Boycotts and information

The job of convincing animal product customers not to buy is the job of those animal rights advocates who know how to communicate, (something any impassioned, vegan advocate can do credibly, if they feel strongly enough about the issues). Communicators have to show the need for product-boycott, even though it’s inconvenient. We must talk about spending habits and the chance for change coming when billions of boycotters divert their dollars to non-animal products. Only then will the billions of animals be released from slavery.
The impact on the general community, of rescuing animals from factory farms and getting media coverage, is in the initial shock effect of seeing the conditions they live in, but to further influence people we need to get into their minds. Minds that fear life without animal products. We lessen this fear by witnessing the conditions animals live in and resolving to help them in the only way we can – namely by way of boycott. The rescuers video footage is usually powerful stuff, but after that we must rely on words, to get across details, to explain why these things happen to animals and how the customer helps to perpetuate it all. And getting all this across is essential for people to learn the essentials … but the information easily becomes too heavy to digest. So, for communicators, we need to avoid the temptation to say too much, too soon or with too much emotional punch. We mustn’t lose our reputation as information givers. If we preach it’s a big turn-off.
We don’t want people to simply agree with us anyway. We want to stimulate enquiry. As speakers we don’t want passive acceptance nor does the Animal Rights movement want followers. The need is for people to find out what they need to know, to step away, take a deep breath, and then make a leap of faith. The need is for them to imagine how-things-could-be, and then how we could have a freer world where all things are freer, including animals, environment and impoverished people.
The world will find great benefit in a change in human eating habits. The main reason a vegan diet is still regarded as a threat is because it touches on so many interrelating attitudes, and for many people that is just a bit too overwhelming. We need to be able to show how each connection can be contained in a normal daily life and how putting an effort in will reap rich rewards for all concerned … not for the animal industries though!