Samuel Butler's Erewhon contains a chapter, "The Views of an Erewhonian Philosopher Concerning the Rights of Vegetables".
On the question of whether animal rights can be extended to plants, animal rights philosopher Tom Regan
argues that animals acquire rights due to being aware, what he calls
"subjects-of-a-life". He argues that this does not apply to plants, and
that even if plants did have rights, abstaining from eating meat would
still be moral due to the use of plants to rear animals.
According to philosopher Michael Marder, the idea that plants should have rights derives from "plant subjectivity", which is distinct from human personhood. Paul W. Taylor holds that all life has inherent worth and argues for respect for plants, but does not assign them rights. Christopher D. Stone, the son of investigative journalistI. F. Stone,
proposed in a 1972 paper titled "Should Trees Have Standing?" that, if
corporations are assigned rights, so should natural objects such as
trees. Citing the broadening of rights of blacks, Jews, women, and
fetuses as examples, Stone explains that, throughout history, societies
have been conferring rights to new "entities" which, at the time, people
thought to be "unthinkable".
Whilst not appealing directly to "rights", Matthew Hall has
argued that plants should be included within the realm of human moral
consideration. His Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany
discusses the moral background of plants in western philosophy and
contrasts this with other traditions, including indigenous cultures,
which recognise plants as persons—active, intelligent beings that are
appropriate recipients of respect and care. Hall backs up his call for the ethical consideration of plants with arguments based on plant neurobiology,
which says that plants are autonomous, perceptive organisms capable of
complex, adaptive behaviours, including recognizing self/non-self.
Scientific perspective
In the study of plant physiology, plants are understood to have mechanisms by which they recognize environmental changes. This definition of plant perception differs from the notion that plants are capable of feeling emotions, an idea also called plant perception. The latter concept, along with plant intelligence, can be traced to 1848, when Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German experimental psychologist, suggested that plants are capable of emotions, and that one could promote healthy growth with talk, attention, and affection.
While plants, as living beings, can perceive and communicate physical stimuli and damage, they do not feel pain simply because of the lack of any pain receptors, nerves, and a brain, and, by extension, lack of consciousness. Many plants are known to perceive and respond to mechanical stimuli at a cellular level, and some plants such as the venus flytrap or touch-me-not, are known for their "obvious sensory abilities".
Nevertheless, the plant kingdom as a whole do not feel pain
notwithstanding their abilities to respond to sunlight, gravity, wind,
and any external stimuli such as insect bites, since they lack any nervous system. The primary reason for this is that, unlike the members of the animal kingdom whose evolutionary successes and failures are shaped by suffering, the evolution of plants are simply shaped by life and death.
The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology
analyzed scientific data on plants, and concluded in 2009 that plants
are entitled to a certain amount of "dignity", but "dignity of plants is
not an absolute value."
The single-issue Party for Plants entered candidates in the 2010 parliamentary election in the Netherlands.
It focuses on topics such as climate, biodiversity and sustainability
in general. Such concerns have been criticized as evidence that modern
culture is "causing us to lose the ability to think critically and
distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns".
The prevailing scientific view today declares qualities such as sentience and consciousness as that which require specialized neural structures, chiefly neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates, which manifests in more complex organisms as the central nervous system, to exhibit consciousness as stated in the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness, which was publicly proclaimed on 7 July 2012 at Cambridge University. Accordingly, only organisms that possess these substrates, all within the animal kingdom, are said to be sentient or conscious so as to feel and experience pain. Sponges, placozoans, and mesozoans, with simple body plans and no nervous system, are the only members of the animal kingdom that possess no sentience.
Legal arguments
Justice William O. Douglas, author of a noted dissent about the legal standing of plants
Inanimate objects are sometimes
parties in litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found
useful for maritime purposes... So it should be as respects valleys,
alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of
trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of
modern technology and modern life... The voice of the inanimate object,
therefore, should not be stilled.
The Swiss Constitution
contains a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of
creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms", and the Swiss government has conducted ethical studies pertaining to how the dignity of plants is to be protected.
In 2012, a river in New Zealand, including the plants and other
organisms contained within its boundaries, was legally declared a person
with standing (via guardians) to bring legal actions to protect its
interests.
The European Research Area (ERA) is a system of scientific research programs integrating the scientific resources of the European Union
(EU). Since its inception in 2000, the structure has been concentrated
on European cooperation in the fields of medical, environmental,
industrial, and socioeconomic research. The ERA can be likened to a
research and innovation equivalent of the European "common market"
for goods and services. Its purpose is to increase the competitiveness
of European research institutions by bringing them together and
encouraging a more inclusive way of work, similar to what already exists
among institutions in North America and Japan. Increased mobility of knowledge workers and deepened multilateral cooperation among research institutions among the member states of the European Union are central goals of the ERA.
The Union shall have the objective
of strengthening its scientific and technological bases by achieving a
European research area in which researchers, scientific knowledge and
technology circulate freely, and encouraging it to become more
competitive, including in its industry, while promoting all the research
activities deemed necessary by virtue of other Chapters of the
Treaties.
History
The creation of a European Research Area (ERA) was proposed by the European Commission in its communication Towards a European Research Area of January 2000. The objective of creating ERA was endorsed by the EU shortly afterwards at the March 2000 Lisbon European Council.
In 2002, the Barcelona European Council set a target for EU R&D investment intensity to approach 3% of GDP.
Subsequently, the Commission proposed an extensive action plan to
increase and improve R&D expenditure in Europe and all Member States
set national R&D investment targets linked to the overall 3%
objective.
Policy coordination in the ERA was addressed by The Spring
European Council of March 2003 through the "open method of
coordination", introduced by the Lisbon European Council in 2000, when
it agreed to apply the OMC for policies related to investment in
research, as well as to human resources and mobility of researchers.
In 2006, the EU adopted a broad-based innovation strategy aiming
to improve the framework conditions for research and innovation. In this
context, for example, a modernised Community framework for State aid
for research and innovation was adopted in November 2006, and
initiatives have been taken to support the emergence of European 'lead
markets' in promising technology-intensive sectors.
Initiatives were launched to improve the coordination of research
activities and programmes. They include the European Technology
Platforms, through which industry and other stakeholders develop shared
long-term visions and strategic research agendas in areas of business
interest, and the bottom-up ERA-Net scheme which supports the
coordination of national and regional programmes.
The EU Research Framework Programmes
were explicitly designed to support the creation of ERA. New
initiatives launched in conjunction with the 7th Framework Programme
(2007-2013), such as the European Research Council, have an important impact on the European research landscape. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology should also play a substantial role in creating world-class "knowledge and innovation communities".
EU cohesion policy and its financial instruments – the Structural
Funds – give strong priority to the development of research and
innovation capacities, particularly in less developed regions. Together
with the priority given in most Member States' internal policies, this
can help the whole of Europe to participate in and derive full benefit
from the European Research Area.
Instruments for public to public partnerships like Joint
Programming Initiatives, the ERA-NET Scheme and Article 185 Initiatives
have been developed to promote coordination between the national
research funding organizations. This resulted in networking activities
and the launch of transnational joint calls for research projects. In
2017 more than 100 countries participated in about 90 active P2P
research networks.
The Commission decided to give renewed impetus to the
construction of ERA in 2007. It published a Green Paper on ERA calling
to end the fragmentation of the European research landscape. A wide public consultation confirmed the main policy orientations set out in the Green Paper.
Following this, in 2008 the Member States and the Commission
launched a new political partnership, called the "Ljubljana Process", to
overcome fragmentation and build a strong ERA.
