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Three views of the state of the movement: Steve Hindi, Chase Purdy, & us

January 7, 2017 By Merritt Clifton

Steve Hindi. (Beth Clifton photo)

Steve Hindi.  (Beth Clifton photo)

Are we “winning”?  What are we winning?  

by Steve Hindi,  founder,  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK)

“We’re winning!”

It was phrased a few different ways, but that was the claim from the Hillary Clinton camp in the weeks before her stunning loss to Donald Trump. Now we can look forward to four years with a habitually lying,  racist,  tax evading,  cheating,  misogynistic,  bullying sexual predator in the White House.  Trump’s tenure will make the disaster of the George W. Bush presidency look like the good old days.

Eric & Donald Trump Jr. killed this leopard.

Eric & Donald Trump Jr. killed this leopard.

Character flaws

Hillary Clinton is no hero for animals,  despite her 91% rating on the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s scorecard during her tenure as a U.S. Senator.   But she lacks Trump’s massive character flaws that will forever diminish both the presidency and our standing as a nation.

Like any candidate,  Clinton was imperfect,  but she doesn’t have offspring who qualify for animal serial killer status like Donald Trump’s sons,  who have been only half-comedically compared by comedian Bill Maher to Uday and Qusay Hussein, the murderous, psychopathic sons of the late Saddam Hussein.

U.S. Senator James Inhofe (inset) and SHARK founder Steve Hindi. (SHARK)

U.S. Senator James Inhofe,  a prominent Donald Trump ally (inset),  climate change denier,  and captive bird shooter;  and SHARK founder Steve Hindi (foreground).  (SHARK photo)

“Buckle up.”

As vice president-elect Mike Pence said,  “Buckle up.”  What Pence didn’t say is that the ride we will all be forced to endure only goes down.  Welcome to our new position on the world stage:  that of a laughingstock.

What has this to do with the animal protection movement?  The premature declarations of “We’re winning” from the Clinton camp were hauntingly similar to what I’ve heard for the past two years at the annual national animal rights conventions sponsored by the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM).

Steve Hindi at AR 2015

Steve Hindi at AR-2015. (FARM photo)

“We’re winning” claim is absurd

“We’re winning!” was in fact the title of the closing plenaries for 2015 and 2016.

The “We’re winning!” claim is so patently absurd that I can only surmise those willing to utter it are either habitual liars,  or are hold only a tenuous grip on reality.  My efforts to bring about a fact-based review of where we currently stand,  as opposed to spewing nonsense,  was repeatedly ignored.

Photoshopped image of Hillary Clinton with horse. (Political Illusions Exposed image)

Photoshopped image of Hillary Clinton with horse.
(Political Illusions Exposed image)

“I feel bad for Hillary”

Regarding the election,  I feel bad for Hillary and worse for the country.  Given the closeness of the vote,  I think the outcome might have been different if there hadn’t been hubris ahead of the final battle.

I feel far worse for the fate of the animals who will suffer and die because there are those in this movement who,  for the sake of marketing or to boost attendance at next year’s conferences,  and for fundraising purposes,  are willing to make preposterous claims of victory.

Analysts now tell us that many people just didn’t come out for Hillary. That’s a danger of telling people “We’re winning!” before the battle is waged.  In the battle for animal protection,  the status of our struggle is clear.  Nonhumans are suffering and dying on a level that can’t even be perceived,  so why would anyone minimize the plight of the animals by claiming “we’re winning?”

Janet Enoch & Steve Hindi at the AR-2015 conference in Alexandria, Virginia.
(Beth Clifton photo)

“Spend time on the front lines”

If you don’t know where you are,  it is impossible to successfully chart a path to where you want to go.  If someone tells you to get to Chicago,  and you have no idea of your current position,  how do you chart a course?  Worse yet,  what if someone claims you are starting from San Diego, when you are actually in New York?

Those who claim “We’re winning!” have either been away from the front lines way too long,  or they were never there at all.  In any case, they have lost their way,  and are in no position to chart a course going forward.

