Animal protection movements: history, policy, practice

Abstract

The twentieth century oversaw the emergence of an interdisciplinary theory of social movements that attempted to explain how any social mobilisation occurs. This gained particular direction when new movements in the 1960’s emerged no longer based mainly on class affiliations, the so-called ‘post-materialism’ phase of social movements. This article looks to provide an overview of the development of one of these movements, the animal rights movement. The first section follows its emergence in 19^th century Victorian Britain and how key cases marked its evolution. This is seen to be largely limited to the protestant countries and be, in part, a reaction of conservative society to a new urban, industrial society. The second section sees how the animal rights movement returned after a phase of inactivity in the new activism of 1960’s. In an atmosphere of anti-militarism and a general striving for rights and equality for all disadvantaged groups, the moral arguments underpinning animal rights activism were reconstructed and are traced in this article. It is revealed that this story saw a logical evolution; from the struggle to prevent cruelty to farmyard animals the activists steadily moved towards the struggle to protect wild animals and those being experimented on in laboratories. If before the movement was conservative in its objectives, then the modern form is often more radical and aimed at direct action. The last section covers the rise of the animal rights movement in Russia. This was traditionally impossible in Soviet Russia where very few initiatives from below were allowed to develop. The gradual growth of civic society has come slowly and the animal rights movement is proving to be in its first stages of gaining public recognition for its cause. This is the first study to be conducted from the Russian side; clearly more research must be done. It remains to be seen if and how the Western experience of the social mobilisation of the animal rights movement will translate to Russia.