SOUTH LAKE TAHOE (CBS13) – Mandatory evacuations have South Lake Tahoe looking like a ghost town just days from the long Labor Day holiday weekend which usually lures tourists.
Local wildlife rescue groups have had their hands full moving all of their animals away from the path of the flames. Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care says it was ready. Within just the last six months, the group used grant money to buy an animal trailer and anxiety-safe crates just in case they had to evacuate.
“We can’t believe what our eyes are showing us. That the devastation and the speed at which fire comes through and the fact that these animals are running for their lives,” said Greg Erfani, LTWC Board Member.
“We were as everybody when we started seeing these fires getting closer and closer there was this panic, you know what are we going to do with all these animals,” Erfani told CBS13. “It was difficult because these are wild animals and our goal is to keep these animals wild. They don’t like human interaction.”
The center was basically able to piecemeal off all the animals to smaller sister organizations like the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue and the California Raptor Center. Their many ambassador animals like Porky the porcupine are now all safe with their handlers.
“They’re all in great hands and they’re protected and now our staff and our volunteers can go and take care of their own homes that are in danger. So animals came first for us,” said Erfani.
Many want to help, but the staff and animals have been forced out of their facility. They actually can’t take any physical items or food, but they do need financial support. You can donate on the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care website.MORE NEWS:Sprinklers Left On At Lake Tahoe Homes Hampering Firefighting Efforts
Pararescue personnel with the Alaska Air National Guard’s 210th Rescue Squadron used an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter like this one in the search for 12 mountaineers stranded in poor weather on Klutlan Glacier southeast of Mt. Bona in Wrangell-St Elias National Park. The mountaineers were rescued June 1 after the 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, dispatched an Alaska Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook with a paramedic from the 2nd Battalion, 211 Aviation Regiment.1PRINT|E-MAIL
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska – Alaska Air National Guardsmen of the 176th Wing rescued ahunter suffering from an accidental gunshot wound Aug. 30 about 170 miles southeast of Fairbanks and north of Chicken.
Another hunting party came upon the injured hunterand notified Alaska State Troopers, who requested assistance from the Alaska Rescue Coordination…
Pro-choice and pro-life protesters rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the hearing of the Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole case on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.
The lawsuit argues the state law mandating a hunt is unconstitutional.Written By:Danielle Kaeding / Wisconsin Public Radio|8:44 pm, Aug. 31, 2021
Hunters and trappers in Wisconsin needed less than three days to exceed the DNR’s wolf harvest goal quota by about 40%. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin DNR)
A coalition of animal rights groups is suing to stop Wisconsin’s fall wolf hunt, arguing that the state law that mandates a hunt is unconstitutional.
Thelawsuitfiled in Dane County Circuit Court by Animal Wellness Action, Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, Project Coyote and other groups seeks to overturn state law thatrequires a wolf hunting seasonwhen the animal isn’t listed as a federal endangered species. The groups also want a judge to reverse the 300-wolf quota set by the Natural Resources Board for the upcoming November hunt, and they want to prevent the Wisconsin Department of…
An EMS medic from the Houston Fire Department prepares to transport a COVID-19 positive 2-year-old to a hospital in Houston, Texas, on August 25, 2021.
As we enter a new school year with students actually in the building, as autumn looms a few scant weeks away, and as the Delta variant of COVID-19 leaves us guessing as to what comes next in this long, lethal slog, “uncertainty” is the watchword of the day. A number of positive indicators are running into the teeth of a seemingly ceaseless tide of bad news, and as ever, the acolytes of Trump continue to kill their supporters through disinformation.
When discussing the climate crisis, we speak often of the dangers of “feedback loops” — factors feeding into factors that accelerate the process. The spread of COVID has been no different: A segment of the population either refuses to take the threat seriously or has limited access to the vaccine, the virus ravages that segment, and out of that sickened segment emerge variants like Delta. As a segment of the population continues to dismiss the threat or fails to have vaccine access, the variant hits harder than before, and the increased number of infected people become incubators for an even more dangerous variant. This fits the definition of a feedback loop.
