I think that most people know that animals suffer, but they don’t care enough to make any changes. Most people are just selfish and largely apathetic towards most others. I thought that maybe meditation will help people to become kinder, but some people who meditate a lot for many years still eat meat. They go on multi-month silent retreats and still order meat when they go to a restaurant. However, I noticed that around 4% - 15% of people who attend multi-day meditation retreats at Spirit Rock are vegan, based on the number of vegans posted in the dining hall. So maybe meditation will help people to become kinder. Anecdotally, some people say meditation helped them to care about animals more and to become vegan.
I agree with you that the Animal Rights movement is growing and achieving successes. We have achieved a number of legislative successes such as banning the sale of new fur in California and banning all large animal operations in a city. That would ban a race track that was there, and it shut down as we were working on the ballot measure. It is not easy to quantify the benefits of our legislative successes for animals. However, we are working towards an animal bill of rights in the U.S. where it would be illegal to intentionally harm any animal. We are in the early stages of promoting this legislation. We are building up to it through smaller successes first. Also, there might be people who think it would be impossible to achieve this legislation. To them I would say that for every person who says something is impossible, there is someone else doing it.
Animal Liberation and Diet Change are 2 different concepts. We can achieve Animal Liberation similarly to how the Civil Rights Movement, Gay Rights, and Women’s Rights movements have achieved success. We are already achieving legislative successes such as California banning the sale of fur and San Francisco requiring a minimum amount of food purchased with city funds to be vegan (50% minimum for jails). Also we passed legislation that would require a horse racing track to close, and it closed as we were working on the legislation. This has nothing to do with persuading people one by one to change what they eat, but this is incremental work towards Animal Liberation.
I think this is a great post with an important point. Supporting cage free eggs seems like a waste of time because then it might make people feel good buying eggs as if they are doing something good. Also, some veterinarians (such as Dr. Crystal Heath) argue that chickens who live in cage free facilities may suffer on average as much or more as chickens who live in cages. It also seems like a waste of time to support cage free egg campaigns because the amount of benefit for an animal to live in a crammed barn versus a crammed cage seems negligible as compared to the amount of suffering baby roosters experience in being murdered and hens suffering from untreated diseases even in barns with no cages. On the contrary, achieving successes such as the liberation of slaves (in the US), right to vote for women, gay marriage and legitimizing other gay rights, and the Civil Rights movements make the work worth it long term. Let’s follow in their footsteps and do what they did to achieve success. Here are some examples of successes we have achieved with organizations where I volunteer and we partnered with. We have banned the sale of new fur in California. We have helped San Francisco to pass an ordinance setting a minimum percentage of food bought using city funds to be vegan (for jails, at least 50%). We have worked with the city council of Berkeley to pass a resolution for the city to commit to exploring if they can in the future spend the city’s money 100% only on vegan food. We have encouraged a horse racing track to shut down permanently, and it shut down before we passed a ballot measure in Berkeley to shut down all “concentrated animal feeding operations” (using EPA words). That would include the horse racing track. The measure passed with around 60% of voters in Berkeley voting in favor. We have encouraged fashion brands to stop selling fur (by disrupting luxury stores). One brand announced they were dropping fur the next business day after our protest inside of a Neiman Marcus store. Could be a coincidence, or maybe our protests worked. We have changed Foster City’s plan to kill Canada Geese in parks to their current policy of nonlethal bird population control. We have worked with a state legislator who introduced a bill in California government to ban all animal factory farms in the state (“Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”). This was the first of its kind in California and hopefully not the last introduction. Our volunteer work toward animal liberation is paying off.
Maybe people donate to animal welfare outside of the EA charity intermediaries. For example, I donate to charities such as PETA and Direct Action Everywhere directly, not through an EA intermediary.
When we were deciding what we wanted to put on the ballot in Sonoma County (Measure J), we were thinking of this point of that it would look bad if a moderate measure failed. Our reasoning for choosing a ban on all factory farms (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) was that it was such a huge ask of this agricultural community that it likely would not pass, but it wouldn’t look that bad if it failed because next time we could tone down the ask. But because initial polling showed that most people in the county would vote yes on Measure J, that’s why we proceeded with this big ask. Also, our measure DD to ban all livestock operations did pass in Berkeley. It would have affected one operation, but when we started collecting signatures, they voluntarily shut down. It was Golden Gate Fields horse race track. As for Denver, our friends who were working on the ballot measures also said it was bad for the fur ban initiative that the other, more radical one, was next to it. They are learning from their mistakes.
Yes, we did polling when we were preparing for Measure J. We paid a professional polling service (phone and texting polls) and also collected data in face-to-face interviews with voters in Sonoma County. We also used Survey Monkey to do a poll. All 3 polling methods that we used before commencing Measure J showed that more than 50% of voters in Sonoma County would vote Yes on Measure J. That’s why we decided to even proceed with Measure J.
