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Grr! Graphics for Animal LiberationHow 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
BackgroundEthicsImportance of Animal EthicsGlossaryNow a Biff From HistoryHow to Proceed?Ethical TheoriesEthical Theories ComparedChoosing an Ethical TheoryDo Philosophical Ideas Work?2. Animal Rights
What are Animal Rights?Background to Animal RightsMajor Dates for RightsAnimal Rights TheoryFundamental Animal Ethical PositionsVariations on Animal RightsAre Rights a Cure-all?Universal Declaration on AnimalsArguments For & Against Animal Rights3. Comparing Animal Philosophies
Animal Ethics vs Animal RightsAnimal Rights vs Animal WelfareAnimal Rights vs ConservationDeep EcologyConclusion
Chapter 3
Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights
1. Introduction
2. Campaigning
Where to Begin?Keeping GoingTen Essential Campaigning TipsMore Tips3. Civil Disobedience
What Is Civil DisobedienceCivil Disobedience & Animal RightsArguments For & Against Civil Disobedience4. Direct Action
What is Direct Action?Examples of Animal Rights Direct ActionIndividual vs Mass Direct ActionSea Shepherd Conservation SocietyStop Huntingdon Animal CrueltyThe Battle of BrightlingseaInset: Background to BrightlingseaComparing Direct ActionsDirect Action vs Civil DisobedienceEfficacy of Direct Action5. Action Planning
What is an Action Plan?Why an Action Plan?Who Should Produce the Action Plan?Before You BeginDistinguish Operations From AdministrationsCreating Your Action PlanYou Should Be SmartYou Should Also SWOTMake It HappenReview ItA Simple Action Plan Template6. Lobbying
Who Can Lobby?What & Whom to LobbyStart LobbyingHow to LobbyLobbying Techniques7. Picketing
What is Picketing?AR Picketing is Like Industrial PicketingHow to Picket8. Starting a Group
What to Do?Name & LogoFinding MembersA Constitution?The Group CommitteeGroup Success Or FailureNewslettersFundraising9. Publicity
10. LeafletingDesignPrintingDistributionPosters & PlacardsOther Media11.News MediaMedia TipsA Feature Article?The Letters PageNews ReleaseThe RadioRadio Tips12. InternetThe WebEmailCreate Your Own Web SiteDesigning Your Web SiteCapturing ViewersDiscussion 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
BackgroundTerrorism DefinedAnimal Extremism & TerrorismDoes AR Extremism Work in Practice?2. Violence or Nonviolence?
Can We Justify Violence?Kinds of ViolenceViews For & Against ViolenceIs Violence Efficacious?Conclusion3. The Law - US & Britain
United StatesFBI vs ExtremistsBritainExtremist TacticsEstablishment Fights Back4. Police Arrest
In the Street & At Your DoorAt the Police StationYour TacticsKnow Your RightsRemaining SilentYour LawyerSuing 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.
And Win the War on Animals
Steven Best's critics brand him as an American militant animal rights activist on the extreme fringe and a spokesman for terrorists. More sympathetic people describe him as an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso, and a scholarly, although outspoken, voice on animal rights.After leaving school Best drove trucks and worked in factories for some years. Then after studying film and theatre he took degrees in philosophy and joined the staff at Texas University. In 2002 his colleagues recognised his talents by appointing him to the chair of the philosophy department. But after three years of ups and downs they unseated him after a vote of no confidence. Best claims this academic reversal was because of his animal rights activism, an assertion his colleagues reject.
The road to animal liberation began for Best one day in his mid-twenties. While eating a burger at a fast food restaurant he was smitten by a revelation. He made the connection between what he was eating and animals; he converted to veganism. Revelation struck again a few years later while reading Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation. Best was already a human rights activist and now he became an animal rights activist. By working for animals, he says, he is also working for humans.
Best is a controversial figure partly because of his involvement with the British originated Animal Liberation Front (ALF). ALF, for its hundreds of actions to rescue animals and destroy the property of companies that harm animals, is often denounced as a terrorist group by the news media and government bodies (such as the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security). So when Best co-founded the North American Animal Liberation Press Office in 2004 he was a marked man. As for his academic career, he accepts that in a conservative, conformist academic world his open support for ALF will retard his prospects. But he insists that academics must speak out and that it is time to show support for ALF.
Best says he supports ALF because of their effective and fair methods of fighting the real terrorists - the people who violate and kill animals. Best professes he is not an ALF activist and that his ALF press office simply gives information on ALF activities. But he believes that educating the public and legislating for animal friendly laws cannot by themselves succeed in abolishing animal abuse. Animal activists, he says, must attack the animal abusers directly. For justification he cites the human slavery abolitionists' attacks on slave traders in the 18th and 19th centuries.
So Best was surprised one day in 2005 while arranging a trip to Britain to address an animal rights meeting to mark the effective campaign of shutting down a farm that had been breeding guinea pigs for experiments on animals. The Home Office notified Best that he was banned from entering the country. The Secretary of State, on the strength of newspaper reports, had listed Best as an advocate of violence and terrorism and therefore as a threat to 'public order'. The ban was part of the British government's action to control extremists and terrorists as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US. After considering an appeal by Best, however, the Home Office rescinded and let him in - but still banned his fellow animal activist colleagues from entering Britain. To Best's knowledge this was the first time anyone from the US had been prevented from entering another country for advocating animal rights.
Steven Best is a philosophy professor who lives with his nine rescued cats, but his objective is revolutionary politics. He intends to annihilate social injustice and humanity's lethal control over animals and nature that are, Best says, intrinsic to capitalism and civilization. He wants to wake up people to action and motivate them to transform the world into a true democratic, libertarian and socialist society.
Best says:
I always prefer a conversation to a war, but we are in a battlefield not at a bargaining table. (1)However, one critic replies:
What makes Best a caricature rather than a serious dissident is not his intellectual vapidity, colossal as it may be, but his unwillingness to distinguish between the life of a human and that of a rodent. (2)Some of Best's animal liberation books are: Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? (editor with Anthony J Nocella Jr), 2004; Animal Rights and Moral Progress, 2006; and Igniting a Revolution, (editor with Anthony J Nocella Jr), 2006.
References
(1) The Epiphanies of Dr Steven Best, Claudette Vaughn. Vegan Voice. 2004. (Accessed online February 2007.)
(2) Staff Editorial, The Daily Iowan, January 2005. (Accessed online February 2007.)
Other sources include:
Igniting A Revolution: Voices in Defense of Mother Earth, Claudette Vaughan. Abolitionist Online. 2005. (Accessed online February 2007.)
| 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. |