'Where do I turn to learn about animal rights?'

June 22, 2:03 AMVegan ExaminerAdam Kochanowicz

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A few readers have asked me who they should trust when it comes to learning about veganism, donating their money, or whatever may be their current step towards animal rights.

All animal rights people and organizations are not the same and we shouldn't support any individual entity based solely on their presence on Google or how many resources they have.  The differences between animal rights ideologies are considerably great; sometimes so great as to delineate life and death, freedom and oppression.  The point is: be a skeptic.

Who should I trust?  What does animal rights mean?

At the end of this article, I will provide a few recommendations to individuals and organizations who offer an alternative, more thorough approach to animal rights.  This term, "animal rights," however, is often misused as a methodology of animal welfare.

Animal welfare is the principle of reforming how we treat animals as property.  Organizations who work to "make life better for farm animals" would be an example.  Animal rights recognizes it is indeed better that an animal be treated better than worse (who could argue with that?) but also considers the negative effects of such campaigning.  For instance, these welfare regulations often make so little a difference in the life of an animal as to be negligible.  The reforms also end up making the public feel "ethical" or better about exploiting animals (think about all the "guilt free" happy meat products).

Animal rights also recognizes the limits of welfare--that as long as animals are our property, our interest in preventing needless suffering is limited by...well, the "need" to efficiently use them as property.  As long as an animal is property, they cannot have rights.  This is the fundamental difference.

The slew of sexist imagery appearing in a Google image search for "PETA"

So what about PETA?

From this criteria, writers often mistakenly label "PETA" as an animal rights organization while using the fact they call themselves such as evidence.  However, PETA falls into an intermediate category of "new welfarist."  A new welfarist may seek the abolition of animal use in their mission statement, but will embrace welfarist campaigns in the belief they will somehow lead to abolition (history shows welfarism leads to a strengthening of the status of animals as property conversely.)  This is why we often see PETA applauding the gassing of chickens and redesigning of slaughterhouses.  New welfarists are a tricky kind of welfarist.

I would also recommend my readers avoid the fear of feeling they are "infighting."  No one would argue the primary benefactor of the animal rights movement is the animal.  It is this party, not the organization, CEO, or blogger, for whom the movement evolves.  No matter what position you take, you will in fact be opposing all other positions.  Disagreeing with a group or individual doesn't need to involve harsh words or unprofessionalism but it is important we keep the focus on the animals.

My recommendations

Professor Roger Yates

WRITERS AND ACADEMICS

Professor Gary Francione is well known for pioneering the abolitionist movement having a number of books published and a grassroots following.  See his work at AbolitionistApproach or follow his work on Twitter.

Professor Roger Yates, a sociologist, is also an abolitionist who specifically explores the human/nonhuman relationship.  Yates regularly maintains a blog, the Animal Rights Violations site, and is also on Twitter.

Dr. Mary Martin specializes in pet, more specifcally greyhound, rescue and writes just shy of every day of the year on current events and issues at AnimalPerson (Twitter too.)

(Please keep in mind these descriptions are deeply abridged.  The bios of these individuals and entities go far beyond the couple of sentences I've written.)

SOCIAL SPOTS

If you're knowledgeable on the topic of animal rights theory and practice, the Vegan Freaks forum may be for you.  However, if you haven't heard of the Vegan Freaks book, you may instead want to educate yourself in the Vegan Represent forum which is more geared toward helping you to make the transition and understand the ins and outs of animal rights.

ORGANIZATIONS

If you're like me and are sick of all the sexism and unprofessionalism in so-called animal rights organizations, take a look at two of my favorite organizations: Friends of Animals and The Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary who are active in advocating the abolition of animal use and vegan education.

MEDIA

I highly recommend Earthlings for a comprehensive look at the status of animals as property.  This can be viewed for free on the website.  For education on the ideology of animal rights, I also recommend the numerous down-to-earth videos by Gary Francione (mentioned above)