I was working on Measure J in Sonoma County, and my friends were working on the 2 measures in Denver. One of the main obstacles we faced is with fundraising. Initial polls showed that Measure J in Sonoma County would have passed, but the opposition raised about 10 times more money than we did. We didn’t have money to send truthful literature to every household in Sonoma County, but only to some households. However, the opposition sent multiple pieces of literature filled with exaggerations and lies to scare voters so that they would believe that store shelves would become empty if they voted yes on Measure J. Opposition raised over $2 million to just defeat Measure J. They had money for TV ads, and we didn’t. They paid money to a local environmental nonprofit to publicize why locals should vote no. Our friends in Denver faced very similar challenges. However, our ballot measure to ban all livestock operations did pass in Berkeley. About 60% of people voted to shut down all livestock operations. When we started collecting signatures in Berkeley for this measure DD, then the only large livestock operation there decided to shut down. It was Golden Gate Fields horse race track. Also, even though Measure J did not pass in Sonoma County, it did generate a lot of press. Associated Press, LA Times, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post covered it. If you count letters to the editor, then The Press Democrat covered Measure J around a 100 times. So there’s definitely more awareness of the issue of animal welfare now because of our efforts in Sonoma County. We can leverage our wins in Berkeley and Sonoma County for future work on ballot measures. We need funding though!
I think the following is a good point, "Where the efforts of these altruists should be directed is towards ensuring that governments behave properly. They are not thinking enough about the political structure that underlies their ability to give money away." I have been volunteering in the space of Animal Rights since 2015 and have been reading about social changes and social movements in the past few years. From the literature I read, it does seem that EA movement as a whole is not as focused on creating positive legislative change as it could be. For example, slaves/serfs were freed and women got the right to vote due to social and legislative activism that demanded these changes. It would be great to see more donors supporting more work that is of legislative nature.
In my 8 years of volunteering for several Animal Rights/ Animal Welfare groups, including The Humane League, PETA, Anonymous for the Voiceless, and Direct Action Everywhere, I have observed that most volunteers and paid staff are truth-seeking and completely truthful and transparent with the public. For example, we do discuss amongst ourselves and with the public how to have a healthy and balanced vegan diet. For example, we discuss that as vegans, we should make sure to get supplements of vitamins and minerals we need, including vitamin B12 and omega 3. Also, we sometimes discuss eating enough protein. There’s even a PETA brochure that is a vegan starter kit that shows mock meats - a brochure that we sometimes offer to those interested. Furthermore, we sometimes mention this great resource to learn more about how to optimize nutrition for a long and healthy life:
https://nutritionfacts.org/
Also, I sometimes share the website of PubMed for reading of primary research on food and health.
I think that most people know that animals suffer, but they don’t care enough to make any changes. Most people are just selfish and largely apathetic towards most others. I thought that maybe meditation will help people to become kinder, but some people who meditate a lot for many years still eat meat. They go on multi-month silent retreats and still order meat when they go to a restaurant. However, I noticed that around 4% - 15% of people who attend multi-day meditation retreats at Spirit Rock are vegan, based on the number of vegans posted in the dining hall. So maybe meditation will help people to become kinder. Anecdotally, some people say meditation helped them to care about animals more and to become vegan.
I agree with you that the Animal Rights movement is growing and achieving successes. We have achieved a number of legislative successes such as banning the sale of new fur in California and banning all large animal operations in a city. That would ban a race track that was there, and it shut down as we were working on the ballot measure. It is not easy to quantify the benefits of our legislative successes for animals. However, we are working towards an animal bill of rights in the U.S. where it would be illegal to intentionally harm any animal. We are in the early stages of promoting this legislation. We are building up to it through smaller successes first. Also, there might be people who think it would be impossible to achieve this legislation. To them I would say that for every person who says something is impossible, there is someone else doing it.
Animal Liberation and Diet Change are 2 different concepts. We can achieve Animal Liberation similarly to how the Civil Rights Movement, Gay Rights, and Women’s Rights movements have achieved success. We are already achieving legislative successes such as California banning the sale of fur and San Francisco requiring a minimum amount of food purchased with city funds to be vegan (50% minimum for jails). Also we passed legislation that would require a horse racing track to close, and it closed as we were working on the legislation. This has nothing to do with persuading people one by one to change what they eat, but this is incremental work towards Animal Liberation.
I think this is a great post with an important point. Supporting cage free eggs seems like a waste of time because then it might make people feel good buying eggs as if they are doing something good. Also, some veterinarians (such as Dr. Crystal Heath) argue that chickens who live in cage free facilities may suffer on average as much or more as chickens who live in cages. It also seems like a waste of time to support cage free egg campaigns because the amount of benefit for an animal to live in a crammed barn versus a crammed cage seems negligible as compared to the amount of suffering baby roosters experience in being murdered and hens suffering from untreated diseases even in barns with no cages.
On the contrary, achieving successes such as the liberation of slaves (in the US), right to vote for women, gay marriage and legitimizing other gay rights, and the Civil Rights movements make the work worth it long term. Let’s follow in their footsteps and do what they did to achieve success.
