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December 17, 2011
 By Tom Over
Though the products of their bodies seem to be just about every place where we expect to find food, these members of the 99 percent suffer mostly out of sight and out of mind to the omnivore general public. These animals don’t get pepper-sprayed or arrested at protests but spend their entire lives in jail or— as some animal liberationists say— in concentration camps. They need humans to speak up for their rights.
Sarah Von Alt, an animal rights activist working with Mercy For Animals supports the Occupy Movement.
“MFA stands in solidarity with anyone who works to help animals, and I appreciate that the Occupy movement has included animals in its Official Declaration of the Occupation of New York City — specifically that corporate interests have ‘profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.'”
Von Alt said as the Occupy movement continues to gain momentum, it is becoming more obvious that Americans have grown weary of corporate power in politics and the resulting abuses of humans and nonhuman animals.
“While taking to the streets and participating in peaceful protests is one way to raise awareness about these important issues, each of us can start to remove our financial support from Big Ag by transitioning to a healthier, more sustainable plant-based diet. Since cows, pigs and chickens make up 99 out of every 100 animals exploited and killed in this country, in a very real way, they are the 99%,” Von Alt said.
You can find plenty of info about Mercy for Animals online, but here is Von Alt’s overview of the organization.
“Mercy For Animals is a national non-profit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting compassionate food choices and policies. We encourage consumers to open their hearts and minds, and widen their circle of compassion beyond family, friends and their beloved companion animals to include all animals,” Von Alt said.
She said more than 99 percent of animal exploitation and abuse in this country is at the hands of the meat, dairy and egg industries.
“Farmed animals may not be as cute or fluffy as our dogs and cats at home, but they have the same capacity to feel love, joy, and happiness, as well as sorrow, fear and pain. The best way to help end the needless suffering of cows, pigs, chickens and other farmed animals is simply to not eat them,” Von Alt said.
She said while MFA’s primary focus is on the animals themselves, transitioning to a plant based diet has shown benefits to human health, as well as our environment.
“Currently, the leading causes of death in the United States, including heart disease, some forms of cancer, stroke and diabetes have been conclusively linked to diets high in meat, dairy, eggs and other animal products,” Von Alt said.
The United Nations, Pew Charitable Trusts and other organizations have concluded that animal agriculture is a leading cause of every environmental problem we face — from global greenhouse gas emissions to deforestation to air and water pollution.
“By transitioning to a healthy and humane vegetarian lifestyle, we can spare animals lives of immeasurable suffering and protect human health and the health of the planet,” Von Alt said.
In light of this, boycotts of factory farmed meat, dairy and eggs—if not a boycott of them altogether would seem to make sense.
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“Choosing cruelty-free, plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy and eggs is a powerful way to put your ethics on the table and vote for a kinder world every time you sit down to eat. If you don’t like that animals are made to suffer and die for your dinner — good news! You have options. Leave the meat at the supermarket. You don’t have to continue to financially support an industry that hurts animals, the planet and your health. You can now find vegan versions of almost all your favorite foods– including veggie burgers, soy milk, and dairy-free ice cream — at nearly every grocery store and restaurant. It’s never been easier to adopt a healthy and compassionate vegan diet,” Von Alt said.
I asked her about using marches as part of a movement for animal rights.
“MFA volunteers around the country routinely take part in parades, street fairs and festivals to raise awareness about the plights of farmed animals. This was MFA’s sixth year marching in Pride Parades around the country, and as in years past, the crowd response has been amazing. In fact, since MFA’s inception more than a decade ago, the parallels between the gay rights, animal rights and other social justice movements has been an important theme in our philosophy and message. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘No one is free when others are oppressed.'”
She said in addition to marching in Pride Parades, MFA seeks to create positive social change by raising awareness about the plights of farmed animals and talking to consumers about the power of their food choices. “In 2011, MFA conducted more than 1,500 public outreach events including vegan feed-ins, tabling events, leafletings and Paid-Per-View screenings. At Paid-Per-View screenings we pay people a dollar to watch a 4-minute clip from Farm to Fridge, an eye-opening exploration behind the closed doors of the nation’s largest industrial poultry, pig, dairy and fish farms, hatcheries, and slaughter plants. Exposing consumers to the realities of modern animal agriculture is a powerful way to inspire change.
BELOW: Remains of a blue hare. Rather ghastly, isn’t it? While animals in the wild have no choice and predators are wired to kill other animals, we do. Our “violent table” is a question of choice. Plus a vegetable-based diet is enormously more healthful to humans and the planet, not to mention consistent with social justice, considering the hunger problem that still haunts the world.—Eds.
