| Why politicise animal rights? "A central aim of the animal protection movement, of course, is to achieve political change" Robert Garner - Animals, politics and morality (Manchester University Press) Everything that requires protection through legislation is political. So is the animal rights cause, and more particularly so, since animal rights campaigning is campaigning on behalf of living beings who cannot fight for their own cause; non-human animals are still subjected to unimaginable cruelty in "factory farms"; they are still unnecessarily murdered for food and clothing; they still endure terrible suffering in painful experiments; they are still abandoned to their own fate to die of starvation; they are still hunted and killed in blood sports. Not to go political is to preserve this unacceptable state of affairs. This has been understood throughout most international animal rights groups. Hopefully, Maltese animal rights organisations will follow suit. All politicians who do not care about animal rights want is for animal rights organisations to be "docile" groups who avoid criticising politicians out of fear of retaliation. What such groups fail to recognise is the immense power they hold in influencing politicians by means of justified criticism, which may take the form of either criticising politicians who enact laws that are harmful to non-human animals or enact no pro-animal rights laws, or else commending politicians who are in line with the animal rights cause, or both. Politicians need votes to be elected. By staying silent, and not exposing to the public the politicians' views on animal rights, we would be doing a great disservice to non-human animals. Only by voting for animal rights-friendly politicians, and by telling people to do so, do we ever expect any form of political improvement in the animal rights field. Animal rights activists are not pet lovers who stop at that...loving pets. This would make us no different than people who love cars. One may "love" his car, but wouldn't care about the neighbour's car, and with good reason. Cars are property. Animals are not property. Non-human animals are living beings who have rights. The fact that all animals have rights, irrespective of whether we like (or love) them or not, sets before us the duty to work towards better treatment of them, and to work for legislation which regards them as holders of rights. This cannot be achieved otherwise than politically. The abolition of slavery was achieved politically. The liberation of women was achieved politically. So will "animal liberation". It is a duty of all people who respect all animals to campaign for animal rights, which by necessity includes campaigning for politicians who are for animal rights. Laws are made by politicians. Protests count to nothing unless votes come into the picture. By not voting for politicians who favour animal rights, and by passively not urging others to vote for animal rights-friendly politicians, we would be actively helping things stay as they are...and for non-human animals that is not a beautiful picture at all. |
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