Introduction
Periodically, animals and their existence are perceived as something initially given and obvious. People are not inclined to pay attention to the problems of beings of a different kind than humans. That is why social problems and issues of improving the lives of their biological species worry them most of all. For many of its issues, public attention bypasses the perspective of the animal world. In particular, this situation concerns the interaction between animals and humans. The questions this essay will try to answer may seem uncomfortable, but they are of constant and extreme relevance. The important issue is how much an animal dependent on a person lives its own life, receives advantages and opportunities, and does not suffer from human interference. In other words, this essay is interested in the issue of non-harm to animals by humans, whether harm is done consciously or due to ignorance or already established cultural attitudes. Animal rights appear to be a problematic field in which ethical and religious beliefs, trends in sociological thought, and approaches of various scientific disciplines collide.
A Variety of Approaches
It is required to establish a certain cultural and methodological framework in order to be truly ethically accurate and avoid exaggerated or inadequate understanding of the problem. The ethical treatment of animals can be viewed from several approaches that can provide a detailed view of the problem. Thus, it becomes possible not to limit the research focus to only one side of the question. This implies the ability not only to deeply understand the problem but also to develop a strategy in order to improve the problem situation, affecting the most hidden and problematic areas. In general, one can conclude that this movement seeks to erase the distinction between moral and legal separation in the framework of the relationship between humans and non-human animals.
When starting a discussion about the protection of animal rights, it is necessary to take into account that every activist movement is forced to exist not only in the legal and ethical but also in the cultural field. Culture turns out to be the main, sometimes the only way of interaction between people and a means of expressing a specific philosophy. At the same time, culture, and in particular the media, is not only a connecting but also a limiting tool, representing the formed prejudices, which is an obstacle for activists. Highlighting the main mechanisms of interaction between activists and people in the context of culture, such fields as veganism, environmental protection, and the issue of food availability should be noted (Cherry 10). The medical benefits of not eating animals are proven but not often represented enough in the media. Religious attitudes can be an obstacle to the advancement of vegan ideology but also work to prove its compliance with the canons of theological doctrines. All these angles of view of the problem are interconnected and collide in the problem field.
Main Theoretical Approaches
Within the animal rights movement, there is a real variety of separate movements, which seem to be united by a single goal. However, activists have different views and formulations for this goal and offer different approaches to achieve it. It is required to give an overview of the basic theoretical attitudes and strategies that are proposed by both the scientific community and activists of the movement in order to give them a fair analytical assessment.
In describing the basic theoretical attitudes of the movement, two main models should be distinguished according to which the ideology of the activists of this movement is built. The French theory views the fight for animal rights as placing them as creatures in a legal field, requiring them to be protected from human abuse (Cherry 15). But the American theoretical model, which is more focused on animals as an element of the production, deserves attention as well. In the American model, the fight is primarily against industrialized agriculture, which uses countless animals in mass production. Thus, it becomes possible to single out two generalized ways of approaching the problem – animal rights as a separate unit and the larger problem of the mass exploitation of animals in production. A balance is needed between the two, and perhaps a more complex structural organization of activist groups to cover both spectra of the problem.
The Influence of Media on Animal Rights Activism
Noteworthy for consideration is the theoretical neologism “im-mediacy,” proposed by scientists to describe the method of activism for animal rights. The researcher proposes a structural approach to understanding the motivation of animal rights activists. The activist is perceived as someone driven by an emotional affect, which exists as a result of the perception of a certain sign system (Vea 1590). In particular, this effect is caused through the perception of the media, on TV, or on the Internet, which demonstrates the situation of peaceful interaction between man and the animal world.
This gives the impression of a strong affectation and a sense of the need to act towards the embodiment of this ideal situation. Indeed, it seems promising to perceive this problem through the power of human affectation. People do find themselves subject to media perception, which elicits an emotional response. This allows one to talk about the possibility of direct influence on people through social advertising that produces a real emotional effect. Through media of a similar orientation, there is a real opportunity to draw attention to the main problems of interaction between humans and the environment, in particular, the human relationship with the animal world. The feeling that such a social advertisement should evoke is a feeling of closeness with the animal world and, therefore, a true affective desire to take care of animals.
