Animal Liberation Queensland – Evaluation

Organisation Details:

NAME: Animal Liberation Queensland
ABN 66 010 101 005
ACNC Registration: Yes
Tax Concessions:

GST Concession
Income Tax Exemption
FBT Rebate

Established: 1979
Paid Staff: No
Volunteers: 100
Constitution: Yes
Allow Members: Yes – Paid
Democracy Rating: 7/10 (Document submitted to ACNC is around 40 years old. Needs updating and modernising).

Organisation Information:

ABOUT
Animal Liberation Queensland (ALQ) is an independent animal rights organisation, founded in 1979, which advocates the rights of non-human animals so that they may live free from abuse, cruelty, and exploitation. ALQ is a not-for-profit organisation in the state of Queensland and a registered charity.

OUR VISION
A world where all nonhuman animals live free from abuse, exploitation, and suffering. Speciesist attitudes are rejected by society and veganism is accepted as the norm.

MISSION STATEMENT
To protect all animals from abuse, exploitation and suffering; to foster respectful and compassionate community attitudes towards animals; and to promote veganism as the most ethical and ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

AIMS/OBJECTIVES
Animal Liberation Queensland Limited (ALQ) aims to achieve its mission by:

• Exposing animal abuse and exploitation to bring widespread public attention to animal issues
• Campaigning to increase consumer awareness of animal rights issues
• Providing free educational resources to the community
• Pursuing legislative change at local, state and federal levels
• Collaborating with other state and national animal advocacy organisations where there are opportunities to undertake joint campaigns and share resources
• Maintaining its political independence by actively seeking to raise its own funds for ongoing growth and development
• Adhering to a policy of non-violence, inclusiveness and collaboration.

Source: http://alq.org.au/about-us (retrieved 04 Jan 2018)

Constitutional Aim*:

2. The objects for which The Company are established are:

(a) To abolish man’s attitude of speciesism towards animals, to conserve wildlife bay ensuring that its habitat remains undisturbed, to promote a conservation policy which entails mercy and protection of animals instead of exploitation for man’s benefit and to so all things necessary or desirable in connection therewith and without in any way derogating from the generality of the foregoing to do all or any of the things hereinafter mentioned including but limited to establishing a fund the proceeds of which will be used to principally to further these objects, to prepare and present educational activities to the public or any class or individual thereof to increase awareness of the plight of animals, to co-operate in any way with all or any other animal welfare organizations to promote the rights of animals, to encourage the preservation of wilderness areas and the creation maintenance and protection of national parks and to campaign in any manner whatsoever for a more for a more humane approach to the management of animals by man and to experimentation upon animals by man. In these objects the war ‘speciesism’ is defined to mean a prejudice of attitude or bias towards the interest of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species and the word ‘speciesist’ shall have a corresponding meaning.

* (Most constitutions are dry and boring. Only parts relevant to activism, animal rights, and veganism have been included)
Source: ACNC pdf copy of governing document (Retrieved 03 Jan 2018)

Activism Review:

For an organisation that claims to be an “animal rights” organisation, a “vegan” one, and their constitution says they want to “abolish man’s attitude of speciesism towards animals,”.

Many if not all of their recent events have run contrary to these aims and goals.

Their Highchester slaughterhouse protest was all about promoting their ‘ditch dairy’ branding. And nothing to do with “animal rights”, “speciesism” or “veganism”.

Don’t believe me?

Have a look around the information available, and comments made after the protest.

It was all about ditch dairy.

Not one mention of the rights abuses that ALL animals endure.

Not one mention of how these actions are speciesist.

And certainly not one mention of veganism. (Link to “Vegan Easy 30 Day Challenge” excluded as it is external to the Ditch Dairy website).

The same applies to their greyhound campaigns, their magic millions protest, even their rodeo protests.

Judging their protests and campaigns by their own standards they have all fallen woefully short.

Whether this is a result of inexperience of the committee or lack of understanding of the organisations aims and goals is anyone’s guess. Though it is starting to appear that the current committee is more concerned about their social media ‘presence’ rather than abolishing “man’s attitude of speciesism towards animals”.

Should You Donate/Volunteer?

If you want to promote “veganism”, “animal rights”, or even awareness of “speciesism” then Animal Liberation Queensland isn’t the group for you.

Whereas if all you want to do is talk about ‘cruelty’, ‘treatment’ or ‘conditions’, all of the usual items that “welfarist” or “regualtionist” organisations promote, then this is the group for you.

Remember, “welfarist” organisations have the view that using animals for food or any other purpose is acceptable as long as it is done pleasantly.

From the “Magic Millions” protest “Think that some of the racing industry’s ? “magic millions” ? should go towards a retirement plan for racehorses? So do we.”

Yet they campaign against greyhound racing.

Sounds a little speciesist now doesn’t it?

There is a genuine concern from me that this group is seriously lacking in the training and support of activists and volunteers. If they aren’t training you on how to engage with people about veganism, animal rights, etc. then all you will really be doing is wearing a matching t-shirt or holding a placard.

It should also be pointed out that while the group is called “Animal Liberation Queensland”, it has very little to do with actually ‘liberating’ animals. The name of the organisation was inspired by the book “Animal Liberation” by Peter Singer.

Cameron Blewett

This article was written by the founder of VeganPolice.com.au, Cameron Blewett.

Cameron is a long term vegan (30+yrs), and is passionate about veganism, and helping people to understand more about it and giving other animals equal consideration.

You can find Cameron’s other rants on his website, CameronBlewett.blog