Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach Commentary

Dear Friends: Here is a podcast that Anna Charlton and I did on an easy way to start a conversation about veganism. ********** If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence […]

Dear Friends: Here is a podcast that Anna and I did on the misuse of “Abolition”. ********** If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself. If animals matter morally, […]

Dear Friends: Here is a podcast that Anna and I did on Anthony Bourdain. I was sitting too far away from the device. The dogs were walking around the room. We will do better! ********** If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other […]

In this Commentary, Anna Charlton and I discuss educating yourself so that you can educate others and the importance of doing education/advocacy in your community; the idea that vegan advocacy represents an attempt to “force” people to go vegan; and the idea that animal ethics is a matter of “choice” and not moral obligation. It’s […]

It’s been a while since I did a Commentary and I have been meaning to start up again but, alas, it’s been a busy time. I was planning to do a podcast on the topic of my essay, Moral Concern, Moral Impulse, and Logical Argument in Animal Rights Advocacy, which I published in May and […]

Dear Colleagues: My most recent book, The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?, involves a debate between me and Professor Robert Garner of the University of Leicester. In this Commentary, Professor Garner and I discuss our book. Garner’s position, although a form of what I call “new welfarism,” is different from that of Singer and […]

Dear Colleagues: In this Commentary, I discuss three issues. First, I talk about my new book, The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?, co-authored with Professor Robert Garner, and published by Columbia University Press. This book focuses on the debate ongoing in the animal advocacy community: should we pursue welfare reform as a means to […]

Dear Colleagues: In this Commentary, I have an extended discussion with two abolitionist vegan advocates, Jeff Perz and Renata Peters. Jeff and Renata live in Alice Springs, Australia, a remote and small city in central Australia dominated by the cattle industry and exactly the sort of place where you would think it impossible to generate enthusiasm about veganism. But Renata and Jeff prove that anywhere can be the home of a vegan movement—if you want it! Jeff is a Canadian; Renata is Australian. Together, these two vegans, who are also into non-violent communication, discuss with me how they became vegan, why they are abolitionists, and what they are doing in Alice Springs to educate people about veganism. Renata and Jeff will show you that you do not need a large organization or a big budget to do effective vegan advocacy. All you need is the willingness to work hard and to think creatively about how best to educate the community in which you live. Vegan cupcakes help! I found my discussion with Jeff and Renata to be inspiring and I know that you will as well. At the outset of the Commentary, I discuss briefly a new campaign by the British welfarist group, Animal Aid, which is: calling for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses and for the footage to be made available to independent parties outside of the slaughterhouse. We also want better independent training, regular retraining and assessment, rigorous enforcement of the laws and an end to those with outstanding convictions for violence or animal cruelty working in slaughterhouses. A slaughterhouse whose contract with a large British supermarket chain was suspended after allegations of animal cruelty by Animal Aid had its contract reinstated after "improvements at the abattoir, including the introduction of CCTV" as demanded by Animal Aid. Andrew Tyler of Animal Aid commented: “It shows quite clearly the importance of our investigation that the company says its own standards have improved dramatically," he said. “That underlines in absolutely clear terms that what we are doing, and what we will continue to do, is a vital task “We are pleased that CCTV has been introduced. It’s absolutely vital that the footage is not just collected, but is regularly scrutinised by Sainsbury’s and the regulatory authority,” said Mr Tyler. As you might guess, many animal advocates are understandably outraged that Animal Aid is now forming partnerships with institutional exploiters to promote and sell "happy" meat. A colleague from Britain wrote to me and shared a reply that she had received from Tyler in response to her objection to this foolish campaign. Tyler attempted to justify the CCTV campaign with the following example: Take this example: you are at a ‘livestock’ market and see a sheep repeatedly kicked in the head and stamped on. Do you intervene to end that extreme abuse or would you regard that as ‘welfarist’ given that, even if you stopped the kicking and stamping, the sheep will still be slaughtered? Ingrid Newkirk of PETA made the same argument almost 20 years ago when, in the context, of promoting animal welfare reform that she claimed would move us closer to animal rights, argued that those who opposed welfare reform would deny a thirsty cow water on the way to the slaughterhouse. I discussed Newkirk's position in my 1996 book, Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement. I argued that if I were a guard in a concentration camp, I would certainly give water to a political prisoner being taken for execution. But if I concluded that the concentration camp for political prisoners was, as a general matter, an unjust and immoral institution, I would quit my job and campaign for shutting down the camp. I would not campaign for giving water to prisoners about to be shot, or other measures designed to whitewash the immorality of the institution. My reply to Newkirk applies to Tyler's example. Sure,

Dear Colleagues: In this Commentary, I address a topic that I have been asked to cover by a number of you: how do we talk with non-vegans about veganism? I present five general principles: Principle #1: People are good at heart. Our default position when we talk with people ought to be that they are […]

Dear Colleagues: In this Commentary, I discuss several topics: First, I talk about the announcement by the new welfarist Mercy for Animals that the retail giant Costco has taken a “step forward” by agreeing to market “humane” veal. I maintain that having animal advocates praise this as a “step forward” and characterizing the issue of […]

Dear Colleagues: In this Commentary, I have two guests: Ronnie Lee, who founded the Band of Mercy in 1972 and the Animal Liberation Front in 1976, and Roger Yates, an adjunct lecturer in sociology at University College, Dublin. As I am sure you are aware, I am opposed to all violence and I do not […]

Dear Colleagues: Several weeks ago, I asked for questions that people would like me to address. I received approximately 80 questions. I plan to do several Commentaries in which I discuss at least some of these questions. A number of the questions that I received concern single-issue campaigns so this Commentary deals primarily with that […]

Dear Colleagues: Victor Schonfeld, director of the influential 1982 film, The Animals Film, followed up his two-part BBC World Service program, One Planet: Animals and Us, with an editorial, The Five Fatal Flaws of Animal Activism, in the Guardian, one of the leading U.K. newspapers. Schonfeld once again made clear that the mainstream movement had […]

Dear Colleagues: The second segment of the BBC’s One Planet: Animals and Us, hosted by Victor Schonfeld (who did the influential The Animals Film in 1982), focused on vivisection. Schonfeld ended the program by agreeing that the animal rights movement needs crystal clear guidelines and he explored veganism as a possible way to deal with […]

Dear Colleagues: On December 31, 2009, the BBC World Service broadcast the first segment of the two-part program One Planet: Animals and Us. This program was hosted by Victor Schonfeld, who did the highly influential The Animals Film in 1982. The Animals Film was among the first—if not the first—film to reveal how humans actually […]