Deep Roots: Animal Rights Blog

Welcome to the long awaited 6th Carnival of Empty Cages! It has been nearly a year since the last carnival was published, and a lot of great [tag]animal liberation[/tag] material has been written across the blogosphere. We’ve seen the birth of several new animal lib bloggers and the growth of many of our old favorites. I wish I could promise you that this carnival would successfully catch you up to everything that has gone on in the past year, but that is just not feasible. Instead, you will find a nice (yet relatively small) sampling of some of the great material that has been published.

With this edition of the Carnival of Empty Cages, we announce that the Deep Roots blog will now be the permanent host of the carnival and that the carnival will be published on a monthly basis! Please help spread the word about the animal lib blogosphere by submitting posts to future editions of the carnival and linking back to us. Enjoy!

Connecting Oppression

In his post Is Heterosexism Different?, Gary Francione talks about the links between [tag]speciesism[/tag] and [tag]heterosexism[/tag] by responding to the following question that he received:

I understand that speciesism is problematic because it is like racism and sexism because it attaches a negative value to species in the same way that racism attaches a negative value to race or sexism attaches a negative value to the status of being a woman. But you also often liken speciesism to heterosexism and I think that there is a difference here because unlike race or sex, which have no inherent moral value, sexual relations between members of the same sex may be considered as immoral because such conduct is not natural.

Sistah Vegan discusses a challenge to PETA’s Animal Liberation Project and the [tag]animal rights[/tag] movement as a whole in the post Unresolved Trauma from Experiencing Racism (and not experiencing it). The post talks about the balance of connecting issues of speciesism and racism while also dealing with the triggers and trauma from generations of racism (and being compared to animals).

Focusing on PETA’s attack of Michael Moore and fat people in general, Ryan at Veg Blog discusses Anti-Fat Sentiment in Animal Rights.

Sometimes its the comments section of a post that interest me most. Such is the case with the post Confessions of a (former) breeder at Invisible Voices. About halfway down the comments section, Pattrice Jones initiates a great dialogue about reproductive freedom and how it connects the liberation of humans and non-human animals.

Of Human and Non-Human Animals reminds us that meat isn’t just bad for animals, its also the most danger industry for human workers.

Few people realize that, in a country like the USA, meatpacking is the most dangerous occupation.

In the year 2000, about 25 percent of all employees of American meatpacking plants had non-fatal occupational injuries or job-related illnesses: that is as many as 4 times the national average for all private industry sectors.

I had planned to write a post for this carnival critiquing PETA’s recent State of the Union video, which features a woman stripping (eventually to the point of full frontal) while talking about PETA’s campaigns, but alas Gary Francione beat me to the punch. Nothing wrong with that, though, as Gary has done a wonderful job at highlighting what is so wrong with PETA’s pornography.

First, these campaigns commodify a traditionally disempowered group (women) as a supposed means to the end of helping another disempowered group (nonhumans). But what sense does it make to say that we should treat one group instrumentally in order to help another group? It does not make any sense whatsoever. Indeed, by encouraging the public to see women as objects, PETA merely ensures that people will continue to see nonhumans as objects. As long as we continue to treat women like meat, we will continue to treat nonhumans as meat.

Animals as Food

Bruce Friedrich over at the Huffington Post write about a growing trend among “conscious consumers”: [tag]humane meat[/tag]. Friedrich, however, boils the topic down to one question: would you (as a compassionate consumer) be be willing to cut an animal’s throat?

With 111 shark species on the World Conservation Union’s Red List, the issue of shark protection is starting to become popular these days. Anita Wolff at Britannica Blog published a post about the shark’s deadliest predator: humans.

Another post, or rather a series of posts, dealing with “compassionate consumers” is Animal Writings’ three-part series on Advocating to Free-Rangers. In part one of the series, entitled Understanding Why They Buy Free-Range/Cage-Free, Gary shares his observations about the ethical basis (even if weak) for why people choose free-range or cage-free eggs. Part two, Leveraging Their Consciences to Get Them Closer to Veganism, deals with using that ethical basis as a way to push their logic a little further towards a more compassionate living standard. And part three, Organizations’ Message, discusses the need for organizations (and individual vegans) to really focus on getting the most out of their messaging with regards to promoting veganism as an ethical living standard.

Gregory McNamee at Britannica Blog has a post about Horse Slaughter in America. Although miniscule in comparison to the slaughter of chickens, cows, and pigs, the number of horses slaughtered in the U.S. for food in 2006 was around 100,000. This post discusses why we are slaughtering horses for food and what we can do to stop it.

Animal Rights and the Environment

Pattrice Jones’ post entitled Drought and Despair takes the issue of drought and uses it to connect struggles of liberation and personal mental health.

Animal liberationists often talk about how the best thing you can do for the environment is to go vegan. Invisible Voices published a post (Environmentalism: Part of Animal Rights) along these lines, but highlighting how many of our environmentally destructive patterns are antithetical to animal liberation.

Gary at Animal Writings has a short and simple Two Simple Ways to Help Birds. After all, wild birds deserve the right to a home and food, too.

Veganism, Speciesism, Abolition and Animal Rights

It seems more and more discussion is being heard about why [tag]veganism[/tag] must be at the root of any movement for animal rights. The Garys have both weighed in on this topic. Gary at Animal Writings writes about why he is vegan to reduce animal suffering and Gary Francione writes that veganism is the fundamental principle of abolitionism.

For new vegans, Ryan at The Veg Blog has some good tips on label reading for beginners. He also compiled a list of 10 Ways To Be A Kick-Ass Vegan.

Jenna, over at VeganFreaks, has a very interesting and compelling argument against speciesism using the notion of semiotic communication as one way to point out the sentience of non-humyn animals. Along that same line of thought, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary has a post about pig love and sentience.

Eric at An Animal-Friendly Life writes about the Language of Liberation

Well-chosen words hold the secret to liberating animals, those who cannot speak for themselves. How? Because emancipation begins in the mind. We can physically rescue as many individual nonhuman animals as we want, but the only way to truly achieve lasting liberation for all nonhuman beings is to first alter the mindset, or attitudes, of a meaningful percentage of those responsible for their exploitation.

Another post from superblogger Ryan discusses a key reason as to Why We Need to Rethink Welfare – we’re doing the industry’s marketing for them.

Animal Person has a post fisking a New York Times article on Nonhumans as Property. Mary points out that it is this status as property that needs the full attention of animal rights advocates.

Randomness

Invisible Voices has a really nice and important post sparked by Pattrice Jones’ book Aftershock.

I wouldn’t have ever described myself as someone dealing with trauma, and my activism tends to be low-key, low-risk. Yet we all deal with the repeated trauma of facing what goes on in this world, to humans and non-humans, as we work to enact change. It doesn’t have to be something as obvious as being beaten by the police or rescuing animals at our own peril to put us in the position of dealing with trauma. And burnout.

Will Potter writes about an odd case where Death Threats to Biologists “Not Necessarily a Crime”. It is, of course, another example of double standards.

Last but certainly not least, Britannica Blog has yet another post dealing with animal exploitation. This one, The Bull Market in Bear Parts, talks about the growing trade in bear parts as medicine and how this is leading to the “farming” of bears.

Well, that’s it for this edition. I know its all a little overwhelming, but there was a lot of catching up to do. Please be sure to submit your post (or any other great animal lib related posts you like) at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_197.html. The next edition of the carnival will be posted at the beginning of November, so be sure to get your submissions in before the end of the month.