The Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) released a report yesterday detailing observations from the Animal Rights National Conference, held August 3-6 in Alexandria, Virginia. The event was hosted by the Farm Animal Rights Movement and sponsored by Compassion Over Killing, Mercy for Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and The Humane League, along with other animal rights activist groups.Several Alliance staff members attended the Animal Rights National Conference. What they found was a continuation of “ends justifying the means” methods to disrupt animal agriculture and the companies that support it,” said Kay Johnson Smith, Alliance president and CEO.
According to conference organizers, nearly 2,000 individuals were present at the event, described as “dedicated to the vision that animals have the right to be free from all forms of human exploitation.”
AAA reported that a major focus of this year’s conference was placing pressure on restaurant, retail and food service brands to adopt policies that ultimately lead them to stop selling meat and animal products. The reason animal rights groups are focusing on brand activism is that it works, and may be the fastest way for them to achieve their goals, the Alliance report said.
“The speakers at this year’s Animal Rights National Conference made their goals clear – ending all forms of animal agriculture, regardless of how well animals are cared for,” said Kay Johnson Smith, Alliance president and CEO. “Their persistent focus on pressure campaigns targeting restaurant, retail and foodservice brands is of great concern to the Alliance and our members. We encourage anyone with a vested interest in producing, processing or selling meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, to read this year’s report and hear how determined these groups are to eliminate food choices and make our society vegan,” Smith said
Activists in attendance were encouraged to be as extreme as necessary to advance their goals. “Breaking the law can often be a good thing to do,” said Zach Groff, Animal Liberation Collective. Groff spoke about the ‘nature of confrontational activism’ such as “protests, open rescues from farms without permission, vigils.”
When an audience member commented about ‘humane’ policies not being as good as complete liberation, Krista Hiddema, Mercy for Animals (Canada), hinted at no animal products being sold as the end goal, stating “we’re never going away.” Hiddema also stated that “we are winning against the largest organizations in the world,” and “they are terrified of us.”
Consistent with previous years’ conferences, another key message from speakers was for attendees to focus efforts on eliminating farms of all types and sizes, not only the large-scale, modern operations (declared to be “factory farms”) that have historically been targeted.
AAA said that there also tends to be less under-cover video being shot on farms because mainstream media is less interested in this type of video. But if activists can tie the video to a household brand name or a company, the activist groups will use it to pressure the company.
Several speakers and panels also discussed animal agriculture’s impact on the environment, a talking point the Alliance has seen animal rights activist groups relying on more heavily in recent years. Jeffrey Cohan, Jewish Veg, stated that “we know animal agriculture is the leading cause of pollution on our planet.” Lisa Kemmerer, author, Sister Species and Eating Earth, said “eating hamburgers is like driving a bulldozer over the rainforest” and “being an environmentalist who is not vegan is nonsense on stilts.”
The 2017 Animal Rights National Conference Report, which includes personal accounts of speaker presentations and general observations, is available to Alliance members only via the Animal Agriculture Alliance website. For more information about the report, visit http://www.animalagalliance.org/resourcelibrary/results.cfm?ID=951
