{"id":776812,"date":"2024-10-22T09:48:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T13:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776812"},"modified":"2024-10-22T10:18:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T14:18:28","slug":"a-cage-is-a-cage-why-did-a-rspca-trustee-stop-working-in-animal-welfare-to-focus-on-animal-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776812","title":{"rendered":"‘A Cage is a Cage’: Why did an RSPCA trustee stop working in animal welfare?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Animal welfare is built on subjective, ever-changing, and often-ignored rules that are geared to ensure industrial profit. Welfare standards merely serve to make humans more comfortable with using animals so they can continue to benefit from their exploitation and death. They don\u2019t address the right of all sentient beings not to be commodified (to be used in any way or for any reason), but rather they perpetuate and normalize their use, which inevitably involves cruelty. <\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

JANE TREDGETT:<\/strong> We\u2019re born free from prejudice when it comes to other animals, and to a child, a horse is just as special as a pig and a chicken is as lovable as a dog.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re led to believe that the picture-book representations of them snuggled in straw-filled barns are true and that they\u2019re cared for by farmers.<\/em><\/p>\n

I believed in the work of the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the erroneous idea that using animals is okay as long they\u2019re treated well. I conducted my first RSPCA fundraiser aged 11 and volunteered in rescue and rehabilitation for a local branch some years later.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eventually, I was elected to the RSPCA board of trustees. I worked alongside individuals like Richard Ryder, who coined the term \u201cspeciesism\u201d. I served on the board for 10 years and on the RSPCA Assured board for nine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Initially, I was proud to contribute to one of the world\u2019s best-known animal welfare organisations. But the more I learned, the more disillusioned I became.<\/em><\/p>\n

I started to realise that promoting animal welfare doesn\u2019t address the right of all sentient beings not to be commodified – but rather perpetuates and normalises their use, which inevitably involves cruelty.<\/em><\/p>\n

Welfare legislation may be intended to improve the lives of exploited animals, but even these marginal standards can only be enforced with regular inspections, which are in reality all too rare.<\/em><\/p>\n

Confronted with the fact that welfare standards merely serve to make humans more comfortable with using animals so they can continue to benefit from their exploitation and death, I started to understand the truth of the matter.<\/em><\/p>\n

After being vegetarian for over 30 years, I had to confront the realisation that I was speciesist. I was consuming products of suffering in the form of dairy and eggs \u2013 and that was a lightbulb moment which led me to go vegan.<\/em><\/p>\n

I started to see that the RSPCA was hypocritical, too, given that it campaigns to end cruelty to cats and dogs yet accepts \u2013 and even promotes \u2013 the exploitation of animals on farms.<\/em><\/p>\n

The organisation\u2019s new tag line is \u201cfor every kind\u201d, but it seems that animals considered to be companions are the only ones it deems worthy of protection. Meanwhile, countless others suffer in the meat, egg, dairy, wool, and other industries \u2013 often under the misleading RSPCA Assured label.<\/em><\/p>\n

As dozens of expos\u00e9s old and new prove, \u201chigher welfare\u201d facilities still allow the confinement of sentient beings to filthy, crowded factory farm conditions… regardless of any welfare label \u2013 they all end up at a slaughterhouse, where they\u2019re subjected to a terrifying death. Even if we disregard the shocking abuse that makes headlines, countless horrific acts against animals \u2013 from inflicting blunt-force trauma to gassing them to death \u2013 are permitted and routine on UK farms…<\/em><\/p>\n

While animal welfare work is complicated \u2013 built on subjective, ever-changing, and often-ignored rules that are geared to ensure industrial profit \u2013 animal rights is simple: animals are sentient individuals, not objects, and therefore, they are not ours to use in any way or for any reason… Cruelty can only be prevented by recognising their inherent right to live free from exploitation. After all, a cage is a cage.<\/em><\/p>\n

I look back on my time as a welfarist with sadness. Sure, it opened my eyes, and maybe I did help improve conditions for some animals, but I know in my heart that it fell woefully short of protecting them from harm. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED VIDEOS:<\/strong><\/p>\n