![]() Chapter Sections 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 |
How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals ![]() ![]() Not everyone wants to lobby politicians for animal-friendly legislation or go campaign marching in the streets. So what can you do for animals as a personal activist? You can do many things and they come at different levels of convenience. If there is a secret for successful personal activism it is that you should do what you feel comfortable with and are good at doing. Three Personal Self-Activisms Here are four reasonable personal activisms that anyone can do. 1. Let's Stop - It! Most people call an animal an it, as if animals are unfeeling sticks or stones. They compound the offence by calling inanimate human creations, such as a car, ship or country, a she. So let's stop calling an animal an it. Make a contribution to animal rights by always calling animals him or her, he or she. You are conveying that animals are beings, with needs of their own. Calling an animal an it makes him an inanimate depersonalised object. As the philosopher Jeremy Bentham said, "animals...stand degraded into the class of things." (1) Once a being is depersonalised down to the level of an it, we feel we can do anything we like to him without thought about his moral rights. Kicking a stone or throwing away a stick has no moral consequences (see Chapter 2: Animal Ethics). But where do we draw the line? Should we stop at invertebrates? There is no logical reason to draw the line anywhere in the animal kingdom in that invertebrates are also males and females. Of course, some animals, like the workers of social ants and wasps, are sterile and some animals are hermaphrodites, like slugs and snails. But you can still call them him or her generally speaking. What do you do if you do not know the sex of an animal? The rule in the English language is to assume the masculine until proven otherwise. Feminists will probably object to this rule and might demand political correctness instead. They may try to give equal weight to both sexes by saying "he or she". But this is clumsy. However, the Finnish language solves this awkwardness with a neat han. Han in Finnish means he and also means she: one word for both genders. Let's extend this idea. If we adopt han in English than we could go one step further to make han additionally mean it. Thus, han in English would mean he, she or it and would:
If we adopted all these words in English:
2. Let's Speak Plainly Should we be lulled and sweetened by euphemisms when faced with decisions about what to do with animals who get in people's way? Or should we speak openly and honestly about what is happening and not hide behind word substitutions to cover up what we or anyone are doing? People adopt euphemisms because they sound impartial, necessary, professional and reasonable, so that consciences are saved and nobody objects to the action. This table shows some frequently occurring euphemisms.
Cull is often employed as a euphemism when dealing with wild animals. It really means to select and remove some things from other things, especially because of their inferior quality. But it is almost always used as a polite word whose action is somehow necessary and officially sanctioned. So we get: "...the Deer Commission for Scotland flew in a squad of marksmen by helicopter to carry out the cull of 80 deer on the famous Badenoch estate..." Strathspey and Badenoch Herald. "A cull of 5,000 hedgehogs is due to begin on North Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland on Monday. Scottish Natural Heritage wants to get rid of all the hedgehogs on the Uist islands because they have been destroying colonies of wading birds." BBC News. 3. The Cute Factor & Invertebrate Harmony The cute factor refers to supporting some animals, such as fluffy animals with big dark eyes, because they are more attractive than other animals. The opposite side of the coin is ignoring some animals like rats, snakes and spiders, because they seem nasty and repulsive. Many people would be outraged by a slaughter of baby seals but are silent about a 'cull' of rats. Yet rats are as intelligent and as social as seals and moreover deserve equal consideration. People blame rats for spreading disease; but in the first place it is poor human living conditions with unsanitary habits that create the circumstances for rats to multiply and spread disease among people. Let's learn to love all animals, try to live in harmony with all creatures and treat them with respect and compassion. So let's practice animal rights at the lowest level, that of the invertebrate: insects, spiders and other animals without a backbone. They make up over 99 percent of animals on Earth, are vital to the well being of the biosphere, and we can learn to appreciate them and the many wonderful things they do. People often commit the number fallacy: because there are lots of them it does not matter if we kill them. But neither number nor body size determine the value of life. Invertebrates are small, but if we are aware of them and practice invertebrate harmony even on a small scale, then we will be more compassionate beings. Here are some things you can do.
Humans eat vast numbers of animals. In the United States alone every week people slaughter 175 million poultry, 2 million pigs, 700,000 cattle, 60,000 sheep, plus a host of other animals (2). But vegetarians and vegans opt out of the killing system. If you become a vegan or vegetarian you might save a pig or two annually, at least theoretically. That animals have rights is the most basic reason people have for giving up eating animals. Specifically, animals have the right to live their own lives and not have humans kill them for food. In a more practical vein, vegetarians and vegans say their diet is healthier than a meat-based diet. Veggies and vegans like to claim they have lower blood pressure and fewer heart and bowel disorders than meat-eaters. People in the dietary business used to assert that your health would fail and you might die if you did not eat meat. But generations of healthy vegetarians and vegans are ample proof that they were wrong. Eating animals is dispensable and largely a matter of taste. As a veggie or vegan you might help slow climate change - provided the veggie habit leads to farmers rearing fewer livestock. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps more heat than carbon dioxide and the methane belched by the world's livestock is widely questioned as a factor contributing to global warming. It is generally claimed that 90 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions come from the country's 40 million sheep (the human population is five million). Vegetarianism is a personal commitment to animal life by setting an example to other people. If you are not already a vegetarian or vegan do not be put off joining them by thinking you have to give up eating all animals overnight. There are degrees of vegetarianism, like a freegan does not generally eat meat but might if other people discard it as waste and a flexitarian eats meat only rarely. Simply cutting back on meat-eating is a good start. Just eat a more extensive diet of everything else and more of it. Veganism is just a step removed from vegetarianism; just give up eggs and dairy products, phase out using leather, feather pillows and other animal products, and you are there! More Active Activisms Here are suggestions to get into the swing of more activisms for animal rights.
And what about birds in cages and animals in tiny garden hutches...? References (1) Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. 1789:xvii:311. (2) Statistics of Cattle, Hogs and Sheep and Poultry Slaughter. Annual Summaries. National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
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