In addition to Professor Gary Francione’s new book announced in my last blog entry, there have been some positive developments in the abolitionist movement during the past few weeks as follows:
Humane Myth
A new website, HumaneMyth.org, was launched by Jenny Stein and James LaVeck of Tribe of Heart. It features various knowledgeable proponents of veganism, some of them former cattle and dairy farmers, who correctly insist that “humane farming” is an oxymoron, that welfare reform efforts are counterproductive to a vegan movement, and that vegan living is the only way to treat animals humanely and ultimately abolish legalized animal exploitation.
Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary: A Change in Direction
Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary has appropriately called for a change in the direction of vegan advocacy by ending the use of the old, outdated vocabulary and model of advocacy, which use terms like “factory farming”, “meat is dead”, “meat is murder”, “Meatout”, “happy meat”, etc.
As Peaceful Prairie’s newsletter says, “We must recognize that "cage-free" eggs and organic milk are now being offered as the default alternative. Twenty years ago, vegan advocates could use the term "factory farming" because, at the time, there was no mass marketed "humane" animal farming alternative that could be readily found at fast food restaurants, grocery stores, etc.”
The decades-long focus on the word meat, as if somehow flesh was the primary issue, has led to many people who have been lacto-ovo vegetarians for years because they have misled by this overemphasis on meat (and only meat) as the problem. When meat consumption is replaced by egg and dairy consumption, both the number of animals killed and the intensity of the torture they endure increases significantly.
Instead of using the term “meat-eaters” to refer to non-vegans, we ought to be saying “non-vegans”. Instead of “happy meat” to refer to the “humane” propaganda, we should emphasize “happy eggs” and “happy dairy”.
As Peaceful Prairie’s newsletter put it, “Once someone has been educated about the exploitation and violation inherent in ALL egg and dairy production, if they are at all inclined to act on that information by going vegan, the “meat” part of the equation is intuitive.”
Indeed, the “meat” part is blatantly obvious if the exploitation behind eggs and dairy is made transparent.
New Abolitionist Pamphlet
Gary Francione and Anna Charlton have published an abolitionist pamphlet that will make an excellent tool for accessible and unequivocal vegan and abolitionist education. It was only about two or three years ago that there was no unequivocal abolitionist literature in the form of pamphlets or flyers. During 2006, Joanna Lucas of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary developed very powerful abolitionist literature, much of which either has been or is in the process of being translated into other languages. Several months ago, Mary Martin of Animal Person published Thinking Critically About Animal Rights and Nathan Schneider of Vegan Abolitionist published Time to Get Serious. We can now add Gary and Anna’s pamphlet to the mix of highly effective media to distribute to the public.
With the plentiful literature, an occasional Peaceful Prairie Sactuary billboard or ad in the Los Angeles Times, and the abolitionist blogs, podcasts, websites, and forums, it finally appears that a real abolitionist movement is forming to shift the paradigm away from the old, ineffective new welfarism that has been the bane of progress for animals for decades now.
