Gary L. Francione just posted a self-produced vegan education pamphlet at his blog, The Abolitionist Approach. It's a double-sided document, so it will be easy to reproduce and distribute. A lot of people have been clamoring for a resource like this, and now you finally have it, from the very person behind the abolitionist approach. If that's not good enough for you, I don't know what is! Get out there and spread the message far and wide.


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Labels: abolition, activism, animal rights, literature, veganism

I've received my final assignments for FARM's national animal rights conference, running from August 14-18, 2008 at the Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria, VA (the program). This conference certainly makes for some strange "bedfellows", but at least it does not censor abolitionist views, which is a rare plus.

I'll start things off Thursday by moderating the opening night plenary, which I also did last year. The plenary consists of an overview of the various animal protection campaigns being conducted in the several broad categories of animal use. It's requested that plenary hosts not add their two cents during the session (I'm the host, not an invited speaker), so I will avoid editorializing that night. However, I would like to ask all participants in advance (and everyone, really) to consider the common roots enabling the different types of animal use in the first place. This is an animal rights conference, after all, not an animal welfare conference (and precious little animal rights discussion actually occurs at any of the national conferences).

Friday you can find me at four more sessions, including the Newcomer Orientation, at which I will present an introduction to animal rights. Later on, I will dine with other New Englanders interested in local/regional issues and networking at a Regional Lunch session at noon (come eat with me--I'll try not to speak with my mouth full). After lunch, I'll focus on Developing Leadership Skills and moderate a rap session called What Rights? Which Animals? It's a sign of how fragmented the 'movement' is that those questions are even being asked, so I'm looking forward to seeing where the various participants in that discussion are at on the subject.

Saturday I'll discuss Running a Local Group (something I happen to do), followed by a Perceptions of Animals panel, at which I intend to speak about the human tendency to compartmentalize their attitudes toward nonhuman animals.

Finally, if you plan on attending the conference through Monday morning, join me for an hour of public speaking training, along with long-time public speaker Howard Lyman. We'll put you on the spot for 1-2 minutes to help identify your strengths and weaknesses as a public speaker.

I wasn't invited to speak on behalf of abolitionism for the annual Paths to Animal Liberation debateplenary, though it looks like D.C. attorney and activist Sean Day will be representing that viewpoint, as he did at AR2006 and at the United Poultry Concerns' annual forum, where he "emphasized that any welfare action that isn't at least a step toward abolition is not doing the animals any good."

I'll also be sure to stop in on a couple of rap sessions covering this same topic, Which Path To Animal Liberation? (moderated by Harold Brown, who spoke in favor of abolition on AR2007's Paths to Animal Liberation panel) and Does Welfare Bring Abolition? (moderated by Karen Davis, who hosted the UPC conference addressing this topic as well). I hope you'll join in on these discussions.

If you're a regular AAFL reader, please don't be shy -- come say hi during the conference. It's always nice to put a face with comments!


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Labels: animal rights, events

Animals as Persons: Essays on on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation was released May 23rd, but it has taken me a while to finish reading Gary L. Francione's latest book because I'm perpetually swamped lately. However, working it into my ridiculous schedule was relatively easy, in part because the book is comprised of individual, self-contained essays that allowed me to conveniently break my reading up into manageable sessions as time permitted. You might find this helpful as well. While the essays range in length, none of them are terribly long (particularly after the first two), and together they all provide an excellent and highly readable introduction to Professor Francione's abolitionist theory of animal rights. If you are one of those people who have put off reading his earlier books due to time constraints or for any other reason, this might be an ideal place to start.

I recommend not skipping over the introduction, particularly if you've never read Francione before. In it, he gets right to the pivotal assertion that the animal advocacy movement is, in effect, two very different movements: one that seeks to abolish animal exploitation by eradicating the property status of animals, and the other a movement that seeks the regulation of animal-using industries while failing to effectively challenge the property status of animals.

He expands on the core concepts of abolitionism in the first chapter, "Animals as Persons." That essay is itself a relatively brief but thorough presentation of Francione's theory as developed more fully in Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (ITAR) While it is not a substitute for reading that book, "Animals as Persons" is a very clear essay that will quickly have you up to speed on the basic concepts.

