What's in a Name?

What’s in a Name?

Are you a “bunny hugger”, or an “animal lover” Or maybe you are a “radical liberationist”! What’s in a label, after all?

Do you give your money to the Humane Society or Peta? How do you know what organizations are using your money in a way you think is right and good? What’s the difference between all those organizations out there helping animals? Here’s a lesson on who does what.
Those who believe in “animal rights” (animal rights activists or ARA’s) subscribe to the philosophy that animals are here for their own purposes. They are not here for us to experiment on, slaughter for food, use for entertainment purposes, or otherwise exploit. Prize-winning author Alice Walker summed up this philosophy best when she said: “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”

Examples of an animal-rights organization would be People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), a hard-working organization of activists who have brought about many important changes in legislation that makes life better for animals worldwide. In the Sunshine State, we have the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, (ARFF). ARA’s are necessarily vegetarian or vegan, eschewing animal products for ethical reasons; if one believes in animal rights, one cannot eat animals or wear them since they believe that animals have the right not to be eaten or worn.

“Animal welfare” organizations are mostly concerned with companion animal issues such as spay/neuter initiatives, animal cruelty and rescue/adoption. Those who subscribe to an animal welfare viewpoint believe that it’s acceptable for people to exploit animals for food, entertainment and experimentation as long as it is done humanely. (ARA’s will argue that it’s impossible to be humane while slaughtering food animals, that vivisection is cruel because anesthesia is usually not employed during certain procedures; and rodeos, greyhound racing, circuses, horse-drawn carriages and other forms of animal exploitation are by their very nature inhumane). Examples of animal-welfare organizations would include The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Animal control, if you pardon the pun, is a different animal altogether. Where animal welfare and animal rights organizations exist to protect animals from people, animal control exists to protect people from animals. As a function of the Public Safety Department, their main goal is to keep the public safe from stray animals that may bite or spread diseases. However, they are involved in rescuing animals, providing adoption services and veterinary care, so animal control has a dual focus. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control is our animal control agency.

“Animal ethics” is that area of animal rights that is concerned with scientific evidence that animals have the right to be treated with respect and reverence. Animal ethicists are scientists, philosophers, lawyers and professors, who argue a better world for animals based on scientific evidence that animals have the capacity to feel emotional and physical pain and are possessed of a self awareness; all of which conveys upon us, as compassionate human beings, a requirement to treat animals with value. Animal ethicists argue that animals should be celebrated for their unique gifts and talents. George Bernard Shaw put it this way: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity.”

“Animal liberation” is what is usually referred to as the most radical wing of the animal rights movement. Those brave (some would call criminal) souls who don black masks and break into animal-testing labs to free dogs used in experiments, or liberate minks at a fur farm, or cause financial damage to a whaling vessel, are called The Animal Liberation Front, or ALF. ALF is at the helm of the animal liberation movement, and is sometimes referred to as “domestic terrorists” for their bold and illegal actions. Their contribution to the movement includes undercover video of abhorrent practices and untold cruelty to animals in industrial settings that have brought about many changes that stop animal suffering in its tracks.

Hopefully, with this explanation, you will find yourself and your strongly-held beliefs somewhere among the hundreds of animal advocacy organizations that can be found on the internet. Sometimes, to the benefit of all concerned, they work together to effect changes for animals. Pro-hunting groups have been seen working hand in hand with anti-hunting groups such as Defenders of Wildlife because both believe the practice of canned hunting (shooting elderly so-called trophy animals as they come out of a crate) is cruel and unsportsmanlike. At a recent conference, Peta and the HSUS hosted several farmers who do indeed raise animals for food, but they do so humanely and have an interest in stopping the horrendous practices of factory farming. Strange bedfellows indeed.