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