Spend time on the front lines,  and you will know how dismally we are failing our nonhuman friends.  This movement needs activists who are fired up and motivated to make significant change,  not settling back and relaxing with false assurances that “we’re winning.”

KKK members leafleting at the 1992 Fred C. Coleman Memorial Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania. (Merritt Clifton photo)

KKK members leafleting at the 1992 Fred C. Coleman Memorial Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania.
(Merritt Clifton photo)

“Front line action is a vital component of change”

Just take a look at the news,  and you’ll see that activists for other causes understand the need for frontline action,  whether they be for gun rights with the National Rifle Association,  women’s rights,  civil rights via most recently Black Lives Matter,  gay rights,  or native American rights such as the recent actions regarding the Dakota Access pipeline.  In the real world,  it is understood that front line action is a vital component of change.

A relative few grassroots activists still do,  but the big corporate groups eschew the notion of getting out of their suits and leaving the comfort of their offices.  Just send a generous check and perhaps sign a petition to build an organization’s mailing list,  and pay dearly to attend the next gala or conference,  and things will turn out fine.

PETA is the largest organization advocating for dogs & cats which has not fallen into pit bull advocacy at the expense of humans & other animals. (PETA photo)

(PETA photo)

Unfortunately,  things aren’t fine at all.

“Sitting on collective butt”

Attendees of conferences and the movement as a whole don’t get a crucial sense of urgency as they sit in a fancy hotel.  This movement is sitting on its collective butt when what is needed is strong,  intelligent,  strategic action.

The animals are losing everything,  and much of the abuse is unopposed.  When SHARK publicly invited some of the largest, loudest and most wealthy animal protection organizations in the so-called movement to join us on three separate occasions in 2016.  Not a single one of those groups came through.  Not one. Apparently only the grassroots groups are willing to stand up,  but they lack resources.

Follow the money

(Dawn James image)

“Raising & counting money”

I wouldn’t mind that these leaders and their groups didn’t join our front line efforts if they had some of their own,  but they’re apparently too busy raising and counting money,  and falsely declaring “We’re winning!” to be saddled with actually getting out in the real world to make real change.

We’re winning?  That’s not just nonsensical:  it’s shockingly delusional. With Trump in office,  it will be much worse.

SHARK founder Steve Hindi was assaulted while documenting Senator James Inhofe's 2016 "dove hunt" on September 10, 2016. (SHARK photo)

SHARK founder Steve Hindi was assaulted while documenting Senator James Inhofe’s 2016 “dove hunt” on September 10, 2016.  (SHARK photo)

“Stop lying,  stop bragging,  & step up”

It is time for the so-called leaders of this movement to stop lying,  stop bragging, and step up.  Let’s see them personally get out on the killing fields and show some real leadership.  This struggle is too important,  the stakes are too high,  and potential activists need to understand the gravity of the situation.

Do we want real,  positive change for animals,  or just the illusion that allows us to sleep better at night and feel good about ourselves?  We should decide carefully, because kidding each other is the kind of behavior that has just slapped the United States with Donald Trump as our next president.

Merritt Clifton (left) and Beth Clifton (right)

And now for something completely different

by Merritt & Beth Clifton

Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi,  in his commentary above and several similar commentaries he has issued since the AR-2016 conference in Los Angeles,  is to be sure speaking about much more than just advocacy for farmed animals,  the leading edge of animal advocacy over the past decade-plus.

Asking Steve Hindi what kind of rubber bands he uses to power the SHARK drones on his highly successful silent reconnaissance missions. (Beth Clifton photo)

Merritt Clifton, left; Steve Hindi, right. (Beth Clifton photo)

Galas & consumer choice

But the cause of farm animals is most effectively addressed by consumer choice at restaurants, supermarkets,  and yes,  the gala banquets of animal advocacy organizations,  at which local humane societies in particular continue to feature meat and fish with dismaying frequency and indifference to the animal suffering caused by the meat and fish industries.

Far too often the sole concern of “humane society” gala organizers is bringing in the bucks,  with little if any concern for the ethics of how this is done.

