Your free book to action animal rights Grr! Graphics for Animal Liberation 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

How to Do Animal Rights - And Win the War on Animals Chapter 4 Activities for Animal Rights 15. Scientific Investigator A scientific investigator researches and reports evidence for publication so that campaigners acting on the information can reform harmful practices. This is a bit like doing investigative reporting (see Investigative Reporter, Chapter 4) in that you try to find answers that would be difficult to obtain if people knew you were investigating them. Doing scientific investigative research might appeal to you for similar reasons but has more of a scientific bearing, making use of statistical techniques and scientific report writing. A science or social science degree could be of value here; however, anyone with a strong ability and fondness for investigating and writing can educate themselves on how to go about doing it. In recent years much has been written about scientific investigative research (1) and proficiency comes with action. An Example Investigation Pet shops are fairly easy to identify, open to the public for perusal and, looking innocent, you can question the shop assistants. These may be some of the reasons why pet shops have come under the scrutiny of investigative researchers. The aim of these researchers was to protect animals from the pet trade by identifying illegal practices and ill-treatments that could then be acted on. Jordi Casamitjana, an independent animal welfare consultant and investigator, has carried out a number of investigations. One investigation was on pet shops in Scotland (2), outlined below. Scientific work for an investigation comes in at the very beginning. You must take utmost care to design your investigation so that your prospective findings can stand up to thorough questioning by anyone wanting to shoot them down. For example, to investigate pet shops you must first clearly define and state what a pet shop is. One way of doing this is to find out what the law says constitutes a pet shop. If there were no laws relating to this and nothing else acting as a guide then you would have to write down your own definition, such as 'a premise that sells animals as pets as a commercial business, excluding breeders who handle or raise pedigree pets for sale'. You could concentrate on a few of the really bad pet shops in your area. However, you may want your investigation to be applicable to all pet shops generally in your region to stand the best chance of your work being acted on by animal rights organisations. In this case you must obtain a representative sample of pet shops that can be said to be characteristic of all pet shops in your region. A simple way of doing this, as Casamitjana did, is by digging up and listing all the shops and selecting at random a number of them for investigation. 'Random' means that every shop has an equal chance of being selected for a visit. If the sample of pet shops you visit is not random it will not be representative of all pet shops in the region and make your findings and conclusions doubtful and unreliable. (Of course you could visit all the pet shops, but this will be overly costly and time consuming.) You also need an adequate number of pet shops to visit because the more shops you check, the more your findings will be reliable. How many pet shops to choose? This is somewhat subjective but at least a quarter to a third of total pet shops in the region seems reasonable, which is how Casamitjana chose. There were various other problems Casamitjana had to address before he could set foot inside his first pet shop. One was that he was going to look for abnormal behaviour among the shops' animals. So what constitutes abnormal animal behaviour? Casamitjana defined abnormal animal behaviour as actions not normally seen in animals living in the wild and he concentrated on stereotypies. A stereotypy is behaviour, seen in humans as well as animals, that is repetitious and appears not to have an obvious function. Stereotypies include pacing up and down, rocking back and forth, pacing round in circles, head bobbing, and bar-biting (of a cage). You can see stereotypical behaviour in animals at zoos and factory farms. Animal behaviourists think that animals living in unstimulating conditions in captivity perform stereotypies to help them cope with the frustration, boredom and stress of their living conditions. A stereotypical behaviour by an animal indicates a problem of well-being. Casamitjana identified other conditions indicative of potentially poor welfare in pet shops. He considered the animals' housing (which might be barren and cramped) and compared it with officially approved standards. He also noted animals trying to escape, animals vocalising, customers teasing or handling the animals, shop assistant proficiency - judged by the shop assistants' standard of advice - and shop compliance with legal regulations, such as not selling animals to minors. Finally, after detailed preparation, Casamitjana was ready to visit the pet shops posing as a customer. Among Casamitjana's findings was that over half the pet shops he visited had animals who showed abnormal behaviour and were clearly distressed, possibly because of inadequate housing. Several shops had poor customer-animal interactions. Shop assistants often failed to give adequate advice and often gave poor advice. Some shops did not have a valid pet shop licence to operate and others were in breach of their licence. Casamitjana wrote his report and it was published by Advocates for Animals as an indictment on pet shop standards. Campaigners working for pet shop animals are now better armed to tackle the problem. Knowledge is power! Define Your Subject A subject for your investigation may not immediately occur to you. Choosing one will then be your first task. Three good tips are: Select an investigation that deeply interests you, for should your interest wane while on the job you may never complete it. Always keep your research plan simple. Initially simple plans often grow complicated and if you start with an already complicated plan it is likely to get out of hand. Try to discuss your chosen subject of investigation and work out some details with an established investigator if you can find one (try searching the Web). Also read Investigative Reporter, Chapter 4, under Investigation Ideas. Your Report Like Casamitjana you will have to know how to write a report. The aim of writing one is to convince readers that what you did is important and that action should be taken about your findings. Your research report will be the only concrete evidence of your research. If you do not write a report or have no other documentary evidence, like video, to show what you found then no one will know what you have done and no action can be taken. Furthermore, the quality of your research will be judged directly by the quality of your writing (succinct, clear, logical and strictly relevant) and how well you convey the importance of your findings. The best way to write a report is to study reports by other researchers. To find them check books, journals and the Web. You will see that there are four basic sections to a written report: Introduction: the problem and why you are investigating it. Methods: what you did to investigate the problem. Results: the specific findings of your investigation. Discussion: your interpretation of your findings and how they fit in with the work of other authors (if any). You will want a pithy descriptive title for your report and may want to include other sections in it, like: Abstract: a brief statement of what you did, what you found and your conclusions. This goes at the top of your report under the title. Acknowledgements: to people who helped you. This could go at the end of the report. Appendix: stuff that might be added, like raw data, that does not fit into the body of your report. The Appendix goes at the back of the report. References: a list of the authors with their published works that you cite in your report. This goes at the very back of the report. A strong move is to write a literature review and mix it in with the Introduction. A literature review is a summary of the findings and conclusions of any other researchers on your subject of investigation. For example, you can state in one sentence that so and so, investigating such and such, found this and that and concluded whatever. You should try to build on the findings of other researchers to: Add substance to your report. Give your report more context, breadth and greater credence. Establish yourself as knowledgeable about your subject. Another good move is to design your study from the outset from the best techniques of other researchers while avoiding their faults. Even if no one has published anything on your subject for investigation you should mention it. If there are no publications on your subject then you will be a trailblazer and researchers following in your steps will cite you in their report! References (1) Forbes, Derek. A Watchdog’s Guide to Investigative Reporting: a simple introduction to principles and practice in investigative reporting. Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. 2005. (Accessed online 18 May 2007.) (2) Casamitjana, Jordi J. Caged to Sell: a study of animal related problems in Scottish pet shops in the year 2003. Scotland: Advocates for Animals. 2003.

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.