ARA recognises that other animals are sentient individuals who possess inherent value regardless of their usefulness to humans adn therefore are entitled to certain basic rights. ARA believes that the institutionalised exploitation of other animals exists as a direct result of them being defined as 'property' and seen as resources for human use.
ARA seeks to promote the rights of other animals and expose and abolish cruelty and their institutionalised exploitation by humans. This is achieved through a combination of public education, political advocacy and by investigating and documenting animal abuse.
ARA has a range of oppurtunities for young people depending on their interests, what skills they would like to develop and the level of commitment they can make. These include: Stalls, Leafleting, Letter Writing, Research, Media Monitoring, Graphic Design, Video Editing and Production, Animal Rescues, and Providing Homes for Rescued Animals.
Find us out on:
Facebook
Myspace
Flickr
YouTubeOur Guiding Principles
1. The animals rights position maintains that all sentient beings, humans or other animals, have the basic right not to be treated as the property of others.
2. Our recognition of this basic right means that we must abolish, and not merely regulate, institutionalised animal exploitation-because it assumes that other animals are the property of humans.
3. Just as we reject racism, sexism, ageism and homophobia, we reject speciesism. The species of a sentient being is no more reason to deny teh protection of this basic right than ethnicity, sex, age or sexuality is a reason to deny membership in the human moral community to other humans.
4. We recognise that we will not abolish overnight the property status of animals, but we will supportonly those campaigns and positions that explicitly promote the abolitionist agenda. We will not support positions that call for supposedly 'improved' regulation of animal exploitation that promote one form of exploitation over another. We reject any campaign that promotes sexism, racism. homophobia or other forms of discrimination against humans.
5. We recognise that the most important step that any of us can take toward abolition is to adopt the vegan lifestyle and to educate others about veganism. Veganism is the principle of abolition applied to one's personal life and the consumption of any meat, poultry, fish, eggs or dairy products, or the wearing or use of animal products, is inconsistent with the abolitionist perspective.
6. We recognise the princple of non-violence as the guiding principle of the animal rights movement.
These principles are an amended version from Gary L. Francione. You can check out his great blog on abolitionist animal rights
here.
