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.

How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals Chapter 6 Assorted Animal Rights Activists 9. Henry Spira (1927 - 1998) "Their suffering is intense, widespread, expanding, systematic and socially sanctioned. And the victims are unable to organize in defence of their own interests." Henry Spira (1) "Henry Spira was the most effective activist of the modern animal rights movement" said his friend and colleague Peter Singer (see Chapter 6: Peter Singer) who wrote a biography of him as a tribute and to show people how to action animal liberation: Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the animal rights movement. (2) Henry Spira is celebrated for his animal liberation campaigns and winning strategies. He was born in Belgium and his family settled in New York City when he was 13 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. He served in the American army, worked on a car assembly line, and taught at a New York college. But his main occupation was seafaring, from age 16 in the American merchant marine. As a seaman he fought for human rights against the then crooked and ruthless American maritime union and was thrown out of the navy for his troubles. While active in civil rights he even crossed the FBI, who put him under surveillance. Only when Spira reached his forties did he become animal-oriented. Someone gave him a cat to look after. Contemplating his feline companion he was prompted to ask himself why people took care of some animals while sticking a fork in others. Just then he happened on an article, Animal Liberation, in the New York Review of Books (1973). It was written by Peter Singer - a philosopher and animal rights writer Spira had never heard of - but inspired him to attend Singer's lectures. As Spira later wrote, "Singer made an enormous impression on me because his concern for other animals was rational and defensible in public debate. It did not depend on sentimentality..." (1) Spira was more pragmatic than philosophical, so getting things done came foremost. His tactics were to set a relatively small feasible goal, assemble activists with diverse contributing expertise, study the problem from all angles, especially from his opponent's point of view, and enter into constructive discussion with his adversary whenever possible. Then, when Spira was prepared, he submitted his target to a sustained campaign until he won. Spira was a highly effective animal liberation activist yet he was personally modest. He did not seek status or money for himself and worked for animals from his cluttered New York City flat. He elected to go without the staffing and finances of the big regular animal protection organisations. Although honoured by prestigious organisations he shut away all his awards in a cupboard. Spira's first big battle for animals started in 1976 with New York City's Museum of Natural History. The Museum's laboratory was experimenting on cats, apparently to learn about sexual behaviour, but according to Spira it was simply mutilating them. His group kept up a campaign of pressure on the Museum to stop the research. Finally, a year later and after much publicity, the laboratory closed. The campaign was acclaimed as the first American victory for animals against vivisection. Building on that experience he took on Revlon, the cosmetic industry's giant, and their Draize test. The test supposedly evaluates the safety of commercial preparations for humans by dripping drops of the substances onto the eyes of rabbits who are held down in racks. A highlight of the campaign was a full-page newspaper advert, one of many in Spira's animal liberation career, placed in the New York Times exclaiming "How Many Rabbits Does Revlon Blind for Beauty's Sake?" Eventually Revlon admitted their error and opened a fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars to explore alternatives to the Draze test. Other cosmetics companies chipped in so as to look good. Thanks to Spira, the better cosmetics companies now print "not tested on animals" on their products. Spira took on other seemingly inflexible corporations, including Avon, Procter & Gamble, and the poultry and fast food industries. He also attacked the United States Department of Agriculture, exposing their branding of cattle's faces with red hot irons; the Department dropped its branding soon afterwards. And he took on the slaughterhouses, ending the practice of hoisting conscious cattle into the air by a leg to await slaughter. Spira's campaigns put cosmetic testing and cruelty to food-animals on the political agenda. His victories were the first big successes of the American animal rights movement to reduce the suffering humans inflict on animals. References (1) Spira, Henry. Fighting to Win, In In Defense of Animals, ed Peter Singer. 1985:194 - 208. (2) Singer, Peter. Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the animal rights movement. Rowman and Littlefield. 1998.

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.