by Steve
Best - [email protected]>
Ethics Into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal Rights
Movement
by Peter Singer
Rowman and Littlefield, 1998
Although he died last year, the contributions of Henry
Spira to the animal rights movement will endure. Ethics into Action
exemplifies the reciprocal influences Peter Singer and Spira had on one
another, since Singer's 1975 book Animal Liberation was a galvanizing
force for Spira, and Spira's ideas were compelling enough for Singer to
write about his life and struggles.
Singer's book also offers a new perspective on the
formation of the animal rights movement in the 1970s and 1980s,
describing Spira's importance and his differences with groups like PETA
and the ALF. Moreover, Singer outlines Spira's methods as a model for
animal rights groups and any movement to effectively achieve their
political goals. Finally, he upholds Spira's life as an example of how
an individual can gain deep existential meaning in a violent and
soulless world through compassionate struggle for the rights of
oppressed and powerless beings.
Spira began his political career in the civil rights
movement, as a carnivore and speciesist with no liking for animals. But
all this changed when a friend's cat warmed him over, when he became
aware of the plight of animals, and when he read Singer's powerful book,
Animal Liberation. Spira's transpecies political philosophy is
summarized in his statement, "If you see something that's wrong, you've
got to do something about it."
So here is an individual seeking to translate ethics
into action. Where, Singer argues, animal rights groups had been
completely ineffective in challenging issues like cosmetic testing on
animals, Spira's intelligent tactics brought him quick and dramatic
results on numerous issues. Among other things, his tactics involved
modest beginnings with small, winnable issues; advancing progress
step-by-step rather than through an all-or-nothing attitude; winning
over animal abusers to his side by engaging them as human beings rather
than as monsters; and when talks and various pressure tactics fail,
bring attention to issues through bold advertisements that arouse public
indignation about animal cruelty.
And so Spira began his animal activism by informing the
public of senseless sex experiments the New York Natural History Museum
was performing on cats. This was quickly stopped. He moved on to
challenge corporations that test cosmetics and other substances on
animals. Here his brilliant tactics involved getting them to donate
small fractions of their profit to developing alternatives and, in quick
succession, Revlon, Avon, Bristol-Myers stopped all testing. The product
label "Not Tested on Animals" so common today owes much to Spira's work.
As he realized that "animal rights and eating animals
don't mix," and that billions more animals were killed for food
consumption than medical experimentation, Spira's attention shifted to
the plight of farm animals. He took on Kentucky Fried Chicken,
McDonalds, the FDA, USDA, and other giant industries. Through
provocative ads (such as merging a KFC box with a toilet bowl), he
educated the public about the dangers of meat and cruelty toward
animals, and moved some of these food giants toward reforms.
Not everyone agreed with Spira's reform methods and
often friendly working relations with the "enemy," but no one can deny
his contributions, as he saved and improved the lives of millions of
animals.
Perhaps the most important lesson Singer's book offers
is that one person -- compassionate, committed, and intelligent --
indeed can make a huge difference in this world. Throughout history this
has been proven, and to the long list of world-shakers, we can add the
names of Peter Singer and Henry Spira.
This review originally appeared in "Life Giving
Choices", the newsletter of the Vegetarian Society of El Paso (VSEP).
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