Underscoring this is the emergence from South Africa of a new COVID variant, this one designated as C.1.2. As yet officially unnamed, this new variant has been found in China, New Zealand, Switzerland, Portugal, Mauritius, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DAR) and England. As we have learned, COVID gives not a damn about borders, and the fact of its existence overseas means it could very easily be here in the U.S. already. Delta came from India, remember.
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The South African scientists studying C.1.2 noted that it has “concerning constellations of mutations.” They went on to warn, “While these mutations are not characteristic of current VOCs/VOIs, they have been associated with escape from certain class 3 neutralizing antibodies. The combination of these mutations presents a potentially novel antigenic landscape for C.1.2 variant specific antibodies.”
The science-to-English translation of this is stark: C.1.2 may be capable of evading to one degree or another the protections provided by our vaccines. Delta has caused more “breakthrough” infections of vaccinated people because its viral load is approximately 1,200 times that of the original virus, and because the vaccines do not provide 100 percent protection from infection.
How exactly are variants created? “According to the scientists,” reports Joseph Choi of The Hill, “these mutations likely occurred in a single individual who had a prolonged case of COVID-19, resulting in an accelerated evolution.”
This is vital: The vaccines may not be bulletproof, but they are almost completely effective at preventing people from becoming severely ill from COVID. If a person avoids becoming severely ill from COVID for a protracted amount of time, they deprive the virus of what is necessary for them to evolve into a new variant.The vaccines may not be bulletproof, but they are almost completely effective at preventing people from becoming severely ill from COVID.
Of all the reasons to get vaccinated, even if a booster is required later, this is one of the best I’ve heard. Though we remain in a terrifying fog regarding what is to come, and even as tens of thousands of new infections are happening daily due to vaccine resistance, there can be no denying that we have made huge strides since last winter. This is almost entirely due to an increasingly vaccinated public.
All of this can be undone by a variant with the ability to evade vaccination. And the way to stop this is by way of vaccination; people who worry about being a petri dish for Big Pharma should worry more about becoming an unvaccinated petri dish for COVID. The longer you are sick, the more likely a new variant emergence becomes. I don’t imagine even the most stalwart pro-Trump MAGA shouter aspires to wake up as Typhoid Mary one day. Skip the shots, and that’s what you’re gambling with.
It appears the issue is trending in a positive direction. The latest surveys reveal a steep decline in the number of people refusing to get the vaccine. A number of factors appear to be causing this: The FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, workplace vaccination mandates and the beginning of the school year. (Children under 12 now make up the largest group of unvaccinated people in the country, and unfortunately, the solution to that remains months away.)
My favorite part of this survey, according to Axios: “The share of Americans who say they feel hopeful right now has plummeted to 34 percent, from 48 percent in March — but those saying they feel motivated, energized, inspired or resilient has risen by at least as much. That suggests that, rather than giving up, these Americans are reassessing their expectations about how quick a fix the first generation of vaccines alone can be — and resolving to do what it takes over the long haul.”
In other words: Stout hearts. May it be so. Get the shots if you can, please, and break the feedback loop.
The Florida Department of Education on Monday announced it was withholding funds from at least two school districts in the state in response to their rules on masking for students and staff. It’s doing this in spite of last week’s court ruling, which said that the districts were within their rights to make such rules.
The salaries of Broward County and Alachua County school district officials will be withheld, said Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, because the mask rules they implemented, designed to help keep students and staff safe by preventing the spread of coronavirus, went against an order from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) banning districts from making such rules.
“The withholding of funds will continue monthly until each school board complies with state law and rule,” Corcoran said.
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“What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so,” Corcoran added.
Yet a ruling from Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on Friday disagreed with the notion that mask rules in schools were unconstitutional, as Corcoran has claimed. Indeed, Cooper sided with parents and school administrators in the state, who had sued the DeSantis administration using the very law that allowed the governor to issue the mask mandate ban in the first place.
Noting that the Parents’ Bill of Rights created by the Republican legislature and signed into law in June by Gov. DeSantis doesn’t allow government leaders to “infringe on the fundamental rights of a parent” regarding a child’s upbringing, education, health care choices and mental health “without demonstrating that such action is reasonable and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest,” Judge Cooper said that the state had not met that standard.
“My ruling in this case, if you want to put it in one sentence, is, I am enforcing the bill passed by the Legislature and requiring that anyone who uses that bill to follow all provisions and not part of the provisions,” Cooper said.