 She added, “After learning about the cruelty involved in factory-farmed products, many people think ‘free-range,’ ‘cage-free’ or ‘organic’ meat, eggs and dairy products are the solution. While these products may be less cruel than the typical factory farm products, they still involve needless violence, suffering and death and should not be mistaken for cruelty-free,”
She said any time an animal, even a free-range animal, is used as a commodity to be consumed — or treated as a piece of property — corners are cut and the animals lose.
“Animals on ‘free range’ farms are still often forced to live in overcrowded conditions, are mutilated without painkillers (castration, tail docking, debeaking etc.), denied veterinary care and ultimately shipped to slaughter to have their throats cut open, ” said Von Alt.
This may indicate the challenge of forming alliances between animal liberationists and advocates of so-called humane animal husbandry. This also calls to mind how animal liberation gets relatively little attention in both mainstream and non-mainstream progressive media outlets, not to mention non-progressive media outlets. At the time of posting this content, I’m waiting on a reply from Mercy for Animals regarding the points in this paragraph.
Von Alt continued, “At Mercy For Animals, we encourage people to remember that the only meaningful difference between a dog or a cat and a cow, pig or chicken is the way that we treat them. If you wouldn’t eat your free-range dog or cat, why would you eat any other animal who has the same passion for life?”
Von Alt said if a person feels they are not quite willing or able to stop eating animals yet, it is more productive to begin by reducing the amount of meat, diary and eggs one consumes instead of falling for clever marketing schemes designed to make people feel better about paying more for some of the same types of cruelties.
I’m currently looking for more details about such clever marketing schemes. I asked Von Alt about the possible role of civil disobedience in the animal liberation movement.
“Once people become aware of the scale of violence and suffering being routinely inflicted on animals in name of commerce and greed, some understandably turn to civil disobedience to express their outrage and to garner attention on the issue — particularly when the mainstream media seems unwilling to cover these issues otherwise. While we neither condone nor condemn non-violent actions to help animals, MFA continues to work within the law to bring its message of compassion to the masses,” Von Alt said.
I asked Von Alt to offer ideas about engaging with government so as to save or improve farm animals’ lives. Though removing our financial support from the meat, dairy and egg industries is an easy and powerful way for individual consumers to put their ethics on the table, we shouldn’t stop there, said Von Alt.
“Concerned citizens can also push their local, state and federal representatives to ban some of the cruelest factory farming practices. For example, MFA volunteers were instrumental in getting California Proposition 2 passed a couple years ago to outlaw veal crates for baby calves, gestation crates for mother pigs and battery cages for egg-laying hens. These types of intensive confinement systems, which don’t even allow the animals to freely move or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives, are perhaps the cruelest forms of institutionalized animal abuse in existence. But by raising awareness among the voting public, Prop 2 passed by a landslide and became the most popular ballot initiative in California history,” Von Alt said.
She said MFA also worked with concerned citizens in Ohio to collect signatures to outlaw similarly cruel practices here.
“When it became obvious to the industry that the measure may be as popular as the one in California, they decided to come to the table and negotiated a deal with the governor and the animal protection movement to phase out veal crates and gestation crates, place a moratorium on building new battery cage egg facilities and outlawed strangulation as a form of euthanasia,” Von Alt said.
These issues are related to Ohio’s Livestock Care Standards Board, which was created in early 2010 after the Issue 2 ballot initiative passed in autumn of 2009. Von Alt said while it is important to remember outlawing some cruel practices does not make these industries cruelty-free, it does help to alleviate the suffering of literally hundreds of millions of animals each year.
“It is because of citizens who care enough to lobby their elected representatives, to write letters and make phone calls and collect signatures, that these types of initiatives have been so successful,” Von Alt said.
On the distinction between groups that work for animal rights and those that work for animal welfare, Von Alt said those perspectives are not mutually exclusive.
“MFA believes non-human animals are irreplaceable individuals with morally significant interests and hence rights. This includes the right to live free from unnecessary suffering and exploitation. We can work toward improving the lives of animals and alleviating their suffering while at the same time being clear that animals should not be exploited at all.”
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Throughout human history, until very recently, cruelty to animals was simply normal...