The ultimate aim of the Ljubljana Process was to establish "the
fundamental role of ERA as a primary pillar for the Lisbon objectives
and as an engine for driving the competitiveness of Europe". The
adoption on 2 December 2008 of the European Research Area Vision 2020 by
the Council marks a key milestone in the Ljubljana Process.
In its Resolution of 7 December 2009 on enhanced governance of
the ERA the Council invited the Commission to continue and further
develop systematic and structured consultations with Member States and
other relevant stakeholders in a transparent manner and has launched the
process of redefining the mission of CREST.
In parallel, following Commission proposals, the Member States
launched "partnership" initiatives to increase cooperation in five areas
the careers, working conditions and mobility of researchers; the joint
design and operation of research programmes; the creation of world-class
European research infrastructures; the transfer of knowledge and
cooperation between public research and industry and international
cooperation in science and technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profane_(religion) Profane, or profanity in religious use may refer to a lack of respect for things that are held to be sacred, which implies anything inspiring or deserving of reverence, as well as behaviour showing similar disrespect or causing religious offense.
The word is also used in a neutral sense for things or people not
related to the sacred; for example profane history, profane literature,
etc. In this sense it is contrasted with "sacred", with meaning similar to "secular".
The distinction between the sacred and the profane was considered by Émile Durkheim to be central to the social reality of human religion.
Etymology
The term profane originates from classical Latin profanus,
literally "before (outside) the temple", "pro" being outside and
"fanum" being temple or sanctuary. It carried the meaning of either
"desecrating what is holy" or "with a secular purpose" as early as the
1450s. Profanity represented secular indifference to religion or religious figures, while blasphemy was a more offensive attack on religion and religious figures, considered sinful, and a direct violation of The Ten Commandments. Moreover, many Bible verses speak against swearing. In some countries, profanity words often have pagan roots that after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such, like famous Finnish profanity word perkele, which was believed to be an original name of the thunder god Ukko, the chief god of the Finnish pagan pantheon.
Profanities, in the original meaning of blasphemous profanity,
are part of the ancient tradition of the comic cults which laughed and
scoffed at the deity or deities: an example of this would be Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods satire.
Sacred–profane dichotomy
The sacred–profane dichotomy is a concept posited by the French sociologistÉmile Durkheim in 1912, who considered it to be the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden." In Durkheim's theory, the sacred represents the interests of the group, especially unity, which were embodied in sacred group symbols, or totems.
The profane, however, involves mundane individual concerns. Durkheim
explicitly stated that the sacred–profane dichotomy is not equivalent to
good–evil, as the sacred could be either good or evil, and the profane could be either as well.
The profane world consists of all that people can know through
their senses; it is the natural world of everyday life that people
experience as either comprehensible or at least ultimately knowable —
the Lebenswelt or lifeworld.
In contrast, the sacred, or sacrum in Latin, encompasses
all that exists beyond the everyday, natural world that people
experience with their senses. As such, the sacred or numinous
can inspire feelings of awe, because it is regarded as ultimately
unknowable and beyond limited human abilities to perceive and
comprehend. Durkheim pointed out however that there are degrees of
sacredness, so that an amulet for example may be sacred yet little respected.
Rites of passage represent movements from one state—the profane—to the other, the sacred; or back again to the profanum.
Religion is organized primarily around the sacred elements of
human life and provides a collective attempt to bridge the gap between
the sacred and the profane.
Profane progress
Modernization and the Enlightenment project have led to a secularisation of culture over the past few centuries – an extension of the profanum at the (often explicit) expense of the sacred. The predominant 21st-century global worldview is as a result empirical, sensate, contractual, this-worldly – in short profane.
Carl Jung
expressed the same thought more subjectively when he wrote that "I know
– and here I am expressing what countless other people know – that the
present time is the time of God's disappearance and death".
Counter reaction
The advance of the profane has led to several countermovements, attempting to limit the scope of the profanum. Modernism set out to bring myth and a sense of the sacred back into secular reality — Wallace Stevens speaking for much of the movement when he wrote that "if nothing was divine then all things were, the world itself".
Fundamentalism – Christian, Muslim, or other – set its face against the profanum with a return to sacred writ.
Psychology too has set out to protect the boundaries of the individual self from profane intrusion, establishing ritual places for inward work in opposition to the postmodern loss of privacy.
Cultural examples
Seamus Heaney considered that "the desacralizing of space is something that my generation experienced in all kinds of ways".
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latinsaeculum, "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself and fleshed out through Christian history into the modern era. In the medieval period there were even secular clergy. Furthermore, secular and religious entities were not separated in the medieval period, but coexisted and interacted naturally. The word "secular" has a meaning very similar to profane as used in a religious context.
Today, anything that is not directly connected with religion may be considered secular.
Secularity does not mean "anti-religious", but "unrelated to religion".
Many activities in religious bodies are secular, and though there are
multiple types of secularity or secularization, most do not lead to
irreligiosity. Linguistically, a process by which anything becomes secular is named secularization, though the term is mainly reserved for the secularization of society; and any concept or ideology promoting the secular may be termed secularism, a term generally applied to the ideology dictating no religious influence on the public sphere.
Scholars recognize that secularity is structured by Protestant models
of Christianity, shares a parallel language to religion, and intensifies
Protestant features such as iconoclasm, skepticism towards rituals, and
emphasizes beliefs. In doing so, secularism perpetuates Christian traits under a different name.
Most cultures around the world do not have tension or dichotomous views of religion and secularity. Since religion and secular
are both Western concepts that were formed under the influence of
Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or
concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them.
Definitions
Historically, the word secular was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin that would relate to any mundane endeavour. However, the term, saecula saeculorum (saeculōrum being the genitive plural of saeculum) as found in the New Testament in the Vulgate translation (c. 410) of the original Koine Greek phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων (eis toùs aionas ton aiṓnōn), e.g. at Galatians 1:5, was used in the early Christian church (and is still used today), in the doxologies,
to denote the coming and going of the ages, the grant of eternal life,
and the long duration of created things from their beginning to forever and ever. Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant "of a generation, belonging to an age" or denoted a period of about one hundred years. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medievalWestern culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones.
Modern and historical understandings of the term
"Secular" does not necessarily imply hostility or rejection of God or religion, though some use the term this way (see "secularism", below); Martin Luther used to speak of "secular work" as a vocation from God for most Christians. "Secular" has been a part of the Christian church's history, which even developed in the medieval period secular clergy,
priests who were defined as the Church's geographically-delimited
diocesan clergy and not a part of the diasporal monastic orders. This
arrangement continues today. The Waldensians advocated for secularity by separation of church and state. According to cultural anthropologists
such as Jack David Eller, secularity is best understood, not as being
"anti-religious", but as being "religiously neutral" since many
activities in religious bodies are secular themselves, and most versions
of secularity do not lead to irreligiosity.
The idea of a dichotomy between religion and the secular originated in the European Enlightenment. Furthermore, since religion and secular
are both Western concepts that were formed under the influence of
Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or
concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them.
One can regard eating and bathing as examples of secular
activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about
them. Nevertheless, some religious traditions see both eating and
bathing as sacraments, therefore making them religious activities within those world views. Saying a prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, performing corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and attending a religious seminary school or monastery are examples of religious (non-secular) activities.
In many cultures, there is little dichotomy between "natural" and
"supernatural", "religious" and "not-religious", especially since
people have beliefs in other supernatural or spiritual things
irrespective of belief in God or gods. Other cultures stress practice of
ritual rather than belief.
Conceptions of both "secular" and "religious", while sometimes having
some parallels in local cultures, were generally imported along with
Western worldviews, often in the context of colonialism.