The next chapter is an essay called "Reflections on Animals, Property, and the Law and Rain Without Thunder." In it, Francione responds to various critics who have argued that the property status of animals does not necessarily prevent advocates from improving animal welfare, and that animal welfare regulation is an effective way of moving incrementally toward recognition that animals have more than the value that we assign to them.

You don't necessarily need to have read the two books to appreciate "Reflections," though I'm sure I got more out of it because I had. I found the essay particularly interesting because Francione deconstructs real-world legislation such as Florida's gestation crate ban and California's foie gras ban. While he frequently deconstructs current events on his blog, as he did with the announcement that KFC Canada would adopt a controlled-atmosphere killing policy, these case studies offer new readers relevant and useful applications of his abolitionist theory.

In his third essay, "Taking Sentience Seriously," Francione focuses on flaws in the "similar-minds" theory, a critical analysis all the more relevant in light of news that Spain's parliament plans to extend legal rights to life and freedom for great apes. Based as it is on cognitive abilities rather than sentience, this pending legislation is a case in point for Francione, so you'll definitely want to read chapter 3 if you don't know why this seemingly good news is a bad precedent for animal rights.

Returning to his critics, chapter four's essay, "Equal Consideration," focuses specifically on Cass Sunstein's review of ITAR, in which he claims that Francione fails to justify why animal advocates should not focus on regulating human treatment of animals rather than abolishing animal use. This gives Francione an excellent opportunity to point out some fatal flaws in Sunstein's thinking, along with that of Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer, who seem to believe that some sentient beings have no interest in continuing to live, despite the logical implication that their very sentience gives these animals an interest in continued existence.

Francione's fifth essay examines the justifications for vivisection, which he also covers in IATR (along with descriptions of numerous specific experiments). Here, too, he observes that even if there is some plausible empirical claim for necessity, this form of animal use cannot be morally justified. "The Use of Nonhuman Animals" is one of the clearest, most concise critiques of vivisection I have read, from both the empirical and moral points of view. While the empirical section should be sufficient in and of itself to clear up any confusion as to whether vivisection is as valuable as is usually claimed, Francione footnotes our way to additional resources, and of course he follows this up with a moral critique that is impossible to refute without engaging in hypocrisy.

His next essay, "Ecofeminism and Animal Rights," is actually a 1996 review of Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals, in which he examines arguments made against animal rights and for an "ethic of care." Like Cass Sunstein's review of IATR, essays in Beyond Animal Rights suggest that we do not need to end the institutionalized exploitation of nonhuman animals in order to include them within the moral community, and even go as far as to actually legitimize that exploitation, ironically perpetuating speciesist hierarchy at the same time that they condemn the rights view as hierarchical. Francione swiftly and effectively counters these views.

Finally, Francione turns his attention to perhaps the world's best-known animal rights author and philosopher, Tom Regan, who in his seminal The Case for Animal Rights makes a sustained, comprehensive, and complex philosophical argument for animal rights. In the course of his argument, which can be seen as a case for which criteria are valid for inclusion in the moral community, he presents the "lifeboat case" as an example of a conflict between rightholders. The lifeboat case is a hypothetical scenario Regan resolves in part by claiming that death is a greater harm to humans than it is to nonhumans such as dogs. Francione critiques this view with "Comparable Harm and Equal Inherent Value," a 1995 essay updated with a 2008 postscript to respond to the new preface Regan wrote in 2004 for the second edition of The Case for Animal Rights, in which he responded to critics of his lifeboat example.

One of the few drawbacks of gathering together all these different essays is that, even though the case studies and responses to specific criticisms may prompt you to understand Francione's abolitionist theory more clearly, you frequently end up reading the same thing you've read elsewhere in his work, including other essays in this book, and sometimes nearly even verbatim. However, it is that very deja vu experience that reminds you how so many supposedly different debates always come back to the fundamentals, which we would do well to learn... and that may just be the reason Francione keeps repeating them.

In recapping his abolitionist animal rights theory and defending it with such precision, clarity, and authority, Gary Francione successfully reasserts the view that nonhuman animals will not be meaningfully protected from unnecessary harm so long as they are considered human property, and that welfare reforms or variations on the theme are incapable of leading to their emancipation. Animals as Persons is a must-read for anyone claiming to support or to even simply be interested in animal rights. Right now you can purchase it and all Columbia University Press animal studies titles at a steep 50% off until August 1st.

