Entangled Histories of Animal Rights Activism

Preserving the History of the Animal Rights Movement , 2023

Preserving the History of the Animal Rights Movement is a report that explains my role working with such institutions as The British Library and North Carolina State University and organisations such as the Animals and Society Institute (formerly the Animals Rights Network) and Tier im Recht to collect and preserve research materials, publications, audiovisuals, artefacts, artwork, and much more. How can we know where the animal rights movement wants to go if we do not understand where we have been?

Relying on a comparison between the British and French experiences, the present work retraces the various strands of the animal protection movement, from their origins to their continuing impact on current debates. Inextricably linked to the rise of philanthropy, and well established long before the birth of the ecology movement, the story of the collective mobilizations behind the struggle for animal rights sheds light on several crucial processes in our social and political history: changes in sensibilities and socially approved emotions; the definition of what constitutes legitimate violence; the establishment of norms designed to change what constitutes morally acceptable practices; rivalry between elites having differing conceptions of the forms authority should take; the influence of religious belief on militant activities; and the effects of gender discrimination.

Amsterdam University Press eBooks, 2016

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world, and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought, across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research, dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions, micro-and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative. Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage nonnative speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is to maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year after printed publication.

Relations, 2013

The main aim of this paper is to make the case that the politics of animal rights advocacy rests with establishing the moral and legal status of animals as a public policy issue. Presently, animal rights is primarily framed as an optional lifestyle choice. It is not understood as a matter for mainstream politics, including public policy, the policies of political parties, regulations and legislation. Starting with Barbara Noske’s concept of the animal industrial complex, I consider the present status of the many traditions, cultural norms, economic and other incentives which license our instrumental use animals for human gain. I propose a five-part evaluation process of social movements and use it to evaluate the modern animal rights movement. I critique its present strategy with its emphasis on personal lifestyle choice as inadequate in challenging the animal industrial complex. I conclude the modern animal rights movement must implement a long-term strategy which advances animal i...

The Probe, 1997

The paper explains how activists arguing in favor of animal rights frequently employ incomplete information, information out of context, as well as contradictory evidence when making their case.

Following Tilly, this paper argues that a social movement is what it does as much as why it does it. This approach is particularly important in the case of the animal rights movement, which is often demonized as extremist and violent. Critics of the movement claim that animal activists use letter bombs, arson attacks and threats to intimidate those they see as animal abusers and that violent direct action of this kind is typical of the movement as a whole. The present paper argues that the mainstream animal movement -in the USA, the UK and Australia -is overwhelmingly non-violent and that its core strategies and tactics have two broad aims, namely to gain publicity for the movement and to challenge conventional thinking about how we treat nonhuman animals. This is achieved primarily by the deployment of the key tactical mechanisms of persuasion, protest, non-cooperation and intervention. These tactics may be deployed collectively or as DIY (Do-It-Yourself) activism which many grassroots animal activists -'caring sleuths' to use Shapiro's apt term -seem to prefer. The paper focuses on demonstrations and pamphleteering as examples of publicity strategies or liberal governance strategies as well as critical governance strategies or interference strategies such as the hunger strike, ethical vegetarianism and undercover surveillance.

Ethical and Political Approaches to Nonhuman Animal Issues edited by Andrew Woodhall and Gabriel Garmendia da Trindade (Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

As an animal rights activist and theorist with more than 40 years of personal commitment as a vegan and professional involvement with the international animal rights movement, I reflect upon the idea of a “political turn for animals.” I understand its current meaning is to describe how the discussion of nonhumans in literature and debates is moving from ethics to political theory. But a theory is only as good as it is in practice. The political turn for animals has to be more than just theory; it must be also about the practice of animal advocacy. I wonder whether there is a grand narrative in animal rights advocacy to be found here. Have we reached a point in the social justice road where there is a sign that says, “This way to take the political turn for animals”?

Animal Rights, 2023

This is a draft of the opening chapter of my book, Animal Rights: Essential Knowledge, forthcoming with MIT Press sometime in 2023 (I should imagine)

British Politics, 2008

Acta Sociologica, 2018

In recent social movement studies, a symbolic framework emphasizing rituals, symbols and master frames has contributed with important insights into the diverse communicative and socio-cultural aspects of contemporary social movements (Jasper 1997, Benford & Snow 2000, Alexander 2006). With Animal Rights Activism. A Moral-Sociological Perspective on Social Movements a complementary perspective regarding the lifeworld of social movement activists has been added to this theoretical apparatus.