A still-foreign consciousness of non-violence

18.

Being conscious of Animal Rights doesn’t stop at dietary change but at the principle of non-violence. It is becoming a realistic possibility and inspiration. It’s possibly the most effective panacea for this war-torn age (and needless to say, it incorporates vegan principle). The only trouble is inconsistency. I’m troubled by my own inconsistency as perhaps some of my animal activist friends are. We love the idea of non-violence but applying it in practice is like a five year old child refusing candy for fear of tooth decay later in life! The Animal Rights Movement is still very young. There’s a need for all of us in it to grow up rather quickly in the face of the current ethical meltdown. Our loose grouping under the ‘Animal Rights’ banner comprises people who aren’t always entirely clear what their main message should be or how they should exemplify it. Be a strict vegan, be a hard-working activist, run an animal shelter, be a nice person? We have vegetarians who still can’t take on a vegan food and clothing regime. We have dietary vegans who can’t let go of their leathers and we have sincere animal lovers who take on (albeit as a rescue) a carnivorous companion animal which will require many other animals to die to feed it. How can an animal liberation message be promoted by activists who preach one thing and do another? I hasten to add that I don’t mean to sound harsh or extreme here, but only want to point out how tricky this subject is, how many pitfalls there are and how relatively new this Animal Rights consciousness is - to all of us.

Fashion, normalcy and unthinkingness

17.

Despite a certain wave of change taking place today, it is still fashionable to be unaware of the conditions in which farmed animals live and die. Fashion says it’s okay to eat meat, to wear wool, to buy fashionable shoes made of leather, to eat eggs for breakfast and take cow’s milk in our coffee. But what about the big food temptations, the salivation stimulators, the rich foods, the treat foods and exotic foods like lobster or wagyu beef? Or simple mouth-watering confections which contain cruelty-based ingredients? By deciding to buy any of these tempting items, we implicate ourselves in cruelty and even atrocity.

At that most private moment, standing at the shop counter, imagining the taste of an item we’re about to buy, it’s likely we could resent the idea of denying ourselves something which we can, nevertheless, afford to buy. For children, any of these items may have been unattainable through lack of funds or lack of permission. But as we grow up and those restrictions disappear, we are faced with ‘missing out’ and we’ve got into the habit of having whatever we want. It’s then strange for us if we decide, on ethical grounds, not to buy. The allure of certain benign looking and oft used products is often stronger than our impulse to check ingredients.

In our society today, when there’s no fuss being made, where there’s no pressure to ‘do the right thing’, it’s only our own ethical inner-voice which can call the shots. Often it’s a weak, barely heard voice that we can easily ignore. It’s been trained to be weak and it needs amplification by a well respected group that stresses the importance of implementing a ‘non-use-of-animals’ rule, to counter the majority’s sense of normality and unthinkingness. 

Why the reluctance to change

16.

Getting this idea (of expanding empathy for farmed animals) across to unwilling listeners, is always going to be difficult. Most people won’t necessarily see things the way I now see them. They won’t willingly give up meat and eggs, let alone their leather shoes or woollen blankets. So they won’t extend their kind feelings towards animals that provide them with those things. Meaning - they’ll resist our arguments fiercely. This is why I think the key to the success of our mission to liberate animals can only be found in our approach to nervous listeners. Somehow each of us has to find our own way to earn their trust so we can put forward our case without causing them to feel too judged or too threatened.

Animal advocates are essentially information imparters and to a certain extent (especially for those ready and willing to learn) we’ve done a good job. We’ve made masses of information available through our campaigns, literature, web sites and in our personal conversations and exchanges of ideas. Thirty years ago we’d spend all day in the library searching for the facts which we can now ‘Google’ in seconds. Today there’s no excuse for ‘not-knowing’. But the feelings we have are set deep. Any amount of facts won’t necessarily alter feelings and these feelings may be specifically of a ‘disinterest’ towards animals. In fact they’re feelings for the opposite - for the taste of meat, for chocolate and a million rich foods laced with milk products, against the frustration of not being able to find vegan alternatives. I think this is what puts most people off making a radical dietary change. It’s the reluctance to boycott animal foods which stops people going anywhere near even discussing the subject. So we animal advocates can rant and rave till we’re blue in the face, but we live in a free society where everyone knows they are free to do as they please. No one is obliged to listen to what we say, and therefore respecting that reality is the first stage in any approach we, as advocates, make.

