(Beth Clifton collage)
by Steve Hindi, with response from ANIMALS 24-7
For me, more than 31 years after founding Showing Animals Respect & Kindness, following extensive frustration in trying to work with national animal advocacy organizations that lacked––and still lack––a work ethic, the biggest lesson Martin Luther King Jr. taught and exemplified is, never stop fighting .
This, unfortunately, is a concept long abandoned by the vast majority of the so-called animal rights movement.
Posts on social media apps are not fighting for a cause any more than are vegan potlucks, galas, conferences, reading self-serving propaganda from groups begging for money, etc.
May 3, 1963.
“King and his brothers and sisters were on the streets”
King didn’t “fight” simply from the security of his pulpit. If he did, he’d certainly have lived a much longer life. King and his brothers and sisters were on the streets, on the front line of making change, a concept almost extinct in animal protection today. They took the billy clubs, the dog attacks, the firehoses, the beatings.
Regardless, they persisted.
They did not flinch from the constant corruption of the street level thugs or the government hacks. They didn’t move from issue to issue just to keep the money coming in from bleeding hearts.
“Focused & unswerving”
King and his supporters were focused and unswerving. They accepted that they might be hurt, and might be killed. How little of that spirit exists today in animal protection, which has transformed from a movement of compassion into a rotting profit-driven industry.
Today I see three kinds of people involved in “animal protection.
First there are the profiteers (i.e. ASPCA, HSUS, PETA, Alex Pacheco and many others).
Then there are the ignorant sucker/donors who fall for the profiteers’ marketing bullshit, and who can’t be troubled to make certain that their money is actually getting things done.
(See Why did the ASPCA pres get $966,004, while we got $9.70 an hour? and Spay/neuter popcorn? It’s as real as Alex Pacheco’s s/n cookies!)
“Inadequate to the task”
Finally there are the very few who are actually following in King’s footsteps, and put themselves out where it actually matters, and never give up or back down. The latter are a rare breed indeed.
Imagine what would happen if we had a movement that was sincere. Change would still take longer than we want, but it would happen a hundred times faster than is the case now.
The tragic reality of today is that, while nonhumans surely deserve justice, the so-called animal protection movement is, by design, completely inadequate to the task, and will fail ninety percent of the time.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Sob stories & freak shows
The most important goal of the animal protection movement should be to put itself out of business, but people who make six and seven figure salaries have every reason to keep their income flowing. Pay for the profiteers doesn’t reflect actual accomplishments or even sincere effort. Instead animal advocacy is a contest to tell the biggest sob story, or put on the most obvious freak show, pretending that somehow equates with real activism.
Martin Luther King Jr. and his associates didn’t ignore one issue because donors got tired of the fight. King didn’t move from issue to issue to issue to keep the money flowing. He didn’t strip. He didn’t hawk imaginary cookies to make racists sterile. He didn’t play games. That’s why we remember him.
To those out there who want to seriously get something done, feel free to get in touch with us. No matter where you are in the U.S., or even outside this country, we’ll plug you into real activism. That is both a promise and a challenge. The way to truly honor King and his legacy is to cut through the crap, and get to work truly making a difference.
(Beth Clifton collage)
ANIMALS 24-7 responds
ANIMALS 24-7 does see significant value in vegan potlucks and conferences, for example in providing social reinforcement to people who have recently quit eating meat, losing some social relationships in consequence. Conferences also have huge value in personally introducing activists and organizations to each other.
Galas, usually held as fundraising events, have a similar role, though many cost more money to produce than they net, in introducing potential high donors to organizations and projects that they may support with ongoing donations and bequests.
Aging
Further, as a cause or movement ages, the early participants age as well. As young activists become middle-aged and older, they tend to take on more job and family responsibilities, become less able to participate in front-line activism, and simultaneously are more able to participate as donors, providing the financial wherewithal for activist organizations to hire people to do the front-line work.
But this is when many and perhaps most one-time activist organizations tend to simultaneously rake in more money than ever before, and do much less front-line activism. Instead of funding front-line activists, the former activist organizations spend ever more on fundraising and paying ever-higher executive salaries.
Eventually they abandon activism altogether. The recent demise of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society illustrates the malady in technicolor.
(See PIRATES! Captain Paul Watson goes down with the sinking Sea Shepherds.)
“Vegan” is a positive lifestyle change, but not a “victory” touted by fundraisers
The disease sapping animal advocacy activist energy is not an over-emphasis on vegan potlucks, conferences, and galas. Indeed, these too are waning, with pre-prepared vegan foods sold now in almost every grocery store, and no in-person conferences of note or major galas having been held in years now, due to COVID-19.
The problem, rather, is complacency, fed by endless “victory” announcements issued with fundraising appeals from organizations that often have not won an authentic victory for animals in decades, if ever.
Just this morning, for instance, ANIMALS 24-7 received appeals from four different organizations heralding as “victories” developments actually reflecting failures of previous “victories” in legislative, judicial, and regulatory matters.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Mercenaries fight for money, not for causes
Laws were passed without enforcement mechanisms and full of loopholes, enforcement regulations were adopted to bypass the intent of the laws, and judges issued rulings based on the letter of worthless laws, instead of on what the activists who urged their legislators to pass them thought they would be getting.
This is what happens when activist donors expect hired mercenaries to do the fighting for them: mercenaries fight for money, not for causes.
