How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals

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How to Do Animal Rights -
And Win the War on Animals


Contents

About

Chapter 1
Introduction to Doing Animal Rights


1. The Broad Setting

2. Mass Extinction

3. The Animal Holocaust

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 2
Know Your Animal Ethics & Animal Rights


1. Animal Ethics
Background
Ethics
Importance of Animal Ethics
Glossary
Now a Biff From History
How to Proceed?
Ethical Theories
Ethical Theories Compared
Choosing an Ethical Theory
Do Philosophical Ideas Work?

2. Animal Rights
What are Animal Rights?
Background to Animal Rights
Major Dates for Rights
Animal Rights Theory
Fundamental Animal Ethical Positions
Variations on Animal Rights
Are Rights a Cure-all?
Universal Declaration on Animals
Arguments For & Against Animal Rights

3. Comparing Animal Philosophies
Animal Ethics vs Animal Rights
Animal Rights vs Animal Welfare
Animal Rights vs Conservation
Deep Ecology
Conclusion

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on AnimalsHow to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on AnimalsHow to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 3
Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights


1. Introduction

2. Campaigning
Where to Begin?
Keeping Going
Ten Essential Campaigning Tips
More Tips

3. Civil Disobedience
What Is Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience & Animal Rights
Arguments For & Against Civil Disobedience

4. Direct Action
What is Direct Action?
Examples of Animal Rights Direct Action
Individual vs Mass Direct Action
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
The Battle of Brightlingsea
Inset: Background to Brightlingsea
Comparing Direct Actions
Direct Action vs Civil Disobedience
Efficacy of Direct Action

5. Action Planning
What is an Action Plan?
Why an Action Plan?
Who Should Produce the Action Plan?
Before You Begin
Distinguish Operations From Administrations
Creating Your Action Plan
You Should Be Smart
You Should Also SWOT
Make It Happen
Review It
A Simple Action Plan Template

6. Lobbying
Who Can Lobby?
What & Whom to Lobby
Start Lobbying
How to Lobby
Lobbying Techniques

7. Picketing
What is Picketing?
AR Picketing is Like Industrial Picketing
How to Picket

8. Starting a Group
What to Do?
Name & Logo
Finding Members
A Constitution?
The Group Committee
Group Success Or Failure
Newsletters
Fundraising

9. Publicity

10. Leafleting
Design
Printing
Distribution
Posters & Placards
Other Media

11.News Media
Media Tips
A Feature Article?
The Letters Page
News Release
The Radio
Radio Tips

12. Internet
The Web
Email
Create Your Own Web Site
Designing Your Web Site
Capturing Viewers
Discussion Boards

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 4
Activities for Animal Rights


 1. Undercover Investigator

 2. Video Activist

 3. Animal Friendly Traveller

 4. Preacher

 5. Animal Rescuer

 6. Investigative Reporter

 7. Media Watcher

 8. Philosopher

 9. Flyer

10. Personal Activist

11. Animal Lawyer

12. Politician

13. Prisoner Supporter

14. Public & School Speaker

15. Aerial Snooper

16. Scientific Investigator

17. Solo Information Worker

18. Street Theatre Actor

19. Teacher

20. Voluntary Worker Abroad

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 5
The Law & Animal Rights


1. Terrorism
Background
Terrorism Defined
Animal Extremism & Terrorism
Does AR Extremism Work in Practice?

2. Violence or Nonviolence?
Can We Justify Violence?
Kinds of Violence
Views For & Against Violence
Is Violence Efficacious?
Conclusion

3. The Law - US & Britain
United States
FBI vs Extremists
Britain
Extremist Tactics
Establishment Fights Back

4. Police Arrest
In the Street & At Your Door
At the Police Station
Your Tactics
Know Your Rights
Remaining Silent
Your Lawyer
Suing the Police

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 6
Assorted Animal Rights Activists


1.  Steven Best

2.  John Lawrence

3.  Andrew Linzey

4.  Richard Martin

5.  The McLibel Two

6.  Ingrid Newkirk

7.  Jill Phipps

8.  Henry Salt

9.  Henry Spira

10. Peter Singer

11. Tom Regan

12. Richard D Ryder

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 7
Animal Numbers Raised & Killed


1.  Summary

2.  Chickens

3.  Pigs

4.  Beef Cattle

5.  Fish

6.  Meat Consumption

7.  Fur-bearers

8.  Experimental Animals

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

Chapter 8.  Extras!