The brazen move by the Florida Education Department also comes as the U.S. Department of Education, through its civil rights office, launched investigations into five states that have issued similar mask mandate bans on localities throughout the country. That investigation so far does not include Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona, due to court decisions and other factors that have not allowed those states’ bans to be fully implemented.
“Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is, children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said earlier this month of governors who were issuing mask mandate bans. “We are not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.”
If conservative religious leaders have their way, the words “In God We Trust” and the Ten Commandments will soon be affixed to the walls of all U.S. classrooms and courthouses. Every gathering — PTA, library or school board meeting, city council hearing and sporting event — will begin with a prayer, and we’ll all be expected to lift a glass in celebration of an annual Religious Freedom Day and Christian Heritage Week. What’s more, doctors, therapists and other health professionals will be able to refuse care to those whose sexuality, gender identity or expression they dislike. So will clergy, business people and social service providers.
And there’s more. Much more.
A 51-page document, “Model Religious Freedom Measures Protecting Prayer and Faith in America,” lays out a wish-list, complete with ready-made model legislation and talking points for conservative, Christian activists to use in statehouses throughout the country.
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The “model measures” are the brainchild of what was once called Project Blitz — a campaign coordinated by the Congressional Prayer Caucus (CPC) Foundation, a 33-state coalition of Christian nationalist lawmakers “advocating for the right of individuals to engage in public prayer and the expression of faith” — and the National Strategic Center, the CPC’s training arm. Another sponsoring group, the National Legal Foundation, works to “glorify the Lord Jesus Christ” via legal action, and its litigation has included representation of Philadelphia Catholic Social Services’ refusal to place foster children with same-sex couples and opposition to Pittsburgh’s 15-foot abortion clinic buffer zone to keep anti-abortion protesters from accosting patients. The fourth sponsor is WallBuilders’ ProFamily Legislative Network, whose mission is the promotion of “Biblical values.” According to its website, this includes seeking redress for what they see as “a serious shortfall in many educational systems,” most significantly, the lack of religion in the public square.
The effort is more than the pie-in-the-sky pipe dream of the far right. In fact, so far in 2021, 74 bills supported by these groups have been introduced; 14 have passed, including Ten Commandment Display acts in Texas and North Dakota and four proclamations recognizing Religious Freedom Day on January 16.
Fighting for Church-State Separation
But resistance to the religious right’s agenda is building. Since Project Blitz first launched in 2017, progressives, civil libertarians and people concerned with the erosion of church-state separation have gotten organized, not only monitoring state legislation, but pushing back against discriminatory bills and efforts to bring faith into public schools, courtrooms and secular gatherings. Called Blitz Watch, the coalition includes 13 groups, among them: American Atheists, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Interfaith Alliance, and Jews for a Secular Democracy.
Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at the Massachusetts-based Political Research Associates, an organization that focuses on researching the far right, told Truthout that the Blitz-driven measures are “part of a coherent plan to bring the U.S. to religious dominion.” This, he explains, is the belief that God has called conservative Christians to exercise dominion over society by taking charge of each and every political and cultural institution.
“All of the legislation they’ve proposed makes interrelated sense to them,” Clarkson says, whether it’s posting “In God We Trust” on walls; taking over public library boards to control what books children can access; declaring that the U.S. is built on a foundation of Christian precepts; offering elective classes in Bible literacy in public high schools; or opposing comprehensive, LGBTQIA+-inclusive sex education classes.So far in 2021, 74 bills supported by these groups have been introduced; 14 have passed.
“They are a formidable adversary,” he says, “Proponents of these bills are the same people who deny climate change and oppose changes in our understanding of race and gender, and they are now hijacking the idea of religious freedom.”
Clarkson has studied the religious and secular right wing for decades and says that people who crafted Project Blitz have a clear strategy: start with seemingly noncontroversial measures and build from there. “‘In God We Trust’ has been the national motto since 1956,” he explains, and since it is already on all paper currency, the expectation was that it could be painted on walls and added as an option on car license plates with minimal opposition. They may be right: already, 20 states give drivers the option of purchasing an In God We Trust license plate.
Since these wins, Clarkson continues, the religious right has moved beyond slogans to craft carefully strategized political campaigns that zero in on local policymaking.
