Human liberation vs . animal " liberation " TAKIS FOTOPOULOS

Animal Studies Journal, 2019

After making its appearance in analytic moral philosophy at the beginning the 1970s, the animal cause in its modern form-that is, as a challenge to human supremacism and as a defense of interspecies egalitarianism-is recently undergoing a profound change thanks to the advent of new political approaches. Politics now dominates the intellectual scene in at least three main forms: as the devising of new social arrangements, as a critique of the prevailing order, and as an emancipatory project. It will lie with the contemporary animal liberation movement to explore these alternatives in order to definitely assert itself on the social terrain.

Social Movement Studies, 2017

This qualitative content analysis of online documents compiled from the North American Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Kollective (ELK) and Grassroots Ontario Animal Liberation (GOAL) network websites and Facebook pages explores how activism within the Radical Animal Liberation Movement (RALM) intersects with other social movements. While most literature to date traces the RALM’s (dis)junctures with other forms of social justice activism through analyses of their broad ideological assumptions, or the views of renowned RALM scholars, this research provides authentic insights into the voices of Canadian, American and Mexican activists as they are represented in documents they author themselves. Like activists in anarchistic, anti-capitalist, immigrant rights, Indigenous, prison abolition, prisoner support and radical feminist movements, those in the RALM critique capitalism, colonialism, hierarchy, racism, sexism, state power and the prison industrial complex. Our research calls into question the existing narratives that depict the RALM as an extremist, single-issue movement oblivious to all other forms of social inequality, injustice, marginalization and oppression. Rather, RALM activists are building alliances with other radical social movements to achieve the common goal of ending both human and animal suffering and exploitation.

Bioscience, 1998

Hamline University, 2007

While not a new movement, the Animal Liberation Movement has entered a new phase since the 1970s. The recent developments in factory farming and related technologies have increased the oppression, abuse, and suffering of nonhuman animals to epidemic proportions. While numerous approaches exist for improving the treatment of nonhuman animals, several approaches have performed key roles in the movement. We shall explore three dominant philosophical and religious approaches that proponents of the movement pursue to improve the treatment of nonhuman animals: a rights-based approach, a Christian compassion approach, and a Utilitarian approach. The paper will evaluate each approach for its appeal to individuals and the general public, and for its likely effectiveness in improving the treatment of nonhuman animals. After reviewing all three approaches, a fourth pragmatic approach will be proposed, along with an evaluation and comparison of all the approaches.

Philosophia, 2008

Anthrozoös, 2020

Over the last few years, the public has gradually become aware of the existence of a new cause: animal liberation. Most people first heard of the movement through newspaper articles, often of the "what on earth will they come up with next?" variety. Then there were marches and demonstrations against factory farming, animal experimentation or the Canadian seal slaughter; all brought to an audience of millions by the TV cameras. Finally there have been the illegal acts: slogans daubed on fur shops, laboratories broken into and animals rescued. What are the ideas behind the animal liberation movement, and where is it heading? In this essay I shall try to answer these questions. Let us start with some history, so that we can get some perspective on the animal liberation movement. Concern for animal suffering can be found in Hindu thought, and the Buddhist idea of compassion is a universal one, extending to animals as well as humans; but nothing similar is to be found in our Western traditions. There are a few laws indicating some awareness of animal welfare in the Old Testament, but nothing at all in the New, nor in mainstream Christianity for its first eighteen hundred years. Paul scornfully rejected the thought that God might care about the welfare of oxen, and the incident of the Gadarene swine, in which Jesus is described as sending devils into a herd of pigs and making them drown themselves in the sea, is explained by Augustine as intended to teach us that we have no duties toward animals. This interpretation was accepted by Thomas Aquinas, who stated that the only possible objection to cruelty to animals was that it might lead to cruelty to humans-according to Aquinas there was nothing wrong in itself with making animals suffer. This became the official view of the Roman Catholic Church to such good-or bad-effect that as late as the middle of the nineteenth century, Pope Pius IX refused permission for the founding of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Rome, on the ground that to grant permission would imply that human beings have duties to the lower creatures.

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...

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.

2016

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