Animal Rights 2002 Conference - general notes

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

I was fortunate enough to attend AR2002 (check out:

http://www.animalrights2002.org) this year (Jun 28 - July 3) at the McLean

Hilton just outside of Washington, DC, and Tammy was kind enough to ask me

whether I might share some of my experiences/observations from the conference.

I've offered some general notes, noted my selection of conference highlights,

and included a note on Bay Area representation.

 

I. General Notes

Folks who have attended the animal rights conference in the past know that the

conference is just *packed* with wall-to-wall panel discussions, plenaries,

video screenings, and keynote addresses. This year was no different. From 9 am

to 10 pm, apart from a couple of hours set aside for lunch and dinner, there

are formal presentations (sometimes three or four sets of presentations going on

in parallel). The full schedule of topics/speakers is available online at the

URL given above -- the panels address everything from discussions of sets of

campaigns (agricultural, animal experimentation, fur, leather, animals in

entertainment, etc.) to debates on tactics (what kind of outreach, what kind of

demos, how to do different types of outreach), tactics used by grassroots

groups, discussions on strategy, welfare versus rights types of discussions, how

to best work for AR, marketing animal rights, publications, armchair activism,

vegan nutrition, how to give effective media interviews!

, how to deal with difficult work scenarios, outreach to progressive groups,

ethnic groups, the religious community, etcetera. Really, I would be

hard-pressed to come up with something that *wasn't covered*.

 

Several ballrooms were used as exhibit spaces, where information booths and

vendor tables had been set up. All of the conference sponsors had their tables

-- PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; http://www.peta.org), Farm

(Farm Animal Reform Movement; http://www.farmusa.org), IDA (In Defense of

Animals, http://www.idausa.org), United Poultry Concerns

(http://www.upc-online.org), HSUS (Humane Society of the United States,

http://www.hsus.org), Animals' Agenda (http://www.animalsagenda.org), Farm

Sanctuary (http://www.farmsanctuary.org), and so on. Literature, t-shirts,

publications, and campaign materials galore! As well, some of the book

publishing companies of the movement - notably Lantern Books & Book Publishing

Company - had tables. Pangea (http://www.veganstore.com) offered a steady diet

of vegan donuts, vegan jerky, vegan cinnamon rolls to satisfy the munchies, as

well as a line of vegan pleather belts, pleather jackets, vegan vitamins,

toiletries (great fo!

r people who forgot their shampoo or toothpaste!), and other *stuff*. There were

vegan t-shirt stalls (there's great stuff at: http://www.animalrightsstuff.com -

thank heavens for the web; I didn't make enough time to *shop* while I was at

the conference, and later I was bemoaning not having purchased an " Ask Me Why

I'm Vegan? " t-shirt which is now available in a girly tank style; fortunately, I

could just purchase the item online!).

 

Alka's Vote for Best Booth: Compassion over Killing, DC-based group that spins

straw into gold. Ostensibly a " local " group, COK has a membership of close to

2,000. With a staff of two and volunteers that would put any other group to

shame, COK has produced a video PSA, has conducted undercover investigations of

egg-laying factories - and produced a video from the investigation, has carried

out the DC-based actions against Neiman Marcus, has operated a weekly FaunaVan,

has published a booklet on veggie resources in DC, and so on. Check out:

http://www.cok-online.org

 

II. Highlights of the Conference

 

In terms of the formal conference agenda, without a doubt, *THE* highlight of

the entire five days was the keynote address delivered by PETA founder and

president, Ingrid Newkirk. If you haven't heard Ingrid Newkirk speak, you must!

Her talk was eloquent, witty, insightful, compassionate, powerful, angry,

moving, compelling, and inspiring all at once. She received three standing

ovations through the speech, although I think we would all have been standing up

and clapping all the way through if we could hear Ingrid through our cheers.

 

Earlier in the evening, there had been a panel discussion with representatives

from our opposition (a vivisector, a writer with a meat journal, and a

zookeeper). The zookeeper had strong animal sensibilities, and it really sounded

as though her " zoo " was more a sanctuary for abandoned animals. It was odd that

she should be considered " opposition. " The fellow from the meat journal began by

relating a very interesting story about how he was on a plane when the

Chippendales walked in. One of the Chippendale guys had a huge fur coat, which

he seat belted in the seat next to him. When the flight attendant came by

offering to hang the coat in the closet, Mr. Chip responded that he had

purchased an extra ticket for the coat (!!). The meat journal guy said that the

incident drove home for him his negative feelings about fur. He went on to talk

about changes that were taking place in the meat industry, bettering conditions

for animals and such. It was a hack job, of course, but at leas!

t he was articulate and somewhat sincere. The vivisector was AWFUL. Her

presentation (with slides!) was barely coherent, the subject matter was a

million years ago (talking about replacement, refinement, and reduction), and -

horror of horrors - during the q & a period, it became clear that she didn't even

know what the Animal Welfare Act was! That someone who experiments on animals

isn't even aware of the single law that pertains to the welfare of the animals

is mind blowing.

