book to action animal rights Grr! Graphics for Animal Liberation How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals Contents About Chapter 1 Introduction to Doing Animal Rights 1. The Broad Setting 2. Mass Extinction 3. The Animal Holocaust Chapter 2 Know Your Animal Ethics & Animal Rights 1. Animal Ethics Background Ethics Importance of Animal Ethics Glossary Now a Biff From History How to Proceed? Ethical Theories Ethical Theories Compared Choosing an Ethical Theory Do Philosophical Ideas Work? 2. Animal Rights What are Animal Rights? Background to Animal Rights Major Dates for Rights Animal Rights Theory Fundamental Animal Ethical Positions Variations on Animal Rights Are Rights a Cure-all? Universal Declaration on Animals Arguments For & Against Animal Rights 3. Comparing Animal Philosophies Animal Ethics vs Animal Rights Animal Rights vs Animal Welfare Animal Rights vs Conservation Deep Ecology Conclusion Chapter 3 Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights 1. Introduction 2. Campaigning Where to Begin? Keeping Going Ten Essential Campaigning Tips More Tips 3. Civil Disobedience What Is Civil Disobedience Civil Disobedience & Animal Rights Arguments For & Against Civil Disobedience 4. Direct Action What is Direct Action? Examples of Animal Rights Direct Action Individual vs Mass Direct Action Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty The Battle of Brightlingsea Inset: Background to Brightlingsea Comparing Direct Actions Direct Action vs Civil Disobedience Efficacy of Direct Action 5. Action Planning What is an Action Plan? Why an Action Plan? Who Should Produce the Action Plan? Before You Begin Distinguish Operations From Administrations Creating Your Action Plan You Should Be Smart You Should Also SWOT Make It Happen Review It A Simple Action Plan Template 6. Lobbying Who Can Lobby? What & Whom to Lobby Start Lobbying How to Lobby Lobbying Techniques 7. Picketing What is Picketing? AR Picketing is Like Industrial Picketing How to Picket 8. Starting a Group What to Do? Name & Logo Finding Members A Constitution? The Group Committee Group Success Or Failure Newsletters Fundraising 9. Publicity 10. Leafleting Design Printing Distribution Posters & Placards Other Media 11.News Media Media Tips A Feature Article? The Letters Page News Release The Radio Radio Tips 12. Internet The Web Email Create Your Own Web Site Designing Your Web Site Capturing Viewers Discussion Boards Chapter 4 Activities for Animal Rights  1. Undercover Investigator  2. Video Activist  3. Animal Friendly Traveller  4. Preacher  5. Animal Rescuer  6. Investigative Reporter  7. Media Watcher  8. Philosopher  9. Flyer 10. Personal Activist 11. Animal Lawyer 12. Politician 13. Prisoner Supporter 14. Public & School Speaker 15. Aerial Snooper 16. Scientific Investigator 17. Solo Information Worker 18. Street Theatre Actor 19. Teacher 20. Voluntary Worker Abroad Chapter 5 The Law & Animal Rights 1. Terrorism Background Terrorism Defined Animal Extremism & Terrorism Does AR Extremism Work in Practice? 2. Violence or Nonviolence? Can We Justify Violence? Kinds of Violence Views For & Against Violence Is Violence Efficacious? Conclusion 3. The Law - US & Britain United States FBI vs Extremists Britain Extremist Tactics Establishment Fights Back 4. Police Arrest In the Street & At Your Door At the Police Station Your Tactics Know Your Rights Remaining Silent Your Lawyer Suing the Police Chapter 6 Assorted Animal Rights Activists 1.  Steven Best 2.  John Lawrence 3.  Andrew Linzey 4.  Richard Martin 5.  The McLibel Two 6.  Ingrid Newkirk 7.  Jill Phipps 8.  Henry Salt 9.  Henry Spira 10. Peter Singer 11. Tom Regan 12. Richard D Ryder Chapter 7 Animal Numbers Raised & Killed 1.  Summary 2.  Chickens 3.  Pigs 4.  Beef Cattle 5.  Fish 6.  Meat Consumption 7.  Fur-bearers 8.  Experimental Animals Chapter 8.  Extras! 1.  Mutilations of Farm Animals 2.  The Five Freedoms 3.  Painism 4.  The Forgotten Fur 5.  The Golden Rule 6.  Human Overpopulation 7.  Climate Change 8.  Think Like an Animal Appendix 1 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. Appendix 2 Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

Italiano English How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals Chapter 3 Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights 5. Action Planning What is an Action Plan? An action plan will help you ensure that your activities will be successful. An action plan guides the day-to-day activities of your project. It is a document that sets out reasons and practical steps to help you achieve your ultimate objective. It helps ensure that things happen when and how you intend them to happen. All action plans are different, varying from one group to another depending on personalities, interests, skills and experience. An action plan relating to a commercial business is often called a business or marketing plan. You may not want an action plan if you intend just a single quick once-only action. But if you have a long-term project it is useful, even essential, to think ahead about what you intend to do. You need to know matters like: What is the actual and specific purpose of your campaign? How exactly are you going to accomplish your campaign? Who is going to carry out particular responsibilities and for how long? What are your opponents' weaknesses and how can you attack them? What are your weaknesses and how can you overcome them? When and where are actions going to take place? What is your timetable for fulfilling actions? How will you know that your actions are successful? What resources do you have for accomplishing your purpose? How can you get more of the resources you lack? Why an Action Plan? You could carry all this around in your head, but writing it down concisely on paper helps you think more clearly because you must share, explore, clarify and communicate your intentions to colleagues. They will know what to expect and what is expected of them. Moreover, writing down your action plan helps keep you on target. With an action plan you are less likely to lose sight of your