So which one would you consider yourself to be? In my short time of being a vegan, I have decided that the abolitionist approach is much better and effective. While almost all animal activist groups (at least in the US) take a very welfarist approach, I think that animal welfare (which has been around for 200+ years) does not work and actually encourages people to feel better about eating meat and animal products. The whole "happy meat" and "free-range chicken and eggs" phenomenon only helps people to not feel guilty when sticking their forks into dead flesh.
Animal welfare refers to the viewpoint that it is morally acceptable for humans to use nonhuman animals for food, in animal research, as clothing, and in entertainment, so long as unnecessary suffering is avoided. The position is contrasted with the animal rights position, which holds that other animals should not be used by, or regarded as the property of, humans.[2]
Animal Abolitionist refers to the viewpoint that it is not morally acceptable to use animals in any way, including as pets, food, in entertainment or for any kind of experimentation and medical research.
Groups like PETA are rewarding places like KFC in Canada and Whole Foods (which sells meat) for being animal friendly. I think this is wrong and only encouraging people to eat animals and animal products.
Gary Francione, a leader in the Abolitionist approach (check out his amazing website www.abolitionistapproach.com) talks about how we need to stop thinking of animals as our property and stop using them for our needs. He claims that many animal activist groups like PETA and the Humane Society do not push Veganism because they would lose out on their donar base (many of whom are not even vegeterians).
I would think that most vegans would agree with the abolitionist approach, but why then are there so many animal activist groups out there who are promoting the improvement of animal welfare instead of pushing the education of Veganism? And why are vegans supporting that?
Wouldn't it be better if we got out there ourselves and promoted non-violent vegan education with non-judgemental attitudes? I don't think we can ever hope to get the majority of people Vegan by trying to enact laws that help animals on farms. I think that people will go Vegan through education and becoming informed. Not everyone of course will go Vegan, but the hope is that we will eventually shift to a society that looks as down on animal explotation as they now do to slavery.
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