“They started with low-hanging fruit, but the idea of taking over school and library boards, for example, is not new,” Clarkson says. “Back in the 1960s, the John Birch Society — an explicitly racist group founded by candymaker Robert Welch in 1958 to oppose communism and the growing welfare state — realized that they could take advantage of low-turnout elections to get onto school boards and oppose sex education classes.”
The strategy has gained traction.
Legal Challenges to the Right-Wing Religious Push
According to Alison Gill, vice president for legal and policy at American Atheists, Project Blitz activists understand that bills surrounding the posting of the national motto are difficult to contest. “Courts have determined that in order to have legal standing in federal court, you need to be able to show that you’ve been harmed, and it’s hard to prove that seeing the words ‘In God We Trust’ has hurt you,” she told Truthout.
In addition, Gill continues, courts have repeatedly found the phrase to be “symbolic” or “historic,” rather than religious.
License plates, however, may provide an opening for challenges. “Mississippi puts the motto on all tags, unlike other states which make it one of many options that people can voluntarily purchase, and residents have to pay an additional $32 to buy a plate without the phrase,” she says. “Several groups, including American Atheists and Mississippi Humanists, have sued the state about this, charging that it is discriminatory, and the case is currently in discovery.”
Still, Gill concedes that support for the motto is extensive. “The movement to put ‘In God We Trust’ everywhere began to move forward after school shootings became more common,” she explains. “Many people believe that bringing God back to schools will be a shield and protect students and staff. It seems like a desperate measure, though, since young people today are the least religious generation we’ve ever seen.”
Gill is right: Researchers have found that 21 percent of Generation Z, born between 1996 and 2015 identify as atheists and a third say they have no religion.
Sanctioning Discrimination
Despite trends toward less religiosity among younger people, Gill notes that many Christian nationalists are pushing for religion to have a more invasive place in public life, holding that religion and government should not be separate. Nowhere is this clearer than in promulgation of state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, or RFRAs. “These bills give hospitals, medical providers, foster care and adoption agencies, and others the right to deny care to LGBTQIA+ people,” Gill says. “We defeated a raft of RFRA and ‘In God We Trust’ bills so far this year, but I expect we will continue to see more being introduced next year and beyond.”
The threat is extremely serious.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that over the past 28 years, 21 states have passed RFRAs — giving religious conservatives the right to refuse to take part in abortions, gender affirmation surgery and anything else they consider “morally objectionable.”
This was not the original intent of RFRA — initially a federal bill — when it first passed Congress in 1993. At that time, the law stipulated only that “government should not substantially burden religious exercise without a compelling justification.” This changed in 2014 when the Supreme Court expanded RFRA to allow an employer (in this case, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialists) to rescind employee health coverage for contraceptives. The court found that the religious beliefs of the employer superseded the rights of workers to comprehensive health care. Since then, Blitz Watch and other right-wing monitors have seen the “religious exemption” invoked to justify discrimination against religious minorities, nonreligious people, women and the LGBTQIA+ community.
More recently, Gill adds, RFRA has been used to keep churches open during COVID — allowing them to eschew mandatory masking, vaccination requirements and maintenance of social distancing — by deeming these health protections a “substantial burden.” Since the start of the pandemic, Arkansas, Montana and South Dakota have used mandates to shutter churches as a pretext to pass local RFRAs.
Gill calls the COVID rationale “ridiculous,” and notes that it is imperative that lawmakers and the public be educated about the devastating impact these measures can have on impacted individuals and communities.
“The best place to challenge RFRAs and other ‘model legislation’ is at the legislative level,” Heather Weaver, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, told Truthout. “Educating lawmakers about the aim and consequences of these bills is better than suing later.” But, she adds, bringing progressive faith leaders into the fight is paramount. “They can help counter false claims that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and speak directly and compellingly about the harms these bills cause for religious minorities, women and LGBTQIA+ people.”
Public pressure, she adds, is key. “People of faith are especially effective in making clear that these bills are not supported by all Christians and can offer cogent arguments as a counterbalance to the Christian nationalists.”