Attempts to define either the "secular" or the "religious" in
non-Western societies, accompanying local modernization and
Westernization processes, were often and still are fraught with tension.
Due to all these factors, "secular" as a general term of reference was
much deprecated in social sciences, and is used carefully and with
qualifications.
Taylorian secularity
Philosopher Charles Taylor in his 2007 book A Secular Age
understands and discusses the secularity of Western societies less in
terms of how much of a role religion plays in public life (secularity 1), or how religious a society's individual members are (secularity 2), than as a "backdrop" or social context in which religious belief is no longer taken as a given (secularity 3).
For Taylor, this third sense of secularity is the unique historical
condition in which virtually all individuals – religious or not – have
to contend with the fact that their values, morality, or sense of life's meaning
are no longer underpinned by communally-accepted religious facts. All
religious beliefs or irreligious philosophical positions are, in a
secular society, held with an awareness that there are a wide range of
other contradictory positions available to any individual; belief in
general becomes a different type of experience when all particular
beliefs are optional. A plethora of competing religious and irreligious
worldviews open up, each rendering the other more "fragile". This
condition in turn entails for Taylor that even clearly religious beliefs
and practices are experienced in a qualitatively different way when
they occur in a secular social context. In Taylor's sense of the term, a
society could in theory be highly "secular" even if nearly all of its
members believed in a deity or even subscribed to a particular religious
creed; secularity here has to do with the conditions, not the
prevalence, of belief, and these conditions are understood to be shared
across a given society, irrespective of belief or lack thereof.
Taylor's thorough account of secularity as a socio-historical
condition, rather than the absence or diminished importance of religion,
has been highly influential in subsequent philosophy of religion and sociology of religion, particularly as older sociological narratives about secularisation, desecularisation, and disenchantment have come under increased criticism.
The
first systematic recording of the religious affiliation of
non-aboriginal Australians took place in the 1901 census. Since the 1901
census, the percentage of the census population not aligned with a
religion has grown from 0.4% to just over 30% of the population. The
census question about religion has been clearly labelled as "optional"
since 1933. In 1971 the census instructed, "If no religion, write none."
This was followed by "a seven-fold increase" in the figures from
previous years for those declaring lack of religious beliefs.
In 2010 The Australian Book of Atheism was published as "the first collection to explore atheism from an Australian viewpoint".
The book was prompted by the disparity between Australia's increasing
secularism and the increasing political and educational influence and
funding of religion in Australia and contains essays by 33 authors
(including Leslie Cannold, Robyn Williams, Tim Minchin, Graham Oppy, Philip Nitschke, Ian Hunter, Lyn Allison, Russell Blackford and Ian Robinson) on atheism-related topics in areas including history, law, education, philosophy and neurobiology.
A 2010 survey by The Sunday Age asked all 30 members of the First Rudd Ministry
about their religious beliefs. Fifteen declined to comment, ten said
they were "Christian" and three stated that they were atheists: health
minister Nicola Roxon, defence personnel minister Greg Combet and financial services minister Chris Bowen. The remaining two, finance minister Lindsay Tanner and treasurer Wayne Swan,
both described themselves as agnostic Christians, with Swan believing
that "values, rather than religion, are important in public life".
Tanner added, "I doubt whether it would make much difference to a
political career for someone to describe themselves as atheist."
According to a 2009 Nielsen survey, 84% of 1000 respondents agree that religion and politics should be separate.
The Fusion Party refers to itself as a secular humanist party. It supports the separation of church and state
and removing religious prayers, rituals, and bias from government and
public institutions and their documentation, and abolishing blasphemy
laws.
The political party, Reason Australia, supports a secular Australia.
Polls, surveys and statistics
People
who are affiliated with no religion as a percentage of the total
population in Australia at the 2011 census, divided geographically by
statistical local area
Although many Australians identify themselves as religious, the
majority consider religion the least important aspect of their lives
when compared with family, partners, work and career, leisure time and
politics. This is reflected in Australia's church attendance rates, which are among the lowest in the world and in decline (reference from 2004). In explaining this phenomenon, writer and broadcaster Paul Collins said "Australians are quietly spiritual rather than explicitly religious" and the prominent historian Manning Clark
defined Australian spirituality as "a shy hope in the heart ...
understated, wary of enthusiasm, anti-authoritarian, optimistic, open to
others, self-deprecating and ultimately characterized by a serious
quiet reverence, a deliberate silence, an inarticulate awe and a serious
distaste for glib wordiness."
Donald Horne, one of Australia's well-known public intellectuals,
believed rising prosperity in post-war Australia influenced the decline
in church-going and general lack of interest in religion. "Churches no
longer matter very much to most Australians. If there is a happy eternal
life it's for everyone ... For many Australians the pleasures of this
life are sufficiently satisfying that religion offers nothing of great
appeal", said Horne in his landmark work The Lucky Country (1964).
Males and females who claim no religion on the census from 1971 to 2011
The 2021 census found that 38.9% of Australian-born Australians claim no religion.
In 2011 adults aged 18–34 were more than twice as likely as those in
1976 to have no religion (29% compared with 12%). The highest proportion
of people who had no religion were young adults.
The ABS has revealed that in 2011, the number of males claiming no
religion was higher than females, that women claiming no religion were
more likely to have no children, and that marriages were mostly
performed by civil celebrants. Tasmania had the highest rate of citizens reporting no religion, at 50% while the rate was lowest in New South Wales (33%).
Census data
Irreligious declarations of Australians by State or Territory according to the censuses from 2001 to 2021
Irreligious marriages in Australia accounted for 80.3% of marriages in 2019 and 2020 slightly more than in England and Wales in 2017 (78 per cent). The Australian figure is up from 41.3% of marriages in 1988 and just over 50% in 1999. Secular funerals have also risen in popularity: in 2014 the Sydney Morning Herald surveyed 104 funeral directors and 514 people over 50, finding that 6 in 10 funerals were conducted by civil celebrants.
Belief
The proportion of Australian respondents to the World Values Survey saying religion is "Not at all important" to them has increased from 19% in 1994-98 to 37% in 2010-2014
A Roy Morgan
survey of 4,840 Australians between October and December 2013 found
that 52.6% of Australians were Christian, while 37.6% had no religion.
Norman Morris, the company's communications director, noted that the
change in religious affiliation could indicate a growth of atheism and
agnosticism, or a move away from identification with organised
Christianity by theistic believers. He identified possible causes for
the change, including "morally conservative religious doctrines"
contrasting with progressive attitudes on abortion, same-sex marriage,
the use of condoms in the global fight against the HIV pandemic. He
also noted the drop coincided with public media attention around alleged
religious cover-ups of child sexual abuse in the Child Abuse Royal Commission.
A 2008 global Gallup poll found nearly 70% of Australians stated religion as having no importance, much higher than their American counterparts and on par with similarly secular countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Finland and France. Only a few Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and post-Soviet states (Estonia) are markedly less religious. A 2008 Christian Science Monitor
survey of 17 countries reported that youth from Australia and the
United Kingdom were the least likely to observe religious practice or
see any "spiritual dimension" to life.
A 2002 study by Gregory Paul found that 24% of Australians are atheist or agnostic.
A 2009 Nielsen survey of 1,000 respondents, found 68% of Australians
believe in god and/or a "universal spirit", while 24% believe in
neither. The survey found that 49% of respondents claimed religion was
not important in their lives.[21] A 2009 survey of 1,718 Australians conducted by NCLS research found that 61.5% say that "religious faith or spirituality" was of little or no importance to career and lifestyle decisions.[42]
In 2011, an Ipsos MORI survey found that 32% claimed no religion, while a Galaxy poll found 43% claimed no religion. A 2011 report by the American Physical Society claimed that religion may die out in Australia and eight other Western world countries.
