7 posts tagged “animal rights”
The animal rights/welfare movement here and abroad is awash in proposed legislation (see ISAR's Model Mandatory Spay/Neuter statute), much of which will never be enacted or, if enacted, never enforced.
So the question is whether it is cause for rejoicing when pro-animal legislation actually becomes law.
We have seen three examples in as many months.
The Swiss have enacted a sweeping animal protection law. It includes handling guidelines for cats, dogs, sheep, goats and horses. There is a six-hour time limit for the transportation of livestock. Piglets cannot be castrated without anaesthesia.
Massachusetts has banned greyhound racing throughout the Commonwealth.
A California ballot initiative has just been approved that seeks to provide more living space to animals raised for human food: "Certain farm animals [shall] be allowed, for the majority of every day, to fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up and turn around."
However, the Swiss law allows dairy farmers to keep their cattle tied up in stalls for 240 days of the year. Tie-stalls for horses are to be phased out over five years. Zoo animals, like rhinos, can be confined in small winter quarters. Wild animals in circuses are still permitted (though banned in neighboring Austria).
The Massachusetts greyhound ban does not become effective until 2010.
California's "living space" initiative gives farmers until 2015 to shift to more humane animal production systems.
Yet, for some in the animal rights/welfare movement these measures are not only not enough (and they aren't!), but the laws are to be disdained because they don't go far enough.
These folks believe that when laws like this are proposed they should be fought, because passage of these useful but wholly inadequate enactiments give opponents the ability to argue that "enough is enough"--that the movement clamored for these laws, they were enacted, and that's all the affected animals are entitled to, at least for years to come.
This absolutist position is defensible, making for a hard choice: wait for perfection, while countless animals continue to suffer, or take what can be had when possible, but continue fighting for perfection?
In other words, is half-a-loaf better than none?
Much better--particularly, if you're a veal calf spending your entire life in a crate.
Since its publication, the monograph has received considerable attention and has been used as a resource by animal custodians throughout the United States.
Recently, a lawyer who this summer will be teaching "Animal Law and Rights" at a New England law school asked for a copy of the monograph for use in his course. ISAR responded by offering him copies for all 25 of the students registered for the course, and he gladly accepted.
ISAR has additional copies in its inventory, and until we run out we'll make the same offer to any lawyer teaching an animal law course elsewhere.
Also, you may now read ISAR's monograph in its entirety on our website at www.isaronline.org.
Hello!
International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR) is new to Vox and would like to meet new people that could help us help animals by furthering our campaigns.
ISAR is an animal rights organization that utilizes law and education to serve animals as well as promotes the importance of spaying/neutering companion animals and the adoption option from local humane societies.
If anyone is interested in learning more about us and our programs, we would like to invite you to our website at http://www.isaronline.org.
A few of our programs that we would like to devote some more attention to are our petition campaigns. Please feel free to pass these links along to friends and family!
We look forward to your friendship!
http://www.isaronline.org/petition_spay_stamp.html
http://www.isaronline.org/petition_pet_population.html
http://www.isaronline.org/petition_animals_entertainment.html
If you do sign any of the petitions listed above, please let us know where you've heard about ISAR!
Hi Everyone!
We are new to this group and to Vox.
We are interested in meeting new people and making new friends.
International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR) is an animal rights organization utilizing law and education to serve animals. We also promote the importance of spay/neuter and the adoption option from local humane societies to reduce and one day eliminate the unnecessary killing of millions of healthy and lovable dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens each year in shelters simply "to make room".
We would like to extend an invitiation to visit our website at www.isaronline.org to learn more about our programs, but there is one in particular that this group may be especially interested in.
Since 1992, ISAR has set aside the third Saturday of August to commemorate and memorialize the animals that have lost their lives to the pet overpopulation epidemic. The day is titled International Homeless Animals' Day. With candlelight vigils, prayer services, speakers, etc...basically anything to raise awareness for the millions of animals killed each year, organizations and concerned individuals get together and promote campaigns and ignite new programs to educate others that the spay/neuter solution is the answer to eliminating pet overpopulation.
This year's International Homeless Animals' Day will be held on August 16, 2008.
If you are interested in learning more about this special day please visit ISAR here: http://www.isaronline.org/f/2007_autumn.pdf
If you would like to participate in ISAR's International Homeless Animals' Day please contact us:
http://www.isaronline.org/f/animals_day_coupon.pdf
Hi Everyone!
We are new to this group, heck we are new to Vox completely.
We wanted to say hi and introduce ourselves.
International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR) is an animal rights organization focusing on law and education to serve animals, as well as promoting the importance of spay/neuter and the adoption option from your local humane societies.
We look forward to making new friends and maybe even gain some new volunteers.
We would like to invite all to visit our website at www.isaronline.org if you are interested in learning more about our programs.
Please stop by our Vox page or website to say hello!
Over two decades ago, Harvard University’s Office of Government and Community Affairs sponsored an in-depth study of the animal rights/welfare movement, including its goals and strategies
In its Report, Harvard noted that “[P]hilosophically, animal rights/welfare groups can be classified as abolitionists or regulationists. The abolitionists, such as ISAR…constitute a minority within a movement. They are, however, also the most diligent, tactical and clear thinking. They use the law; publications and education to work for their ultimate goals.”
What Harvard said then about ISAR remains true today.
International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR) was chartered in the District of Columbia nearly a half-century ago, making our organization one of the oldest humane education organizations in the United States.
ISAR is a tax exempt non-profit corporation, and contributions to it are tax deductible.
ISAR was the first organization in the United States (and probably the world) to use in its corporate name the moral principle of “animal rights.” The first federal and the first state court legal decisions to invoke the moral principle “animal rights” were in cases brought by International Society for Animal Rights.
ISAR’s founder, the late Helen Jones (click here for obituary), was one of the few pioneers in what would decades later become known as the animal rights movement. She fervently believed that humans have a moral responsibility to animals that could be satisfied only by working for an end to their suffering and exploitation. In furtherance of that goal, Helen Jones originated dozens of innovative educational programs and campaigns on behalf of animal rights, one of the most prominent being International Homeless Animals’ Day™.
One of Helen Jones’s most profound insights led to an ambitious program that for its audaciousness was unique to ISAR. Miss Jones, whose father was a small town lawyer, understood that an essential strategy for securing rights for animals was through the American legal system—a strategy that ISAR has employed for over three decades.
The history and accomplishments of International Society for Animal Rights are presented in our Power Point presentation, which can be accessed here.
International Society For Animal Rights
Law and Education Serving Animals
965 Griffin Pond Road
Clarks Summit, PA 18411
(570) 586-2200 Voice
(800) 543-ISAR Voice
(570) 586-9580 Fax
Contact@isaronline.org Email
http://www.isaronline.org Website