Another important argument, members of Blitz Watch say, is emphasizing that the founders of the U.S. considered religious freedom sacrosanct. “The concept of religious freedom is that everyone gets to decide for themselves what religion, if any, to follow. This is why the idea of religious freedom has thrived,” Nikolas Nartowicz, state policy counsel at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told Truthout. “Efforts to bring religion into schools and government are not new, and the effort to rewrite our history and think of ourselves as a Christian nation has always been both wrong and incredibly dangerous. What’s new is that the right-wing effort is now very well coordinated.”
Clarkson agrees. “We should know in our bones that we can’t take anything for granted,” he says. “When we get complacent, it leads to misplaced optimism in the inevitability of progress, but progress needs to be constantly defended…. As progressives, we can’t let [the Christian right] run away with the meaning of religious freedom. But to be effective, we need sufficient knowledge of the other side to know how to respond.”
A Humane WorldKitty Block’s BlogBy Kitty Block and Sara Amundson August 31, 2021In New York City, our Animal Rescue and Response team helped coordinate the safe removal of a cougar being kept as a “pet.” Julie Larsen Maher/Bronx ZooOn Sunday, Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. Our Animal Rescue and Response team moved toward the strike zone, ready to assist animals in need. Bringing together supplies, equipment and personnel to support emergency response agencies in their relief efforts, we operate within a web of agreements that bind us to disaster response entities at all levels. It’s critical for us to be ready to go the moment authorities ask for our help.
Hurricane Ida grew in intensity quickly, but as it formed and approached, we worked with Greater Good Charities to co-sponsor a flight taking homeless shelter animals in Louisiana out of the storm’s path before it hit. We brought the animals to the San Diego Humane Society, a member of our shelter and rescue partner program. Such pre-storm response helps ensure the safety of animals awaiting adoption in threatened areas while freeing up space, shelter staff members and resources that organizations require to respond to their community’s needs during and after a storm—which often includes providing a temporary home for pets while their guardians secure a safe living situation.
When it comes to disaster, everyone knows to expect the unexpected. Those who rescue animals do more than simply expect it—they plan for it. They train, they mobilize resources, they collaborate. That critical preparation is the foundation for the flexibility that each new crisis requires.
The preparation principle has shaped the work of our Animal Rescue and Response team, which responds to hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other dangerous situations, along with cases of cruelty and endangerment involving individual animals. The HSUS has been doing such work since the 1970s, and over the past five years alone, we’ve deployed well over 100 times.The past week has seen our teams helping in critical situations far beyond the Gulf Coast. In Tennessee, our team provided supplies and caring hands to help the animals and the overwhelmed staff at the Waverly Animal Shelter who were affected by deadly floods. In New York City, the team helped a cougar being kept as a “pet.” We received a request to help remove an 11-month-old, approximately 80-pound, female cougar from a home in the Bronx. That required a complex collaboration with authorities, including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Police Department, and the Bronx Zoo. Our team was at the scene when the homeowner surrendered the cougar, helped coordinate her safe removal and ensured her safe transportation to the Bronx Zoo, where she received excellent care from veterinarians and caregivers. The cougar is now on her way to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an accredited sanctuary in Arkansas, where she will receive lifelong care in an environment more suited to her needs. (Her situation was another reminder of why we’re also fighting to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act.)Whether it’s helping one animal in a Bronx home, or hundreds of animals in the wake of a hurricane, the key to success is being prepared. That’s why, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the forced abandonment of animals that was imposed by authorities at that time, we led the campaign to pass the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Safety (PETS) Act to require that disaster response agencies seeking federal funds prepare disaster plans encompassing the needs of animals. We’re still working to strengthen the capacity of those agencies through our partnerships and we’re pressing for passage of the Providing Responsible Emergency Plans for Animals at Risk of Emerging Disasters (PREPARED) Act (H.R.1442) and USDA’s issuance of the emergency contingency rule. Both this bill and USDA’s proposed regulations would ensure that commercial animal dealers, exhibitors and research facilities who are regulated under the Animal Welfare Act develop contingency plans for the animals in their care during disasters. During Congress’ August recess, we worked with Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., to mobilize a bipartisan letter signed by 115 representatives urging USDA to reinstate its long-delayed rule.Even if all such agencies were fully prepared, however, there would still be a role for our Animal Rescue and Response Team. Disasters and emergencies are unpredictable, and it’s our job to respond effectively. We’re grateful to supporters and allies who stand with us as we try to help animals and people through some of the toughest moments they’ll ever go through—and we’re grateful to be able to make a difference in these crises.