According to NORC
of Chicago, 20.6% of Australians don't believe in God and never have,
while 9.7% are "strong atheists". Of those aged under 28, 26.8% have
never believed in God and just 14.7% are certain God exists. A 2012 poll by Win-Gallup International
found that 48% of Australians were not religious; 37% were religious;
10% declared themselves "convinced atheists". Australia placed in the
bottom 14 for religiosity and in the top 11 for atheism.
An October 2011 McCrindle survey polled 1,094 respondents on
attitudes Christianity, finding 50% of the respondents did not identify
with a religion, and 17% claimed Jesus did not exist.
A follow-up survey that 30% claimed no religion, 64% identified with
Christianity and 6% belonged to other religions. 9% of the Christians
were actively practising and regularly attending.
A 2011 survey by McCrindle Research found that for Australians,
Christmas is predominantly secular. 46% of respondents said the
highlights of Christmas were celebrations with family and friends, 36%
said gift giving, Christmas trees and the general Christmas spirit; and
15% said attending religious services, carol singing and nativity plays.
19% said they would "definitely" attend a religious service, while 38%
have never attended. 87% of people who are not religious celebrated
Christmas to some extent.
Religious attendance
According to the National Church Life Survey, between 1950 and 2007 monthly church attendance declined from 44% to 17%. A 2009 Christian Research Association
survey of 1,718 Australians concurred, finding that 16% attended a
religious service at least once a month, down from 23% in 1993.
Subsequently, there have been claims that the rate of decline in church
attendance has slowed; in 2016 there was a claim that monthly attendance
at church was 16%.
Yet, a 2013 survey by McCrindle Research found just 8% of Christians
attend church at least once a month. The McCrindle survey also
discovered that 47% of respondents do not go to church because it is
"irrelevant to my life", 26% "don't accept how it's taught", while 19%
"don't believe in the bible".
In 1996, 17.9% of Roman Catholics attended Mass on a typical Sunday, falling to 12.2% in 2011. In 2006, the median age of all Catholics aged 15 years and over was 44 years. In 1996, 27% of Roman Catholics aged 50 to 54 years regularly attended Mass, falling to 15% in 2006. While 30% aged 55–59 years regularly attended in 1996, only 19% attended in 2006.
From 1996 to 2006 Mass attendance for Roman Catholics aged between 15
and 34 declined by just over 38%, going from 136,000 to 83,760
attendees.
In 2009, more than 40% of those brought up as Anglicans or
Lutherans, 36% of those brought up in the Uniting Church and 28% of
those brought up as Roman Catholics described themselves as having no
religion. 33% of 15- to 29-year-olds identified with a Christian
denomination in 2009, down from 60% in 1993.
A study in 2011 by the Christian Research Association discovered that the attendance of Uniting churches
has declined by 30% over the previous 10 years. The association's
president, Philip Hughes, has predicted that the decline in church
attendance would continue "at least for the next 20 years". The study
also found that the average age of people attending Catholic and
Anglican churches is around 60 years.
The United StatesFederal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) defines eco-terrorism as "...the use or threatened use of
violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or their property
by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for
environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the
target, often of a symbolic nature."
The FBI attributed eco-terrorists to US $200 million in property damage
between 2003 and 2008. A majority of states in the US have introduced
laws aimed at penalizing eco-terrorism.
The term ecoterrorism
was not coined until the 1960s; however, the history of ecoterrorism
precedes that time. Although not referred to as ecoterrorism at the
time, there have been incidents in history of people using terror to
protect or defend the environment. It can be seen in the War of Desmoiselles,
or War of the Maidens. The War of the Demoiselles was a series of
peasant revolts in response to the new forest codes implemented by the
French government in 1827.
In May 1829 groups of peasant men dressed in women's clothes terrorized
forest guards and charcoal-makers who they felt had wrongfully taken
the land to exploit it. The revolts persisted for four years until May
1832.
This particular instance is considered an act of eco-terrorism
due to the fact that the peasants used tactics similar to modern day
eco-terrorist groups. The peasants of Ariege masked their identities and
committed acts of terror. They specifically targeted government
officials who infringed on the rights of the forest; however, this is
considered a pre-history
rather than an actual act of eco-terrorism due to the fact that the
peasants weren't environmentalist. The peasants committed their acts to
protect the environment because they felt they had a claim to it due to
it being their main source of income and way of life for generations.
Instances of pre-ecoterrorism can also be found in the age of
colonialism and imperialism. Native and indigenous people didn't have
the same view on land as property that Europeans did. When the Europeans
colonized other foreign lands they believed that the natives were not
using the land properly. Land was something that was meant to be
profited and capitalized off of. Oftentimes natives would engage in
warfare to protect their land. This is similar to the way that modern
day environmentalists fight to protect land from major corporations
aiming to deforest land to build factories. An example of Europeans
infringing on the rights of natives can be found in the colonial
administration of Algeria.
When the French colonized Algeria they took the land from natives
because they believed they were not using it properly, claiming that
their nomadic lifestyle was damaging to the environment in order to
justify their usurping of the land; however, the natives of Algeria
engaged in battles in order to try and keep their land and lifestyle.
Eco-terrorism, civil disobedience, and sabotage
Eco-terrorism
is often defined as the use of violence to further environmental policy
change. Eco-terrorists are willing to inflict emotional and physical
distress on their victims if they believe it will further their
environmental goals. This more radical version of environmental action
is illegal, as compared to its more moderate forerunner of eco-activism
which is not illegal and would be classified as a form of civil disobedience and uses protests, sit ins and other civil actions to effect environmental change. Eco-terrorism can also include sabotagein the name of the environment,
which is illegal as this includes crimes against property which could
lead to harm to humans. In the United States, the FBI's definition of
terrorism includes acts of violence against property, which makes most
acts of sabotage fall in the realm of domestic terrorism.
Many radical environmentalists contest the FBI's definition of
eco-terrorism for being inaccurate to other definitions of terrorism
such as that of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
which states that acts of terrorism are only those purposely directed
at civilians.
Radical environmentalists also criticize conflation of eco-terrorism
with ecotage by governments and media as rhetorical tools to take
advantage of preconceived notions about terrorism and apply them to acts
which do not fit what terrorism really is.
Sabotage involves destroying, or threatening to destroy, property, and in this case is also known as monkeywrenching or ecotage. Many acts of sabotage involve the damage of equipment and unmanned facilities using arson.
Philosophy
The thought behind eco-terrorism rises from the radical environmentalism movement, which gained currency during the 1960s.
Ideas that arose from radical environmentalism are "based on the belief
that capitalism, patriarchal society, and the industrial revolution and
its subsequent innovations were responsible for the despoliation of
nature".
Radical environmentalism is also characterized by the belief that human
society is responsible for the depletion of the environment and, if
current society is left unchecked, will lead to the ultimate complete
degradation of the environment. Craig Rosebraugh, spokesperson of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front,
justifies destructive or violent direct action as necessary evils in
response to the lack of action regarding environmentalist efforts.
Rosebraugh cites a "choice-of-evils defense" and asks whether it is a
"greater evil to destroy this property of this corporation or to choose
to allow these corporations to continue to destroy the environment"
Many of the groups accused of eco-terrorism spawn from the radical environmentalist philosophy of deep ecology.
Deep ecologists believe that human self-realization must come from
identification with the greater environment. Deep ecology calls for
complete solidarity with the environment and therefore categorizes many
conservation groups as "shallow", encouraging more drastic approaches to
environmental activism. Biocentrism is a central tenet of deep ecology which is described as "a belief that human beings are just an ordinary
member of the biological community" and that all living things should
have rights and deserve protection under the law.
