Proceedings of the Conference Critical Perspectives on Animals in Society held at the University of Exeter, UK 10 March 2012 © CPAS convenors, editors and individual named contributors, 2013 Some rights reserved Copyright in contributions to these proceedings rests with their respective authors. Copyright to the overall collection and arrangement and to any other material in this document rests with the convenors of CPAS and the editors of its proceedings. 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Requests to the former should be directed to: [email protected] Edited by Chris Calvert and Jessica Gröling Contents Introduction by the editors 5 Chris Calvert and Jessica Gröling — Contributions in brief — About CPAS — Acknowledgements — Conference programme Campaigning techniques 11 Keynote address by Dr Richard D. Ryder Animal rights: moral crusade or social movement? 19 Kim Stallwood Sense and sentimentality: a critical study of the influence of myth 25 in portrayals of the soldier and horse during World War One Jane Flynn Agrarian nostalgia and industrial agriculture: 31 George Orwell's Animal Farm as political pastoral Seán McCorry Animals with attitude: finding a place for animated animals 37 Gill Bliss The Institute for Animal Genetics: a case 45 study of the animal±industrial complex Daniel van Strien University ethical review committees and the Animals (Scientific Procedures) 49 Act: using the Freedom of Information Act as a research tool Workshop report by Jessica Gröling Killing badgers and talking about it 63 Workshop report by Alexander Badman-King Emotions or evidence? Effective activism needs hearts and minds 69 Workshop report by Sarah Crowley Academics and activists: responses and reflections 73 Chris Calvert Visual reflections on the conference 83 A short comic by Nathan Stephens Griffin Calvert and Gröling Introduction by the editors Chris Calvert and Jessica Gröling he Critical Perspectives on Animals in Society (CPAS) conference took place on 10 T March 2012 at the University of Exeter in the south-west of England. The event was open to everyone and free to attend, attracting around 150 academics, animal advocates and hybrids of the two from all over the UK and Europe. The day was packed with presentations, workshops, film showings, stalls, vegan food, and even performance poetry and music, as well as a keynote address by the philosopher and veteran campaigner Dr Richard Ryder. As is usually the case at conferences, speakers were given relatively little time to present, so we are pleased to be able to give greater space to the work of several of them through the publication of these proceedings. We also bring you extended reports from three conference workshops, additional reflections and even a comic. The presentation sessions and keynote address were filmed for the benefit of all who could not be present on the day, and can be viewed on the CPAS website (animalsinsociety.wordpress.com) or on YouTube (youtube.com/user/animalsinsociety). We highly recommend watching the presentations not featured in written form here, as a supplement and companion to what you can read in this collection. The feedback received from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, which makes us hopeful that other similar events can be organised in the future. If you would like to be involved in planning and delivering a future event or would like to make a suggestion, please get in touch with us. Whether this experience can be repeated depends greatly on the enthusiasm of those in a position to organise a follow-up. You can stay up to date with any developments, and much else that may be of interest, by visiting the website, and by joining the mailing list (email us at [email protected]) or Facebook group (search for ªCritical Perspectives on Animals in Societyº). Amongst other resources and opportunities for discussion, a list of taught courses and academics of possible interest to readers is maintained there. 5 6 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ANIMALS IN SOCIETY Contributions in brief A presentation-derived paper and two workshop reports turn our attention to some specific sites of This collection opens with the keynote address human interference with animal lives. Daniel van given by Richard Ryder, surveying the progress of Strien continues in the historical vein of the pre- the animal rights movement since the 1970s and ceding contributions by considering Edinburgh's offering advice from a career spent at its heart. Institute for Animal Genetics as a window into an This makes invaluable reading for anyone who inchoate animal±industrial complex, examining its wishes to engage with the political process Ð aims and connections to the wider edifice of understood in its broad sense, to include the shap- exploitation. Jessica Gröling reports on her work- ing of public opinion via the media Ð for the shop about tools for campaigners researching benefit of animals. Ryder's reflections offer a fas- vivisection in the UK, revealing her own findings in cinating insight into what factors he considers to this area and offering extensive practical assistance have contributed to the many advances already in making freedom of information requests. In his achieved, and the priorities he has in mind for the workshop report on the topical controversy of the campaigners of the future. The theme is taken up UK badger cull, Alexander Badman-King issues a by Kim Stallwood, who looks first to the indi- plea for greater understanding of the priorities and vidual motivated to transform their relationship to preconceptions brought to the table by opposing animals, before switching to the societal level to parties, looking to seventeenth century discussions ask what kind of a phenomenon animal rights of forestry for insight into present-day disagree- really is. He presents a five-stage model for the ments about conservation. progress of social movements and advocates a Whether the conference would be judged a suc- renewed conception of animal campaigning as cess or not always depended in part on the extent being centred on political and not just individual to which it brought together people interested in change, making recommendations for how cam- and concerned about animals from the worlds of paigners should see themselves as fitting into the academia and campaigning. It was gratifying to political system. see such a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, Three more papers based on presentation ses- opinions and personalities at all sessions during sions follow, exploring cultural, literary and artistic the day, and there cannot have been many aca- representations of animals. Jane Flynn leads us to demic conferences in any field with quite the same the horses of the First World War battlefields and range of attendees. Sarah Crowley offers a work- discusses how they were used and understood, jux- shop report that explores questions of taposing contemporary sentimental tales of brave epistemology and the role of emotion at the inter- soldiers and their horses with the harsh economic face of research and activism. Then in the logic of the conflict. Moving to the middle of the concluding written contribution to these proceed- last century, Seán McCorry, who at the conference ings, Chris Calvert attempts to synthesise and spoke on farm fictions of that era, concentrates reflect on some of the views expressed by a variety here on Orwell's Animal Farm, asking to what of conference attendees and other interested extent it can be seen as a pro-animal text, and parties, exploring the differing perceptions of aca- unearthing the tensions that underlie previous crit- demics and activists, of welfare scientists and ical readings of its pastoral setting that neglect the abolitionists, and giving practical suggestions to real position of the farmed animal. Bringing us up those who wish to advance co-operation. Finally, to the era of film and television, Gill Bliss traces Nathan Stephens Griffin, who presented in part the cultural roots of anthropomorphic animals and on the subject of his unconventional research defends their use in storytelling, turning the spot- methodology, rounds off this collection with a light on her own work as an artist bringing animal comic summing up how he Ð and, from what we forms to the screen through animation. have heard, others Ð felt about the conference. CALVERT AND GRÖLING 7 About CPAS The critical dimension Critical Perspectives on Animals in Society began There has been some discussion surrounding the as a project founded by a small group of post- use of the word `critical'. So many of the people graduate students with the following aims: that CPAS brings together are in some way critical of human relations with the nonhuman world, and 1. To create a space for postgraduates across dis- in particular the ways in which humans exploit ciplines including Politics, Geography, other-than-human animals. All of us are also famil- Sociology, Philosophy, Law, History, English, iar with the use of the word `critical' to indicate Education, Psychology and others working in that we have reached a decisive, important or cru- the emerging fields of human±animal studies cial moment in time. We may indeed be at such a and critical animal studies to present their juncture.