Education

Let’s Talk About Sanctuaries

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After writing the recent piece The Truth About Cats And Dogs, more than a few comments were made saying that there was no difference between people who ‘rescue’ cats and dogs and those who manage animal ‘sanctuaries’. Is there really no difference or are those people who do have cats, dogs and birds trying to elevate … Read more

There Are More Than Two Sides To Every Story

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It seems that in the days since the publication of the article titled Vegan Animal Rights Group Refuses To Promote Veganism there has been all sorts of discussion regarding the circumstances behind the event that lead to the article being written.

As can be expected there are some who have taken sides, saying party A or party B is at fault, then there are those who have taken the ‘neutral’ position of sitting on the fence because they don’t know all the facts.

Whilst on one hand, it could be hard to blame them for not wanting to get involved in something like this, especially when based on the words of an alleged trouble maker such as myself.

That being said, what you can blame them for is not asking questions.

In people’s rush to demonise me as the cause of these events, and say that I am part of the problem not part of the solution, a few important things have been overlooked.

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Raising Awareness By Raising Your Voice and Placards, Or So They Say

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Regular readers of this site will know that over the past few weeks, I have been discussing the alleged effectiveness of noisy, placard waving protests at increasing awareness to the plight of other animals.

In a previous piece, I compared these protests to union picket lines and how they are intimidating to the worker who is crossing the line, and portrayed as extreme by the media.

March 2013 saw two totally different ‘placard’ protests on take place on Queensland’s Gold Coast, with both protesting the treatment of exotic animals in circuses. The first one was held by relatively new, Coast To Coast Animal Friends on the 10th, and the second by the more established Animal Liberation Queensland, two weeks later on Sunday March 24.

Both protests were allegedly planned to increase awareness of the plight of exotic animals in circuses, though actually did very little of that. I still stand by my belief that these events are for the sole purpose of raising awareness of the respective groups, and nothing else. Allowing them to claim that they are doing something to improve the plight of animal x, y, or z whilst accomplishing very little.

In the weeks since the protests were held there has been virtually no information published by either group as to why they are against the way that exotic animals are treated in circuses, save for the congratulatory posting of photos, and reliving their own self indulgent moments.

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