Other eco-terrorists are motivated by different aspects of deep
ecology, like the goal to return the environment to its "natural", i.e.,
pre-industrial, state.
Examples of tactics
There are a wide variety of tactics used by eco-terrorists and groups associated with eco-terrorism. Examples include:
Tree spiking is a common tactic that was first used by members of Earth First!
in 1984. Tree spiking involves hammering small spikes into the trunk of
a tree that may be logged with the intention of damaging the chainsaw
or mill blades. This may also seriously injure the logger. Only one case
of serious injury has been widely reported.
Arson is a tactic most associated with recent activity in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The ELF has been attributed with arsons of sites such as housing developments, SUV dealerships, and chain stores.
Bombing, while rare, has been used by eco-terrorists. For example, the Superphénix construction site was attacked with anti-tank rockets (RPG-7). While carried out by environmental activists, the status of the 1976 Bunbury bombing in Australia as an act of terrorism has been debated.
Daniel McGowan – convicted of participation in an arson at a lumber company
Groups accused
Organizations accused of eco-terrorism are generally grassroots organizations, do not have a hierarchal structure, and typically favor direct action approaches to their goals.
Stefan Leader
characterizes these groups, namely ELF, with having "leaderless
resistance" which he describes as "a technique by which terrorist groups
can carry out violent acts while reducing the risk of infiltration by
law enforcement elements. The basic principle of leaderless resistance
is that there is no centralized authority or chain-of-command."
Essentially this consists of independent cells which operate
autonomously, sharing goals, but having no central leaders or formal
organizational structure. Those who wish to join are typically
encouraged to start their own cell, rather than seek out other members
and jeopardize their secrecy.
In a 2002 testimony to the US Congress, an FBI official mentioned the actions of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the context of eco-terrorism. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intervenes against whaling,
seal hunting, and fishing operations with direct action tactics. In
1986, the group caused nearly US$1.8 million in damage to equipment used
by Icelandic whalers.
In 1992, they sabotaged two Japanese ships that were drift-net fishing
for squid by cutting their nets and throwing stink bombs on board the
boats.
Inspired by Edward Abbey, Earth First! began in 1980. Although the group has been credited with becoming more mainstream, its use of tree spiking during campaigns has been associated with the origins of eco-terrorism. In 1990, Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
were injured when a motion-detecting pipe bomb detonated beneath Bari's
driver seat. Authorities alleged that the bomb was being transported
and accidentally detonated. The pair sued investigators, alleging false
arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. In 2002, a
jury found that FBI agents and Oakland police officers violated
constitutional rights to free speech and protection from unlawful
searches of Earth First! organizers.
The Earth Liberation Front, founded in 1992, joined with the
Animal Liberation Front, which had its beginnings in England in 1979. They have been connected primarily with arson but claim that they work to harm neither human nor animal. A recent example of ELF arson was the March 2008 "torching of luxury homes in the swank Seattle suburb of Woodinville". A banner left at the scene claimed the housing development was not green as advertised, and was signed ELF. In September 2009 ELF claimed responsibility for the destruction of two radio towers in Seattle. The FBI in 2001 named the ELF as "one of the most active extremist elements in the United States", and a "terrorist threat." The Coalition to Save the Preserves
was mentioned in FBI testimony as a group that was responsible for a
series of arsons in Arizona. Using similar tactics to the ELF, they have
caused more than US$5 million in damages.
Media reports have tied Ted Kaczynski,
also known as the Unabomber, to environmental activists, and say that
the 23 injuries and three deaths through letter-bombs were the acts of
an independent eco-terrorist. Among those making such accusations were
ABC, The New York Times, Time magazine, and USA Today.
A number of "local" organizations have also been indicted under
US Federal laws related to eco-terrorism. These include, among others,
the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.
Another example is the Hardesty Avengers who spiked trees in the Hardesty Mountains in Willamette National Forest in 1984.
In 2008 the Federal Bureau of Investigation said eco-terrorists
represented "one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats in the
U.S. today" citing the sheer volume of their crimes (over 2,000 since
1979); the huge economic impact (losses of more than US$110 million
since 1979); the wide range of victims (from international corporations
to lumber companies to animal testing facilities to genetic research
firms); and their increasingly violent rhetoric and tactics (one recent
communiqué sent to a California product testing company said: "You might
be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of
every employee?").
Unclear, however, is the extent informants and controversial FBI
entrapment operations play in creating eco-terrorist groups and
furthering criminal acts. In 2015, so-called "green anarchist" Eric McDavid
was freed from a 2007 conviction after it was disclosed the FBI
operated a program to lure unsuspecting activists via "blatant
entrapment." The 2007 conviction had been cited by the FBI in its 2008 claim eco-terrorism was a significant threat.
The National Animal Interest Alliance
in their animal rights extremism archives compiled a comprehensive list
of major animal rights extremist and eco-criminal acts of terrorism
since 1983.
US governmental response
Spiking trees became a federal offense in the United States when it was added to the Drug Act in 1988.
Under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act
of 1992 it became a federal crime to "cause more than $10,000 in damage
while engaged in "physical disruption to the functioning of an animal
enterprise by intentionally stealing, damaging, or causing the loss of
any property […] used by the animal enterprise." In 2006, this was updated and renamed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act by the 109th congress.
The updated act included causing personal harm and the losses incurred
on "secondary targets" as well as adding to the penalties for these
crimes.
In 2003, a conservative legislative lobbying group, the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC), proposed the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" which
defined an "animal rights or ecological terrorist organization"
as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any
politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person
from participating in an activity involving animals or an activity
involving natural resources." The legislation was not enacted.
The FBI has stated that "since 2005…investigations have resulted
in indictments against 30 individuals." In 2006, an FBI case labeled "Operation Backfire"
brought charges of domestic terrorism to eleven people associated with
the ELF and ALF. "The indictment includes charges related to arson,
conspiracy, use of destructive devices, and destruction of an energy
facility."
Operation Backfire was a result of the 1998 burning of a ski resort in
Vail, Colorado by the group, "The Family." The incident resulted in $26
million in damages. The FBI joined together with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to convict the individuals and any
future eco-terrorist groups.
However, the Bush Justice Department, including the FBI, was
criticized in 2010 for improper investigations and prosecutions of
left-leaning US protest groups such as Greenpeace. The Washington Post
reported that the "FBI improperly opened and extended investigations of
some U.S. activist groups and put members of an environmental advocacy
organization on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning
nonviolent civil disobedience, the Justice Department said Monday."
A report, filed by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, found the FBI
to be not guilty of the most serious charge — according to the Post
— that "agents targeted domestic groups based on their exercise of
First Amendment rights." The investigation was conducted in response to
allegations that the FBI had targeted groups on such grounds during the
Bush Administration. The Post continued:
But the report cited what it called
other "troubling" FBI practices in its monitoring of domestic groups in
the years between the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and 2006.
In some cases, Fine said, agents began investigations of people
affiliated with activist groups for 'factually weak' reasons and
'without adequate basis' and improperly kept information about activist
groups in its files. Among the groups monitored were the Thomas Merton
Center, a Pittsburgh peace group; People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals; and Greenpeace USA. Activists affiliated with Greenpeace were
improperly put on a terrorist watch list, the report said.
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is an international grassroots network of animal rights activists founded in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area. DxE uses disruptive protests and non-violent direct action tactics, such as open rescue of animals from factory farms. Their intent is to build a movement that can eventually shift culture and change social and political institutions. DxE activists work to "put an end to the commodity status of animals."
