Picking up on it

494: However much I learn about this subject, I’m always disappointed by what’s being picked up by others. It’s as if others live in a parallel universe where they don’t notice all the ugly human dealings with animals and therefore can’t recognise the need for Animal Rights. It’s as if animal-users either know nothing or care nothing about this subject. Or perhaps they don’t even know they don’t care. Either way, we animal advocates are missing our target. We’re not reaching people about the need for the liberation of animals, in fact we might be pushing them away. Until we spare no effort to reach-out rather than push-away nothing will change. By becoming more professional in our approach we seem more reliable and safer as people, and what we say more likely to convince. Obviously, if we just simply leave it to the omnivore to find out, they’ll be side-tracked by other issues (nonetheless, important ones) and animal issues put on the back burner. As activists we compete for attention-space with many other issues. Everyone’s shouting for attention, so we need to be different. We need to stand out as more ... what? It’s a big ask to suggest we quell our anger, subdue our frustration, hide our disappointment and be more understanding and yet that will, I’d suggest, make us appear interestingly different. This subject polarises almost everyone mainly because of the food they eat forces then to oppose what we are saying, so until we move past the shouting stage and get closer (into hearing range), people will continue to look the other way. They’ll be seduced by those who are easier to listen to (like the environmentalists), or who ‘do it’ better than we do. Admittedly, we start with a distinct disadvantage in the first place - all the more reason we need to make our approach distinctly different to ‘ the others’. Unlike save-planet-and-save-children causes, ours just looks like hard work. It is, after all, a tough message. We need all our skill to help it along. We certainly don’t need to capsize it … by alienating people or by NOT addressing their perception-worries … which serve as fine excuses for people NOT to pick-up on what we’re saying.