How Animal Rights, Once a Progressive Stepchild, Became a Movement

In the 1980s, the animal rights movement was a sorry sight. In Chicago, it consisted of three to five activists handing out soggy leaflets in the rain outside a fur store on a Saturday, one also holding his skateboard. No one remembered to bring the signs and no one could agree whether to protest carriage horses or captive whales at the Shedd Aquarium on the next Saturday.

Passersby were abusive. “Your shoes are leather,” they would yell, a simplistic syllogism that both meant human use of animals was inextricable and that we were hypocrites. Our shoes were not leather.

“Get a job,” they would yell, an absurd allegation since demonstrating on Saturday did not mean we did not have jobs –– we did.

“Why aren’t you helping people?” they would accuse, listing crack babies, AIDS patients, and the homeless. Some of our more interactive activists would fire back, “what are YOU doing for people,” which produced a mute silence. Who were the hypocrites?

“Get a life; you people are clowns,” we also heard a lot.



https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/31/how-animal-rights-once-a-progressive-stepchild-became-a-movement/