History
Founding
DxE was founded in 2013 in the United States by a handful of people in the San Francisco Bay Area who decided to protest inside restaurants and stores, rather than outside, which was more typical of animal rights protests. DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung investigated slaughterhouses for ten years prior to founding DxE with the goal of scaling up open rescue and other forms of non-violent direct action.
DxE's first action occurred in January 2013. Six activists demonstrated in front of a meat counter at a Sprouts Farmers Market,
contending that the items being sold there behind the counter were not
food but "the torment and suffering of billions of our friends in
factory farms and slaughterhouses."
Growth
DxE continued organizing protests inside restaurants and stores, citing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and ACT UP as influences. In August 2013, DxE activists organized the Los Angeles side of an international multi-city protest, The Earthlings March. Approximately 40 cities and varied activist groups participated in the march.
In October 2013, in response to a viral video produced by Chipotle called The Scarecrow, DxE organized in-store "die-ins" at three San Francisco Chipotle restaurants. DxE argued that the ad, which advertised Chipotle's purported efforts to create a more natural and humane food system
was "humanewashing", which animal rights activists describe as
marketing efforts intended to disguise the inherent violence of using
and killing animals for food.
Within a few weeks, similar demonstrations were executed in Chicago,
Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia. DxE responded by creating a
platform for coordinated global days of action under the "It's Not Food,
It's Violence" message.
DxE has continued with internationally coordinated monthly days
of action. In addition to Chipotle, activists have also targeted other
grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, zoos, circuses, and labs.
The original actions were organized around the San Francisco Bay Area.
By December 2014, DxE's network had grown to at least 90 cities in 20
countries.
DxE hosts an annual Animal Liberation Conference (ALC) for grassroots, peaceful animal rights activists. The ALC is a full week of talks, trainings, and socials all aimed at empowering activists.
Whole Foods campaign
DxE selected U.S.-based natural foods grocery store Whole Foods Market
as the target of the investigation because the company is allegedly
"actively shaping the public's view of animal agriculture with false
marketing."
The activists selected Certified Humane Whole Foods egg supplier
Petaluma Farms in Petaluma, California, as the target of the initial
investigation.
At one point, activists encountered a diseased hen who had collapsed
and was struggling to breathe and removed her from the farm. They named
her Mei Hua (Chinese for "beautiful flower") and made her recovery a
centerpiece of the ensuing campaign and imagery.
Another farm owned by the same company was later the subject of a
similar video filmed by a former employee. When asked for comment about
that particular break-in after DxE's release of their initial video, the
Sonoma County
Sheriff's Department stated that a full investigation was underway, but
that the farm appeared to be performing at "industry standards".
DxE released a 19-minute video of the investigation, "Truth
Matters", on YouTube and Facebook in January 2015 and received coverage
in several international media outlets, including The New York Times and
Mother Jones.
For several weekends following the investigation, and every month
thereafter through early 2016, DxE chapters in several dozen cities
organized protests inside Whole Foods stores, challenging the company's
"Values Matter" advertising campaign. Whole Foods announced new egg-laying standards shortly after the release of the investigation video.
Over the course of 2015, a larger team of activists investigated
Diestel Turkey Ranch, one of only three companies, out of over 2,000, to
achieve a 5+ rating on the 1–5 scale used by the Global Animal
Partnership, Whole Foods's animal welfare rating scheme.
Activists recorded video reportedly at a Diestel-owned farm in
Jamestown, California, showing filth, overcrowding, and birds dying as
infants.
DxE released another investigation in November 2016 into Jaindl
Farms, a Whole Foods farm that has supplied the White House with
Thanksgiving turkeys since the 1960s rated in the 98th percentile of
animal welfare according to an animal welfare audit.
The activists released footage of birds with mutilated beaks,
struggling to walk, and crowded to the point of repeated trampling.
The video footage from the farm that DxE released shows birds with
mangled beaks, broken legs, missing eyes, open sores and facial lesions. In one scene, turkeys peck and nibble at a young bird's festering wound. In another, a decaying carcass rests on the floor among live animals.
Two Huffington Post reporters visited the farm on invitation of
Jaindl's owner and found that while severe injuries were uncommon, some
turkeys had visible sores.[33] In response to DxE's video, the group was accused of ecoterrorism by Jaindl's legal counsel in a letter to Wayne Hsiung, who also stated "This criminal activity fostered by your organization is reprehensible, and cannot be overlooked."
On May 29, 2018, several hundred DxE activists held a protest
outside Cal Eggs Farm in Petaluma, California, which is a supplier to
Whole Foods. Some of the activists entered a barn and carried out live
and diseased birds. 40 of the activists were arrested for misdemeanor
trespassing. DxE activists see "open rescue" as establishing "the right to rescue" animals legally in the future.
After numerous protests inside the Whole Foods store in Berkeley,
California, Whole Foods obtained a restraining order against DxE
activists in September 2018, prohibiting Wayne Hsiung and 150 other
unnamed DxE activists from entering that particular store or its parking
lot.
Liberation Pledge
In
November 2015, DxE became one of the most visible backers of a new
action known as the "Liberation Pledge", with co-founder Wayne Hsiung
authoring a piece in the Huffington Post announcing the pledge. According to the website liberationpledge.com, it is defined by the following three points:
One: Publicly refuse to eat animals—live vegan.
Two: Publicly refuse to sit where people are eating animals.
Three: Encourage others to take the pledge.
The pledge was considered controversial upon release, including criticisms regarding food justice concerns and by potentially isolating vegans who take the pledge. Several prominent figures in the animal rights movement, including Anita Krajnc of the Toronto Pig Save and Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs took the pledge, with McHenry declaring, "We must stop the eating of animals."
Wanyama Box creator Nzinga Young defended the Liberation Pledge,
writing, "when I spend time in safe spaces with sacred people, I don't
want to see carnage."
Costco campaign
Following the Farmer John investigation, DxE activists repeatedly interrupted LA Dodgers baseball games to protest the team's touting of Farmer John's "Dodger Dogs" hot dogs.
Activists in LA, Colorado, and the San Francisco Bay Area jumped on the
field during plays at several games with banners declaring "Dodgers
Torture Animals" and "Animal Liberation Now". The activists tied their protests to Farmer John, protesting the promotion of "torture and death of animals".
DxE followed up its Farmer John investigation by investigating a cage-free egg supplier to Costco.
Costco had been a key leader in the 2016 trend of food companies
committing to shift to a cage-free egg supply, but, according to DxE,
the investigation raised questions about the state of animal welfare
after that shift.
DxE released a video that shows dead birds on the floor and injured
hens pecked by other chickens. One bird had a piece of flesh hanging off
its beak.
In response to the video released by DxE, the supplier claimed that the
activists had committed a "break-in and trespassing" and that "The
video does not show what truly goes on in our barns and appears to be
staged for production effect".
The group did not seek permission to enter the farm, Lead Organizer
Wayne Hsiung said, but he argued that the group had not broken any laws
because they had suspected animal cruelty and that gave them a right to
enter the property.
All birds inside the farm were destroyed due to the contamination risk
the activists had introduced into the farm, according to the supplier.
The two DxE organizers who conducted the investigation were initially
charged with felony commercial burglary and subsequently pleaded
no-contest to a reduced charge of trespass.
The defendants were then ordered to pay restitution of $331,991 to
compensate the farm owner based on his assertion that he was forced to
slaughter all chickens in the barn. The defendants claim that the
"depopulated" chickens were in a barn they never entered.
