Winter-Spring 2002 Volume 12, Number 1 Forum Report: Do Animal Welfare Campaigns &Reforms Hurt or Help? On December 8-9, 2001, United Poultry as in the current legislation to amend the AWA to Concerns held our 3rd annual Forum at our head- ban the interstate transport of birds intended for quarters and chicken sanctuary in Machipongo, cockfighting. Virginia. We are pleased to present to our members The very fact of a law acknowledges that this summary of the ideas expressed by the speakers there are practices that are wrong and creates a social at the Forum. We thank everyone whose participa- perception of wrongness. The alternative is nothing tion helped make our Forum a significant contribu- l tion to the Animal Liberation Movement; we thank on the books, no laws at all. In the egislative arena, Joyce Friedman of In Derensec o f if yo u're not there, you leave that arena to Animals for moderating our two "~ fi'aa ef ~ those who don't care about ani- discussion sessions and Paul A ~ a mals or animal welfare. Shapiro of Compassion ~ tJiat t/iere, are, pracr Under these circum­ Over Killing for his stances, "insider status" video presentation of lice& tJiat are, lJJYtfU'l/Y and create& a is not a sellout. Not to Hope For the Hopeless. cWCial perceptllnz, ef lffr~ 1('/le, help animals who are al:t£r~ [,& ~ fftn, t./ie, sufferi~g hernnd now Kirsten Rosenberg, luwJe&, . ,, 1s to sacnfice ex1st111g am- Managing Editor of The nlfV /a,m& at,, all. mals for a hypothetical "Looking Out Animals' Agenda: - Kirsten Rosenberg future and to basically say that the for Animals' Welfare in the Pursuit of suffering of existing animals doesn't count. Rights." Philosophically, we can distinguish between However, we have a duty to ameliorate the suffering classic welfare, welfare in pursuit of rights, and abo­ of animals on the way to abolition. lition without reform. Classic welfare seeks to To the question of whether welfare cam­ improve our treatment of the animals we exploit, paigns, reforms, and regulations make people feel but does not seek to abolish the exploitation. better about abusing animals, like eating them, there Welfare in pursuit of rights seeks to alleviate the suf­ are no opinion polls yet to answer the question. fering of the animals we exploit while seeking to Such polls are needed. To the argument that welfare abolish the exploitation. Abolition without reform doesn't work because more animals are now being considers reform, by and large, to be counterproduc­ used than ever before, this is true, but it is not tive in the pursuit of animals' rights. inevitably the fault of reformists: unfortunately, the However, well-crafted welfare campaigns technologies of animal exploitation have increased can lead society to more expanded concerns about along with the global human population. More peo­ animals, and bring more people into our movement. ple in the world create more of a market for animal Welfare reforms also reduce animal suffering. While products. modest improvements and regulations legitimize and codify nonhuman animals as property, a modestly Toe Miele, New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance: good law can be amended, and thus further improve "Getting Back to the Core of the Animal Rights the treatment of exploited animals. For example, the Movement." Concerning reforms and campaigns, Animal Welfare Act (AWA) keeps expanding its cov­ there are welfare reforms/campaigns intended to erage- all the way from only animals in laboratories help animals vs. welfare reforms/campaigns intended in the 1960s to animals used for fighting purposes, to help animal abusing industries. An example of a FORUM positive welfare campaign is the Goose People in Seattle, who movements go through the same arguments over reform vs. stopped the US Department of Agriculture from killing harm­ revolution; these arguments were part of the Marxist tradition. less geese. It didn't stop the killing of all geese but it stopped Unfortunately, the Marxist tradition was and remains radically the killing these geese, while gaining favorable press and public anthropocentric and speciesist. support. "Bad" reform is one that seeks to make the abuser's So how does the Marxist conflict between reform and activities more palatable to the public. Good publicity for revolution apply ro animal rights concerns? The 19th century ab users doesn't necessarily translate into good news for the ani­ saw the Industrial Revolution, which brought enormous suffer­ mals. Regarding the American Humane Association's Free ing to workers throughout the world. There were no child Farmed Eggs certificate program, labor laws, no welfare laws. There for example, Shape Magazine said, was no social security, workers "If nothing else, your conscience "l'llVflat ~ end up compensation, minimum wage, or should be lighter." Or take the workers' right to vote. In 1848, McDonald's/Burger King "more ins urrections rolled across Europe, space" for