objective and how you are to reach it. Without a secure record of what you intend to do you might allow your aim to change imperceptibly from one week to the next so that you lose direction, waste your resources and accomplish little of what you set out to do. Should anything go wrong with your campaign you have a concrete document to review and correct to improve your performance. Finally, when concluding your campaign you have an indelible account to look back on to check how well you performed and suggest how you might improve next time. Who Should Produce the Action Plan? If you are a one-man-action-group then of course you do everything by yourself. But if you are the organiser or founder of a group you may wish to clarify the basics, such as your ultimate objective and method of reaching it. But once you get a team running, everyone should have a chance to assemble and voice their input. Usually people can contribute different skills and complementary experiences so that you are more likely to make a better job of the plan. A brainstorming session can elaborate on the plan and establish what is and what is not feasible. But one responsible person should write down the action plan so that it is homogeneous and completed. One-man-action-group. Potholer figure on a merry-go-round. The seats for the riders are on the shoulders. Courtesy Rafael Ibáñez Fernández. Before You Begin Your action plan should not be too long-term as it is difficult to see far into the future. Depending on what you are doing it could steer a course for the next three, six or twelve months. So that you do not get bogged down in detail the action plan should be concise, basically a summary, with no excessive or irrelevant detail. If you need to include more information put it in an appendix. Your action plan should be well thought out and executed but you do not have to spend an overly long time on writing it; one or two hours might be enough for a team to contribute their input and for you to make a first draft on paper. Operations & Administrations You might find it useful to distinguish two kinds of aims; we might call them operation aims and administration aims. The former relates to your campaign actions and the latter to running your group to make it more effective. They complement and somewhat overlap each other. Operation aims for example could be: Organise a super-massive picket once a month. Decrease the number of customers entering a target shop by fifty percent for one year. Get a news item about our campaign published once a month in the local newspaper. And administration aims could be: Increase the group's membership by twenty percent this year. Raise X amount of money to pay for running costs. Establish a second group in a neighbouring town. Depending on what you are doing you may need to consider administration aims to further your operation aims, but do not dwell entirely on the former at the expense of the latter or your group may become strong yet ineffective. Again, depending on what you are doing, you could write a separate action plan for each aim. Creating Your Action Plan Every action plan is different and it is up to you to decide what to include and exclude. But consider the following points for inclusion in your particular plan. Your Objective Write down your ultimate objective – your final goal. For example, stop people selling fur in your town. Or motivate people to engage in practical animal rights. Your Message Write down the clear and simple message of your ultimate objective. People forget complicated messages right away, so keep it simple. Remember KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid! For example, 'Animals need their skin as much as you need yours!' Or 'Do more exercise – do animal rights!' Find a positive angle for your message; instead of 'Meat-eating is unhealthy and harmful!' try 'Veganism is healthy and wholesome!' Your Body Targets Write down the organisations and people you must influence to reach your goal. Deal with the right people the right way; approaching the wrong people is a waste. For example (re fur shops) shop keepers and people passing by in the street. Or (re motivating people for animal rights) people sympathetic to animal rights who could be active supporters if given impetus. Your Strategy Write down how you will achieve your ultimate objective. For example, if your objective is to help stop the fur trade your strategy could be to close down fur-selling shops in your town. Or if your objective is to popularise and get people to do animal rights you could hold an annual animal rights fair in your town. Your Tactics Write down the steps you must take to reach your ultimate objective. For example, each one of these can be broken down into a number of small steps: use undercover video for exposés, picket each fur seller until they stop selling fur, hold public meetings to publicise and debate animal rights issues. Your Time Write down realistically how much time you / your group have for your project and when you will do it. For example, six hours per week: about an hour per week for organising plus the rest for picketing. Your Message Distribution Write down the optimum times when you will give your message to people. For example, hand out your leaflets when most shoppers are about - lunch times – or when you are out demonstrating. Your Management Write down a list of key tasks (like action-plan planner, leaflet producer, site reconnoiterer, event co-ordinator), who will do them and when tasks will be completed. For example, who will finalise the action plan, monitor its progress and review it in three months time. Your Resources Write down what resources your need, such as people, space, equipment and funds. For example, half a dozen members for picketing; material for leaflets, banners and placards; storage space; computer and phone. Your Preparedness Things seldom go perfectly as planned and a good project has a back-up strategy. Imagine and write down a couple of potential disasters and their solutions. For example, if picketing a shop selling furs has no noticeable affect then you might consider driving up the shop's insurance premium so that they cannot pay it and go out of business. Or, if the police prevent demonstrating at site x then demonstrate at site y or z. You Should Be Smart In smart acting business circles they say you should always make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based. Our goals when doing animal rights should also be smart: Specific Be precise about the ultimate goal you aim to achieve. 