Struggle for Animal Rights Martin Balluch
May 20, 2015
Out of the Box SeminarUniversity of Maribor, Slovenia
6. July 2012
The Struggle for Animal Rights
Martin BalluchAssociation Against Animal Factories
VGT, Austria
The modern animal rights movement
1964:• Ruth Harrison‘s book „Animal Machines“ published
→ details factory farming → inspires Peter Singer to „Animal Liberation“ 1975
• Hunt Saboteurs‘ Association founded by journalist John Prestige while writing about deer hunting → direct action against hunting with hounds in UK → grass roots, mass actions, begin of animal rights activism
Repressive ideology newly identified: Speciesism
1970: Richard Ryder coins the phrase speciesism → painism – golden rule:
Don‘t do to others, what you don‘t want done to yourself
Others:
your race – racism
your nation – nationalism
your sex – sexism
your species – speciesism
Solution: others, who can suffer as well
Academic development
• 1975: Peter Singer‘s „Animal Liberation“ → Utilitarianism
• 1983: Tom Regan‘s „The case for Animal Rights“ → Kantianism
• 1996: David DeGrazia‘s „Mental Life and Moral Status“ → Reflective equilibrium
• 1998: Mark Rowlands‘ „Animal Rights“ → Contractarianism
• 2005: Martin Balluch‘s „The Right to Autonomy“ → Categorical values
National organisations ↔ grassrootsWelfarism ↔ Rightsism
Old established welfare organisations are charity, not political – hierarchical, within the established order (royal prefix)
Young activist rights groups are political, not charity – non-hierarchical, critical of the system
UK:• HSA as basis of ar activism turns the working class
against rich farm owners → class aspect• Welfare organisations often run by aristocrats
ANIMAL WELFARE ANIMAL RIGHTS
Basic idea first in 18th century first in 19th century
Groups since early 19th century since end 19th century
Laws since early 19th century none
Motivation empathy justice
Aim minimize suffering autonomy
Animal usage ok in principle wrong in principle
Activity help for suffering animals stop animal abuse
Societal changes (property, personhood)
unchanged completely new
Human-Animal relation stays the same completely new
Self-definition social political
Killing ok if painless not ok
Ethics act good act just
National organisations Grassroots
Ideology Animal Welfare Animal Rights
Concept Reform Abolitionism
Seen in Society mainstream, propagandist radical, honest
Organisation hierarchical non hierachical
Idealism small large
Appearance decent excentric
Activity petitioning, informing demos, direct action
Activists paid, not many volunteers, mass movement
Finances big budget small budget
Campaign goals geared towards donations no concept, the cruelest
Execution of activity professional, media spontaneous, no media
Access to politics farely good none
Campaigns 1970ies – environmentalSeal pup culling in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada:• 1st time TV reports from animal actions• Actress Brigitte Bardot with
baby seals on the ice flows• Spray painting of seal pups
→ killing of seal pups is banned! (trade 1982)
Whaling:• Inflatables block harpoons of whalers
→ moratorium on whaling adopted 1982, in effect 1986
Was international media campaign by Greenpeace et al.
Emancipation of animal issues
Austria: December 1984, occupation of the primieval forests East of Vienna to prevent cutting
→ 10.000 activists attend to:• protect democracy• protect ecosystems• protect endangered species• protect individual animals
→ first purely animal rights oriented groups form
The Fur Campaign 1988
Activism:• Rather naked than fur• Pictures from fur farms
in the media• Media stunts
Result:• Fur sales crash• Fur becomes anti-
social
Kürschner, Handschuhmacher, Gerber
0
20.000
40.000
60.000
80.000
100.000
120.000
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Bruttoproduktionswerte
Betriebserlöse
Produktionswerte
Campaign against live animal transport1995 UK: mass
demos and actions → only Dover
1995 Austria: media stunts and reports → 6 hour max travel time → overthrown in 1998 by EU courts
Killed in action!
Mike Hill, 9. 2. 1991
Hunt sabbing the Cheshire Beagles
Tom Worby, 3. 4. 1993
Hunt sabbing the Cambridge Foxhounds
Jill Phipps, 1. 2. 1995
Blocking Coventry Airport against the export of live calves to Europe
Pressure campaigns against companiesPressure campaign:• permanent demos• many actions (most illegal)• no media, no public sympathy
1996-1997: Consort Beagles
1997-1999: Hillgrove Cats
1999-2000: Shamrock Farm Monkeys
1999-2005: Newchurch Guinea Pigs (prison after end)
2000: Regal Rabbits
1999-prison(2007): SHAC
Aspects of abolitionist direct pressure campaigns
• Abolitionist: against animal using companies, alternative only no usage at all
• No compromise• Direct pressure without large scale support of the
public• Grassroots non-hierarchical autonomous activities• No public face explains activities• But: if certain companies are stopped, does that
reduce animal abuse?