Evolving cause foci

Hindi has addressed animal agriculture and the hypocrisy of humane societies serving meat,  among many other issues in his nearly three decades of activism,  but has primarily addressed recreational animal abuses,  including captive bird shoots,  hunting in many forms,  bullfighting,  and rodeo.

Hindi’s present frustration comes in part because animal advocacy,  in taking up food issues,   has tended to turn away from other longtime abuses,  including his focal concerns,  many of which continue little abated,  let alone halted,  and do respond more to front line activism.

USDA Wildlife Services gunners. (SHARK photo)

USDA Wildlife Services gunners killing cormorants.
(SHARK photo)

Two of Hindi’s most recent campaign foci,  killing predators to promote an abundance of “game” and purging “invasive species” in the name of conservation,  are barely addressed by the present generation of animal advocacy leadership,  even though more animals than ever are killed on these pretexts.

These are issues of great concern to ANIMALS 24-7 as well.

Former Pennsylvania judge Adolph Joseph Antanavage shooting pigeons. (SHARK photo)

Former Pennsylvania judge Adolph Joseph Antanavage shooting pigeons. (SHARK photo)

Eating birds vs. recreational killing

Nonetheless,  the recent runaway public success of vegan and vegetarian advocacy is not to be denied.

For the first time since the introduction of factory farming made meat and dairy consumption at every meal possible for people of average income,  American meat and dairy consumption per capita has been heading downward,  irrespective of economic trends.

A cultural transition away from eating animals is underway.

Perhaps,  once eating chickens and turkeys is no longer almost universally practiced,  shooting cormorants in the name of protecting salmon runs and shooting doves and pigeons just for the hell of it will no longer be accepted by the public either.

picsart_1479614045385Vegan movement

“The American vegan movement was always its own worst enemy,”  argues Chase Purdy in the current edition of Quartz magazine.

(See http://qz.com/829956/how-the-vegan-movement-broke-out-of-its-echo-chamber-and-finally-started-disrupting-things/)

“Members of the movement made their first impressions bellowing into bullhorns, desperate to make a difference by willing it with a loud enough voice,”  Purdy recalls.

“But actual engagement was a weakness,  as people tended to ignore the passionate subculture with a rigid gospel prohibiting use of any and all animal products.  For the most part,  the only marks left by their efforts throughout the 1970s,  80s,  and 90s were those scuffed into their shoes as police officers dragged them off the streets.

Merritt Clifton (left) with Vegan Outreach cofounder Jack Norris (right). (Beth Clifton photo)

Merritt Clifton (left) with Vegan Outreach cofounder Jack Norris (right).  (Beth Clifton photo)

“Something changed”

“And then, with little warning, something changed.

“A 2001 schism splintered the vegan community into two camps:  absolutists who tout veganism as an all-or-nothing moral imperative,  and pragmatists who quietly advocate for incremental change.”

Purdy spotlights the success of the pragmatists,  including those at the Humane Society of the U.S.,  Mercy for Animals,  Vegan Outreach,  and Compassion Over Killing,  in having “figured out an ingenious way to change the food system,  without having to plead or fight directly with meat and egg companies.”

Ballot initiatives

This has been accomplished partly through ballot initiatives,  Purdy assesses,  in which people “vote for their chicken,  beef,  and pork to be raised without cages,”  effectively issuing “a mandate to the farms and agricultural companies in middle America to change their husbandry practices.”

FARM founder Alex Hershaft welcomed vegan food activist and investor Josh Balk into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame at the AR-2015 conference in Alexandria, Virginia.

FARM founder Alex Hershaft welcomed vegan food activist and Hampton Creek investor Josh Balk into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame at the AR-2015 conference in Alexandria, Virginia.

At the same time,  Purdy explains,  such campaigns create a niche for “companies such as Perfect Day (cow-free milk), Beyond Meat (plant-based meat), and Hampton Creek (eggless condiments),”  who have developed alternatives to milk,  meat,  and eggs that have rapidly won space in major supermarkets and are claiming growing shares of the fast food market.