Direct Action Everywhere staged a protest at the SoMa location of
Costco in San Francisco. Direct Action Everywhere activists forcibly
occupied the store's meat section and held a "die-in" near an entrance
that involved activists covering each other with fake blood and
pretending to eat each other. The protest involved Costco suppliers'
controversial treatment of hens. Activists from the organization claimed
that many of the "cage-free" farms were housing the chickens in crowded
cages and violating principles dictated by the "certified humane"
label. They released undercover footage of the farms showing the poor
conditions. Another protest was held at a Costco store in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
Open rescue expansion
In December 2016, DxE open rescue projects began expanding beyond the
Bay Area when members in Toronto released an investigation of a pig
farm. The project was followed up by an internationally coordinated rescue with animal advocates in Sweden, Germany, and Australia. In April 2017, DxE activists in Colorado conducted an investigation of Morning Fresh Farms, a cage-free chicken egg supplier.
Smithfield/Circle Four pig farms in the Utah desert.
In 2017, activists with DxE entered Smithfield Foods-owned
Circle Four Farms in Utah and performed an open rescue of two piglets
subsequently named Lily and Lizzie. Their rescue triggered an extensive
multi-state FBI hunt for the two baby piglets.
DxE released a virtual-reality video that takes viewers into barns at
Circle Four Farms and shows sows with bloody and mangled teats; pregnant
sows gnawing on the bars of the narrow stalls they live in until they
give birth; and piglets clambering over and nibbling dead siblings.
A video taken by DxE that coincided with the open rescue at Circle Four
Farms has been called inaccurate by a spokesman for Smithfield; the
video purports to show mistreatment and abuse of animals at Circle Four
Farms. In November the same year, a group of DxE activists, which included actress Alexandra Paul, claimed to expose animal cruelty and neglect at Zonneveld Dairy, a Land O'Lakes
dairy supplier based in California, which included "young calves living
in filthy hutches, unprotected from record low and high temperatures
between 19 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit, suffering from pneumonia,
diarrhea, open sores, maggot infestations, and infections." The team of
activists performed an pen rescue on one sick calf, later named
Roselynn.
In September, 2017 DxE organizers attended a small-scale poultry
processing class at Long Shadow Farm, a 6-acre farm in Berthoud,
Colorado specializing in pasture-raised chickens. The facility raises
animals and offers "poultry processing services".
Led by DxE Organizer Aidan Cook, under the name of "Denver Baby Animal
Save" the group entered the property masquerading as volunteers
and took three chickens, after asking to hold some of the birds and
being assisted in doing so by the farm owners' eight-year-old daughter.
Opinions on the actions vary, with DxE organizers and members claiming
to have "rescued" the birds, while the farm owners considered it
"theft". A DxE spokesperson stated that "even if the animal rights group
could have saved more chickens by purchasing them, the group opposes
buying into a system that hurts animals."
The DxE organizers who conducted the "open rescue" responded to an
inquiry by the farm owner, "We have taken your birds to a sanctuary,
where they can be free." Two of the chickens that were taken were carriers of mycoplasma, a highly infectious respiratory disease in poultry.
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office investigated several felony
allegations including trespassing, attempted theft of livestock and
theft of livestock.
In May 2018, a Utah prosecutor filed felony charges against six
DxE activists stemming from an undercover investigation into conditions
on a turkey farm in Moroni, Utah which serves as a supplier for Norbest.
The DxE investigation found "tens of thousands of turkeys crammed
inside filthy industrial barns, virtually on top of one another."
The activists rescued three turkeys suffering from disease or injuries
and were on the brink of death. The charges include two felony theft
charges that carry possible prison terms of five years each.
In October 2018 the verdict of the judge was to allow 3 of the
defendants to perform community service in lieu of further punishment if
they plead guilty to misdemeanors. However, Wayne Hsiung and Paul
Darwin Picklesimer will have to go through an additional trial to
determine the final verdict.
In April 2019, DxE activists broke into a Smithfield Foods farm
in North Carolina to expose overcrowding and unsanitary conditions
there, and the extensive use of antibiotics. In addition to acquiring
footage of scores of sick piglets and refrigerators full of powerful
antibiotics, the group took a 6-week-old female pig, subsequently named
Lauri, and rushed her to a vet. Testing revealed Lauri suffered from
pneumonia, anemia and an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. She now
resides at an animal sanctuary. Hsiung, who was involved in the raid on
the farm, told The New York Times "Americans have a fundamental
right to know how their food is being produced, but right now, the only
way to gather this information is to break the law." Responding to an
inquiry from The Times, Smithfield leveled accusations that the
group has a history of manipulating footage in order to "mislead the
public and gain attention for its activist agenda which includes 'total
animal liberation.'"
In May 2020 DxE obtained and released video footage of the ventilation shutdown (VSD) method used to kill pigs at an Iowa Select Farms
facility. According to a whistleblower who was an employee at Iowa
Select Farms, the pigs died very slowly from overheating and suffocation
when the ventilation system was shut off.
Matt Johnson, the activist who entered the facilities to obtain VSD
footage, removed a piglet from one facility to perform an "open rescue"
of the animal.
Charges against Johnson for these activities were dropped in January
2021 when Iowa Select Farms decided not to testify. Other, later charges
against Johnson, also relating to activity at facilities owned by Iowa
Select Farms, were also suddenly dropped in January 2022 after the
defense subpoenaed executives and employees to testify. Johnson, who had
hoped the cases would go to trial in order to challenge the
constitutionality of ag-gag
laws, stated "we are setting a precedent that rescuing animals from
situations where they're in distress is the right thing to do. It's not a
crime."
Philosophy
"Humane fraud"
DxE
has had an ongoing campaign against companies who make claims about
selling food products made with "humane" standards of animal welfare.
Targets of this campaign have included the supermarket Whole Foods Market, the restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill,
and several farms. Through its investigations, public statements and
writings, protests, and livestock theft, DxE has alleged that such
companies misrepresent the actual conditions on their farms or their
suppliers' farms. DxE also maintains that it is not possible to raise
and kill animals in a humane way.
Social science
DxE's
leaders include a number of students of social science, and DxE
organizers aim to use social science in persuading others to join their
protests and self-proclaimed rescues. DxE has published articles on the
evidence for nonviolent civil resistance based on the work of political
scientist Erica Chenoweth, the importance of social ties based on the
work of sociologist Doug McAdam, and the importance of mobilizing masses
of ordinary people based on research by network scientist Duncan Watts.
Critical stance toward consumer veganism
Activists
and writers associated with DxE have criticized the animal rights
movement's contemporary focus on creating individual vegans and
celebrating consumer products like vegan ice cream rather than focusing
on activism and changing social and political institutions.
DxE argues that the individual focus is less effective than trying to
change institutions, since the individual focus does not lead people to
do more once they stop using animals personally. Instead, DxE argues that activist groups should push people to take action so that the movement grows more quickly.
Activists with DxE have argued that nonviolence is in principle a
practice of anger toward systems and compassion toward individuals and
that a protest movement will be more successful by focusing on
governments, corporations, and other institutions rather than making
individual consumers defensive by attacking them personally.
DxE's blog has argued that consumer vegan options also distract
from the actual threat to animals, allowing companies that are hurting
animals like Whole Foods to avoid criticism and leading animal rights
activists not to take action against them. In a debate with Rutgers philosopher and animal rights theorist Gary Francione, DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung stated that "activism, not veganism, is the moral baseline."
Tactics
Open rescue
Wayne Hsiung cites as an inspiration for DxE the work of Patty Mark, an Australian animal rights activist and founder of Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV).
ALV activists popularized the tactic of going into farms in the middle
of the night without disguises and filming the conditions inside.
