A friend asked me why I was helping Animal Rebellion.
So, this is a little bit about that... |
What was Animal Rebellion?
Animal Rebellion was a group of normal people who care about creating a just and sustainable plant-based system. The group set out to stop both the animal emergency and the climate emergency. They've done this in various ways; by non-violent direct action to raise awareness of the issues, by bringing in Plant-Based Universities, Plant-Based Councils and by working directly with farmers with the Plant-Based Farmers campaign. Their website had this statement: "Animal Rebellion is a mass movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to bring about a transition to a just and sustainable plant-based food system, to halt mass extinction, alleviate the worst effects of climate breakdown and ensure justice for animals. We know that you can’t end the climate emergency without ending the animal emergency and demand that the government acts now to build a future which is fair and just for all beings." Indeed, over 15,000 scientists indicate that animal agriculture and fishing alone cause enough devastation on the planet to make it impossible for life as we know it, including human life, to survive on it. Animal Rebellion had three demands and ten principles (shown below). To be a "member" of Animal Rebellion you just needed to follow the principles. These were similar to the demands and principles of a sister organisation called Extinction Rebellion. Animal Rebellion started early in 2019. It works in solidarity with Extinction Rebellion and other groups in what is known as The Movement of Movements. This article explains about the alliance with Extinction Rebellion. Animal Rebellion was created by a group of people from about 20 different Animal Rights organisations and builds on the early success in Spring 2019 of the Extinction Rebellion Vegans facebook group. Animal Rebellion was anti-speciesist with a clear plan to create systemic change in society to shift the status quo (indeed everyone) to a just and sustainable plant-based food system that, by definition, excludes eating/exploiting animals. Animal farming and fishing are known to be one of the leading causes of climate breakdown. Reports vary from 14.5%-51% of all climate breakdown being caused by these two industries. Even the lowest figure of 14.5% is greater than all the pollution caused by the transport sector... all the cars, all the trains, all the boats, all the planes and all the motorcycles put together (they cause 13%). Many species have been made extinct by the growth of animal agriculture and fishing. Biodiversity loss is rampant. It is simply an unsustainable method to feed the human population. It also decimates wildlife. Humans do not need to eat any animals to be in good health, in fact there are now many peer-reviewed scientific studies to show the reverse is true. Consuming animals and fish are also known to be amongst the leading cause of human sickness and disease. Eating plant-based food is simply a more sensible and sustainable way for human beings to feed themselves, protect the planet and bring about justice for animals. The weight of all the plastic in the oceans - mostly discarded fishing tackle - is greater than all the fish. Conservative estimates say the ocean will be empty of fish by 2048 if there is not a serious change away from fishing. The ocean is currently destined to contain nothing but plastic and jellyfish if changes are not made to the system quickly. Animal Rebellion had 100's of volunteers worldwide all trying to bring about systemic change. Most people work/volunteer from home via a project management and team communication tool. The organisation was decentralised, autonomous and non-hierarchical. There were over 40 groups in the UK with about 20 in other countries. These were shown on the Animal Rebellion website. In April 2023 Animal Rebellion rebranded as Animal Rising and with that change came a more streamlined way of working. Find Animal Rising on all the usual channels. WEBSITE * FACEBOOK * INSTAGRAM * TWITTER * YOUTUBE * LINKTREE Animal Rising accept volutary donations but do not sell anything. e.g. volunteers make wood printing blocks and provide inks for you to print onto your own materials. So, the answer I gave to the question "Why Animal Rebellion?" is something like this: Animal Rebellion was tackling the largest causes of climate change head on by working to bring in a plant-based food system. Animal Rising continues that work with different methods being used to bring the problems of animal abuse, animal agriculture and fishing to people's attention. There's an interesting article with more information about Animal Rebellion on the OpenDemocracy website. •••••••••• Volunteer, Donate & Sign Up for the Newsletter here : https://animalrising.org |