Here are some examples of successes we have achieved with organizations where I volunteer and we partnered with. We have banned the sale of new fur in California. We have helped San Francisco to pass an ordinance setting a minimum percentage of food bought using city funds to be vegan (for jails, at least 50%). We have worked with the city council of Berkeley to pass a resolution for the city to commit to exploring if they can in the future spend the city’s money 100% only on vegan food. We have encouraged a horse racing track to shut down permanently, and it shut down before we passed a ballot measure in Berkeley to shut down all “concentrated animal feeding operations” (using EPA words). That would include the horse racing track. The measure passed with around 60% of voters in Berkeley voting in favor. We have encouraged fashion brands to stop selling fur (by disrupting luxury stores). One brand announced they were dropping fur the next business day after our protest inside of a Neiman Marcus store. Could be a coincidence, or maybe our protests worked. We have changed Foster City’s plan to kill Canada Geese in parks to their current policy of nonlethal bird population control. We have worked with a state legislator who introduced a bill in California government to ban all animal factory farms in the state (“Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”). This was the first of its kind in California and hopefully not the last introduction. Our volunteer work toward animal liberation is paying off.
Maybe people donate to animal welfare outside of the EA charity intermediaries. For example, I donate to charities such as PETA and Direct Action Everywhere directly, not through an EA intermediary.
When we were deciding what we wanted to put on the ballot in Sonoma County (Measure J), we were thinking of this point of that it would look bad if a moderate measure failed. Our reasoning for choosing a ban on all factory farms (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) was that it was such a huge ask of this agricultural community that it likely would not pass, but it wouldn’t look that bad if it failed because next time we could tone down the ask. But because initial polling showed that most people in the county would vote yes on Measure J, that’s why we proceeded with this big ask. Also, our measure DD to ban all livestock operations did pass in Berkeley. It would have affected one operation, but when we started collecting signatures, they voluntarily shut down. It was Golden Gate Fields horse race track. As for Denver, our friends who were working on the ballot measures also said it was bad for the fur ban initiative that the other, more radical one, was next to it. They are learning from their mistakes.
Yes, we did polling when we were preparing for Measure J. We paid a professional polling service (phone and texting polls) and also collected data in face-to-face interviews with voters in Sonoma County. We also used Survey Monkey to do a poll. All 3 polling methods that we used before commencing Measure J showed that more than 50% of voters in Sonoma County would vote Yes on Measure J. That’s why we decided to even proceed with Measure J.
I was working on Measure J in Sonoma County, and my friends were working on the 2 measures in Denver. One of the main obstacles we faced is with fundraising. Initial polls showed that Measure J in Sonoma County would have passed, but the opposition raised about 10 times more money than we did. We didn’t have money to send truthful literature to every household in Sonoma County, but only to some households. However, the opposition sent multiple pieces of literature filled with exaggerations and lies to scare voters so that they would believe that store shelves would become empty if they voted yes on Measure J. Opposition raised over $2 million to just defeat Measure J. They had money for TV ads, and we didn’t. They paid money to a local environmental nonprofit to publicize why locals should vote no. Our friends in Denver faced very similar challenges. However, our ballot measure to ban all livestock operations did pass in Berkeley. About 60% of people voted to shut down all livestock operations. When we started collecting signatures in Berkeley for this measure DD, then the only large livestock operation there decided to shut down. It was Golden Gate Fields horse race track. Also, even though Measure J did not pass in Sonoma County, it did generate a lot of press. Associated Press, LA Times, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post covered it. If you count letters to the editor, then The Press Democrat covered Measure J around a 100 times. So there’s definitely more awareness of the issue of animal welfare now because of our efforts in Sonoma County. We can leverage our wins in Berkeley and Sonoma County for future work on ballot measures. We need funding though!
I think the following is a good point, "Where the efforts of these altruists should be directed is towards ensuring that governments behave properly. They are not thinking enough about the political structure that underlies their ability to give money away." I have been volunteering in the space of Animal Rights since 2015 and have been reading about social changes and social movements in the past few years. From the literature I read, it does seem that EA movement as a whole is not as focused on creating positive legislative change as it could be. For example, slaves/serfs were freed and women got the right to vote due to social and legislative activism that demanded these changes. It would be great to see more donors supporting more work that is of legislative nature.
In my 8 years of volunteering for several Animal Rights/ Animal Welfare groups, including The Humane League, PETA, Anonymous for the Voiceless, and Direct Action Everywhere, I have observed that most volunteers and paid staff are truth-seeking and completely truthful and transparent with the public. For example, we do discuss amongst ourselves and with the public how to have a healthy and balanced vegan diet. For example, we discuss that as vegans, we should make sure to get supplements of vitamins and minerals we need, including vitamin B12 and omega 3. Also, we sometimes discuss eating enough protein. There’s even a PETA brochure that is a vegan starter kit that shows mock meats - a brochure that we sometimes offer to those interested. Furthermore, we sometimes mention this great resource to learn more about how to optimize nutrition for a long and healthy life: https://nutritionfacts.org/ Also, I sometimes share the website of PubMed for reading of primary research on food and health.