[What is the stage of animal advocacy?] *Meta-Note: This is not a thread about which approach is most effective. This thread is about an empirical question that informs our discussions of which approach is most effective.* *Another Meta-Note: I will be updating the OP as I see new arguments/evidence in the comments. I havent tried this before, but it seems an effective way to communicate to people who dont want to read through all the comments.* Ive heard this statement echoed for a lot of social justice movements: - Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail Assume, for the sake of argument, that this model is true. That social change consists of three stages: (1) Bringing an issue to the table, (2) Winning the public debate on that issue, (3) Implementing the consequences of that public debate. I can imagine arguments that animal advocacy is in any one of these stages. Which stage do you think animals rights is in and why? Evidence for Stage (1): - Nonhuman animals still have no legal rights in the US. And discussion of animal rights is still met with a lot of confusion and misconceptions, indicating that people are ill-informed on the topic. - Veganism and abstinence from cruelty to animals is still largely seen as a personal choice, and not as a moral/social imperative, and is even portrayed that way by some animal advocacy groups and vegans. - Animal advocacy is still perceived as less important than other topics. For example, people will say, Why are you fighting for animals when so many humans in the world are starving/homeless/sick/etc.? Evidence for Stage (2): - Animal welfare in factory farming has received a lot of press. For example, the current policy fight in New Jersey, or Prop 2 in California. - Time, The Guardian, and other news outlets have all recently posted on the disconnect between our treatment of nonhuman animals and the evidence of their sentience. - Israel, in particular, has a lot of public discussion on nonhuman animals. Israel seems to clearly be in Stage (2) or (3), even if everyone else is (1). Evidence for Stage (3): - A large majority of US citizens say they love animals in surveys. - Most US citizens also have a negative perception of factory farming (pretty sure I saw this in a survey, can find it if doubted), and most agree the treatment of animals in factory farms is bad. - Some of the policy fights in factory farming have already been won and received majority public support.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:44:15 +0000
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