Paradigm shift in Austria
Synthesis of:• National Organisation ↔ Grassroots
→ national network of grassroots groups, non-hierarchical but with reasonable budget, media relations and access to politics
• Welfare ↔ Rights → appreciate welfare as political and psychological step towards rights
• Reform ↔ Abolitionism → confrontational reform campaigns for incremental law/system changes with the sympathy of the public
Fur farm campaign in earnest• 1988: ca. 80 farms (fox,
mink, nutria), start of campaign
• 1989: Greens demand fur farm ban
• 1989: voluntary quality seal for fur farms
• 1991: environmental minister campaigns against fur farms
• 1993: Activists find 43 fur farms, publish footage
• 1990ies: disruption of all fur fashion shows
Fur farm ban in Austria• 1995: 6 provinces
ban fur farms, 3 don‘t
• 1997: permanent demos begin
• 10. 2. 1998: office of provincial governor occupied
• 17. 2. 1998: ban introduced
• 30. 11. 1998: last fur farm closes
Fur farm ban: critical assessment
• Abolitionist? – What about leather?– What about sheep fur?– Outright ban of certain animal product
• But:– Fur farms move abroad– Fur trade not reduced
• Although:– Ban might be exported (indeed: UK, …)– Banned production stigmatises the product fur
Campaign against animal circuses
• 1996: Circuses documented
• 1997: Permanent demos start (almost daily)
• 1998: circus documentary film published
• Violence by circus staff• 2002: Ban on wild animals
in circuses agreed• 2005: Ban takes effect
Wild animals circus ban: critical assessment
• Only certain animals banned from usage
→ Usage of domestic and farmed animals ok?• But even the most humane usage of wild animals
banned!• Consequence:
– Almost no circuses with animals left in Austria– No foreign circuses come to Austria
• 3 times was the banned challenged at EU-level and at the Austrian constitutional court
→ Ban was upheld
Preliminaries to battery farm ban
1994: UV lamp tests in supermarkets → 1995: control institute founded
Beak trimming for non-cage birds → 2001: scientific study for management of non-cage flocks without beak trimming → beak trimming < 1%
Phase 1: making the public aware
March 2003: 7 chickens liberated openly with journalists present
Found guilty for theft and burglary to the value of € 15
Appeal court: not guilty, because acted in the name of society
Investigation: battery farming
July 2003: 48 battery farms visited within 15 days, keeping 40% of all battery hens
Result:• 79% massively
overstocked cages• 91% overstocked cages• 100% ill animals• 71% very unhygienic• 47% dead chickens rotting in cages
January – May 2004: confrontational campaign
Daily demos outside government buildings and on the streets, informing the public
Opinion poll
February 2004:• 86% of the population
want battery farming banned
Actually:• 80% buy battery eggs• 30% eggs imported from
cage systems
SUCCESS !! – Battery farming banned!
On 27th May 2004 historic unanimous vote for a ban:
• conventional cages banned from 1st Jan 2009
• no new enriched cage systems from 1st Jan 2005
• existing enriched cage systems (2% of hens) for 15 years (till 2020)
And:• Animal solicitor scheme• Animal protection in constitution
Further bans
• 2005: song bird trapping
• 2006: experiments on apes (chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orang utans and gibbons!)
• 2007: caging rabbits for meat production
Repression: USA and UKUSA: Center of the defence of free enterprise• 1992: Animal Enterprise Protection Act• 2004: Ecoterrorism Prevention Act• 2006: Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
UK: Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
→ 2006: 4 new church guinea pig campaigners convicted of blackmail for up to 12 years prison
→ 2006: 8 sequani campaigners convicted of SOCPA for up to 6 years prison
→ 2009: 13 SHAC campaigners convicted of conspiracy to blackmail for up to 11 years prison
USA: 2006 SHAC 7 imprisoned for up to 6 years
Repression in Austria
• Investigation starts October 2006• Special Police Unit formed (35 officers) in April 2007• In 2008 alone: optical and accoustical surveillance of
267 activists • Methods: police spies, phone tapping, email reading,
tracking device on car, cameras at doors, bugging devices in homes and offices, cash account monitoring, direct surveillance
• Police reports against 46 people, 150 suspects, 16 suspected animal organisations
Home raids and remand prison
• 21st May 2008: 23 raids in homes and 7 offices; later 10 more raids
• 10 activists for 105 days on remand in prison
• Suspicion: criminal organisation since 1988 for all animal campaigns
• Appeals fail: released because of public pressure
• After intensive PR campaigns (e.g. 25 press conferences): media and public side with the accused
Animal rights trial• 2nd March 2010 – 2nd May 2011• 98 trial days• 126 witnesses of the prosecution • Consecutively: 3 tax and charity
investigations against ar group• Verdict: not guilty
– There never was a real suspicion– There is no criminal organisation in the animal
movement– The accused have understandably critisized police– Police have acted illegally and lied in court
Repression in Spain
• Investigations start 2008• Methods: phones tapped,
emails read, social profiles, surveillance
• 22. June 2011: 13 home raids, 11 arrests, 3 on remand in prison for almost 1 month
• Charge: Criminal organisation
• Bad media coverage as „ecoterrorists“