Animal Advocacy

This past weekend I was one of the presenters at "Speaking Their Truth," the 23rd Annual International Compassionate Living Festival. The topic was economics as it applies to animal protection campaigns, and our panel covered a range of different issues relevant to economic matters. Here is a summary of my part of the presentation, which touched on capitalism, current global trends in animal consumption, and using economic data to measure the success of programs and campaigns for animals.

In my last post, I asked whether or not it's presumptuous for animal advocates (who are most often human) to attempt to quantify suffering for different species and animals in diverse situations. It may seem reasonable to generalize that mammals are more capable of suffering than insects, for instance, although some people would argue the point. Getting more specific than that, like by suggesting that "battery hens" suffer more than shelter animals, would certainly generate more controversy. So, can we quantify animal suffering?

In my last post, I wrote that "the essential goal of the animal protection movement is to eliminate animal suffering or, in more realistic terms, to reduce animal suffering as much as possible." While I think most advocates would agree with that goal, some would argue that anything short of total elimination of animal suffering would be a failure. However, one thing I think we can probably all agree on is that it will become increasingly important to define our overall goals as a movement, even if we don't agree on the specifics.

As I was organizing some old files the other day, I came upon a 10-year vision statement for the animal protection movement, which I wrote for a meeting a couple of years ago. A vision statement is a picture of how you would like the world to be. My 10-year vision is necessarily high-level and incomplete, but it may provide interesting food for thought as we consider the future of animals, their advocates, and the public’s awareness, attitudes, and behavior.

Is grassroots animal activism still relevant in the United States? Does a grassroots movement even exist anymore? For a cause like animal advocacy, which has yet to reach mainstream proportions, an "army" of committed volunteers is essential for positive momentum. For the animal protection movement to be successful in the long-term, we will need to rebuild our grassroots organizations and networks and develop closer relationships between local and national groups. Here are five ideas to do just that.

Take a look around: Despite decades, even centuries of work by advocates, people still have a long way to go on a variety of important issues like race, gender, poverty, etc. The same is true of animal advocacy, which by comparison is a relatively young cause. But in spite of the arguably slow progress of advancing the status of animals in today's society, there is reason for advocates to be optimistic.