The Nonhuman Rights Movement is Considered Disposable By Many
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive

FROM

SpeciesRevolution.org
November 2018

If you think some intersectional activists are throwing nonhumans under the bus, step up your game. Speak up for nonhumans more. But don't go around telling marginalized humans that their oppression doesn't matter because that doesn't help. And definitely don't leave the movement.

The nonhuman rights movement is considered disposable by many.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed dozens of humans enter the nonhuman rights movement, unsuccessfully try to find their social standing within the movement, and leave. Humans leave the movement for various reasons: some claim that the movement is getting "too intersectional" for them; others try to hold the movement to impossibly high standards on social media, get upset when people don't listen to them, proclaim that the movement is crappy, and leave.

Although activist burnout is a real issue we need to address, we also need to remember who we're fighting for. While we may have the privilege of deriding the nonhuman rights movement and leaving it behind when we feel like doing so, nonhuman animals don't. They have to keep fighting for their freedom and their lives every single minute of every single day. While we get devastated when strangers online don't listen to us, many nonhumans are forced to live in spaces so small that they can't even turn around.

The nonhuman rights movement isn't perfect by any means. There are some real issues humans in the movement do face. However, these issues need to be addressed systematically in order to build a more inclusive and a more effective movement. Ranting about what some stranger said online or about what some remote animal rights group did in another country simply doesn't help. Although oppressive norms do exist in the movement, they do not represent all the amazing groups trying to create an inclusive movement. They certainly do not represent nonhumans' struggle for liberation.

If you are feeling burned out, take a step back and take some time off. Talk to like-minded friends and try to find a way out. Stay away from arguments on social media.

If you notice oppressive behavior in the movement and have the means to address it, address it. If not, find a space for where you feel more welcome. If you have to, do things alone: talk to your friends and family about veganism, adopt a chicken, leaflet at your local university or at a farmer's market, write, create art, offer to help a new vegan, do something.

If you think some intersectional activists are throwing nonhumans under the bus, step up your game. Speak up for nonhumans more. But don't go around telling marginalized humans that their oppression doesn't matter because that doesn't help. And definitely don't leave the movement.

Please don't abandon nonhuman animals because other humans are being shitty.

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