AR tactics-Please read!

[Guest guest]

Please pardon this quick and unedited scrawl.

 

 

 

I’m writing to you today to question some of the tactics used by the animal

rights movement.

The animal rights movement is based on two things- nonviolence and

compassion for all living beings. Nonviolence means “Lack of violence;

specifically, a social philosophy based on the rejection of violent means to

gain objectives.”

I guess for me, what really got me questioning our motives, was seeing

several videos of animal rights groups spray painting or humiliating people

in the name of compassion and animal rights.

And where my morals lie is about where I believe all of ours stand, centered

around the fact that it is “important to be kind to all animals (non-human

AND human) and as a matter of consistency we don’t limit who those others

are.” This does not mean that through being rude or unkind to humans we can

attempt to further a cause bent on compassion. That’s ridiculous!

Let me first address the issue of a movement working towards compassion by

often humiliating, laughing at, mocking or yelling at the opposing side.

After reading about Henry Spira and the way he worked on animal rights it

has led me to think about the animal rights movement and our tactics in a

different light. (You can read about him in a book called Ethics Into

Action, by Peter Singer. The book is about Henry Spira’s life. Highly

recommended.)

“Our task must be to free ourselves…by widening our circle of compassion to

embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”

(Albert Einstein, physicist, vegetarian, Nobel 1921) When I read this quote

by Albert Einstein I began to think that when he says this he means that not

only should we be nice and compassionate to animals but we should also be

this way to humans.

I was talking with a lady the other day and she said that she agreed with

the animal rights movement 100% but thought their tactics were horrific. She

said that if someone threw blood on her fur coat or yelled at her for

wearing leather all that it would accomplish would be to make her want to

buy more of it! She said that this was what she thought turned a lot of

people away from any type of belief whether it is animal rights or religion.

Also the idea that through being rude to another person we can try to

advance our cause of compassion, she found, is insane. It all comes down to

when a person is passionate about something, she said, and they want to

convince other people, to get results, a person should be friendly and kind.

I was honestly disgusted by some of the tactics AR groups use these

days-laughing at, mocking, yelling, cursing, humiliating. “What’s the

point?” Obviously it does not change anyone’s mind. It seemed to me as

though it accomplishes nothing other than to make us (the AR movement) feel

good. Henry Spira once said, [The question to ask oneself is] “If I were

that person, what would make me change my behavior? If you accuse them of

being a bunch of sadistic bastards these people are not going to figure,

‘Hey, what is it I could do that’s going to be different and make those

people happy?’. That’s not how the real world works.”

In Ethics Into Action, by Peter Singer, he says,

 

Being personally hostile to an opponent may be a good way of letting off

steam, but it doesn’t win people over. When Henry wanted to persuade

scientists working for corporations like P & G to develop nonanimal

alternatives, he saw their situation as

similar to that of people who eat animals:

 

“How do you change these people’s behavior best? By saying you’ve never made

a conscious decision to harm those animals. Basically you’ve been programmed

from being a kid: ‘Be nice to cat and doggy, and eat meat.’ And I think some

of these researchers, that’s how they were taught, that’s how they were

programmed. And you want to reprogram them, and you're not going to

reprogram them by saying we’re saints and you’re sinners, and we’re going to

clobber you with a two-by-four in order to educate you.”

 

As Susan Fowler, editor of the trade magazine Lab Animal at the times of the

Revlon campaign, put it:

 

“There is no sense in Henry’s campaign of: ‘Well this is Revlon , and no one

in Revlon is going to be interested in what we are doing, they’re all the

enemy.’ Rather…he looks for-and kind of waits for, I think-someone to step

out of the group and say: ‘Well, I understand what you’re saying.’”

 

 

The opposing side should, I believe, not hate you but rather, respect you.

When we see a person wearing fur, even when we realize the cruelty that goes

into making that fur coat, why do we swear and yell at that person? Do we

actually think this will change their mind? Of course not. Peter Singer said

that, “it’s important not to divide the world into saints and sinners.”

I think we, as the animal rights movement, need to be careful how we treat

our fellow human beings. “I want to realize brotherhood or identity not

merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all

life, even with things as crawl upon earth.” (Mahatma Gandhi, statesman and

philosopher)

I was shocked by PETA’s horrible billboards about milk of the NY mayor (“got

prostate cancer?” and had a picture of the NY mayor who had been recently

told that he had the disease). Hurting somebody and their family who, just

diagnosed with prostate cancer, is an innocent person who has done no wrong?

I was so upset by that campaign, since we are advocating compassion to all

beings and by trying to advance our cause we deliberately hurt other people,

that I withdrew my support from PETA.

As a strong and courageous movement we need not stop to voice our opinions

but, to accomplish the most and live up to your morals and beliefs, we need

to do it in a way of compassion.

I do believe in any type of movement there is room for all kinds of tactics

but for a movement bent on compassion there is not room for hate. Next time

you are at a protest or you are talking with the opposing side, please, be

kind!

 

 

John Candle is the President of AnimalProgress

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