Animal rights movements and their views on hunting (0)

Animal rights movements and their views on hunting
Koostaja :
In Wikipedia there are listed 34 animal rights organizations [8], so in this report author has picked out some of these organizations and will introduce their views on game management and hunting. First hypothesis before deeper research is that all such organizations are against all sort of hunting. When mentioned animal rights people usually think about people fighting against wearing furs and keeping animals in cages, but when delving deeper into this there are many problems that animal rights organizations/ movements are addressing.
There are also those organizations that have not made any statements about hunting, some of those concentrate only on pets (mostly cats and dogs ) but some just don’t mention hunting in any way. These types of organizations have been left out from this report.
Below are listed some organizations, their goals and views on hunting.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA ) is largest and most known animal rights organization in the world. They mostly concentrate their attention on factory farms, clothing trade, animal testing and entertainment industry. When going to PETA webpage first thing to see was pop up window about stopping seal hunt in Canada. They are especially concerned about killing animals because they are considered pests. Such animals would be beavers, bats, geese, deer, pigeons, mice, raccoons, snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, bears, coyotes, ducks, foxes, mountain lions, prairie dogs, rabbits, and even wolves. So their view on hunting is negative . [9]
Animal Aid is animal rights organization in United Kingdom, founded in 1977. They do campaigns against all forms of cruelty against animals. They lobby politicians, make undercover investigations into slaughterhouses, factory farms and horse racing industry. If they find anything it is given to media or used in campaigns. Animal Aid considers all hunting to be more cruel than necessary; they have been and are especially against fox hunting with hounds. In UK fox hunting with hounds has been traditional way of hunting for nobility, but in 2005 Animal Aid organization managed to get the legal ban of the usage of hounds in fox hunts. [1]
Animal Equality ’s mission is to achieve social change so that all animals would be treated with respect and compassion. They also promote vegan lifestyle. It is international organization, working in United States , United Kingdom, Germany , Italy , Spain, Mexico, Venezuela and India. They mostly concentrate on farming industry and try to expose farms where animals are treated badly, harmed, starved, ill or in overly crowded and cramped spaces, but they also work against animals being used for entertainment or test subjects. Animal Equality’s stance in hunting is that it is cruel past time sport and it is unjustifiable. [2]
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) was founded it 1976 and it is international movement that takes illegal steps to ensure animal rights. They don’t have official leaders and are active in more than 40 countries. They mainly liberate animals from places of abuse like factory farms, fur farms and laboratories. After the liberation they provide animals with good homes or places to live out their natural lives free of suffering. Animal Liberation Front’s other goal is to cause economic damage to those companies that profit from animal abuse and to bring out to open abuses against animals. Since they are group with no central leadership they work in small groups and everyone who is vegetarian or vegan and follows ALF guidelines can regard themselves as part of Animal Liberation Front. [3]
Since ALF don’t have centralized leadership it means they cannot give out one statement about their views on hunting, but looking around their webpage there are several statements that condemn hunting and hunters even going to statements like "Hunting for Sport is a Sin". They also have questions and answers section where hunting for cultural reasons or hunting for survival is deemed unjustifiable. [3]
Strongly connected with ALF is Bite Back , which is website, magazine and forum to prompt ALF’s cause. In there are featured actions taken against animal abuses. From there author of this report picked out some anti-hunting actions. Very popular activity is destroying hunting towers/stands, there are reports from Sweden , Czech Republic , Netherland, France and Germany and that’s only in 2015. There have also reports of ransacking offices of hunting organization in France, report from Italy of puncturing tires of hunter’s cars during hunt. Also reports of removing animal traps and game cameras. [5]
AnimaNaturalis id founded in 2003, it is international organization that works in Spain and Latin America. They work towards establish and protect rights of all animals. They speak out against using animals as food, testing, to wear as clothing and entertainment (hunting included here ). [4]
Friends of Animals was founded 1957 in state of New York USA. They mostly concentrate advocating about neutering pets so to avoid later mass killing of them in shelters. They also fight against fur farms. Their views on hunting is that it is unethical and they work against incentives to hunt. For example, they have managed to push through bill in New York called “Africa Big 5” that bans import , sale, transportation and possession of any part of African elephant , lion, leopard , white rhino and black rhino. [6]
In Defense of Animals (IDA) was founded 1983, it is international organization. IDA’s goal is to protect the rights, welfare and habitats of animals. Their view of hunting is negative, calling it “murderous business”. They state that hunters do not keep population controlled and natural enemies do that instead. They also state that hunters destroy animal families and most animals are injured during the hunt and suffer prolonged death instead instant kill. [7]
There are many more organizations that protect the rights of animals, but as seen above all of their views on hunting are negative. Some of them take active steps against hunting be them legal or illegal, some of them just condemn the practice but concentrate on other issues .
Kasutatud allikad
[1] Animal Aid [WWW] http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/ABOUT/ (12.04.2015)
[2] Animal Equality [WWW] http://www.animalequality.net/about-us (12.04.2015)
[3] Animal Liberation Front [WWW] http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/alf_credo.ht m (11.04.2015)
[4] AnimaNaturalis [WWW] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnimaNaturalis (12.04.2015)
[5] Bite Back [WWW] http://www.directaction.info/index.ht m (11.04.2015)
[6] Friends of Animals [WWW] http://friendsofanimals.org/node/6317 (12.04.2015)
[7] In Defense of Animals [WWW] http://www.idausa.org/about-ida/ (12.04.2015)
[8] List of animal rights groups
[WWW] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_rights_groups (11.04.2015)
[9] People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [WWW] http://www.peta.org/about-peta/ (10.04.2015)