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Effective Animal Activism
Scale
Factory farms (virtually all farmed animals):
• Intensive confinement and crowding• Boredom, frustration, anxiety, and depression• Dysfunctional relationships• Parasites, infections, disabilities• Health complications from breeding• Some endure painful death before slaughter• Others witness those animals’ deaths• Mutilation• Violence from other confined animals, and farm workers• Uncomfortable transport to slaughterhouse• All killed, many by asphyxiation or drowning in boiling water• Death preceded by the sight, smell, sound of others dying
Factory farms (virtually all farmed animals):
• Intensive confinement and crowding• Boredom, frustration, anxiety, and depression• Dysfunctional relationships• Parasites, infections, disabilities• Health complications from breeding• Some endure painful death before slaughter• Others witness those animals’ deaths• Mutilation• Violence from other confined animals, and farm workers• Uncomfortable transport to slaughterhouse• All killed, many by asphyxiation or drowning in boiling water• Death preceded by the sight, smell, sound of others dying
Factory farms (virtually all farmed animals):
• Intensive confinement and crowding• Boredom, frustration, anxiety, and depression• Dysfunctional relationships• Parasites, infections, disabilities• Health complications from breeding• Some endure painful death before slaughter• Others witness those animals’ deaths• Mutilation• Violence from other confined animals, and farm workers• Uncomfortable transport to slaughterhouse• All killed, many by asphyxiation or drowning in boiling water• Death preceded by the sight, smell, sound of others dying
Neglectedness
Americans annually donate (total):
$334.36B to Americans (rlg, edu, services, health, env, etc)$15.10B to international affairs$2.50B to local animal shelters$0.02-$0.05B to farmed animals (welfare, veg, sanctuary)
Neglectedness
Americans annually donate (per receiving population):
$1,048 in domestic donations per American<$5 to each human living on <$2.50/day$36-904 to each homeless companion animal in US$0.00009- $0.0005 to each animal in factory farm
Tractability
Online ads ~1-13 years of factory farm suffering spared per € (High uncertainty)
Farmed animal interventions: Leafleting and online ads to create consumer changes
~13-28 years of factory farm suffering spared per € (Less uncertainty; unclear effect on attitudes)
Farmed animal interventions: Corporate welfare reform to reduce factory farm suffering
Farmed animal interventions: Animal-free foods to displace animal farming
Farmed animal interventions:Investigations for public visibility of farmed animal suffering
Wild Animals
An intervention for all animals: Legal personhood
“we need to end animal farming” v “you need to go veg”• Focus is more on victim’s needs than abuser’s choices• Avoids defensiveness & enables moral outrage• Inspiring vision, rather than demotivating drop in the bucket• Strongly precedented by successful social movements• Consumer action still intrinsically, but also politically useful
Messaging tips: Institutional over individual framing
Messaging tips: Be kind and professional, but also bold
Too aggressive BACKFIRING
Too indulgentSTATUS QUO
Motivating CHANGE
Messaging tips: Individuals first, numbers second
Messaging tips: Show not just why, but how
What you can do now• Join FB group Effective Animal Activism - Discussion.
• Research and discuss. (Write a blog post on the tactics of a successful or unsuccessful movement.)
• Donate to the orgs with the highest expected value. (Animal Charity Evaluators’ recommendations, or ACE itself & Sentience Politics to support research & capacity building for effectiveness-focused animal advocacy.)
• Consider earning to give for those organizations.
• Look for talent gaps in direct work.
