The International Animal Rights Conference 2013

From the 12^th to the 15^th September, I was lucky enough to participate in the third annual International Animal Rights Conference, held in Esch, Luxembourg. My presentation, on the opportunities for campaigners to use existing animal welfare laws as a means to pursue abolitionist goals, was delivered alongside a host of other talks, workshops and films over the course of the weekend. I was honoured to be given the opportunity to speak on the same stage as activists who I have admired for years, and delighted to discover new names whose work will, I am sure, influence my campaigning for animals going forward.

The conference brings together people from all over the world to share theories, strategies and updates surrounding the global animal rights movement. I knew it was going to be extremely informative and I had been looking forward to it for months. Perhaps what I hadn’t expected was the overwhelming energy and emotion which I, and the other participants, experienced throughout the days. Of course we work in a movement which fights the most horrific suffering so discussing this work was never going to be a walk in the park. But whilst there were moments of genuine gut-wrenching horror at the stories of hunting, stealing family pets to sell to laboratories or the dog meat trade, vivisection, factory farming and all of the other abuses that we are working so hard to stop, the emotion that I came away with was neither depression nor hopelessness. Because for every horror story, there were ten stories of compassion, of determination, and of hope. Genuine heroes saving tens, hundreds, thousands of lives and giving absolutely everything they’ve got to ensure that the victories are ever greater and the horrors increasingly diminished. I sit on the train on the last leg of my journey home feeling more energised and determined than I can remember.

Highlights were numerous and I would recommend putting aside some time and working your way through the talks, which have all been published on the Vegan Kanal YouTube Channel. To get you started, make sure you watch (click on name to link to video):

Pattrice Jones on intersectionality in theory and practice (if your response is “what is intersectionality?” you must watch this talk!)

Sharon Nuñez on the fantastic investigative work of Animal Equality

Nick Cooney on the best way to change hearts and minds to benefit animals

Chris De Rose on his life as an activist (contains graphic content but do try to watch it through)

Claudio Pomo on the Green Hill campaign in Italy

And if you have time left after all of those, have a listen to my talk too, and let me know what you think.

I could write reams but each speaker tells his or her story better than I could reword it here so do watch what you can – I just hope you get as much from the talks as I did. I will certainly be returning next year and, in the meantime, I am looking forward to continuing the discussions started over these few days, developing new ideas, projects and strategies to turn this positive energy into real results for the animals. 

Q: Why don’t you campaign on [insert issue of choice here]? A: Why don’t YOU campaign on [insert issue choice here]?

It’s always really exciting when a campaign that you have worked on for months, researched thoroughly and invariably lost some sleep over finally goes public. The CAPS Fight for Flight campaign was launched almost three months ago and has already taken strides forward in both publicising the cruel practice of pinioning birds and also exposing illegal practice in zoos up and down the country.

The vast majority of feedback has been hugely supportive  but, as with any campaign, there are always some people who are not in agreement with us. As campaigners, we expect this – if everyone agreed with us already then our work would be somewhat redundant. One reaction which we always hear, regardless of the subject matter of the campaign, is “Hey! Why don’t you campaign on this instead?”

In the last few years, I have heard the following examples of the “Hey! Why don’t you campaign on this instead?” reaction:

“Why don’t you campaign on wildlife poaching?” (in response to the pinioning campaign).

“Why don’t you campaign about the Grand National?” (in response to the circus campaign).

“Why don’t you focus on something that really matters, like human suffering” (in response to almost every campaign I have ever been involved in).

And just so it’s clear, this question is never delivered in a: “Hey! I saw what a great job you did with that last campaign and I think you should take on this one next  - I’m sure you’ll make a great success of it!” kind of way.  It’s delivered in more of a “Hey! Stupid! Why are you wasting your time on this drivel when you should be focusing on this instead!” kind of way.

Birds - my big thing right now, what's yours?

I always find this a strange reaction to a group of people who are seeking to improve the lives of animals in some way.  This to me is the equivalent of stomping into a hospital and demanding to know why the oncologist is wasting his time with cancer because I have concluded that his working life would be better spent carrying out brain surgery. Personally, I think the oncologist, who has probably (hopefully) spent a long time honing his skills, perhaps has a very specific interest in caring for his patients, should stick to what he’s good at. And the brain surgeon, well she should carry on as she is too. As long as they are not harming anyone, then both the oncologist and the brain surgeon have every right to decide what is important to them and pursue their passion.

Thankfully the world of campaigning is not limited to a hierarchical list which someone else writes up for us and whose entries we must tackle one by one, in order of importance, in a huge coordinated mass; ticking off issues as we go. World hunger “check!”, child poverty “check!” etc. Because if it was done in that way you could guarantee that animals would fall way down the list. Way down. And so would all of the other small, yet vital, campaigns that are being carried out around the world at any one time.

Instead, campaigning is driven by the passion of those people who give of their time and effort to achieve something better than we have now. It could be that this person’s driving passion is their local community and their campaign will establish a community garden. It may be that this person’s driving passion is to contribute to the campaign to end world hunger and they spend their time working on that problem in one small community in one particular part of the world. It could be that this person’s driving passion is animal protection and they feel that birds should not have their limbs amputated so that zoo visitors can look at them. As long as they are not hurting anyone else, each of these campaigns is as valid as the others.

What’s important to me may not be important to everyone, and the campaigns that I work on may not change the whole world. But if we can stop zoos hacking off the wings of birds, then we can certainly change the world for those birds, and all the future generations of birds that won’t be subjected to the same treatment. I think that’s worth fighting for.

So I have a suggestion: If you hear about someone else’s efforts to try to help someone else (be that someone animal or human) and your genuine reaction is: “Why the hell aren't they focusing on [insert an issue you are passionate about here]?” then why not focus your energy on being the person that does do something about your issue? 

Look for information on community gardens, wildlife poaching prevention, world hunger or child poverty and then do something about it. 

Every action, however big or small, can make a difference. We just need people to get active.