While you await your copy, you can read the publisher's interview with Francione and listen to his most recent interview (part 1) on Vegan Freak Radio (part 2).


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Labels: abolition, animal rights, book, reviews, theory

Rights

The term "rights" is widely misunderstood. It will be helpful here to distinguish between moral and legal rights. These classes of rights are similar in at least one respect: in both cases, a right protects a person’s interest by providing that person with a claim against any party who interferes with the satisfaction of the person's protected interest.

An example

Let's look at an example in which a person is protected by both kinds of rights.

Person A is an average human being whose interest in continuing to live we can hopefully agree is important enough that it should not be arbitrarily ignored by any other person. When we say that Person A has "a right to live," we are more or less stating that Person A's interest in continued existence is protected by a "claim" against any person and/or actions that would prevent Person A from continuing to live. Another way of looking at this is that the right protecting Person A's interest in continued existence imposes a duty on other people not to ignore this interest.

Of course, there are limitations on this protection. If Person A attempts to kill another person, then most people would not object to the other party defending herself with lethal force, or to Person A being shot and killed by an officer of the law. Person A's interest in continuing to live has not evaporated, but his actions have provided appropriate justification for ignoring that interest.

With this example in mind, let's take a look at the difference between legal and moral rights.

Legal rights

The law identifies that certain interests ought to be protected, even if infringing upon those interests would serve the interests of another person, or the interests of the greater good. When a person's legal right is violated by another party, then the right provides the person with a justified legal claim against the violating party.

Valid legal claims can lead to various legal sanctions against the violating party, including financial penalties and/or imprisonment. Legal rights are generally codified and enforced by a political institution, such as a government, and they are held by certain entities functioning as legal "persons," such as humans and corporations.

Moral rights

Moral rights derive from objective morality, not from governmental authority. They can be understood to have approximately the same logical structure as legal rights, but they are not backed up with the same sort of protection offered by legal rights. However, the claim a person has against another party who infringes upon a moral right is no less valid. Consequences for violating moral rights can range from a personal demand for an apology to being ostracized by one's community.

The relationship between moral and legal rights

Moral rights and legal rights are distinctly different, but they are closely related. We can think of a moral right as an underlying, pre-legal form of a right. Whatever moral rights a being holds will ideally (if not now, at least some day) be reflected in the legal system. For instance, our moral right to liberty is reflected in our legal right to that liberty. As public opinions about right and wrong shift, laws generally evolve along with them. Humans enslaved in the United States before 1865 had the same basic moral rights as every other human, but these moral rights were not reflected in the law until the 13th Amendment was passed.

It is possible for legal rights to clash with moral rights. For example, some animal rights advocates believe that all sentient beings have at least one basic moral right: the right not to be treated exclusively as a resource by others. This moral right conflicts directly with the morally indefensible legal right humans have to own nonhumans.

Other considerations

A right typically does not need to be understood by someone who possesses that right in order to receive its protection. For example, the interests of children and mentally incompetent persons are protected by rights. Claims to these rights can usually be made on their behalf.

Because nonhuman animals are legally classified as property instead of persons, they cannot possess legal rights.

Conclusion

In my next post, I will describe animal rights. It will be helpful to keep in mind the above discussion as we consider what interests nonhuman animals have.

Next post: Animal Rights

Previous post: The Need


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Labels: abolition, animal rights, AR101, theory

This is going to be a pretty lousy food post, since I don't have any pictures to show for my wife's culinary adventure. Yup, she picked up my slack.

I've been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for weeks, but I have been so busy (and I have a really hard time waking up early on weekends... or any day, for that matter), so Dr. Prescott took it upon herself to make this happen for us. The results weren't as photogenic as the pictures in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joy of Vegan Baking, but they looked very similar. My iPhone simply isn't a good substitute for a real camera with the lighting in our apartment, and my other camera, as mentioned previously, is dying a sad death.

But, man... Oh, man. Up until recently, I had not eaten a vegan cinnamon roll that tasted anything like the cinnamon rolls I remember from Cinnabon, et al. Certainly there are plenty of other vegan goodies to distract me. Far too many, really. I've managed to cut back at least a little on indulging my sweet tooth these past couple of months.

