Slacktivism

Kickstarting A Stalled Movement

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As passionate as I am about the social justice issue that is animal rights, and veganism, I am starting to believe that the ‘movement’ as such has lost it’s momentum having been bogged down by egos and the perception that doing ‘something’ is all it takes.

Following on from an article in July 2013, here are some more disturbing things that have caught my attention.

In the past few months we have seen activists claiming to be from “Gateway To Hell” storm the Brisbane office of China Southern Airlines, to protest the transportation of primates from China to the U.S.A, without being able to say if it was successful or not.

Deceptive Organisations

Animal Liberation NSW’s Executive Director, Mark Pearson, added to his 15 minutes of fame by using an ABC Landline segment on incorrectly labelled eggs to promote his bid for a Senate seat as a candidate for the Animal Justice Party. He has even gone so far as to lodge a complaint with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission over the final product being incorrectly labelled as ‘free range’.

A few days later Mr Pearson was in the press again, this time claiming that live export “will be all over by morning tea,” once they start putting pressure on will wholesalers, and build more slaughterhouses in Australia.

Why ANY animal advocate would be wanting to build more slaughterhouses is beyond me. Mind you, Voiceless, the Australian “think-tank” dedicated to animal protection issues also seems to think that consumer protection equates to animal protection, with regards to the Federal Court of Australia case, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Turi Foods Pty Ltd (No 4) [2013] FCA 665.

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Should We Aim For Popularity Or Credibility?

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What is it with the animal movement in this country where some people can say whatever they want, regardless of whether it is correct or not, and no one will bat an eyelid about it. Whereas others, who are saying something that is factually correct, they will be shot down in flames?

This article will highlight exactly what I am talking about.

What I would like to know is, once we become a ‘leader’ of the movement, whether self appointed or otherwise, should we still be held accountable for the things we say and do?

Or do our actions become sacrosanct?

This is what has happened recently, though not here in Australia, it happened over in the United States of America.

At the start of June this year, Ms Leigh-Chantelle Koch from Viva La Vegan, and Green Earth Group did a presentation at the Anti-Fur Society’s Animal Rights Conference about the progress and challenges in Australia.

Sadly, the information presented by Ms Koch contains more than just the occasional bit of incorrect information.

Ms Koch discussion on Koalas is where the noticeable errors begin.

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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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Vegan Animal Rights Group Refuses To Promote Veganism

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The night of Tuesday 23 April 2013 will forever be remembered as one of the most disgraceful nights in the history of the animal advocacy movement in Queensland, if not Australia.

It was the night that an alleged vegan animal rights group, aggressively ejected two individuals for wanting to promote veganism and to help other animals.

The shameful series of events took place at the screening of the movie Maximum Tolerated Dose on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The public screening was a collaboration between Animal Liberation Queensland and the Facebook group Coast To Coast Animal Friends, two organisations that a reasonable person would think would be interested in promoting veganism and educating others on where to buy products that haven’t been tested on or contain animal products.Yet this wasn’t what happened.

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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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