Understanding the minds of others starts with ourselves

15.

When I considered becoming an animal activist, I soon enough also became a vegan. I knew my goal was more than just avoiding animal food. There were going to be changes. I’d have to get used to the unavailability of all sorts of things vegan. I wanted to tread more lightly, better appreciate things and transform myself from clod-hopping brute to a more sensitive, gentler adult. I figured I had a simple choice. I could either grab whatever I craved or I could be more circumspect and use a bit of self control. I suppose I was aiming at becoming less attached and learning how to do without. Once I got used to that, I’d be less tempted to compromise my newly found principles. That led me to finding that truth isn’t about attempting perfection or seeking enlightenment or taking a ‘spiritual path in life’. It’s about experimenting and getting used to change when circumstances demand it, and then becoming at ease with that need for change. I wanted to know the truth (don’t we all?). I figured that change kept alive a questioning of those things which others aren’t bothered enough to question.

            For me, then and now, the most bothering thing I can think of is the thought of routine abuse of sensitive and sentient beings. It’s simply the best example of social injustice I can imagine! The reason it’s so bothering is that there are so many who are so innocent and who are being so badly abused. I want to understand why my fellow human beings can be so careless about animals. It’s rather confusing.

I think I know how to treat my nearest and dearest ... with love and affection. But why should I stop there? I have to ask myself if there’s any reason to stop anywhere - with humans, animals, environment - any of it? Is there anything that doesn’t deserve affection and guardianship? Of course my first instinct is to leap to the defence of animals because they so badly need defending. Then I realize that this is going to involve me in a long ‘to-do’ list. Therein lies the rub. What precisely is my goal? There’s the sticking point for me and perhaps for any animal advocate. I realised I was setting myself up for a fall. Being perpetually overwhelmed by that long list and never being able to decide which issue needed most of my attention. This was a list I’d try to shorten, to keep my goal achievable. I’d try to ration-out my reserves of ‘care’ only to end up with inconsistency. The Animal Rights Movement implies a high ideal and many of us become drained by trying to reach it. Facing the issues takes a lot of energy. For animal activists there’s always a danger of spreading ourselves too thinly and pleasing nobody, least of all ourselves. There’s the danger of putting too much onto the ‘back burner’, and then letting these issues become permanently forgotten about. So while I wanted to be consistent, it was only when I lined up all my responsibilities that I knew I was not. And it grieved me when I thought how inconsistent I could be.

But perhaps, I thought, that was my clue to understanding others’ difficulties, concerning their use of animals. Understanding others starts with understanding ourselves. If I wonder why others are inconsistent I only need to look at myself. For example, when I see the homeless man on the streets at night, I ask myself why I should care about him. I don’t want to take on another responsibility so I pretend not to notice him. In the same way, I pretend NOT to notice what I know I HAVE noticed. It’s the same with the way most people choose NOT to see the animals behind the food they’re eating. They know that chickens and pigs are just like dogs and cats, yet they treat one as unlovable and the other as loveable. The homeless man is just as deserving of love as my closest friend and yet I’m able to ignore him completely. That’s an absurdity I have to learn to live with. And in much the same way the collective human race has NOT made an agreement with itself about regarding all sensitive and sentient creatures as of equal importance. They favour some with an abundance of kindness and totally ignore others and support their exploitation.

Self development via compassion

14.

One of the main reasons people become vegetarian is to start the process of self-development, to become more sensitized to their surroundings and animals, and to develop a more empathy-driven approach in their day-to-day lives. In this violent world, most of us want to know how to become less violent, less selfish and more healthy on all levels. Indeed to become an all-round, better type of person. If to some extent ‘we are what we eat’, then more so ‘we are what we boycott’. We make our most sincere statement of intent in what we deny ourselves, by what we avoid eating or wearing when it’s animal-based.

