THE REAL AGENDA The Animal Rights Movement is Hurting the Animals …
by LEE WALLOT
Reprint permission from Canine Chronicle, Dec. 1992
We have all seen them. The soulful eyes of dogs & cats imploring
us from behind the wire fences. The fluffy rabbit huddled in the
corner, its eyes closed against the pain of a seeping wound on its
side. The raccoon curled in death with its paw in a trap big enough
to hold a bear. We have seen them…in the mail delivered to our door,
in the magazines we flip through, on the television we watch in our
homes. We see them & our hearts twist in sympathy. We read the
messages: "Help us save them. Stop the torture. Write letters.
Phone your officials. Send money." The messages beseech & we
respond, prodded by equal parts of compassion & guilt. We send the
money by the millions of dollars; we make the phone calls by the
thousands, & in doing so, we, like millions of caring humans before
us, have succumbed to the seductive propaganda of the animal rights
movement.
Emotion is the sword the activists wield & it cuts keenly to the
bone. Emotion impels action without thought & it drives the
adrenaline that shuts off the process of reason. Emotion is the key
that turns on the entire mechanical monster called the animal rights
movement. And it works. The leaders of this movement have
discovered a very important marketing ploy: The more a person feels
the propaganda, the less time he spends thinking about it. To the
truly dedicated, to the thoroughly indoctrinated, there is no room
for reason. There is only room to feel & to do, mindlessly but
heartily, as told.
"What is this?" you ask. "Sounds like a cult to me." In a way, it
is. "No…more like brainwashing," another offers. In a way, it is
that also. "Maybe a political movement with social overtones?"
someone else suggests. Oh, definitely that, & more. "But what IS
it?" The question hangs in the air, begging an answer.
The animal rights movement is a philosophy based on the belief that
all animals are the equal of man, that man does not have dominion
over animals, that all animals are morally equivalent to him…even
rats & toads…& therefore are due the same rights as those held by
man. But what does this mean? At first reading, such a moral belief
often doesn't appear totally wrong; in fact it is interpreted by many
as "the way it should be," with maybe an innocuous extension of
animal welfare thrown in for good measure. Nothing could be further
from the truth. In fact, at a recent symposium put on by National
Alliance for Animals, two prominent speakers (both leaders in the
animal rights field) characterized animal welfare as "the enemy." To
these two men, the goals of animal "welfare" not only differ from
animal "rights," they contradict them.
To explain a complicated philosophy in as few words as possible,
animal welfare is concerned with the humane care & use of animals by
man. The animal rights agenda has only one goal: To end forever the
ownership & use of all animals, in any way, by human beings. They
want nothing short of a moral revolution that would change our food &
clothing, our entire relationship to the animal world.
Who are these people? Where did they come from? We hear the
names: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Fund for
Animals, HSUS (Humane Society of the United States), PAWS
(Progressive Animal Welfare Society), Doris Day Animal League. These
are only a few of the leading organizations in the animal rights
movement today. Animal RIGHTS? It is confusing because they have
all been thought of as animal WELFARE groups by the majority of the
contributing public. Thousands of people have sent millions of
dollars to them in the belief they were supporting the compassionate
use & well being of animals. What happened? Is this a new thing?
Not really. Although the takeover of moderate humane groups by the
animal rights activists is a relatively recent occurrence in the
United States, the philosophy of animal rights has been around for a
long time. In the late 1800's, Edward B. Nicholson concluded in this
contribution to the animal rights literature that "animals have the
same abstract rights of life & personal liberty with man." In the
same time frame, Henry S. Salt founded the Humanitarian League &
published Animal Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress.
His Philosophy went so far as to imply that humans & animals should &
would ultimately participate together in a common government.
But throughout the 19th & most of the 20th century, these men were
part of a small fringe of philosophers…sitting around their solitary
campfires, thinking deep thoughts that were seldom understood by most
people.
The people…the common man & legislators alike…were bringing into
being the concept of animal welfare. Then, as now, animal welfare &
animal rights were two entirely different things. The animal welfare
movement concerned itself with improving the life of animals through
humane treatment & responsible stewardship. They felt the animals
were here for humans to use in the natural order of things: For food,
for clothing, for pets, for work, for recreation, for research, but
always our dominion over the animals was to be tempered with kindness
& consideration, for their comfort & well being. They felt man had
an obligation by virtue of this higher position on the evolutionary
scale to use that higher power for the good of all, humans & animals
alike.
This welfare movement extended for a long time & the animal welfare
organizations attained both power & money from their supportive
members. They succeeded in getting many anti-cruelty laws passed &
were instrumental in making life better for millions of animals.
They moved the care & use of animals from the dark ages of neglect
into the light of modern civilization…and this is the place where
most of us find ourselves today. We care about animals. We care
deeply. We do not want to see them destroyed in driftnets or
released from a cage & shot from 10 feet away by someone seeking an
easy & riskfree trophy. We care about our dogs & cats; they are as
much a part of our lives as other family members. We worked right
alongside the animal welfare societies to alleviate cruelty & teach
responsible care & use of our animals.
But in England, without our even being aware of it, something else
was happening. There was a dark thunderstorm rumbling on the horizon
as the animal rights people stirred in discontent. It isn't welfare
we want for animals they growled. The animals are EQUAL to humans,
not subordinates…and equality demanded equal rights. Because they
are equal, they intoned, we have no right to kill them to eat them or
to enslave them as research animals or imprison them in our homes as
pets.If you wouldn't do it to a human being, they warned, you should not
do it to an animal.