Article 6. Don’t Approach Me, I’m an Animal Activist

Currently, animal activists are responding to animal abuse in the only way they know how, the only way they think will work - By Protest! We strongly object to the use of violence against animals. Surely that’s unarguable. But we sometimes respond impulsively, even aggressively to non-vegans. Sometimes we respond in an unrestrained, intense, extreme, vehement manner to get our point across. We think it’s okay to be pushy if it’s for a good cause. We have a duty to be forceful. But how close is this to ‘fighting violence with violence’? Confronting their abusive language with sharp invective of our own? Animal rights activists believe they have won significant welfare reforms for animals by being non-compromising and sometimes outrageous. By using this approach they have brought issues to public attention and ended many of the worst abuses of animals. This approach of shaming the vivisectors and other animal exploiters has worked to some extent. But it has not convinced the majority of consumers. They haven’t felt the opprobrium personally and therefore they’ve not felt responsible enough to change their daily habits. We might say that the collective conscience has not been tweaked. Instead, an impression has been formed which is hard for most people to identify with. From that feeling alone springs an emotional disagreement with the arguments of the animal activists. Consumers have successfully convinced themselves that these are people you wouldn’t want to know.
Over the past thirty years, since the birth of Animal Liberation, it has had an aggro, "in-yer-face" image. We’ve handed people a golden opportunity to dislike us and therefore dislike what we say. Thus we’ve lessened our chances of being able to discuss issues concerning animals. Animal-people often look unapproachable. The prospect of having a low key, informative chat with them seems unlikely because they seem like people who are only interested in others agreeing with them. In the presence of preachers, there’s little chance to form your own opinion.
In the Animal Rights Movement there’s such a strong wish to convert that there’s not enough attention given to education. Our spokesperson-for-the-cause can sometimes look like the wrong person to be speaking, especially since our arguments are themselves so powerful they only need to be clearly presented. Essentially, we need to believe that the story-of-animals touches the hearts of people, the advantages of becoming vegan looks attractive and animal rights is an exciting prospect. If our message sounds hard and uncompromising it will all seem too difficult to try.
Animal rights is about developing a passion for non-violence, alongside an altruistic concern for animals (mainly those we eat). It recognises that animals and humans are inextricably linked. Their fortune is our fortune. Their plight and our own plight directly depend on our becoming protectors of them, the voiceless. The animals need us and we need to learn from them how to restore our own sensitivity. The need for human liberation is more urgent than animal liberation if only because it is here that initial repair work needs to start. Admittedly, over the past thirty years we have come a long way in developing awareness of and compassion for animals, but now we need to ask ourselves – “Has this been too shallow to be of much help to them?” – “Have we seemed to be too violent to inspire others?”