c How To Do Animal Rights. Tom Regan, Richard Ryder, Peter Singer
 
How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals

Your free book to
action animal rights


Grrafix for Animal Lib
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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on AnimalsHow to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on AnimalsHow to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on 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.




 
How to Do Animal Rights -
And Win the War on Animals




Chapter 6


Assorted Animal Rights Activists


Three Philosophers:

Tom Regan (1938 - )

Richard Ryder (1940 - )

Peter Singer (1946 - )

 Emeritus professor of philosophy and American advocate for animal rights. Among his many books The Case for Animal Rights (1983), translated into several languages, made him a public name.

Regan asserts that animals have inherent worth (that is intrinsic value) because they have feelings, desires, beliefs, preferences, memories, expectations, purposeful behaviour, and so on. He calls animals with such features "subject's of a life" because "what happens to them matters to them". He says, "All animals are somebody - someone with a life of their own. Behind those eyes is a story, the story of their life in their world as they experience it." (1)  Regan maintains that animals who have the features of a subject of a life should have the same rights to life as humans and sees the animal rights movement as part of the human rights movement.

Regan's position clashes with his contemporary, Peter Singer (see below). Singer argues that subjective human preferences can occasionally outweigh the interests of animals. To avoid this, Regan counters that it is better animal rights is based on intrinsic value. Regan says this will thwart people putting their own interests before animals whenever it suits them, prevent exploitation of individual animals for the greater good (of humans), and stop morality being an exclusively human club.

Among Regan's books on animal ethics are: All That Dwell Therein: essays on animal Rights and environmental ethics (1982); The Case for Animal Rights (1983); Defending Animal Rights (2001); and Empty Cages: facing the challenge of animal rights (2004).

 Richard Hood Jack Dudley Ryder, British animal ethics philosopher and animal welfare campaigner. Was a psychologist who experimented on animals but now speaks out for animal rights.

Ryder denounces Utilitarianism because it justifies the exploitation of some animals if there is a net gain in happiness for the majority of other animals (such as humans). Instead, he advocates his philosophy of Painism: that all animals who feel pain should be worthy of rights and that moral worth should be based on reducing the pain of individuals.

He coined the term speciesism in the 1970's, popularised by Singer (below) in his book Animal Liberation, and coined painism in the 1990's to describe his ethical philosophy.

Ryder's books include Victims of Science (1975), on the use of animals in research; Animal Revolution (1989), on the recent history and development of animal rights; Painism (1992), on ethics, animal rights and environmentalism; Painism (2001), on the moral theory of Painism; and Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006).

 Australian ethicist and professor of philosophy. Peter Albert David Singer first took part in a public demonstration for animals in his twenties while at Oxford University. The protest was held in the street against factory farming and featured caged paper-maché hens and a stuffed calf in an imitation stall.

Singer is widely credited with kindling the modern animal rights movement. His book, Animal Liberation (1975), questions the human treatment of animals. It is the book for which he is most well known to the public - its second edition was translated into over 17 languages, including Hebrew, Korean and Chinese. The book gave the animal rights movement a philosophical basis and, along with Singer's status as a reputable philosopher, awoke interest in academic circles setting off a chain reaction of thought and publications about animal ethics.

Singer believes our treatment of animals is one of the foremost ethical issues of today. He says toleration for the mistreatment of animals is a prejudice that, like sexism and racism, does not have a rational basis, and failure to take into account animal suffering is to be guilty of speciesism.

Singer's ethical philosophy is practical, following Utilitarian principles: the best solution to a moral problem is the one with the best likely consequences for the majority concerned. Hence, you may be morally justified if you cause relatively little harm to a few beings to minimise a greater harm to more beings. Thus, you might experiment on (but not kill) some humans or animals to save the lives of many more humans or animals; but it would be wrong to kill or cause severe pain to the many to save a little distress to the few.

Although Singer argues in Animal Liberation that we should not give greater preference to the interests of humans over animals, he also argues that some individuals are more valuable than others and deserve higher priority in moral disputes. In Singer's view, a sentient animal, a subject of a life, like a rat, has a higher priority to life as he has more to lose than a non-sentient being, like a worm. Similarly, a being who is more sentient, like a chimpanzee, has more to lose than a being who is less sentient, like a rat.

Among his many activities, Singer is a founder member of the Great Ape Project that is trying to influence people to confer on the great apes the same basic rights as humans. And Singer sets an example to us all; he does not just lecture about ethics, he gives away a fifth of his income to good causes.

Singer's many books include: Practical Ethics (1979 ); Animal Factories, with James Mason (1980); The Expanding Circle (1981); In Defence of Animals, editor (1985); Applied Ethics, editor (1986); Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the animal rights movement (1998); One World: ethics and globalization (22002); In Defense of Animals: the second wave, editor (2005); The Way We Eat: why our food choices matter with Jim Mason (2006); and over 300 articles on ethics in books, magazines and newspapers.

References

(1) Giving Voice to Animal Rights. The Satya Interview with Tom Regan, Kymberlie Adams Matthews. (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.