Pearl River When I think of animal rights two things come to mind. One is the argument made by philosopher and advocate Paul Singer, whose books I have read, that make the case that they are sentient beings at many levels and deserving of attention and care for that reason. The other is PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has been center stage with protests and lawsuits for decades and an ally and supporter of ACORN’s in the past. We have a half-serious, half-joke in our family, where if someone isn’t doing right by an animal, we simply cry out PETA! PETA! PETA! – as if they would come, Johnny-on-the-spot.
Recently, a former ACORN and Local 100 organizer reached out and introduced me to an organizer I hadn’t known, who was based out of New Orleans and working remotely for a group called Pro Animal Future. As a lifetime learner and a student of all things organizing, I was game and met with Natalie Fulton, who is a comms lead and organizer, and talked with her about the organization and their new strategies on Wade’s World.
Simply put, their strategy is political. Significantly, not only is it political, but very local. They have chapter operations in Portland, Denver, and Washington, DC. In those cities they have employed an initiative strategy targeting factory farms by trying to put a question to the voters about banning faux gras. I know little about this food item, never having any willingness or interest in eating it, and, as it turned out, mispronouncing the term somewhat horribly as well, but it’s duck’s liver obtained by force feeding certain ducks painfully and mortally to bloat their liver. Politically, they are counting on people just like me who not only haven’t eaten it, but don’t ever intend to do so, and therefore wouldn’t think twice about voting to block this high-end food delicacy.
This strategy is still a work in progress. They lost a local ballot initiative in Denver, much the same as we lost our first minimum wage initiatives in Denver and Houston, before winning at the ballot box in New Orleans. They are currently moving petitions in DC and feel confident they can put it on the ballot. In Portland, their petitions are pressuring the city council and its progressive members to implement the ban without a vote, and failing that, letting the voters decide. Going to the voters, they’ve adopted a big tent strategy, less controversial than PETA. They don’t prattle on about everyone becoming a vegan. They don’t throw blood on fur coats. In fact, Natalie told me that some of the pleather substitutes are more damaging to the environment more than leather itself. They helped with a fur vote at a town meeting on Cape Cod in Massachusetts that lost narrowly.
I can’t say if their strategy and tactics for animal rights will work, but I’ve been there and done that, and seen it work for living wages, taking taxes off of food and medicine, and other issues, so they might have something here. I was also fascinated reading about a fight to free beagles in Wisconsin from a medical testing facility. What had gotten my attention was reports that more than 1000 animal rights activists had demonstrated at the center and tried to free the beagles. I hadn’t known there would be that many animal rights folks in the whole state of Wisconsin, so the numbers impressed me. Other stories indicated that they had been successful and the center was freeing most, if not all, of the beagles. Natalie disabused me of my hopes that the demonstration had done the trick. It had partially by publicizing the matter, but basically 80s pop star Debbie Gibson and Terry “Geezer” Butler, co-founder of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, came together to support ongoing efforts to find homes for roughly 1,500 beagles purchased from Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin, a dog breeder and research facility. Good on them! A win is a win.
All which is another brick in the wall, and sends the message that it’s worth keeping your eyes on these animal rights organizers, because they have something going on and are trying some new strategies that might not only educate people, but put more heart and power into animal protections.