Not our own ox getting gored
Complacency in the animal cause may be inevitable because, for the most part, it is not our own ox getting gored. That does not mean complacency should be accepted.
Worth remembering is that neither Martin Luther King Jr. nor any other civil rights movement leader of note ever shunned potlucks, conferences, and galas.
On the contrary, the civil rights movement grew out of church potlucks and picnics, at which King and many others spoke, rallied support, and passed the hat. Conferences brought the many scattered congregations of activists together into an actual movement.
Civil rights activists could not get complacent
Arguably the most influential of all civil rights organizations was, and still is, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, so named because conferencing is what it does.
Galas featuring name entertainers helped for decades to raise the funds that stripped the Ku Klux Klan of their bedsheet disguises and sent them into political retreat.
The difference between the civil rights movement and the animal rights movement is that many of the participants in the civil rights movement personally felt––and still feel––the effects of racial discrimination each and every day.
Animal rights activists feel animal suffering only vicariously, and at that, mostly only if choosing to look at it.
This makes the struggle against complacency significantly harder to wage, both individually and as a cause, but no less essential.
Please donate to support our work:
www.animals24-7.org/donate/
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He’s right, you know.
Sharing, with gratitude to all involved.
One of my respected and beloved colleagues here in Las Vegas, who has since sadly passed, embraced the goal of trying to work himself “out of a job.” It was a noble goal which I can relate to and which we should all strive and hope for, for that is truly what success will look like in this cause. The focus of every organization involved in animal advocacy/protection should not be in job creation and retention, but in eliminating the need for their existence; I imagine that’s a difficult concept for many.
I do not agree with the opinion that PETA, and other animals organizations all they do is take $$ from the animal loving people. I have been in Facebook for many years, and I have seeing what PETA and other organizations have done, and are doing. What I have noticed is that the majority of vegans all they talk about is food, and don’t get involved in helping the animals.
Totally agree with your view. Being vegan FOR THE ANIMALS is 100% better than being an “animal lover” who isn’t vegan. PeTA isn’t perfect–but neither is the Catholic Church (I was raised in that despicable speciesist religion). Direct Action Everywhere is an excellent activist community that gets results!
Support all animal activists!
I have no idea what that tirade against animal-rights activists was all about, visa-a-vi MLK. I was 9 when my peers marched on Pettus bridge, and I don’t remember large groups standing up for animal rights in ’65 per se, but I do remember the attitude that animals were like fish, unfeeling and worthy of eating or otherwise abusing. It was not lost on this pre-teen that blacks were being treated like dogs, and as lower-class mammals, none of which made any sense to this young boy. What I got from MLK’s speeches when heard back then, was that love, kindness, and peaceful objection to cruelty was the path to follow. This transcended religion for me, as we did not eat pork or shellfish as a rule in the first place, but my young mind figured that meant not killing ANY animal at all. After all, a puppy was just as lovely as a baby pig in my mind. So, let me conclude with my hypothesis: any expression of kindness, no matter how clumsy, is worthwhile and should be supported. Dividing up by how expert we are in that effort or how suspect our motivations are, is the anthesis of what MLK was trying to promote.
“I do remember the attitude that animals were like fish, unfeeling and worthy of eating or otherwise abusing.”
I hope YOU don’t believe that fish are unfeeling and worthy of eating or otherwise abusing. (It’s unclear from your wording. Your mention of “lower-class mammals is also troubling.)
Science has shown what sensible people have always known: fishes are sentient animals who can suffer fear and pain, and who deserve respect and compassion not cruelty/abuse.
https://www.FishFeel.org/fish-sentience/
Well done, well said and absolutely accurate. Thank you Mr. Hindi, a true hero in every way.
Fair thoughts all around, thank you for them! Pretty pictures of rescued farm animals, vegan recipes, or more hard-hitting content and calls to action? Trying to strike that balance for maximum effect, if you’re an individual activist or part of a small localized group, is a difficult one.
I’ve had people tell me they block any social media contact who posts graphic photos of animal suffering—even if they agree with the message being sent in principle. I’ve known even more who, burnt out on endless depictions of misery, left activism altogether.
At the same time, if we refuse to educate ourselves on what’s going on, this obviously only helps the abusers continue business as usual. I surmise that most of the regular readers of this site are long haulers who have managed to find a sustainable way to do activism. However, when it comes to convincing the general public and retaining new activists, that’s the challenge.
Steve Hindi is right, of course. I know that as a matter of fact having been around the animal welfare industry for so many frustrating years.
If you take the profit motive out of the equation most of the deep pocket animal welfare organizations would fold up their tent and go get an honest job.
Example: everyone knows that it’s time to empty the tanks, abolish the dolphin shows and build sanctuaries for captive dolphins and whales. But the animal welfare industry, which is hoarding hundreds of millions of donated dollars won’t spend the money sitting in their savings accounts. They won’t lift a finger to build a dolphin and whale sanctuary unless the general public send them yet more money—including six figure salaries for their top team members.
A simple suggestion as to how to create a dolphin or whale sanctuary: 1.Take the money out of your savings account 💰. 2. Build the sanctuary. It’s as simple as that.
We did it in Indonesia without much money at all. If we can do it the very rich element of the animal welfare industry can do it too. The important thing is to get started. Get some boards, a hammer and some nails and start. That’s how Dr. King would have done it. And that’s how we do just about everything we have done in the last fifty + years included creating the only dolphin sanctuary in the world in Indonesia.