1.  Mutilations of Farm Animals

2.  The Five Freedoms

3.  Painism

4.  The Forgotten Fur

5.  The Golden Rule

6.  Human Overpopulation

7.  Climate Change

8.  Think Like an Animal



Appendix 1
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.

Appendix 2
Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.




 
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How to Do Animal Rights -
And Win the War on Animals




Chapter 1


Introduction to Doing Animal Rights


2. Mass Extinction
"Homo sapiens is in the throes of causing a major biological crisis, a mass extinction, the sixth such event, to have occurred in the past half billion years. And we, Homo sapiens, may also be among the living dead." Richard Leakey & Roger Lewin (1)
The Sixth Extinction

We are living in a period of mass extinction of life on Earth. This is the greatest extinction since the mass extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. In the 3.5 billion year evolution of life on our planet there have been five mass extinctions - when close to all species were nearly wiped out. The most massive of these extinctions was the Permian Extinction some 250 million years ago: seventy percent of land species and ninety percent of marine species went extinct in less than a million years, close to an instant in Earth's 4.5 billion year evolution.

The common name for the present mass extinction is the Sixth Extinction, popularised in the 1995 book of the same name by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. (1) The unique characteristic of the Sixth Extinction is that it is caused by a single species - us: Homo sapiens. Scientists calculate that within a hundred years half of Earth's fauna and flora could be treading down the road to mass extinction. Earth, home to millions of species, may be losing some 30,000 species a year and the rate is increasing as humanity accelerates its devastation of the biosphere. The problem is especially grim for rain forests because they harbour the vast majority of land-living species and humanity is clear-felling forests fast. As the forests shrink away the animals have no where to go and die out.



The Mega Devastators

Humanity has fashioned three mega-devastators that are causing the Sixth Extinction and their combined influence is reaching a climax:
  1. Global warming - by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

  2. Consumption of resources - including habitat change.

  3. Human overpopulation - by which every one of us increases the first two devastators.
The magnitude of what humanity is doing became apparent in the 1970's. But still the mass extinction crisis is invisible to most people, unaware about it or indifferent. Many scientists are so worried by this lack of concern that in 1992 over 1,500 prominent specialists, among them several Nobel Prize Laureates, endorsed the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. (2) But they have made little progress waking people to the looming cataclysm. Likewise, the Doomsday Clock has similarly fallen short. It was originally started in 1947 during the Cold War by a group of scientists concerned about humanity's potential impending self-destruction and is meant to wake us up to fight for our preservation. Currently the minute hand is set at five minutes to midnight - just five minutes before annihilation.

Biocide?

Biocide, the massive destruction of life on a worldwide scale, is the ultimate of all human practical and moral violations. Sceptics argue that there is not enough data to support the notion of a Sixth Extinction or that this mass extinction is not of human origin so we need do nothing about it. Other people accept the impending catastrophe and argue that humanity can slow the rate of extinction through proper management of human activity and ecosystems. Still other people maintain that time has expired and there is nothing we can do. But one thing is certain. The disaster of mass extinction is so great do we dare not act? We could not have evolved without animals and they gave our species food, clothing, shelter and tools. It is payback time. As Woody Allen says, "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." (3)

Learn more: The Sixth Extinction by Niles Eldredge.

References

(1) Leakey, Richard & Lewin, Roger. The Sixth Extinction: biodiversity and its survival. Weidenfield and Nicolson: London. 1996.

(2) World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. Union of Concerned Scientists. www.ucsusa.org (accessed January 2007). See
Appendix 1.

(3) Allen, Woody. My Speech to the Graduates. In Complete Prose. Picador: London. 1997.



The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do
For Animal Life
Stop making babies (or at most make only one).
Seventy thousand years ago there were ten thousand people on Earth. Now we are approaching seven billion. The more people the more destruction of animal life and Nature. Being a veggie or vegan is not sufficient.
For estimates of the number of food animals people kill annually see
Chapter 7: Animal Numbers Raised & Killed.
For more about human population growth see Optimum Population Trust web site.
 
How to Do Animal Rights -
And Win the War on Animals.
First published on the Web: April 2008.
© Roger (Ben) Panaman, April 2008. All rights reserved.