On What an AR Organization Might Do

I get a lot of e-mails asking what exactly an animal rights organization (or a movement or an initiative) might do. Many of the people are skeptical that there is a need for an organization, and they are certain that it would devolve into a PeTA-like group (and there’s an assumption that that would be very, very bad).

But how about looking at it this way: For what they set out to do, PeTA is a smashing success. Everyone knows who they are, they’re constantly getting attention from the media, and they raise a lot of money. What’s so bad about that?

Their message and what they’re actually doing with their money might not be in line with what you believe, and might in fact be in direct opposition to what you believe, but they’re getting their message out, they’re raising money, and they have the world’s attention. As an organization, then, we cannot deny they’re doing something right.

When it comes to what an animal rights group would do, since there’d be no cage-free campaigns, in my mind the priority is to support vegans in their advocacy. That would involve the production and distribution of materials, for example. Many people leaflet with PeTA material or COK material because it’s free, yet they don’t agree with all of the messages in the literature. And then there’s the matter of the logo (particularly in the case of PeTA), which makes people then associate you with the organization that created the material.

Yes, everyone could make their own leaflets and use them, but has that occurred? Are people doing that? I tried to fill the need and though I’ve gotten some wonderful feedback, I’ve also been criticized (which I expected), to which I respond: If it’s so important to have literature, and you don’t like what I produced, produce some yourself. At least I jumped in and did something. I created a brochure, printed it, and sent out over 1,000 (total) to a handful of people. And I paid all expenses (well over $2,000). If I were to start an organization and I could print in much larger qualities, I could use my $2,000 far more efficiently, probably printing double the number of pamphlets.

And sure, though I can go to area restaurants to campaign for vegan options, if I represented an organization of hundreds of local vegans, I bet my success at getting vegan options on menus would increase dramatically, or at least would take less time (hence, greater efficiency).

And I could create a curriculum for a social justice program for schools and try to get it delivered to the kids in my area. But if an organization gathered such curricula and maybe even had an advisory council of people who’ve already had some success in this area, I’d save myself a lot of time, energy and money consulting them rather than starting from scratch when I don’t need to.

And I could attempt to get a local paper or website to create a space for vegans (like Veggiest on Bostonist, largely thanks to the Boston Vegan Association), but if I had the support of a known group I’d have more clout and I might be able to get it done faster.

In other words, there are things we could do better–more efficiently and effectively–if we were organized, and I’m not even talking about having any actual campaigns to cease the single use of animals (not that there couldn’t be).

Rather than saying No, it can’t be done. No, we don’t want hierarchy or overhead or bureaucracy, how about saying Yes, I’d like to find a way to make this work!