I read this question the day before, and I agreed strongly and didnât have any concrete responses to your questions. However, having let it simmer for a bit, I (slightly) less strongly agree that advocacy is a better term than welfare + have some half-baked responses to your questions.
Are there other considerations regarding which term to use?
I think itâs valuable to also think about if the word being used is âperson-centeredâ or âother-centered.â I have noticed that people respond much more positively to the latter than the former. For instance, itâs easier to get people to sign a petition that ~aligns with their values vs. making them change their day-to-day actions. It is natural to be change averse, so a solution where the hard work can be deferred to someone else will always get more traction (I am not arguing that behavior change shouldnât be done; in fact, I would much prefer a world where everyone carefully thought about ethics, but thatâs a separate conversation).
This is my only reservation against the term advocacy. Historically, advocacy has been very âperson-centered,â so â
It may give newcomers/âpasserbys the impression that EA/âadj-funded animal work is more concerned with traditional forms of advocacy and may discourage them from being involved further.
On the contrary, people who would have an averse reaction to advocacy wouldnât fall in the category of âpeople who would otherwise join our effort,â so it doesnât matter.
My guess is that most of the funding in this space goes into welfare reforms rather than grassroots advocacy (fact check me); if this is true, then using advocacy could be a bit misleading.
All that being said, I still think Animal Advocacy is a much better umbrella term than welfare.
Is there a third term thatâs better than both of them?
I am unsure if any of these are better, but hereâs a list:
Animal Advocacy and Reform
[Something] Reform
I like reform a lot; itâs well-received by most and gives them the impression that changes being proposed are incremental.
However, this could alienate abolitionists further, which would be bad because they are likely to be highly-engaged in this space compared to the average person.
(Farm/âWild) Animal Wellbeing
I feel this fits well and casts a wide enough net to include the different approaches being taken to solve the problem. It is also good from a promotional perspective: who doesnât want to be pro-wellbeing?
I also like how Wild Animal Wellbeing abbreviates to WAW.
(The English language has a poor palette of words!)
Which one of the two should EA use, and on which occasions?
Overall, I do think Animal Advocacy > Animal Welfare, so as a rule of thumb, it is probably better to use the former in most circumstances. I am in favor of the topic tag being changed, but I am unsure if itâs too much of a headache to do that on the backend.
I read this question the day before, and I agreed strongly and didnât have any concrete responses to your questions. However, having let it simmer for a bit, I (slightly) less strongly agree that advocacy is a better term than welfare + have some half-baked responses to your questions.
Are there other considerations regarding which term to use?
I think itâs valuable to also think about if the word being used is âperson-centeredâ or âother-centered.â I have noticed that people respond much more positively to the latter than the former. For instance, itâs easier to get people to sign a petition that ~aligns with their values vs. making them change their day-to-day actions. It is natural to be change averse, so a solution where the hard work can be deferred to someone else will always get more traction (I am not arguing that behavior change shouldnât be done; in fact, I would much prefer a world where everyone carefully thought about ethics, but thatâs a separate conversation).
This is my only reservation against the term advocacy. Historically, advocacy has been very âperson-centered,â so â
It may give newcomers/âpasserbys the impression that EA/âadj-funded animal work is more concerned with traditional forms of advocacy and may discourage them from being involved further.
On the contrary, people who would have an averse reaction to advocacy wouldnât fall in the category of âpeople who would otherwise join our effort,â so it doesnât matter.
My guess is that most of the funding in this space goes into welfare reforms rather than grassroots advocacy (fact check me); if this is true, then using advocacy could be a bit misleading.
All that being said, I still think Animal Advocacy is a much better umbrella term than welfare.
Is there a third term thatâs better than both of them?
I am unsure if any of these are better, but hereâs a list:
Animal Advocacy and Reform
[Something] Reform
I like reform a lot; itâs well-received by most and gives them the impression that changes being proposed are incremental.
However, this could alienate abolitionists further, which would be bad because they are likely to be highly-engaged in this space compared to the average person.
(Farm/âWild) Animal Wellbeing
I feel this fits well and casts a wide enough net to include the different approaches being taken to solve the problem. It is also good from a promotional perspective: who doesnât want to be pro-wellbeing?
I also like how Wild Animal Wellbeing abbreviates to WAW.
(The English language has a poor palette of words!)
Which one of the two should EA use, and on which occasions?
Overall, I do think Animal Advocacy > Animal Welfare, so as a rule of thumb, it is probably better to use the former in most circumstances. I am in favor of the topic tag being changed, but I am unsure if itâs too much of a headache to do that on the backend.