by Gary Francione
Gary Francione, Rutgers law professor and co-founder/director of the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Center, is among the most ideologically-committed professionals championing abolition of all institutionalized animal usage. In this speech -- delivered before the World Vegetarian Congress at the University of Pittsburgh (at Johnstown) on August 3, 1996 -- Francione offers an empowering dictum on the need for ongoing individual/collective action to halt injustices toward animals, humans and the environment.
Gary Francione, Rutgers law professor and co-founder/director of the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Center, is among the most ideologically-committed professionals championing abolition of all institutionalized animal usage. In this speech -- delivered before the World Vegetarian Congress at the University of Pittsburgh (at Johnstown) on August 3, 1996 -- Francione offers an empowering dictum on the need for ongoing individual/collective action to halt injustices toward animals, humans and the environment.
There are more people than ever before who claim to identify with the "animal rights movement." More and more people are giving up meat and dairy products; more and more reject the use of animals in biomedical experiments; more and more now accept that whatever educational benefits are provided by zoos cannot justify what zoos really are: prisons for animals. Recent surveys show that a majority of the population expresses some endorsement of the animal rights position, and most people are horrified when they become aware of the details of exactly how that steak got to their dinner plate. But at the same time there are more animals being used in more horrific ways than ever before.
In the United States alone, over 8 billion animals are consumed for food every year. These animals are transformed into meat through a process known as "intensive agriculture," which is shorthand for rearing practices that cannot be described as anything other than barbaric. Pigs live their lives in stalls, unable to turn around or to escape the suckling of the constant streams of litters that they are forced to have; calves live confined in small crates in dark, windowless buildings; laying hens are confined four to a cage measuring 12 inches square; broiler hens are confined so severely that cannibalism and disease kills many of the birds. Animals continue to be used in bizarre and often horrific experiments in which they are confined, shot, shocked, burned, and otherwise mutilated. The law says that anesthesia need not be used if anesthesia would interfere with the results of the experiment. And it is the researchers themselves who are entrusted with the decision about whether pain relief would interfere with their "science."
Researchers claim that animals are like us, and we need to use them in order to understand and treat our diseases. But these same researchers claim that animals are unlike us, so that we need have no moral concern about our exploitation of them. And, despite almost universal social acceptance of the notion that we ought not to impose "unnecessary" suffering on animals, we continue to use animals in all sorts of contexts in which we cannot even claim the pretense of benefit. For example, every year on Labor Day in Hegins, Pennsylvania, shooters pay about $100 each for the privilege of shooting, crippling, and ultimately beating to death about 8,000 pigeons.
The Pennsylvania courts have thus far refused to hold that such conduct violates the state anticruelty law. Many animal advocates understandably feel a sense of defeat. The system does not seem to be responding, even though there are more of us than ever before, and even though those who support animal exploitation have yet to come up with any justification of animal use other than it is "traditional or "natural' -- the same vacuous explanations that have been offered throughout human history to justify virtually every form of social oppression. Perhaps animal advocates have failed to appreciate the enormity of the problem.
The plain fact is chat this country and other industrial countries are deeply dependent on animal exploitation to sustain their present economic structures. The plain fact is that we are more dependent on animal exploitation than were the states of the southern United States on human slavery. Animals are property, and many animals, such as cows, horses, breeding "stock," transgenic animals, and racing horses, are particularly valuable forms of property. Although there are laws that supposedly protect animals, these laws almost always require that courts defer to the interests of human property owners. After all, animals are our property, and what sense would it make to allow our property to prevail in a conflict with us!
So, although there are more people concerned about animals and the environment, little progress has been made because those who profit from animal exploitation and the governments that exists to serve their interests have a lot to lose and are not budging -- not an inch. But there are signs that the pendulum may, as a general matter, be swinging back.
People are starting to realize that democracy has been hijacked by corporate special interests. People are getting tired of the resurgence of racism and anti-Semitism. People are getting tired of the rampant and disempowering sexism that pervades our culture. People are becoming increasingly aware that our "
In the United States alone, over 8 billion animals are consumed for food every year. These animals are transformed into meat through a process known as "intensive agriculture," which is shorthand for rearing practices that cannot be described as anything other than barbaric. Pigs live their lives in stalls, unable to turn around or to escape the suckling of the constant streams of litters that they are forced to have; calves live confined in small crates in dark, windowless buildings; laying hens are confined four to a cage measuring 12 inches square; broiler hens are confined so severely that cannibalism and disease kills many of the birds. Animals continue to be used in bizarre and often horrific experiments in which they are confined, shot, shocked, burned, and otherwise mutilated. The law says that anesthesia need not be used if anesthesia would interfere with the results of the experiment. And it is the researchers themselves who are entrusted with the decision about whether pain relief would interfere with their "science."
Researchers claim that animals are like us, and we need to use them in order to understand and treat our diseases. But these same researchers claim that animals are unlike us, so that we need have no moral concern about our exploitation of them. And, despite almost universal social acceptance of the notion that we ought not to impose "unnecessary" suffering on animals, we continue to use animals in all sorts of contexts in which we cannot even claim the pretense of benefit. For example, every year on Labor Day in Hegins, Pennsylvania, shooters pay about $100 each for the privilege of shooting, crippling, and ultimately beating to death about 8,000 pigeons.
The Pennsylvania courts have thus far refused to hold that such conduct violates the state anticruelty law. Many animal advocates understandably feel a sense of defeat. The system does not seem to be responding, even though there are more of us than ever before, and even though those who support animal exploitation have yet to come up with any justification of animal use other than it is "traditional or "natural' -- the same vacuous explanations that have been offered throughout human history to justify virtually every form of social oppression. Perhaps animal advocates have failed to appreciate the enormity of the problem.
The plain fact is chat this country and other industrial countries are deeply dependent on animal exploitation to sustain their present economic structures. The plain fact is that we are more dependent on animal exploitation than were the states of the southern United States on human slavery. Animals are property, and many animals, such as cows, horses, breeding "stock," transgenic animals, and racing horses, are particularly valuable forms of property. Although there are laws that supposedly protect animals, these laws almost always require that courts defer to the interests of human property owners. After all, animals are our property, and what sense would it make to allow our property to prevail in a conflict with us!
So, although there are more people concerned about animals and the environment, little progress has been made because those who profit from animal exploitation and the governments that exists to serve their interests have a lot to lose and are not budging -- not an inch. But there are signs that the pendulum may, as a general matter, be swinging back.
People are starting to realize that democracy has been hijacked by corporate special interests. People are getting tired of the resurgence of racism and anti-Semitism. People are getting tired of the rampant and disempowering sexism that pervades our culture. People are becoming increasingly aware that our "