Editor’s Note: We are glad to be able to help ANIMAL PEOPLE, the world’s leading independent news magazine dedicated to ecoanimal issues, and a fraternal publication/organization of the Greanville Post. Animal People (AP) came into being in 1992, but its origins date back decades, and can be traced to a lifetime of activism on behalf of animals and exemplary journalism by its founders, Kim Bartlett , and Merritt Clifton, currently president/publisher and editor, respectively. Lacking trust funds, a solid bank account, or the favor of rich individuals or organizations due to their commitment to reporting the truth about animal questions, AP has survived chiefly thanks to the loyalty of its readers and the sheer stubbornness and boundless resourcefulness of its publisher. Today, AP not only reports the news in its national/international editions, it has also managed to seed and sustain a number of crucial animal defense organizations in some of the most improbable places on earth, from the Balkans to the Indian subcontinent. The letter below is a holiday appeal letter, all the more urgent because of the calamitous state of the economy, which has shrunk the already pitiful “dollar” allotted by Americans to animal problems. (Animal charities continue to get only a fraction of the amounts given to human-oriented issues or religious causes.) However, if you give it a few minutes you’ll see it’s not just another donor appeal advancing the same old arguments. It’s a letter that also informs and educates —in fact I’m sure you’ll learn something of value, something you didn’t expect to find in this kind of communication. So, if possible, read it, ponder it, and, help our sister organization ANIMAL PEOPLE as generously as you can.
IMAGE: Kim Bartlett holding Dennis, one of her many wards.
A Word from Animal People—
Dear Friend,
We all long for a day in which human beings see themselves not as lords and masters of the earth but as good stewards of creation. To get there, the way of thinking about animals as things to be used and abused must be replaced with a model reflecting a more gentle meaning of the word “dominion.”
Contrary to the connotation of the word that has seemed to justify the tyranny of humans over animals, dominion may be interpreted as “sovereignty” as it exists in human government. A legitimate government holds the collective power of its citizens, and is thus able to exert a measure of authority that serves the best interests of all. What we think of as legitimate sovereignty in the human sphere of government does not include murder and mayhem of the sort practiced by humans against the animal kingdoms.
The concept of dominion as brutal domination is sometimes blamed on western religion, because in eastern religions there is no strict line drawn between humans and other animals, and yet in practice, animals in lands where eastern religions have flourished have been subject to the same brutal domination as in the West. The problem of animal cruelty was not caused by any particular religious mindset–though religion has often been used as a justification for mistreatment of animals…continuing even today in barbaric sacrifices practiced by animist religions as well as by some Hindus and Muslims.
The problem is that throughout human history, until very recently, cruelty to animals was simply normal.
This letter was supposed to be mailed so that it would reach you some time before the holidays. However, I was determined that it should contain a happy message, and so in late October, I began to read a newly published 696-page book called The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker. It took six weeks of very late nights to finish it, and so this letter is late getting to you.
It was worth the time, though, and while I believe Pinker may over-reach in applying his thesis globally, there is good and surprising news about how and why a decrease in violence, including violence to animals (not an overall decrease but a decrease relative to human population), “happened in a narrow slice of history, beginning in the Age of Reason in the 17th century and cresting with the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th.” This Humanitarian Revolution continued through the 19th century, when slavery was abolished in the West, but it lost momentum during the first half of the 20th century, as the world entered another tragic cycle of war and genocide, with the World Wars the last convulsions of an old order in Europe. Even between the World Wars, however, the idea of an intergovernmental entity dedicated to peace was conceived for the first time. The Humanitarian Revolution energized again in the “Rights Revolutions” that arose in democratic countries in the 1960s and ’70s, which included civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and animal rights.
Steven Pinker traces the history of violence back to proto-humans who evolved into humans living in anarchic states, who were eventually subjected to a “pacification process” when states (often in the form of monarchies) emerged. These early governments forced a degree of order on their citizens–though such order did not reduce violence between states or cruel practices within states. Reducing violence required a very long civilizing process which involved the imposition of self-control, the beginning of commerce, and the invention of the printing press in the early Renaissance. According to Pinker, “Some of the early expressions of a genuinely ethical concern for animals took place in the Renaissance. Europeans had become curious about vegetarianism when reports came back from India of entire nations that lived without meat. Several writers, including Erasmus and Montaigne, condemned the mistreatment of animals in hunting and butchery, and one of them, Leonardo da Vinci, became a vegetarian himself.”
The printing press stimulated a rise in literacy and a sudden burst in the writing of books and pamphlets. The ability to communicate over long distances through a postal system–a side effect of global trade–led to the “Republic of Letters,” a self-proclaimed community of European and American intellectuals who exchanged ideas on various topics such as democracy and human rights, the abolition of slavery, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and the treatment of animals. Comments Pinker, “The growth of writing and literacy strikes me as the best candidate for an exogenous change that helped set off the Humanitarian Revolution.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE’s core mission has always been to help continue the humanitarian revolution for animals through writing, publishing, and the exchange of ideas.
“The revolution in animal rights is a uniquely emblematic instance of the decline of violence,” writes Pinker, “and it is fitting that I end my survey of historical declines by recounting it. That is because the change has been driven purely by the ethical principle that one ought not to inflict suffering on a sentient being. Unlike the other Rights Revolutions, the movement for animal rights was not advanced by the affected parties themselves….the animals have nothing to offer us in exchange for our treating them more humanely.”