Despite animal shelter owner Pen Farthing’s efforts to evacuate his entire staff and animals, he was unable to bring his Afghan colleagues with him to Britain. HM <https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/hanako-montgomery> —
Nearly 200 dogs and cats in Afghanistan were evacuated to London along with the British founder of the animals’ shelter, but the facility’s staff failed to leave the country.
Farthing, his 24 staff members and their families could have fled the country on Wednesday <https://twitter.com/BWallaceMP/status/1430327318434754568> aboard a British military aircraft, but he refused to leave without his animals. He said he later received the British government’s approval to land with the animals, but a sudden change in visa requirements on Friday inadvertently left his staff unable to join his flight out of Kabul.
*If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. (Will Rogers)*
*the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it – axel munthe*
*”Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead*
*Until every cage is empty. Until every animal is free*
Aseries of protests took place recently across the UK as activists call for the end of animal exploitation. Animal and climate justice movement Animal Rebellion <https://animalrebellion.org/> is leading the charge. It uses mass civil disruption to urge for a shift to a plant-based food system.
A spokesperson from Animal Rebellion spoke to *Plant Based News* about its approach to fighting animal cruelty. The 2021 National Animal Rights March
This weekend, thousands of people gathered in London to participate in the 2021 National Animal Rights March. Supporters marched past Unilever, Cargill, and the Marine Stewardship Council’s headquarters.
At least one thing that these organizations have in common is that they profit from the animal-based food industry, which is what Animal Rebellion is aiming to tackle.
“We’ve taken the approach to focus almost exclusively on farmed animals,” Animal Rebellion said about the movement’s goals. “The main reason is that there are so many more animals that are in terrible conditions and being exploited compared to other industries [like fashion and animal entertainment].”
In fact, around 75 billion land animals and trillions of fish are killed for food each year.
“We should tackle it. And if we can get that even a bit of the way there that would make a huge difference for the majority of animals alive today. It’s a really big scale issue. It’s also a unique opportunity because it ties in with climate and the debate surrounding animal testing on cosmetics too,” they explained. Building the pressure[image: image.png]
Animal Rebellion strives to complete nonviolent yet disruptive campaigns, which have accelerated as of late. Around a week ago, protesters slept over at a McDonald’s restaurant to demand a plant-based food system. It resulted in the arrest of 38 activists. Other ‘Rebels’, as they’re referred to, dyed the Buckingham Palace fountains blood red to protest the use of crown land for hunting and animal agriculture.
“We call it a Rebellion,” they said, adding that Extinction Rebellion <https://rebellion.global/>, the sister organization to Animal Rebellion, developed the framework. It involves a short yet intense period of protests, as an alternative to one-off protests.
“One-off protests are really easy to ignore. It’s really disruptive for a day, police are strained for a day. But then it goes away and people forget and it moves on,” the spokesperson explained.
“But if you do it for a sustained and prolonged period then it gets increasingly disruptive and annoying and in your face. So it’s like a build in pressure.”
They added that the format allows people to take one or two weeks off to focus and have a ‘really impactful disruptive period’, before returning to their day-to-day lives. “So we concentrate the movement a little bit into a shorter period.” A shared mission
It’s a massive undertaking, and one that would be difficult to accomplish without as many hands on deck as possible.
The protests have attracted a wide range of supporters – not just vegans. Animal Rebellion’s spokesperson explained that some activists are campaigning for the systemic shift away from animal agriculture while not following a plant-based diet themselves. This is the case for some non-vegan Extinction Rebellion activists, who still agree that updating the food system is ‘totally the right message’.
“They really support it. They agree that animal farming is killing the planet and they’re willing to get arrested for it. It’s amazing,” the spokesperson said, referring to actual recent events.
“If we said to them, ‘oh if you’re not 100 percent vegan you can’t join us’, we’d be missing out on these people who are really committed, really passionate and want to do great things,” they continued. “It’s helping us be bigger and broader than we would’ve been otherwise. And I think once people are in our spaces, which are animal product-free, it kind of helps them shift anyway.”
