Anonymous for Animal Rights
Encyclopedia
Anonymous for Animal Rights is an animal rights group based in Israel
.
It focuses on several animal rights
issues: the consumption of meat
and animal source foods
, using animals for clothing and entertainment, and animal testing
. The group started organizing protests in the 1990s and became formally organized in 1994. The name Anonymous was chosen as a form of identification with the anonymity of animals in industrial farms, labs, and other industries.
, fish
, milk
and eggs
) due to the suffering caused to animals in these industries; it calls for a vegan lifestyle
.
, information dissemination, and legal areas (legislation
and regulation
).
The organization also maintains a web site that describes cruelties in animal industries, including photographs and films that were taken in chicken coop
s and cowsheds
. The web site also contains practical information about vegan lifestyle
, including nutritional advice and recipes.
Anonymous are also responsible for maintenance and updates to the Israeli Vegetarian Society
web site.
in Israel. Some smaller groups splintered from it during the years, including "Ma'avak Ehad" ("One Struggle", an anarchist-motivated political group) and "Shevi" ("Animal Liberation Israel").
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
It focuses on several animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
issues: the consumption of meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
and animal source foods
Animal source foods
Animal source foods include any food item that comes from an animal source such as meat, milk, fish, eggs, cheese and yogurt. Many individuals do not consume ASF or consume little ASF by either personal choice or necessity as ASF may not be accessible or available to these people.- Nutrition of...
, using animals for clothing and entertainment, and animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
. The group started organizing protests in the 1990s and became formally organized in 1994. The name Anonymous was chosen as a form of identification with the anonymity of animals in industrial farms, labs, and other industries.
Principles
Anonymous oppose animal-based food industries (such as meatMeat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
and eggs
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
) due to the suffering caused to animals in these industries; it calls for a vegan lifestyle
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
.
Activities
Anonymous activities are focused in three areas: documentationDocumentation
Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
, information dissemination, and legal areas (legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
and regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
).
Documentation
Anonymous documents cases of violation of animal rights. It regularly visits industrial farms, and compares their practices to those allowed by law, assisted by theoretical agricultural research and by animal rights groups in Europe and the United States.Information dissemination
Anonymous distributes printed material regarding animal rights. Leaflets and booklets are distributed in public events and in lectures in schools. The organization’s weekly publication is titled "This week in Animals Rights" and is distributed by e-mail since 2001.The organization also maintains a web site that describes cruelties in animal industries, including photographs and films that were taken in chicken coop
Chicken coop
A chicken coop is a building where female chickens are kept. Inside there are often nest boxes for egg laying and perches on which the birds can sleep, although coops for meat birds seldom have either of these features....
s and cowsheds
Factory farming
Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
. The web site also contains practical information about vegan lifestyle
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
, including nutritional advice and recipes.
Anonymous are also responsible for maintenance and updates to the Israeli Vegetarian Society
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society is a British registered charity established on 30 September 1847 to "support, represent and increase the number of vegetarians in the UK."-History:...
web site.
Legislation and regulation
Anonymous works with governmental units, trying to advance legislation and regulation regarding animal welfare, and the enforcement of existing regulations.Main achievements
- The most well-known achievement of Anonymous was the protest against the production of foie grasFoie gras controversyThe production of foie gras involves the controversial force-feeding of birds with more food than they would eat in the wild, and more than they would voluntarily eat domestically...
. In August 2003, the Supreme Court of IsraelSupreme Court of IsraelThe Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
ordered the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture to ban the force feeding of geeseForce-feedingForce-feeding is the practice of feeding a person or an animal against their will. "Gavage" is supplying a nutritional substance by means of a small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach, not explicitly 'forcibly'....
. Anonymous tracks the enforcement of the ban, and fills complaints against farms that conduct illegal force feeding.
- Anonymous conducted a campaign against the use of animals in circuses. Following the campaign, new regulations were enacted that prohibit the use of wildlife animalsWildlifeWildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
in circuses in Israel. Additional regulations exist in Tel-Aviv and some other cities that prohibit the use of any animal in circuses.
- Activists in the organization documented cattle dehorningCattle dehorningDehorning or disbudding is the process of removing or stopping the growth of the horns of livestock. Cattle, sheep, and goats are often dehorned for economic and safety reasons. Horns can pose a risk to humans, to other animals, and to the bearers of the horns themselves...
without anesthesia in Gat. Following exposure of these findings on a television show, new regulations were enacted that prohibit it.
- Similarly, regulations were introduced regarding the protection of calvesVealVeal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...
. The new regulations make isolation of calves and the denial of drinking water illegal, and specify required levels of hemoglobin in the blood, intake of fiber in the calves' nutrition, and ventilation and footing material requirements. This achievement is a result of a campaign initiated by Anonymous in 2001.
- Letters sent by Anonymous activists led to stopping dissectionDissectionDissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
s of animals in elementary and secondary schools.
Other animal rights organizations in Israel
Anonymous for Animal Rights is the largest animal liberation movementAnimal liberation movement
The animal-liberation movement, sometimes called the animal-rights movement, animal personhood, or animal-advocacy movement, is a social movement which seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and...
in Israel. Some smaller groups splintered from it during the years, including "Ma'avak Ehad" ("One Struggle", an anarchist-motivated political group) and "Shevi" ("Animal Liberation Israel").