Absolutists vs. pragmatists

“From the absolutist point-of-view,”  Purdy acknowledges,  “the pragmatists diminished the importance of fighting for animal lives by concentrating their energies on farm animal welfare.”

At the same time,  however,  the pragmatists have in 15 years accomplished more to change American diets,  by far the greatest cause of animal suffering and exploitation,  than front line activism has since the early 20th century heyday of vegetarian food pioneers Sylvester Graham,  C.W. Post,  and the Kellogg brothers,  John Harvey and Will Keith.

Paul Shapiro

Longtime Humane Society of the U.S. farmed animals campaign manager Paul Shapiro.  (Twitter photo)

Grocery line activism

Front line activism is important,  especially to put issues on the table for public consideration.  But developing grocery line activism is critically important too,  to transform gains in awareness into the lifestyle changes that represent not just “victories” over specific abuses,  but lasting progress.

ANIMALS 24-7 does not do either front line or grocery line activism.  What we do is report the news of animal advocacy,  including evaluating the results from a perspective that incorporates the experience of having lived for more than 60 years the philosophy that animals are not ours to eat,  wear,  experiment on,  or use for entertainment.

From that perspective,  despite many frustrations and frequent setbacks,  the animal cause is winning,  not least because several thousand leaders of animal advocacy organizations worldwide will have the opportunity to participate in this discussion.  We remember when it might have reached perhaps a few dozen,  all seated around the same table,  and then only if free food was served.

Beth & Merritt Clifton at Vegfest 2016 in Seattle.

Beth & Merritt Clifton at Vegfest 2015 in Seattle.

Please help us continue speaking truth to power: 

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Filed Under: Activism, Advocacy, Animal organizations, Animal rights & welfare, Birds, Captive animals, Culture & Animals, Editorials, Feature Home Bottom, Food, Horses & Farmed Animals, Humane history, Hunting & trapping, Hunting practices, Killing contests, Laws & standards, Meat issues, Opinion, Opinions & Letters, Religion & philosophy, USA, Vegetarians & vegans, Vegetarians & vegans, Wildlife Tagged With: Beth Clifton, Chase Purdy, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Merritt Clifton, Steve Hindi

Comments

  1. Robert Grillo says

    November 20, 2016 at 5:48 am

    Chase Purdy’s article is so reductionist and simplistic, it doesn’t even warrant the attention you are giving it relative to other more informed perspectives you’ve presented here. He is also quite arrogant when I confronted him on the shortcomings of his Quartz article. He is a progressive hipster journalist who paradoxically and myopically believes that the free market and capitalism will “set animals free.”

    Robert Grillo
    Executive Director
    Free from Harm
    tel. 773-329-7977
    robert@freefromharm.org
    web: http://freefromharm.org
    PO BOX 607604
    Chicago, IL 60660

  2. Karen Davis says

    November 20, 2016 at 10:08 am

    I personally am sick and tired of an animal advocacy that seems to relish a flogging by snarky critics of vegan activism. I am sick of hearing us berated as “purists,” as if our purity of purpose were necessarily some kind of an ego trip or ritual posture. And while totally grateful for all efforts that reduce the suffering of animals trapped in the Hell of Humanity, I do not subscribe to the Purist versus Pragmatist paradigm of animal activism as some sort of absolute dichotomy within the animal advocacy community. And while I share Steve Hindi’s anger and frustration, I don’t agree that activism is necessarily or inherently fraudulent and effete unless it is Out There where the wholesale slaughter of innocent creatures is being waged. I agree with Robert Grillo’s dismissal of Chase Purdy and those like him. I believe in Affirmative Action for Animals and I hate the tendency in our movement to enjoy a beating from mainstream commentators who seem to get off on pitting us against each other. Purism and Pragmatism should and can be blended into a totally committed Progressivism for animals. And while we should embrace and be proud of every accomplishment for animals, we cannot afford to revel in Victory Slogans and Hubris.