Continued Pinker, “Progress has been uneven, and certainly the animals themselves, if they could be asked, would not allow us to congratulate ourselves too heartily just yet. But the trends are real, and they are touching every aspect of our relationship with our fellow animals.”
There are reasons why dramatic improvements in people’s attitudes about animals haven’t translated into actual reductions of numbers of animals used for specific purposes. Numbers of animals used in biomedical research dipped but then spiked as genetic studies called for greater numbers of designer animals. But this occurred as the result of an explosion in the numbers of studies being done by a thousandfold or more, as measured by published scientific journal articles. The numbers of animals used in each study are now a fraction of what they were just 30 years ago. In the interim, there is a new generation of biomedical researchers who accept strict animal welfare regulations and are more open to dialogue with animal advocates. Though per capita meat consumption is down in the U.S., a preference for fish and fowl over red meat means a greater number of birds and fish are killed for the same pounds of flesh produced by the slaughter of one large mammal (for example, 200 chickens equal the same amount of meat as one cow). Participation in sport hunting and trapping continues its decline, and even though the ethics of sport fishing remains largely unaddressed, there was a 14% decline in fishing participation from 2001 to 2006. The number of unwanted animals being killed in U.S. shelters continues to fall, and that is really good news.
The Humanitarian Revolution is far from being over. But the fact that almost all the gains in eliminating cruelty have occurred in such a “narrow slice of history” gives us something to ponder. We all look for meaning in our lives…in the world…in the universe. Some may find answers in religion or spirituality. I wonder if the rise of humane principles is related to the idea of “emergent properties.” As expressed in physics, emergent properties are patterns that emerge dynamically from underlying but imperceptible subatomic laws.
In his book Years of Rice and Salt, writer Kim Stanley Robinson refers to emergent properties in humanistic terms: “I begin to think that this matter of ‘late emergent properties’ that the physicists talk about when they discuss complexity and cascading sensitivities is an important concept for historians. Justice may be a late emergent property. And maybe we can glimpse the beginnings of it emerging; or maybe it emerged long ago, among the primates and proto-humans, and is only now gaining leverage in the world.”
In Forty Signs of Rain, Robinson wonders if the genetic code has late emergent properties: “Unless it was infused with some other quality that was not rational, some late emergent property like altruism, or compassion, or love–something that was not a code–then it was all for naught.”
Steven Pinker resists the temptation to see a cosmic mystery unfolding in the decline of violence: “I can easily resist the temptation, but agree that the multiplicity of datasets in which violence meanders downward is a puzzle worth pondering. What do we make of the impression that human history contains an arrow? Where is this arrow, we are entitled to wonder, and who posted it? And if the alignment of so many historical forces in a beneficial direction does not imply a divine sign painter, might it vindicate some notion of moral realism–that moral truths are out there somewhere for us to discover, just as we discover the truths of science and mathematics?”
There are obvious and easily analyzed reasons for the rise in humanitarian sensibilities, but there still may be room for mystery.
And however much progress has been made, there is much more to do for the animals. But to reinforce our resolve, sometimes we need to acknowledge that our efforts so far have been worthwhile, and to take a moment to celebrate how far we have come. There is no better time than at the end of one year and the beginning of another.
During 2012, ANIMAL PEOPLE will celebrate our 20th anniversary. As a supporter of ANIMAL PEOPLE, we invite you to share in the credit for all the things we have done to advance the humanitarian revolution for animals through writing, publishing, and the exchange of ideas, and we ask you to help continue this work with a generous end-of-year donation today. ANIMAL PEOPLE is counting on you to help us move forward. Just as animal people today owe so much to those in the past who began protesting the cruel treatment of animals, animal advocates in the future will build their achievements on top of what we are accomplishing today.
Sending bright wishes for the new year for all creatures,
Kim Bartlett, president of ANIMAL PEOPLE
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Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.
email <ANPEOPLE@whidbey.com> web-site: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/
We believe that the Golden Rule applies to animals, too.
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ADVERT PRO NOBIS
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
IF YOU THINK THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA ARE A DISGRACE AND A HUGE OBSTACLE
to real change in America why haven’t you sent at least a few dollars to The Greanville Post (or a similar anti-corporate citizen’s media?). Think about it. Without educating and organizing our ranks our cause is DOA. That’s why our new citizens’ media need your support. Send your badly needed check to “TGP, P.O. Box 1028, Brewster, NY 10509-1028.” Make checks out to “P. Greanville/ TGP”. (A contribution of any amount can also be made via Paypal and MC or VISA.)
THANK YOU.
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