UNDERSTANDING ANIMAL WELFARE, PROTECTION, RIGHTS & LIBERATION AND BEING THE CHANGE
Due to the fact that there is still a big misunderstanding regarding the mentioned terms, it is a matter of great concern to me to clarify this openly and honestly from an animal rights perspective.
INITIAL SITUATION
Over and over again, so-called “animal protection advocacy programs, animal welfare initiatives, and animal welfare organizations” appear, which are oriented towards animal-eating (meat, milk, egg, etc.), animal-bearing (wool, leather, silk, fur, etc.), and animal-using (for entertainment) consumers instead of focusing on the animals, their welfare, protection, rights, and freedom. They advertise regionality, organic animal products from “humane and species-appropriate husbandry” and “animal welfare criteria” for the profitable support of the local agricultural economy.
The following text is a statement of mine from an animal rights perspective to educate people about the injustice, speciesism, oppression, and discrimination of non-human animals and to correct terminology.
What do animal protection and animal welfare actually mean? Which of the two is really effective for the animals?
First of all, there is the question of what animal protection means. Protection literally means “the act of protecting or the state of being protected; preservation from injury or harm”. This means it is not relevant in which country or region a sentient individual’s throat is cut, but that this happens at all.
To promote a “better” or “humane” way of killing in the context of protecting animals is to trivialize the suffering and agony of non-human animals. Furthermore, it is a deception of the people, and hypocrisy for the “pure conscience”, out of believed and conditioned human superiority. All this has nothing to do with protection.
To further address the concept of “welfare”, the “good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity, etc., of a person, group, or organization; well-being (a state in which someone feels comfortable)”, it must be noted that any suffering inflicted on an animal does not correspond to the concept of welfare. Placing “well-being” in the context of exploitation and oppression shows not only a lack of understanding, knowledge, empathy, and sensitivity, but also the psychological phenomenon of strong cognitive dissonance (decisions, actions, and information do not align with beliefs, feelings, and values).
Is there, or should there be, a difference between animal rights, animal protection, and animal welfare?
For me there is no difference between animal rights and animal welfare because the intention and the goals should be the same: To value and respect the lives of others; that is, to possess freedom and the right to bodily autonomy.
The majority of people who consume animals often construct their own subjective definition of animal welfare and protection out of convenience and their own justification. Rights should actually be there to protect someone, not to kill someone “more humanely” or “in a better way”, which is a direct contradiction in terms. So it clearly shows that just because something is legal does not automatically make it ethical.
It is a double standard to use protection, respect, appreciation, and love in the same context with the call to slaughter locally and extinguish life. There is no better way to kill someone who doesn’t want to die.
What animal rights activism is and where the activist approach begins.
Animal rights are for me the realization of the ethical attitude that all animals have a right to a good, protected, and free life without any exploitation and harm by humans. Animal rights also mean to me that the most basic interests of animals, such as the need to avoid suffering, must be given the same consideration as the human species.
Animal rights activism is the resulting active participation for the ethical equality of all living beings.
For me, the activist approach begins with a clear, unadulterated, and honest explanation of how animals are actually treated, used, exploited, and killed by humans.
People should understand that animals are sentient beings, individuals with their own personalities and the same desire to live as humans. Activists also clarify which belittled image is suggested to us by the media, advertising, and animal industry and what actually happens behind closed doors.
The question of animal welfare is increasingly coming to the foreground and is also being discussed more and more frequently in terms of publicity. Several political initiatives are needed. What should such initiatives look like?
An animal rights and animal protection mindset, attitude to life, and the associated way of living are increasingly coming to the fore, as the animal industry is increasingly exposed by animal rights and animal freedom activists. This is shattering the wholesome, romanticized image that animal breeders lead with the help of a manipulative advertising strategy. Through effective, honest, fact-based, and empathetic education on the part of activists, there is an understanding that animal consumption is the greatest injustice we learn as humans; to love some, kill others; and to perceive this as “normal, natural and necessary”.
There must be many more political initiatives, but by representatives who have understood what animal welfare, animal rights, animal liberation, and freedom are really about. Initiatives led by visionary vegan leaders who are cooperative and open to criticism, and who work with decades-old animal rights organizations to incorporate their experience, knowledge, and development into implementation.
What would be the immediate demand from an animal rights perspective with regard to products that cost animals their lives?
Demands from an animal rights perspective are to remove subsidies for the animal industry and the meat, dairy, and animal production lobby. Subsidies should ideally be used to support farmers in switching to plant-based food production or alternative career paths. Furthermore, from an animal rights perspective, animal extremities and animal secretions should not be provided with deceptive images, nor words and phrases such as “fresh”, “from happy animals”, “animal welfare”, “species-appropriate”, etc. Animal welfare and species-appropriate husbandry are only found in their freedom and bodily autonomy.
In conclusion, it must be said ...
If titled “animal welfare and animal protection” support atrocities and completely disregards the murder of animals and even actively supports, approves, and motivates, then these two concepts were not even rudimentarily understood in the context of justice.
It is not how animals are used, it is THAT they are used!
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Please note:
➸ when the term "human" is used, then human animals are meant by it, and the same applies to the term "animal", who are non-human animals.➸ text and illustrations are intellectual property of Kerstin Brueller. Sharing the content for private purposes is appreciated and always to be provided with a copyright. It is prohibited to copy and share it for commercial purposes. Please contact me for a collaboration, if you are unsure or have any further questions. Thanks for your understanding.➸ I personally care much about symbolism and the meaning of certain shapes and metaphors. The images and interpretations are the representation of my own imagination.