making animal protection a mainstream political issue kim w. stallwood animals and society institute
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Making Animal Protection
A Mainstream Political Issue
Kim W. StallwoodAnimals and Society Institutewww.animalandsociety.org
1976
1976
United Kingdom• Agatha Christie
dies• Northern Ireland
Troubles• First commercial
Concorde flight• Sex Pistols gain
notoriety
United States• Howard Hughes
dies• Patty Hearst
guilty• DC Metro opens • Apple & Microsoft
founded• US Bicentennial
1976• Animal Rights and Human Obligations
(Regan/Singer eds.)• Animal Rights (Linzey)• Painful Experiments on Animals (Pratt)• Animal Rights International founded• American Museum of Natural History protests • Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting founded• Animal Welfare Act amended to address
transportation and prohibitions against dog fighting and cockfighting
• RSPCA adopts anti-bloodsports policy
1976• 1866 ASPCA founded• 1883 AAVS founded• 1954 The HSUS founded• 1975 Animal Liberation (Singer)• 1979 The Animals’ Agenda founded• 1980 PETA founded• 1983 The Case for Animal Rights
(Regan) • 1985 CAF Founded
Prime Minister Tony Blair (2006)
Banning things that should never have been allowed: handguns; cosmetic testing on animals; fur farming; blacklisting of trade unionists and from summer next year, smoking in public places.
The Hunting Act (2005) Legitimate public policy position
that hunting is a cruel and ineffective wildlife management tool deserving of prohibition
Hunt opponents became the public policy makers
Hunt proponents became the protestors
Lord Houghton of Sowerby (1976)
Animal welfare is largely a matter for the law. This means that to Parliament we must go. That is where laws are made and where the penalties for disobedience and the measures for enforcement are laid down. There is no complete substitute for the law. Public opinion, though invaluable and indeed essential, is not the law. Public opinion is what makes laws possible and observance widely acceptable.
Greatest Challenge
Making Animal Protection a Mainstream Political Issue
The Five Stages of Social Movements
1. Public Education2. Public Policy Development3. Legislation4. Litigation5. Public Acceptance
The Five Stages of Social Movements
Stage One: Public Education
Stage Two: Public Policy Development
Stage Three: Legislation
Stage Four: Litigation
Stage Five: Public Acceptance
Maximum Influence
Minimum Influence
As a social justice issue progresses through each stage, its influence and resistance to setbacks increase proportionately.
The Caring
Sleuth—
Personal
Transformative
Experience
Public Policy Maker—Animal Protection a Mainstream Political Issue
How We Become Animal Advocates
• Assume society will change in the same way that we personally changed – a transcending moment caused by a moral shock – when animal cruelty and exploitation become visible.
• The transformative moment is so powerful that it overwhelmingly forms the rationale behind the majority of the animal advocacy movement’s current public education programs.
The “Moral Shock”
…unlike other social movements where networks are the key, people are recruited into the animal rights movement through the use of “moral shocks” that provoke isolated individuals to join and get involved in group activities.
Robert Garner, “Political Science and Animal Studies,” Society & Animals, 4, p.396 (2002).
Present Animal Rights Frame
• The Moral Shock – Don’t show me!• An emotional or sentimental issue• Personal lifestyle choice / consumer
issue• Competition (humans vs. animals)• Terrorism / Violence
Preferred Animal Rights Frame
• Moral continuum (e.g., sexism / racism / speciesism)
• Animals don’t create food – grow food to feed to people directly
• Animals don’t produce health – epidemiology, physical/mental well-being, environmental health
• Animals are sentient beings just like us• Oppose violence, including toward
animals
Greatest Challenge
Making Animal Protection a Mainstream Political Issue
The Five Stages of Social Movements
Stage One: Public Education
Stage Two: Public Policy Development
Stage Three: Legislation
Stage Four: Litigation
Stage Five: Public Acceptance
Maximum Influence
Minimum Influence
As a social justice issue progresses through each stage, its influence and resistance to setbacks increase proportionately.
The Caring
Sleuth—
Personal
Transformative
Experience
Public Policy Maker—Animal Protection a Mainstream Political Issue
The Animals’ Platform
• Positions the moral and legal status of animals as a public policy issue
• Calls on candidates and elected representatives to take action in the political arena for animals
• A tool for animal advocates to make animal protection a mainstream political issue
The Animals’ PlatformPublished The Animals’ Platform (draft
2004) on the ASI website Discussed at “Empty Cages” 2004Discussed at “The Power of One” 2005Invited public comment Considered more than 50 suggestionsExpanded to include additional sections
The Animals’ Platform
A macro-campaign of alternating strategies:
1. Revise, update and publish on a two-year cycle timed to coincide with the U.S. presidential and off-year elections
2. National program to promote The Animals’ Platform at local, state and federal elections to educate candidates
Macro-Campaign
U.S. pres
elections
Revise platform
U.S. two-year election
cycle
The Animals’ Platform
• Complements citizen initiatives and state referenda
• Complements such programs as the League of Humane Voters and Humane USA PAC
• Complements the movement’s public educational campaigns and initiatives
Putting Animals into Politics
• First launched at the 1976 U.K. general election
• A macro-campaign spanning three decades and six general elections
• Consists of a series movement-wide coalitions
• Advances a platform of animal issues
2005 General Election
• IFAW, CIWF and BUAV published platforms
• Protecting Animals in Democracy
Veal Crates
Banned in Britain in 1990
Toxicity Testing of Cosmetics
Banned in Britain in 1997/8
Testing of Alcohol and Tobacco Products
Banned in Britain in 1998
Sow Gestation Crates
Banned in Britain in 1999
Fur Farming
Banned in Britain in 2003
Stag Hunting
Banned in Britain in 2005
Fox Hunting
Banned in Britain in 2005
“How did they do that?”
“They did it by ……”
Making animal protection a mainstream political issue