'End the fur trade' or 'stop factory farming' is vague. 'Close down this fur shop' or 'stop this restaurant offering foie gras' is precise. Measurable Know when you have reached your goal. To do this your goal has to be something that clearly stops (eg the place you picket closes down or stops selling the stuff) or be something that you can count (eg ten new members recruited). Achievable Not over ambitious but within your reach. Ending factory farming is unattainable for your group; exposing to the press the cruelty of a particular chicken farm could be attainable. Realistic Identify an effective campaign strategy given your group's members, money and other resources. Being realistic makes your campaigning easier to carry out and makes success more likely. Time-based The time available to achieve your goal. Is your goal on-going, without a clear end? Not so good if you want to feel you have achieved a goal and be seen achieving it. You may have to impose a deadline by which time you have accomplished something solid. So be SMART, or better, you can BE SMART by adding: Believable You must believe you can achieve your goal - and make others believe it too. Ever-flexible Willing to modify your actions or goal as necessary. An example of being smart could be stopping shops in your town selling foie gras (or veal, or frogs' legs, or eggs from caged hens, etc). So what do you do to be smart? Be specific "Our aim is to stop the shops and restaurants in our town selling foie gras." Not "our aim is to stop all shops in the state selling foie gras" (maybe you have the resources to do that but you might start low down then build on your successes). Make things measurable "We shall count how many places sell foie gras before we begin our campaign, then for comparison count how many places stop selling it." Not "I think some places stopped selling foie gras and some didn't." Let it be achievable "We know we can accomplish our goal because we have the motivation, time and resources we need and can mobilise the manpower." Not "I suppose we can do it so let's have a bash." Keep it realistic "We can do it within our resources because we have queried similar groups elsewhere that have done it." Not "ditto" (as above). Set a time scale "We should be able to accomplish a significant reduction (at least half our targets) within ten months." Not "We shall keep going until we drop or they do." Follow the above process and you will have more confidence believing in yourself and greater capacity for flexibility to changing circumstances. In practical animal rights you should always BE SMART! You Should Also SWOT SWOTing helps you identify your objective and goals and solve problems that may turn up. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are factors that affect everyone and every group. Strengths and Weaknesses are factors within your personality or group that you might change; Opportunities and Threats are external factors outside your control. List your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats in a few words, such as: Strengths High motivation, persistence, flexible working hours, several potential co-workers to form a group. Weaknesses Only locally mobile, no media contacts, little money, incomplete knowledge of relevant law. Opportunities Several shops selling fur in town, local supermarkets selling eggs from caged chickens, an animal laboratory nearby. Threats The law if we cross the legal line. Think how you can counter or take advantage of these factors. For instance: Strengths We shall play our strengths and look for opponents who have weak spots that will fall to them. Weaknesses We shall decide how we can overcome our weaknesses, perhaps by looking further afield for opportunities. We shall get to know how the news media and how the law work. We shall budget and/or seek funding for our campaign. Opportunities We shall look for opportunities that match your strengths and figure out which objectives are the most interesting and achievable to tackle. Threats We shall avoid or neutralise them. We shall stay within the law or if necessary challenge it by legally borderline actions. Do a SWOT of your opponents from their point of view. Where are they strong and where are they most weak and vulnerable? This may help you attack them. Make It Happen Working hard on your action plan will do no good if you do not execute it. When your action plan is complete - do it! Review Does your action plan work in practice? From time to time, say after a number of activities or after an appropriate period, dispassionately criticise and analyse it. Get everyone together and ask their opinions about what is going wrong, what is going right and how to do better. Some questions to put are: Are we achieving the results we want? If we are not, why not? How far have we moved toward our ultimate objective? What things can we do better? What additional things might we do? What lessons can we learn? Build on experience and rewrite your action plan accordingly. A Simple Action Plan Template To make a start with your action plan write applicable headings like these down the side of a sheet of paper: Goal/Target Action Anticipated Benefits Time Scale/Completion Date Resources Needed Member Responsible You need only a few headings. Other headings, according to your needs, could be Rational, Expected Outcome, Measure of Performance, Progress Update. Then fill them in. Do not end up with reams of paper!

How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals. First published on the Web: April 2008. © Roger (Ben) Panaman, April 2008. All rights reserved.