From my perspective, as someone who cares a lot about both animal rights and safeguarding democracy, democracy is a necessary foundation for being able to advocate for animals as effectively as possible. Democracy guarantees us the right to freely campaign for our political preferences, including animal rights. If democracy erodes and rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly become restricted, that will also negatively affect the animal rights movement.
This is especially true because there are strong ties between agriculture and political power. That already creates problems for animal rights activism today, and it would become dramatically worse under an autocracy. I recently spoke with an animal rights activist from Uganda who told me that they have to be extremely careful with their demands there in order not to attract the attention of the state’s repressive apparatus. Openly criticizing factory farming the way we do in democratic countries is not possible there.
Ultimately, animals benefit from democracy too. Right now, the risk of democratic collapse seems so severe to me that I personally prioritize safeguarding democracy over other cause areas, even though it is less neglected than animal welfare. My hope is that, in the long run, democracies worldwide will stabilize again. Once that happens, I plan to shift my focus back more toward animals.
Thank you so much for explaining this, Evelyn! It is really interesting to hear your perspective as an advocate for democracy who cares deeply about animal welfare! And thank you for your important work.
As an American animal advocate myself, I definitely agree that I value my free speech because I use it for animals! And I love the way the U.S. Constitution helps me advocate for animals.
But that still doesn’t lead me to conclude that overall, the best way to help animals is through democracy promotion.
(First, as a probably irrelevant aside, Americans like me actually got our freedom of speech through a couple wars and the creation of a new Constitution with a bill of rights, not through democracy. I see through your profile that you’re German so I don’t know how free speech works in Germany or if it’s something voters decided on. In the United States, though, freedom of speech is actually one of the things that makes our country less than a complete democracy. The US Constitution says that the people can’t pass a law to abridge of the freedom of speech—even if a majority of people vote that they would like to pass the law. That is why undercover investigations of factory farms are currently allowed in every state in the United States. Various democratically elected state governments keep passing ag-gag laws to ban these investigations, and the undemocratic court system keeps striking them down because of first amendment. But I think this is just a technicality because I assume the pro-democracy movement is actually a pro-good-governance movement that also includes stuff like free speech as a limitation on democracy?)
More importantly:
My assumption would be that there is way more farmed animal suffering in the United States, where I live and where we have excellent free speech, than in Uganda. I know that the Uganda human population is lower than the United States human population, but my assumption would be that even per capita, there is way more farmed animal suffering in the United States than in Uganda. For instance, I get the impression that the meat industry uses much fewer animals per capita in Uganda than in the United States.
I agree that it would be better for animals if Ugandan animal rights activist had the right to advocate for them.
But sadly, in the United States, where we all have the right to advocate for farmed animals, only a tiny portion of the population does so. And a much larger portion of the population uses their rights and power to do things that are bad for animals like operating live-hang poultry slaughterhouses.
That said, considering that you are in Germany puts your opinion in a new light for me. My understanding is that Germany is an extremely democratic country where people have lots of rights. And I also understand that it is a country that it’s done more than perhaps any other country to pass laws in the last 10 years to improve farmed animal welfare! 🇩🇪 I know you have banned battery cages and chick culling for example! 🐥 So Germany is a really good illustration of your point about how people who are free may use their freedom to stand up for animals.
I just wish that is what all free people would do everywhere. And in my experience, it sadly isn’t. Maybe the issue is that animal suffering is usually an externality of things people want, rather than people focusing on the animals directly in making their decisions.
In any case, thank you for your important work to promote democracy, Evelyn. I obviously agree democracy is a very good thing even as I think people should continue doing animal welfare work.
From my perspective, as someone who cares a lot about both animal rights and safeguarding democracy, democracy is a necessary foundation for being able to advocate for animals as effectively as possible. Democracy guarantees us the right to freely campaign for our political preferences, including animal rights. If democracy erodes and rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly become restricted, that will also negatively affect the animal rights movement.
This is especially true because there are strong ties between agriculture and political power. That already creates problems for animal rights activism today, and it would become dramatically worse under an autocracy. I recently spoke with an animal rights activist from Uganda who told me that they have to be extremely careful with their demands there in order not to attract the attention of the state’s repressive apparatus. Openly criticizing factory farming the way we do in democratic countries is not possible there.
Ultimately, animals benefit from democracy too. Right now, the risk of democratic collapse seems so severe to me that I personally prioritize safeguarding democracy over other cause areas, even though it is less neglected than animal welfare. My hope is that, in the long run, democracies worldwide will stabilize again. Once that happens, I plan to shift my focus back more toward animals.
Thank you so much for explaining this, Evelyn! It is really interesting to hear your perspective as an advocate for democracy who cares deeply about animal welfare! And thank you for your important work.
As an American animal advocate myself, I definitely agree that I value my free speech because I use it for animals! And I love the way the U.S. Constitution helps me advocate for animals.
But that still doesn’t lead me to conclude that overall, the best way to help animals is through democracy promotion.
(First, as a probably irrelevant aside, Americans like me actually got our freedom of speech through a couple wars and the creation of a new Constitution with a bill of rights, not through democracy. I see through your profile that you’re German so I don’t know how free speech works in Germany or if it’s something voters decided on. In the United States, though, freedom of speech is actually one of the things that makes our country less than a complete democracy. The US Constitution says that the people can’t pass a law to abridge of the freedom of speech—even if a majority of people vote that they would like to pass the law. That is why undercover investigations of factory farms are currently allowed in every state in the United States. Various democratically elected state governments keep passing ag-gag laws to ban these investigations, and the undemocratic court system keeps striking them down because of first amendment. But I think this is just a technicality because I assume the pro-democracy movement is actually a pro-good-governance movement that also includes stuff like free speech as a limitation on democracy?)
More importantly:
My assumption would be that there is way more farmed animal suffering in the United States, where I live and where we have excellent free speech, than in Uganda. I know that the Uganda human population is lower than the United States human population, but my assumption would be that even per capita, there is way more farmed animal suffering in the United States than in Uganda. For instance, I get the impression that the meat industry uses much fewer animals per capita in Uganda than in the United States.
I agree that it would be better for animals if Ugandan animal rights activist had the right to advocate for them.
But sadly, in the United States, where we all have the right to advocate for farmed animals, only a tiny portion of the population does so. And a much larger portion of the population uses their rights and power to do things that are bad for animals like operating live-hang poultry slaughterhouses.
That said, considering that you are in Germany puts your opinion in a new light for me. My understanding is that Germany is an extremely democratic country where people have lots of rights. And I also understand that it is a country that it’s done more than perhaps any other country to pass laws in the last 10 years to improve farmed animal welfare! 🇩🇪 I know you have banned battery cages and chick culling for example! 🐥 So Germany is a really good illustration of your point about how people who are free may use their freedom to stand up for animals.
I just wish that is what all free people would do everywhere. And in my experience, it sadly isn’t. Maybe the issue is that animal suffering is usually an externality of things people want, rather than people focusing on the animals directly in making their decisions.
In any case, thank you for your important work to promote democracy, Evelyn. I obviously agree democracy is a very good thing even as I think people should continue doing animal welfare work.