But all along, I periodically would try a commercially available vegan cinnamon roll and think to myself, "C'mon. How hard can it be? I mean, really, is it just that the people making these cinnamon rolls have simply never had the good stuff, or are vegan cinnamon rolls doomed to be like vegan "cheese," a pale imitation of the original recipe?" Okay, my thoughts weren't that coherent, but they more or less covered the same ground.

Fortunately, I remembered I owned The Joy of Vegan Baking, so I looked up cinnamon rolls. Voila! Colleen never lets me down.

Ironically, I didn't actually try her recipe, though I'm sure it's great. Everything I've tried from that book has been delicious so far. Fortunately, Colleen is focused on making sure vegan baked goods taste amazing, not on making sure they are made with fruit juices and bran fiber (thank you, Colleen). However, her recipe requires significant dough rising time, which is hard for me to come by, as mentioned above.

My friend, Kristin (who writes a blog called Beans and Greens), let me know about a recipe she modified with great success, and recommended it because it uses instant yeast, saving oodles of time.

However, the recipe Kristin posted called for corn syrup to make the icing. We don't have corn syrup and we don't want any. Dr. Prescott had the brilliant idea to combine recipes. We used the instant yeast goodness of Kristin's find (which still took a while to prep, unfortunately), and iced those rolls with the frosting from Colleen's book... I tell you, people: They tasted amazing (sugar rush!), so they are worth a little effort, especially if (unlike us) you actually have a rolling pin!

If you want the recipe, visit Kristin's write-up. She posted enticing pictures to go with it, which more or less represent how ours turned out as well.

Riding your coattails, ladies... Many thanks to both my wife and Kristin for my cinnamon roll heaven this past weekend.


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Labels: vegan cooking, vegan food, vegan recipes

Today marks the launch of humanemyth.org, a website created to "correct the misinformation that is associated with the Humane Myth, and to inspire a form of working for the peaceful transformation of our society that fully respects the inherent dignity and worth of animals and people alike."


On the front page of the site, "humane myth" is defined as:

An idea being propagated by the animal-using industry and some animal protection organizations that it is possible to use and kill animals in a manner that can be fairly described as respectful or compassionate or humane.

Sounds like something you should definitely be checking out, and there's a lot to see.

According to a press release available at the site, "HumaneMyth.org offers provocative new testimony from former farmers, investigators, and animal rescuers who expose fallacies associated with animal product labels such as cage-free, sustainable, organic and certified humane."

Other features include:

• Humane declaration


• Deconstructions of the humane myth in the media


• Downloadable "cage free" and "happy meat" slideshows


• Downloadable literature, web banners and other resources


• Tips for humane myth advocacy


• Humane myth glossary

HumaneMyth.org is sponsored by James LaVeck and Jenny Stein, the award-winning filmmakers behind the documentaries The Witness (2000) and Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (in post-production).

James LaVeck is speaking several times at the 34th annual Vegetarian Summerfest, happening this weekend in Johnstown, PA. He speaks on the humane myth tomorrow at 10am ("Deconstructing the Humane Myth") and Saturday at 9:55am ("Don't Buy the Myth!"). If you're headed out there, be sure to check out these presentations, and don't forget to report back here!


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Labels: happy meat, humane meat, humane movement

You may have seen the following survey announced elsewhere, but now it is available as an online dealio, which makes it a little easier to complete and submit than the text version that was going around before. This approach also makes your replies more anonymous.

M. Butterflies Katz: Vegan Relationship Survey

I don't know Katz, nor do I have a clear sense of how your information will be used. The email providing me with this link stated, "The results of the survey will be used to research an article that will be published on-line and in magazines." That's all you get. If you don't like that, don't bother filling out the survey. I know some folks could use a way to burn through 15 minutes at work, though, so have at it.


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Labels: veganism

This is the first in a series of posts I am writing to introduce readers to the most basic fundamentals of the abolitionist approach to animal rights as laid out by Gary L. Francione. I have also read works by Joan Dunayer and Lee Hall but, for my purposes here, Francione's body of work currently offers the most thorough and original explication of abolitionist animal rights and our duties as animal rights advocates.