battery-caged hens witii ar~ fedr0£Uld and it looked like workers would reforms. To show you what "more "take over." But that didn't happen, space" really amounts to for each ~ tfiat ar~ /µMui' in part because capitalism gradual­ individual hen, I made these 3 ly showed an ability to accommo­ cages: here's the standard 48 f ((ll/ TJUY-l/U(lj,;f ((ll/ ~ date some of the basic demands square inches that a "battery" hen aninzal&. ,, being made by workers and their currently receives in her crowded advocates for a better life, and cage. Here is the 72 square inches - .Sean Vay because what workers wanted most of space per hen that McDonald's was a decent life- better wo rking is now requiring its egg suppliers conditions, shorter hours, etc. By to provide; and here is the 75 square inches of space per hen the time Marx died in 1888, he had come to see that reforms that Burger King is now demanding of its egg suppliers. might lead to revolutionary changes within capitalism. He was By giving hens a little more space, McDonald's gets pessimistic but hopeful. positive press, and people think, "this is a responsible compa­ In the fight for justice, a county with no democratic ny." They may thus become even more hardened~gainst aboli­ options or...t:raditions may need violence as a strategy. However, tion. Unfortunately, "more space" doesn't increase the demand the US and other Western countries, despite huge opposition, for vegan food. In choosing a campaign, we must ask: Will this have responded, if not totally yet, to demands to end racism campaign result in saving lives? Will this campaign result in and sexism, and could thus conceivably advance even further; eroding the status of animals as property? Even incremental in the US, a woman president or a black president is no longer abolitionist reforms could conceivably legitimize-reinforce the inconceivable. legitimacy of-institutionalized animal abuse. Likewise, Western society shows a growing recogni­ tion that nonhuman animals have moral claims upon us that Steve Best PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University we can no longer ignore. There is evidence that recognition of of Texas, El Paso; President of Voice for All Animals and VP of animal sensibilities is the next great step in human evolution. the Vegetarian Society of El Paso: "Undoing False Oppositions: To make this happen, we need to find ways to link reforms so Lessons From the Social Revolutionaries." Other social justice they do not remain isolated "victories," but combine qualita- Continued on Pg. 5 Poultry Press UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS, INC. is published quarterly by OFFICERS: ADVISORS : United Poultry Concerns, Inc., KAREN DAVIS, PhD, CAROL]. ADAMS, author INGRID NEWKIRK, People for the a national nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization President-Director GENE BAUSTON, Farm Sanctuary Ethical Treatment ofAnimals incorporated GEORGE ALLAN CATE, PhD, NEDIM C. BUYUKMIHCI, VMD SHEILA SCHWARTZ, PhD, Humane in the State of Maryland. Vice President-Director Federal l.D.: 52-1705678 ROGER GALVIN, Esq Education Committee of NYC JOAN MEANOR ]IM MASON, Two Mauds, Inc. DEBORAH TANZER, PhD, psychologist EDITOR: HOLTGRAVER, MA, BRADLEY MILLER, The Humane In Memoriam: HENRY SPIRA, Karen Davis Secretmy Treasurer-Director Farming Association OFFICE/SANCTUARY ASSISTANTS: Animal Rights International GRAPHIC D ES IGN: BARBARA MONROE, Esq John Cangemi SUSAN RAYFIELD HOLLY TAYLOR WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR: COVER PHOTO: CLYDE LASSELL BOOK REVJEWER: CORRES PONDENT: Franklin Wade CONSULTANT: MARY FINELL! PATTRICE LE-MUIRE JONES DAVID J. CANTOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~<:::: United Poultry Concerns• (7S7) 678-787S P.O. Box 1 SO • Machipongo, VA 2340S-01 SO ACTION ALERT Dallas Zoo Freezes "Children's Zoo" Chicks, Then Fires Caring Employee "Putting these baby birds who crave and need warmth into a freezer is UPC President Karen Davis stated in the November 2001 Dallas Observer article that the zoo's abuse of the chicks is kind ofthe ultimate cruelty." -UPC President Karen Davis quoted in "Frozen City," Dallas Observer. Nov. 22, 2001 "part of the general total lack of respect for or empathy with the lives of these birds. [W]hen you are using creatures in this totally "We want to give the children ofDallas an opportunity to connect exploitative and cynical way in order to promote business, it leads with the chicken." - Charles Siegel, Deputy Director for Animal to an atrocity as this exemplifies." Davis said that while it's good Management, Dallas Observer, Feb. 15, 2001 that the zoo closed the exhibit, "the practice of keeping predatory birds and other creatures in cages just so people can look at them is '1t seems that the reason for my discharge is the fact that I have a wrong. You've got a fundamental problem in the very nature of the conscience. ''._Joe Harvey quoted in the Dallas Observer, Nov.