There is a serious structural problem in the animal advocacy movement and it has persisted for decades. It seriously damages the ability of grassroots campaigns – exemplified by many of the groups in Ireland – from fulfilling their potential.
This is because they money that is given towards animal advocacy ends up getting sucked into the national groups like Animal Aid.
I say, don’t plan to visit wasteful corporate events in 2015 – use the year to encourage people to boycott these dinosaurs and, instead, help fund local campaigners who need the cash a hell of a lot more than the relatively rich corporations.
The problem.
It will undoubtedly be the case that that there are quite a few Irish members of the national and multi-national waste machines. This is campaigning cash which would be better spent if it remained in Ireland.
Think of some of the national groups: PeTA, Animal Aid, BUAV, NAVS, VIVA! What have they in common? Well, for a start, apart from their names, their campaigning is interchangeable by and large. They, moreover, all have expensive staff bills – they all have expensive buildings – they all have similar sales goods – they all have similar literature.
In a word, they are all about duplication and they WASTE thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds/euros/dollars of the animals’ money every year.
They love nothing more than trucking around the UK and other places, facilitated by the likes of VegFest, putting on these once-a-year corporate events with all the same people and with all the same outcome – the resources get centralised.
In Defence.
What do people say in defence of these corporations?
The question is – in the age of the internet - is there anything they do which is good that the local groups cannot do for themselves? Their videos and literature are a product of them being able to afford to produce them. The quality of their information is down to their ability to buy expertise and research. With adequate funding, the local groups can do just as well… scratch that, the local groups can do better, because they can produce locally-relevant material and react to events much quicker.
There are several people who have wanted to (re)start hunt sabbing in Ireland. This aspiration seems to have been frustrated – ah, we don’t have the numbers – we don’t have the vehicles – RIGHT: we can only afford to use private vehicles: cars. No group has its own minibus which is the best and safest way to sab because everyone is together.
One way to get members is to increase visibility. The organisers of the well-attended Paris Vegan Days argue that the key to local success is visibility. We can gain visibility through having access to campaigning funds now locked away in wages and brick and mortar in London and Kent.
This means that Irish advocates could put on their own vegan fairs if they want – but not the once-a-year VegFests – local advocates can fight the culture of speciesism all year round – WITH IMAGINATION, not restricted to the small-scale, the limited, the slimmed down, as of now. We could think outside of the box.
However…
If we let them, the national groups will continue to bleed this movement dry and that means, in the context of Ireland, that funds will continue to fly across the Irish Sea and we’ll never see it again.