Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Companion animals and animal groups

255:

It’s terrible for me, writing about the issue of ‘not using animals for human convenience’, because it seems I’m attacking almost everyone, not just the meat eaters and the milk-drinking vegetarians but those who themselves eat only a plant-based diet but who buy meat for their companion animals. Just about everybody is an animal-user making it difficult to support the ‘no-use’ principle, if only because they’ll want to justify their own position.
Look at the people who keep animals in their homes. Some animals may have been rescued, but however well loved they are they have no freedom and no natural life. They are the property of a human, owned as ‘pets’, and treated like playthings. They’re often socially isolated, neutered, micro chipped, medicated and fed at the expense of farmed animals. So whether we eat animals ourselves or feed ‘animal’ to dogs and cats, most of us are making use of animals ... which means we aren’t free to promote a ‘non-use’ principle. Some (very few) don’t feed their animals meat and use specially prepared plant-based supplements to provide essential nutrients, but most companion animals are carnivores and to deny them meat ...
By writing this I’ve probably offended you, especially if you have animals at home, and as a member of an animal group maybe you’re doing some really great work to help other animals, and in some ways the equation can be morally balanced. But my whinge goes a bit deeper.
Most animal rights groups are doing brave work on behalf of those animals who are the worst abused - say, factory farmed hens and pigs - but in my opinion they aren’t strongly enough condemning the routine use of animals, and that makes it easier for people to continue their animal-habits. I have to admit that I’m no longer a paid up member of any animal groups, so I’m not assisting their good work and some would say I’m not in any position to voice my opinion. In my heart though I’m a fervent supporter of their work to stop battery farming, to ban live exports, to illegalise mulesing of sheep ... but there are so many other horrors which fall below the radar, and any amount of exposing-of-the-worst-cruelty seems to be having little effect on the millions of customers of the Animal Industries. In my opinion most animal groups don’t seem to be speaking strongly enough against routine animal use. Is that because they fear alienating too many people, even their own supporters?
Most animal rights groups do what they do very well. Activists work hard, voluntarily, attempting to stop the worst abuses, but the groups seem to neglect the bigger picture - the need to persuade the public not to use animals. Even vegan groups concentrate on health and food, and apart from the most radical groups, aren’t addressing the fundamental issue of an animal’s right to live its own life, whether a pig or horse or cat. It’s great, the good work some groups do, rescuing animals, exposing cruelty, promoting vegan food, if only it wasn’t just about that. I’d like to see them doing what they already do for fifty percent of the time and the other fifty percent spent on promoting the idea that animals are not there for human convenience. I think they should come out really strongly on that even though it will, at first, be seen by people as too extreme. One of the main jobs of any animal rights group is surely to set trends for the future. To nudge public attitude.

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