Though this blog is obviously not the best forum for me to be completely comprehensive, that is not my goal. If you're looking for that, you should be reading the following books anyway: Rain Without Thunder, Introduction to Animal Rights, and Animals as Persons. Instead I will attempt to distill in my own words the basics of abolitionist animal rights advocacy that I have learned over the past 18 months or so. I will work through the basics, beginning with an understanding of the term rights, and working through what it means to be an animal rights advocate.

Post One:  The Need

The animal rights "movement" has been diluted by welfare-oriented advocacy to such an extent that the term "animal rights" has come to be widely understood merely as a catch-all label that refers to any activity carried out on behalf of animals, whether the activity is related to the moral or legal rights of animals at all. Most often it is not. 

Labels: abolition, animal rights, AR101, theory

Quick trip with my spousal unit to Manhattan this weekend. We only had limited time in the city, but managed to finally try a Dosa from N.Y. Dosas at Washington Park before eating at Sacred Chow.





I enjoyed everything from both places, though none of it was really hot. We caught N.Y. Dosas just as they were wrapping up, so we didn't exactly get fresh food, but it still satisfied my craving until we went to an Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights the next day.

I got the feeling that Sacred Chow reheats food, at least at the time of the day we went (about 5ish on a Friday afternoon), because our orders did not come out very hot, and they cooled off rather quickly. The orange blackstrap bbq seitan was terrific, though, regardless of the temperature. If the sesame greens had just been hotter, they would have been awesome. Instead they were just fine. Though more than each of the tapas plates at $6, the Gym Body smoothie with soy milk was totally worth the money (not that I would have complained about a little vanilla extract and/or agave nectar in there).

No pictures of food, probably because I was too hungry to do anything but start eating immediately. At least I had the presence of mind to take those two location photos above.


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Labels: restaurants, vegan food, vegan restaurants

So... yeah. I'm as surprised as you.

Among the bloggers highlighted for the first annual VegBloggy Awards, VegNews decided to include An Animal-Friendly Life. I'm not sure how they categorized the site yet, or anything else they wrote about AAFL, but fellow winner SuperVegan got the scoop on theirs ("The Vegan Daily Show," in case you were wondering), as well as learning who the other recipients are. I know a bunch of these folks, and they deserve to be recognized for their contributions to the vegan blogosphere. Knowing how hard it is to keep up a blog that's worth coming back to, I have a deep appreciation for how they manage to keep their content fresh and compelling.

I don't know where every last one of the VegBloggy recipients lives but, in addition to me, the talents behind The Conscious Kitchen, Vegan Yum Yum, and Vegan Man also made the list, giving Boston's vegan bloggers 4 out of the 21 total awards. With this much vegan culinary talent at our disposal, I'd really like to see another great vegan restaurant open up around here soon, hint-hint!

All the blogs are being featured in VegNews' July/August issue, which is on its way to subscribers now and will hit newsstands July 1st. Thank you to VegNews for including AAFL (and The Abolitionist Approach, really), and for bringing more awareness to my writing.

If you are a VegNews reader visiting AAFL for the first time, welcome. I hope you'll be a frequent guest. I tend to publish about once every week or so lately, but sometimes I get a little tied up working on my other projects, like the Boston Vegan Association and I'm Vegan. Also, ever since Taste Better! went on hiatus a couple of months ago, taking my monthly column with it, I've shifted into writing longer, somewhat more developed pieces, and those take more time to write. I'll try to keep the Thoughts for the Day and Vegan: It's What's For Dinner posts coming to keep things lively.

The best way to be notified of new posts is to subscribe to the RSS feed over in the sidebar using the Feedblitz mail option or the "RSS FEED" button. While you're at it, take a look around. You may notice a navigation bar at the top of the page. I haven't podcasted in a long time, but I left the link there in case I one day revive the show or do a decide to do a one-off. As with the main blog, time is always an issue. Another way to entertain yourself between posts is to check out the links menu, which is relatively up-to-date. I've gathered together letters to the editor I've had published, other worthwhile blogs, vegan artists, recommended cookbooks, and much more.

All the other buttons are in working order, too, but do note that the links and about "buttons" are actually menus. Just hover your cursor over the menu you want to view, and it will automatically pop up. If no menu pops up, you're probably looking at a button. Go ahead and click! I hope you enjoy y