    Karen Davis, PhD, President
    United Poultry Concerns
    http://www.upc-online.org

  3. Dr. S. Chinny Krishna says

    November 20, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    As someone who has been involved in animal welfare work since 1959, I can confidently say that things have changed for the better in the last 57 years.
    With special reference to India, 1960 saw the passage of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act; 1972 that of the Wildlife Protection Act; 2001 the Rules governing the use of animals in research; the period between 2001 and 2003, the notification of rules governing transportation of animals; animals in entertainment; slaughter
    houses; and a host of others. While implementation remained abysmally poor, the very fact that these laws were there allowed us to go to the courts, including the Supreme Court.
    In 2014, we won a landmark judgement against something supported by virtually every political party – the ban on bullfighting. In August this year, we obtained a ban from the Madras High Court against the slaughter of camels for Bakrid – a festival of the Muslims.
    A review petition last week upheld the ban. The very next day, on the 17th of November, the Supreme Court continued the ban on killing of dogs in Kerala. On the 18th, the Madras High Court ruled in favour of sending a temple elephant, Gomathi, to a sanctuary. The same day, the Bangalore High Court gave a favourable decision against bullock-cart racing..
    On the same day, a case was registered in the Delhi High Court against the Government of India asking that a representative of the Animal Welfare Board, a statutory body of the Government of India, be always included in the committee controlling animal experimentation
    Are we winning? I am sure, yes. But then, if I was not an optimist, I could not have continued my work for animals for 57 years.
    Incidentally, in 2007, the Blue Cross of India organised Asia for Animals in Chennai – the first international vegan conference.

  4. Jamaka Petzak says

    November 20, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    Encountering this kind of chest-beating “We’re winning” and “Everything’s great” idiocy on a daily basis in this society, I am not at all surprised that, as has been the case more often than not throughout the “movement”, solidarity is almost nonexistent except among individuals and grassroots groups. Everything starts small, however, and the dismal state of society in general and the “movement” in particular must not cause us to lose heart. We remain the voices for the voiceless, the innocent, and the blameless, and we continue to be guided by compassion and kindness, which have guided truly successful societies throughout history. If not us, who?

  5. Lindsay says

    November 23, 2016 at 3:21 pm

    I think we’ll only be able to claim winner status when a majority of people accept that animals are not resources for human use. As gunshots echo off the hillsides and the majority of people I know glance up from their usual chicken and beef meals to focus on tomorrow’s Thanksgiving turkey, that’s not the reality I’m presently seeing.

  6. Nancy Campeau says

    January 7, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Thank God(ess) for Steve Hindi and thank the same for PCRM– two ends of the wide spectrum of efforts by people of different viewpoints on how to stop animal suffering.
    I think that all voices are needed in this overarching societal, worldwide change that animal advocates want. We absolutely need Steve Hindi’s clarion call to wake us from self satisfaction at the progress that has been made, and equally we do need to enhearten ourselves in this excruciating battle with humans’ current norms, by saying– perhaps not “we’re winning” but rather “progress has been made”- and then add where progress still lags.
    I agree with Mr. Hindi that the movement does need strategy meetings, that are transparently shared, to assess where we are, where we are falling behind, and what the movement needs to do about it. One example is that, while meat consumption is decreasing in the US, it is increasing globally, for a net rise in meat consumption.The change we want encompasses all cultures, all personal habits in food, clothing, entertainment and more.
    We need an overarching strategy to speed things up, and especially at this time. I so believe that all voices and all actions, be they brave and heroic, as Steve Hindi’s, or as passive as clicking an online petition, are needed. I also think we need to find ways to refresh ourselves in this battle, and one way I wish we’d do more of is imagining the kind of world we want– what would entertain the humans that now seek out animal fights, how would we relate to the wild and domesticated other animals, how much of the world would we willingly give back to the other animals– I have a hard time picturing a world cleansed of our species’ enormous sin against all living beings.
    But I think it would be exciting and refreshing for us to be imagining…and sharing our dreams together. Thank you Steve, Merritt & Beth, and all the thousands that are making progress toward a new world that exploits no living being.

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