The tactic stands in contrast to the more common form of investigation
in the U.S. animal rights movement in which an investigator poses as a
farm worker to film using a hidden camera. Open rescue activists
emphasize that their approach allows the portrayal of individual
animals' stories since activists can focus on animals in the farm, and
to rescue animals who would otherwise die of disease document their
recovery. It also touts open rescue as a form of activism anyone can undertake,
offering the possibility and goal of thousands of open rescue teams
across the country.
DxE has cited open rescues as particularly key to exposing
"humane" companies that are generally smaller and more difficult to
infiltrate.
In April 2016, three members of DxE went undercover to Yulin, China,
home of the Yulin dog meat festival, to document the upcoming
preparations of the festival; they said they have been able to catch
some of the brutality on camera at one of the largest slaughterhouses in
the city.
Two of the activists with DxE were able to smuggle out the video
footage they had captured, along with three dogs bound for slaughter.
Open rescue has been criticized by one such smaller, "humane"
company that has been the target of DxE's use of the tactic. Petaluma
Farms, a distributor of eggs for Whole Foods, was investigated and the
subject of a highly publicized campaign and open rescue of DxE's.
Jonathan Mahrt, an employee of Petaluma Farms and son of Petaluma Farms'
owner Steven Mahrt, said, "My dad's take is that it's a sad day when
farmers and ranchers have to be concerned about security."
On May 29, 2018, several hundred DxE demonstrators held a protest
outside Cal Eggs Farm in Petaluma, California, and 40 of the activists
entered a barn and carried out live and diseased birds. These 40
activists were arrested for misdemeanor trespassing.
DxE activists believe that they have the legal right to rescue animals
from farms in California described in state laws, and they want to
establish this right in courts.
A major open rescue action was held on Saturday, September 29,
2018, at Petaluma Farms, the supplier to Amazon and Whole Foods, and the
largest in the US. Several dying hens were removed from filthy, crowded
sheds. One hen was allowed to leave with the activists and was sent to a
sanctuary, however the rest were sent to animal control and did not
survive. Petaluma sheriff's office reported that 67 activists were
arrested at the scene. DxE counted it was 58 activists who were
arrested. After release, activists protested against the arrests, as the
activists believe that they had the right to the open rescue under
California penal law code statue 597E, Doctrine of Necessity, which
allows any person to enter a premises to provide food and or water to an
animal which has not had either food or water for twelve hours or more. The activists are continuing to fight to be allowed to continue open rescues.
In May 2018, Hsiung and four others were charged in Utah with
felonies for burglary, livestock theft, and engaging in "a pattern of
illegal activity" and misdeameanor for engaging in a "riot". They were
identified after posting high-quality video online of an open rescue of taking pigs from a Smithfield Foods facility in Beaver County, Utah. The defendants Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer were acquitted on all counts in October 2022.
In September 2021, DxE activists Alicia Santurio and Alexandra Paul participated in an open rescue when they took two severely ill chickens from a truck outside of a Foster Farms slaughterhouse in Livingston, California. Both were acquitted by a California jury in March 2023.
Mass protests
Inspired by both activist networks and street theater groups such as Improv Everywhere,
DxE mobilizes masses of activists to creative protest in prominent
public spaces. Early actions in DxE's history include a guerrilla poem, a
"freeze" at a prominent mall, the disruption of a screening of American
Meat with the stories and images of companion animals, and numerous
other creative efforts.
Notable network-wide protests have included an effort in the
summer of 2015 to incorporate dogs, cats, and other companion animals
into protests as a symbol of human support, connections, and equality
with animals. DxE also issued the #DisruptSpeciesism and #DogMeatPlease
viral video challenges in September 2014 and 2015, respectively, which
garnered social media fame when videos by DxE organizers Priya Sawhney,
Kelly Atlas, and Jenny McQueen went viral.
In March 2018, DxE co-hosted a rally with Compassionate Bay in
support of Supervisor Katy Tang of San Francisco leading the effort to
ban the sale of fur in the city. Later that month, the board of supervisors of San Francisco voted unanimously to ban the sale of new fur.
Disruption of public events
Activists
within the DxE network have undertaken a number of prominent
disruptions of public figures. In August 2015, Iowa activist Matt Johnson asked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie about his veto of a widely supported bill banning gestation crates for mother pigs that the public widely regarded as cruel.
Johnson staged similar disruptions along the campaign trail, including at Iowa campaign events by Ohio Governor John Kasich and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and an appearance by former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina at the Iowa Pork Producers.
Several activists from Iowa and Indiana also interrupted a Republican
family values forum on the eve of Thanksgiving and the release of DxE's
Diestel Turkey Ranch investigation video.
In January 2016, activists interrupted a speech by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf at the 100th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Farm Show, saying that there was no reason to confine and kill pigs, chickens, and cows when it was not okay to do that to dogs or cats.
DxE activist Zach Groff has stated that DxE aims to ensure that any
event or public figure "promoting violence against animals" is the
target of a protest interruption.
On December 23, 2020, Johnson was interviewed by Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, where he posed as the CEO of meat packing company Smithfield Foods.
He warned that its farms could be a "petri dish" for new diseases, and
that the industry could be "effectively bringing on the next pandemic",
citing a CDC report that three of every four infectious diseases
originated from animals. On September 3, 2021, Johnson posed as Donnie D. King, the CEO of Tyson Foods, for an interview on Newsmax to discuss ventilation shutdown, saying:
It may be a little unorthodox of me to be saying this,
quite frankly, but one of our main pork suppliers ... went with the
most economic option available to them and they literally loaded
thousands of pigs into industrial sheds. And they pumped in heat and
steam, and they were really just roasting pigs alive.
In April 2022, DxE activists disrupted three Minnesota Timberwolves' playoff games
when a demonstrator entered the court during live play. DxE said the
protests were over alleged acts of animal cruelty by Rembrandt
Enterprises farms, which like the Timberwolves NBA basketball team is also owned by Glen Taylor.
On September 8, 2022 during the National Football League's 2022Kickoff Game at SoFi Stadium, two DxE activists ran onto the field carrying pink smoke bombs during the fourth quarter, disrupting play between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills. The two protesters were bringing attention to a trial against Smithfield Foods regarding their factory farm practices. Less than a month later, during a Week 4 matchup against the Rams and San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium,
another DxE activist ran onto the field near the end of the first half,
also carrying a pink smoke bomb and wearing a shirt similar to the two
protesters from the previous incident. Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner and defensive end Takkarist McKinley tackled the intruding protester near the Rams' sideline before he was escorted off the field by security.
Criticism
Direct Action Everywhere has received criticism from vegan and non-vegan consumers, and the shops and farms they have targeted. Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review has called their protest tactics in Berkeley "bullying" in regards to graphic Berkeley protests in the summer of 2017. Alice Waters, proprietor of the Chez Panisse, was a target of some of these protests and called them an "outrage" and that the DxE protestors "need to do their homework". On the subject of these protests and the protesters' knowledge of humane food, the Director of Operations for Certified Humane, Mimi Stein, said in an email to The Washington Post
that "DxE is attempting to undermine consumer confidence in products
which are in fact ethically produced and businesses working in good
faith to reinvigorate a very desirable traditional business
model...Shame on DxE!"
Lauren-Elizabeth McGrath of vegan magazine Ecorazzi commented in 2016
that "They're an organization that is set on disrupting the day of the
average meat-eater, but fails to help them beyond just that" and
discussed accusations of racism within the organisation.
Carol Adams, vegetarian-feminist and author of The Sexual Politics of Meat,
announced on her blog that she intends to boycott events that host DxE
speakers, stating that "DxE is both a counterproductive organization
[for activism] as well as cult.