Apart from avoiding all the familiar ‘cruelty’ products by observing vegan principles, we can’t help but become inspired by the broader practice of non-violence. Perhaps our being less reckless in what we eat, will carry through to the way we think. Taking this to its logical conclusion, there doesn’t have to be much difference between the sentient and the non-sentient - it’s all consciousness after all. A generous and gentle attitude should affect the way we drive a car or deal with the kids or respect cows. 

Learning about and teaching Animal Rights

13.

We can’t necessarily trust what we’ve been taught. Every major issue now needs to be run past our conscience to weed out misinformation and test out new information. If we ever do learn the truth and want to pass it on to others, we have to be convincing and make what we say interesting enough to compete with other disciplines, each vying for the public ear. We need to inspire, inform and warn, whilst not sounding too full of ourselves. We can’t afford to have any dodgy habits ourselves, any double standards or any obvious vulnerabilities if we want others to emulate what we do. In fact we have to be squeaky clean and only be seen to be helping people understand this difficult subject, and showing them how to make changes painlessly. There are a few more guidelines I’d like to suggest here. Since Animal Rights is a foreign concept to most people, we advocates need to be a fount of information for those who want it. At the same time, for those who are less willing to listen, we need to avoid making value judgments of them. It’s such a big turn-off! We need to show them the sort of empathy we’ve developed for animals; sublimating any tendency we might have to hurry people on. For ‘newcomers’ there might be a lot to find out, not only about cruelty to animals but the nutritional and environmental consequences of animal farming. All this may sound like a hard slog, but there are great personal rewards too. Being a true vegetarian, we show that we respect ourselves and are open to the truth about animal exploitation. And once we’ve learned we can teach some of the valuable life tips we’ve picked up.

Changing attitude

12.

Despite the die-hard conventionalism of most people in our society there are still many people who’ve been able to break through their own cravings and arrive at a diet that’s entirely plant-based. And let it also be said that a lot of good work has already been done by animal advocates, who’ve devoted a lot of time to training people how to prepare plant-based foods. The work of animal protection groups has brought animal issues to prominence over a thirty year period. But we may have to accept that what we’ve so far achieved is piecemeal. There’s been no tectonic shift of attitude in our society, essential to spark mass habit-change.

Breaking inertia, improving the worst farm conditions, getting people to take up healthy vegan diets - yes - that will be a great step forward but nowhere near big enough to make much difference. The problem is deeper, much deeper; some would say a ‘million years’ deep. The habit of using animals is planted so firmly in our psyche, that no simple dietary shift or welfare improvement will ever impact strongly enough on collective custom unless it is accompanied by an expansion of empathy, for both animals and children of present and future generations. The Animal Rights movement must aim at abolishing of the use of animals to benefit our own lives. Just as the abolitionists demanded a complete end to human slavery (in the Slavery Abolition Act) almost two hundred years ago, so we must do the same to end animal slavery. If we don’t go that far now, we’ll never create the sort of momentum needed to bring about a necessarily large-scale attitudinal change.

The liberation movement is facing two main obstacles. People like what they are eating (and what they’re wearing) and they fear radical change. But these are changing times, and people realise the danger of ‘social meltdown’ if we continue as we are. Our ethics are looking threadbare and the planet itself is teetering on the edge of irreparable damage. Many people now expect that they’ll have to get used to giving up things which they’ve taken for granted all their lives. Radical changes will have to be made to our habits; whether we’re burning fossil fuels and wrecking the planet, eating dangerous foods to the detriment of our health or condoning animal gulags and suffering the shame of that.

The factors linking all the main issues of our day are, in reality, merely reflections of human nature, particularly our collective obsession with high living and maintaining animal-dependant lifestyles. It’s not just a matter of meat-eaters giving up meat or vegetarians giving up eggs and cheese. It is for example-setters to show what can be done by simply changing one single attitude based on a very simple truth - animals are irreplaceable, sovereign individuals, just as we humans are. They aren’t commodities to enhance human lifestyle.