 

When Ingrid spoke, she reserved a portion of her speech as " words for the

opposition. " WOW! In one part, she made reference to the very lab with which Ms.

Vivsector worked, noting that the lab had made a recommendation to numb the pain

of a chopped-off tail or digit with an ice cube: " Can you imagine having a

finger cut off and then being given an ice cube to numb it? Well, that was the

recommendation of ALAC. You heard that name this evening. " She cautioned the

folks from the opposition that rights movements *never* go away. We always

attract new people, we always get bigger, and we will win. She encouraged

activists to step up to the plate, noting that we will not go to prison for

voicing our ideas, that we will not be killed for speaking out for the animals,

but the animals are killed everyday for being different. She counseled us not to

grow a wishbone where a backbone should be.

 

I purchased the audio tape of Ingrid Newkirk's keynote address. If anyone would

like a copy, please just send a self-addressed envelope (large enough to hold an

audio cassette) to me (Alka Chandna, 1275 Geneva Avenue, SF, CA 94112) and I'll

send you a copy.

 

Apart from Ingrid's talk, I found the presentations on globalization and animals

to be among the most interesting and most terrifying. Joyce Di Silva of UK-based

Compassion in World Farming talked about the export of factory farming systems

to China and countries in Africa. Joyce has been involved in animal rights for a

couple decades (she's probably in her fifties). She's presently learning Chinese

to increase her effectiveness in addressing the globalization of the meat habit.

Pattrice Jones, who runs the Global Hunger Alliance - a group that emphasizes

indigenous grains and legumes to address world hunger while discouraging the

adoption of animal foods - spoke eloquently and movingly about ecofeminism as an

inclusive philosophical construct in which to view animal liberation. Kevin

Jonas of SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty) spoke brilliantly on the Animal

Liberation Front and received a standing ovation.

 

Panels on grassroots organizing were chock-full of great ideas (with more

volunteers, we could bring some of these super ideas to the Bay Area!). Joe

Haptas was one of the founders of NARN (Northwest Animal Rights Network) and now

works with PETA. He showed us a glossy directory that NARN had produced. The

directory included contact info for local vets, companion animal food stores,

grooming places, etc. But, there were also veggie restaurants. In the back,

there was a section on " what you can do to help animals. " The first suggestion

was, " spay or neuter your companion animal. " Suggestion two was, " Go

vegetarian! " The directory (a slim 16 or 24 page booklet), complete with NARN

contact information, was kept at the offices of all of the local vets!! There

were dozens of other amazing ideas like this. If we could grow a large enough

network, we really could bring these super ideas here. Wouldn't that be so

amazing?

 

Monday afternoon was devoted to some kind of action. The options included going

to meet legislators; fanning out across DC to leaflet in groups of 4 or 6; and

gathering for a silent vigil at Neiman Marcus. I opted for the silent vigil. It

was really quite powerful. 225 people observed funereal silence while sitting in

long rows on the sidewalk in front of Neiman's. Eddie Lama (of " The Witness "

fame) used the occasion as an unveiling of his brand-spanking-new vehicle to

bring the images of animal suffering to the streets. It was quite impressive.

Photographs of the vigil can be viewed online:

http://www.cok.net/events/events.php?type=nm & date=07-01-02

 

Almost as interesting/useful as the formal aspects of the conference schedule

was the networking taking place over meals, in the exhibit areas, and at the bar

after hours.

 

III. Bay Area Representation

 

Representation from the Bay Area was strong. In addition to friends from IDA

(one of the conference sponsors), there were folks from the local groups, ARDAC

(Animal Rights Direct Action Coalition) and CAFT (Coalition to Abolish the Fur

Trade). lauren Ornelas of Davis-based Viva!USA (Vegetarians International Voices

for Animals) and Jack Norris of Vegan Outreach participated in several panel

discussions and hosted information tables for their respective groups. Joe

Connelly and Colleen Holland wowed everyone with their hot-off-the-presses issue

of VegNews (while nourishing passersby with yummy donated cookies). Yours truly

represented the Food & Social Justice Project on a number of panels, and relied

on the kindness of friends and strangers to distribute FSJP literature (I didn't

have my act together sufficiently to secure a proper table).

 

One of the more exciting Bay-Area-connected happenings at the conference was a

meeting called by Patrick Kwan. Patrick is a young activist who works with

Student Animal Rights Alliance. He has helped organize a youth and

student-focused conference called " Liberation Now! " Last year, the conference

took place in Washington, DC and featured such luminaries as Ingrid Newkirk, Kim

Stallwood, lauren Ornelas, Miyun Park, Paul Shapiro, Carol Adams and others

(check out: http://www.defendanimals.org/libnow/home.htm). This year (February

2003), the conference will be held in Berkeley!! Stay tuned for more information

on this exciting opportunity to get connected with the larger animal rights

community, hear amazing speakers, and get inspired to get more involved with

actions for animals.

 

Cheers,

Alka