Religion and Animal Rights
One of the factors that must also be considered is religion and culture among animal rights activists. Human ideas about the specifics of the problem can come from the ideas inherent in one of the varieties of cultural and religious worldviews that exist in modern American reality (Greenebaum 335). Possible contradictions resulting from the parameters imposed by another culture and religion should be removed using the first-order ethical principle. It should be noted the need to compare views on the problem of animal rights, which is beyond the bounds of unquestioning consideration of the rules of culture embedded in humans (Woodruff 2). Proposals for animal rights activism should be viewed in terms of validity and, accordingly, true value.
Geographical and Cultural Implications
The situation of animal rights and their interaction with the needs and human rights is not only quite problematic but also must be considered in different local geographic contexts. There is a particular study devoted to the interaction and conflicts between animals and humans in the Arctic zone, which gives a contradictory perspective on the motivations of the movement (Rogers & Ingram 11). It follows from the study that environmental protection activities can interfere with the internal balance of the already established life of society. The motivation of animal rights activists can be overwhelming, violating the way in which a developing society was formed. In borderline social situations, such as in the Arctic, animal rights activists are in many ways similar to the colonizing Christian missionary movement of the past millennium. Lacking the perspective of another culture and a sense of the need to respect it, the movement can be destructive to an entire cell of the established society.
A Look from a Personal Perspective of the Activists
However, one should also look at the movement from the perspective of those directly involved in it. Through this perspective, one can understand that the aspirations of activists are based on good intentions and require a lot of effort from them, including a psychological one. The fight for animal rights for each participant in the movement implies deeply intrinsic motivation, but it requires participation in the movement as in an active system. But the system really is both ramified and interacting and, accordingly, has internal conflicts. Problems within the system, cases of marginalization of participants in a movement, or individual industries involved in the movement can have a traumatic effect on the psychology of the participants themselves (Gorski et al. 364). This situation leads to mental exhaustion and psychological burnout, in connection with which many animal rights activists are forced to suspend their activities in the name of preserving their own well-being and internal balance.
Conclusion
Thus, the animal rights field is productive to be viewed from a variety of analytical angles. The fight for animal rights is presented as a disruptive field in which conflicting cultural attitudes are confronted and reevaluated. The ethical principle of no harm, however, should be perceived as fundamental in the context of the fight for animal rights. Only if this principle is taken into account as the main one does it becomes possible to talk about the problem in the real framework of bringing benefits to the planet.
Works Cited
Cherry, Elizabeth. Culture and Activism: Animal Rights in France and the United States. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Elizabeth Cherry is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Manhattanville College. The book presents a juxtaposition of two schools of animal rights, the French and the American, outlining different cultural contexts and ethical focuses.
Gorski, Paul, et al. “’Nobody’s paying me to cry’: the causes of activist burnout in United States animal rights activists”. Social Movement Studies, vol. 18, no. 3., 2019, pp. 364-380.
Paul Gorsky is an educator in the field of equality and social justice. The article is devoted to strengthening the psychological and social causes of emotional burnout in the field of animal rights activists.
Greenebaum, Jessica. “Cross-cultural examination of the animal rights movement”. Society & Animals, vol. 26, no. 3, 2018, pp. 335-338.
Jessica Greenbaum is professor of sociology at Central Connecticut State University. The article provides a brief overview of various cultural trends in the context of the fight for animal rights.
Rogers, Kathleen and Darcy Ingram. “Decolonizing environmentalism in the Arctic? Greenpeace, complicity and negotiating the contradictions of solidarity in the Inuit Nunangat.” A Journal for and about Social Movements, vol. 11, no. 2, 2019, pp. 11-34
Kathleen Rogers practices as an environmental attorney and is a President of Earth Day Network. Darcy Ingram teaces history and sociology at Selkirk College. The article is devoted to the history of the adaptation of the Greenpeace Organization to the real needs of the indigenous population of the Arctic over the past fifty years.
Vea, Tanner. “The ethical sensations of im-mediacy: Embodiment and multiple literacies in animal rights activists’ learning with media technologies”. British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 50, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1589-1602.
Tanner Vea is a learning scientist practicing in the sociocultural field. The article proposes a structuralist approach to the analysis of the impact of media on human consciousness in the context of compassion for animal rights.
Woodruff, Michael L. “Sentience is the foundation of animal rights.” Animal Sentience, vol. 23, no. 18, 2019.
Michael L. Woodruff is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Sciences in the Quillen College of Medicine. The article examines the similar abilities in humans and animals to feel pleasure and pain, which is a key element in the perception of the issue of animal rights.