11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Challenge of Animal Activism, June 23, 2008
The Longest Struggle by Norm Phelps is dedicated to "the millions of animal advocates and caregivers around the world who labor in anonymity to relieve the suffering of the most defenseless of those who live at the mercy of our merciless societies."
Invoking Ralph Ellison's aphorism of racism - "I am an invisible man . . . I am invisible, understand, because people simply refuse to see me" - The Longest Struggle traces through history the evil of "invisibility" as it applies to animals: "we do not see the animals as they are: sensitive, intelligent, living beings who suffer and die at our hands with no hope of relief." Yet the challenge of animal activism - books written, organizations formed, arguments made, protests held, rescues undertaken, jail time served - is precisely to bring hope of relief and, beyond just hope of relief, Relief.
The Longest Struggle presents the historical struggle for animal protection and liberation through stages that are vividly evoked, starting with a philosophical or theological position held by a cluster of ancient thinkers - Pythagoras, Buddha, Hosea, and others - and moving towards a social consensus that "enforces compliance by custom and law." Western societies are now more or less in the consensus stage, though in most of the world, including ours, animals are as invisible - serving as mere reflectors of human appetites, desires and fears - as ever. Yet there is progress, despite the long, long road to go.
To help clarify the nature of the struggle, Phelps explains the difference between animal welfare and animal rights. Welfare advocates are concerned with our treatment of animals, whereas Rights advocates are concerned with our use of animals. Animal Welfare regards humans as superior to other animals and does not challenge our right to exploit animals, as long as we enslave, mutilate, and murder them "humanely." By contrast, Animal Rights/Liberation "challenges our right to use animals at all, arguing that animal exploitation is unjust and oppressive in the same way and for the same reasons that human exploitation is unjust and oppressive." Animal Rights/Liberation tends to reject the hierarchical model of human superiority and entitlement in favor of an egalitarian perspective. "Welfare," if accepted, is regarded as a means towards achieving animal liberation, an interim compromise, never the ultimate goal or solution.
Phelps, an ethical vegan, supports advancing animals' rights through a combination of incremental welfare reforms to reduce animal suffering in the here and now, such as banning cages in favor of cage-free confinement of hens used for egg production ("Cage free isn't cruelty free. But it is a lot better."), and abolitionist approaches, like banning outright the production of foie gras, in which ducks and geese are forcibly tube fed to fatten their livers to a diseased condition for gourmet appetizers.
Aspects of the conservative approach favored by Phelps, who condemns the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) - named for targeting the stockholders and employees of the notorious vivisection laboratory, Huntington Life Sciences - are debatable considering, for instance, that the violence of what he calls "a tiny, if very noisy, minority of animal activists" targets inanimate property and includes shame tactics like protesting at the homes of animal abusers, not physically assaulting them, whereas the conservative approach often encourages "humane" animal product consumerism, thereby creating whole new markets for animal products derived from, and concealing, pure violence.
If, as Phelps charges, SHAC and the ALF "are giving the animals' enemies a weapon with which to destroy the entire animal rights movement [government surveillance, arrests, imprisonment, `terrorist' accusations]," it may be argued as well that encouraging the public to support "humanely-raised" animal products, courting chefs who cook animals and restaurants that serve them battered, seasoned, whipped, baked, breaded and fried, subverts the effort to promote the dignity and visibility of animals, furthering the state of denial and prolonging the longest struggle.
In a letter to the Dalai Lama, in 2007, Phelps, who met with the Dalai Lama in 1998 to discuss a vegetarian diet as a Buddhist practice, expressed his deep disappointment in the Tibetan monk's relentless consumption of animal products at public events - braised calf's cheek, veal roast, stuffed pheasant breast, chicken soup, and other gluttonies - indeed, his refusal of vegetarian meals when they were offered to him. Phelps concludes his sorrowful and exasperated letter, "I am not going to ask you to change your behavior. I've been there, done that. We have a saying in America that `Anybody can talk the talk. What matters is do you walk the walk.' You can talk the talk with the best of them. But after twenty years, I can no longer pretend that everything is fine while I wait for you to walk the walk."
Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
Dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl. www.upc-online.org
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So good I've read it twice already, October 25, 2007
Laying the groundwork for this penetrating and thoroughly engaging survey of animal advocacy, Norm Phelps begins with the dawn of civilization, when humans began to enslave animals for food, clothing, sport and sacrifice. We witness millennia of profound abuse before any real advance is made in the interest of animals, though a few early voices of reason appear -- Jesus, for example, may have been history's first animal liberator.
The author brings his considerable experience as an activist and writer to bear here, introducing the reader to some of the movement's most fascinating activists and the campaigns they pioneered. His examination of campaign strategies includes those that did not fare so well -- and why. Phelps, who also wrote the excellent
The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights, has created a true page-turner here; indeed, I re-read the book again a month after reading it, just to absorb it all.
"The Longest Struggle" is a lively account of the evolution of animal protection, revealing how the movement has grown from the ideas of a few ancient philosophers to become one of the most influential forces of modern society. If you're looking for a comprehensive discussion of animal advocacy -- including its origins, strategies and controversies -- look no further.
~Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism
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