Becoming an Animal Rights Activist: an Exploration of Culture

BECOMING AN ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: AN EXPLORATION OF CULTURE, SOCIALIZATION, AND IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION by NICOLE RENEE PALLOTTA (Under the Direction of James J. Dowd) ABSTRACT This dissertation examines dominant cultural beliefs about human-animal relations and the challenge to this ideology posed by animal rights activists. Through an analysis of the conversion narratives of vegan animal rights activists, the dynamics of socialization and re- socialization are considered against the backdrop of a culture that harbors contradictory, contested, and changing views regarding the acceptable treatment of nonhuman animals. The political ideology, beliefs, and worldview of animal rights activists will be examined, and the process of conversion to a vegan animal rights perspective and lifestyle, which is usually punctuated by dramatic turning points, will also be considered. How does a person become an animal rights activist? How does a routinized activity like meat eating, which achieves taken- for-granted status for most members of American culture following the completion of the normal socialization program, come to be seen as an arbitrary, problematic, and amoral convention? The construction of an alternative sense of morality regarding the human-animal relationship and the redefinition of conventional boundaries will be examined in light of what is often a gradual process of identity transformation. The effect of the identity shift on personal relationships and social interactions will also be considered. INDEX WORDS: Activism, Animal rights, Boundaries, Conversion, Culture, Emotion, Identity, Morality, Rationality, Social construction, Social movements, Socialization, Turning points, Veganism BECOMING AN ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: AN EXPLORATION OF CULTURE, SOCIALIZATION, AND IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION by NICOLE RENEE PALLOTTA B.A., Trenton State College, 1995 M.A., University of Georgia, 1997 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 © 2005 Nicole Renee Pallotta All Rights Reserved BECOMING AN ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: AN EXPLORATION OF CULTURE, SOCIALIZATION, AND IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION by NICOLE RENEE PALLOTTA Major Professor: James J. Dowd Committee: Barry Schwartz Linda Grant James Balkwell Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2005 iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to all the animals and the people who defend them, and to Jeff, my favorite vegan. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to extend a big thank you to all of the animal rights activists who generously shared their stories, insights, and time with me; your dedication to making the world a better place for all animals is truly inspiring. Jim Dowd and Barry Schwartz played a pivotal role in shaping this work, and my parents, Bob and Jackie Pallotta, provided generous support and constant encouragement throughout the duration of this project. Kobi and Alec, the greatest dogs in the world, made sure that I did not spend all of my time working on my dissertation. Most of all, I want to thank Jeff Kidder, my fabulous and amazing boyfriend, for everything and then some. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Animal Rights Activism, Culture, and Socialization...............................1 2 Methods and Data ........................................................................................................28 3 What is an Animal Rights Activist?.............................................................................54 4 Predispositions and Early Incidents: The Animal-Victimization Schema ..................97 5 Turning Points: The Transition from Meat Eater to Vegan.......................................136 6 Social Relationships...................................................................................................188 7 Giving One’s Life to Animal Rights..........................................................................219 8 Conclusions: Morality Construction, Boundaries, and the Animal-Other.................246 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................305 APPENDIX..................................................................................................................................313 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Animal Rights Orientations .............................................................................................14 Table 2: The Victimization-Animal Schema ...............................................................................119 Table 3: Age at Which Respondent Went Vegetarian.................................................................157 Table 4: School Level (Vegetarian).............................................................................................157 Table 5: Age at Which Respondent Went Vegan ........................................................................157 Table 6: School Level (Vegan)....................................................................................................158 Table 7: Transition Time Between Turning Points......................................................................158 Table 8: Length of Turning Point: Vegetarianism.......................................................................163 Table 9: Length of Turning Point: Veganism..............................................................................163 Table 10: Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning.......................................................................284 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISM, CULTURE, AND SOCIALIZATION The Animal Rights Movement: Background and Context Since its emergence in the early 1980s, philosophers and historians have produced most of the scholarly work regarding the contemporary U.S. animal rights movement (Finsen and Finsen 1994, Singer 1975, Regan 1983). Within the past decade, however, social scientists have increasingly begun to pay the movement some attention (Groves 1995, Herzog 1993, Kunkel 1995, Arluke and Sanders 1996). However, scholars working in the social movement tradition within sociology have, for the most part, not applied their theories to the animal rights movement. The animal rights movement is a theoretically interesting case, as it shares much in common with other twentieth century social justice movements while at the same time retaining significant differences that make it unique. For instance, compared with other social movements, such as the anti-war movement or the civil rights movement, the animal rights movement is more transformative in that it pervades every aspect of the lives of activists. The significant lifestyle changes required of activists are so totalizing that it is almost impossible for them to keep these changes a “secret” or to compartmentalize the issue from their daily, non-activist lives. How are activists recruited to this movement? Or do they tend to seek out the movement themselves? Consonant with recent trends in social movement theory that have begun to emphasize cultural and social psychological factors (Buechler 1993; Goodwin, Jasper, and Polletta 2001), my research on the animal rights movement was motivated by the belief that it would provide a 2 productive site for the refinement of some of the basic theoretical concepts within social movement theory, especially recruitment. No matter what the social movement, questions of participation, motivation, and recruitment are always central for sociologists seeking to understand the dynamics of mobilization and resistance. Further, I anticipated that the animal rights movement would provide fertile ground upon which to explore culture and cognition as it pertains to movement participation and activism. One of the issues that my dissertation addresses is food classification, that is, cultural rules concerning what may or may not be eaten and individual adherence to these rules. These initial interests in recruitment, culture, and cognition have led me ultimately to focus upon the concepts of socialization and conversion, which will be the main themes explored in this dissertation. Becoming an animal rights activist is essentially a process of identity transformation and hence questions pertaining to recruitment and participation in the animal rights movement are intimately connected to questions of identity and re-socialization. What is the Animal Rights Movement? There’s a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig— an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham (New York Times Magazine, “An Animal’s Place,” by Michael Pollan, 11/10/ 02). The beginnings of a movement for animal rights, which is also sometimes referred to as the animal liberation movement, has been traced in the U.S. (its British counterpart emerged about a decade earlier) to the publication of Australian utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer’s groundbreaking book, Animal Liberation, in

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