4 Findings
4.4 A New Social Movement
4.4.2 Emancipation and resistance
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category of movements seeking to address the damaging effects of current socio-natural practices through the creation of alternative spaces or spheres of communication.
4.4.2 Emancipation and resistance.
Following that, Habermas (1981: 34) makes an important distinction between the emancipatory potential and the potential for resistance and retreat of NSMs. Under this light, the APM is also distinctive because it contains elements of both. On the one hand, animal rights activists seek to “liberate” animals from human exploitation by recognizing their moral equal status. In practice, the application of this concept varies, from the provision of protection against cruelty, to the recognition of animals as living sentient beings, and the granting of personhood status to some species (Francione, 2009). The later aspect refers the transformation of a nonhuman animal from “legal thing” to “legal person” under common law, therefore entitled to their physical integrity and freedom (Nonhuman Rights Project, 2017). The concept of animal personhood usually applies to animals such as cetaceans, great apes, and elephants in relation to their demonstrated intelligence and display of more complex social behavior (DeGrazia, 2006). Along these arguments, while many countries possess some degree of legislation to protect animals from cruel practices, fewer countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and New Zealand have granted legal protection to animals based on their status as sentient beings, de-objectifying them under the law (Connolly, 2002; Animals and Society Institute, 2017). Furthermore, New Zealand, India, the Netherlands, and Spain have also recognized some basic rights and degree of personhood to apes and primates thus protecting them from being used in entertainment or experimentation.
(Glendinning, 2008; Coelho, 2013; McIntyre, 2015; EARA, 2016). Perhaps one of the most relevant developments on animal emancipation efforts in recent years refers to the Nonhuman Rights Project, a civil rights organization dedicated to extend said entitlements to animals. Under
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the guidance of Lawyer and Law Professor Steven Wise, the organization has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of animals, most recently, demanding personhood status and freedom for captive chimpanzees in New York State (Siebert, 2014; Hegedus and Pennebaker, 2014;
Greenwood, 2015).
Taiwan is among the group of countries that have enacted basic protection to animals in the form of an Animal Protection Law as a result of the successful mobilization of animal protection advocates (Ho, 2016). Nevertheless, the legal mechanisms in place are still considerably limited, mostly focused on the treatment of companion animals, and to a minor extent that of animals in farms and laboratory testing (Appendix: B1, B3). In spite of these aspects, promising indications of the improving status of animals in the public consciousness can be found in two developments. First, the public attention gained by the trials in connection to the death of a hippopotamus due to negligence, and the torture and killing of cats by a disturbed graduate student from National Taiwan University. Although the legal outcomes of these incidents were considered nonsufficient as penalties were placed in the form of fines and psychological counselling, they drew about important debate on the need to improve the law to make individuals accountable for acts of animal cruelty and mistreatment (Hsu, 2014; Wei, 2014; Focus Taiwan, 2016). Second, the TSPCA’s successful campaigning to ban cosmetic testing on animals. Starting in 2014, the organization worked for two-years to obtain support from legislators, the media, celebrities, and the public through an online petition. As a result, in 2016 Taiwan joined the list of countries that prohibit the testing of cosmetic products on animals starting in 2019. Although this success only applies to the domestic industry and still allows the import of such products, these results have opened the opportunity to further push for extending the ban to imported products as next step (Hsieh and Pan, 2014; TSPCA, 2016: Appendix: B3). Furthermore, this development is also
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significant because Taylor and Signal (2008: 327) have estimated that Taiwan is among the countries with the highest number of animal experiments. Therefore, even though animals in Taiwan are still considerably far from obtaining the legal status of “sentient beings” and even more so to become entitled to concepts of personhood, there is a visible shift in social and political attitudes toward animals, making a positive step toward the expansion of animal rights rationales by the hand of advocates under the APM.
On the other hand, the potential for resistance and retreat of NSMs “can at first be grasped as reactions to specific problem situations perceived with great sensitivity: “green” problems. The large industrial intervention in ecological balances, the scarcity of non-renewable natural resources, and the demographic development present industrially developed societies with serious problems.” (Habermas, 1981, 35). At the same time, while these issues are large in scale and highly abstract, their effects on the lifeworld are noticeable in the form of environmental degradation, pollution, and urban explosions that are seen as “attacks to the organic foundations of the life-world”. In other words, NSMs are a response to the colonization of the life-world by the dominant system of money and power (Habermas, 1981). Consequently, individuals perceive these threats to the lifeworld and assume a sense of moral responsibility in relation to their personal, technical, and political role as agents within these new areas of conflict. Hence, resistance and retreat mechanisms arise from the tendency of NSMs to blur lines between individual and collective action, facilitating ideological diversity, and the expression of alternative identity (Johnston, Laraña, and Gusfield, 1994: 6-8). As a result, the sum of these aspects leads to de adoption of particular lifestyles connected to NSMs. From the standpoint of the APM, the convergence of environmental, conservation, and animal advocacy rationales usually translates into the adoption of vegan or “cruelty free” consumption practices and the modification of behavioral patterns.
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These might cover a wide range of areas, from simple dietary choices, to changes in interpersonal relationships (Herzog, 1993; Guither, 1998; Gillespie and Collard, 2015). Consequently, from the perspective of NSMs, “resistance is directed toward abstractions that are forced upon the life-world, they must be addressed within the life-world” (Habermas, 1981: 35).
This later point is perhaps more relevant to the current state of Taiwan’s APM, where the relationship between consumption, identity, and behavior are increasingly understood in the words of TAEA Director:
“Personal consumption and social protection of animals, it’s all very connected.
It starts with our diets, with care for stray animals and social education, and education in relation to other issues. It’s all related. Food, entertainment, environmental degradation, habitat destruction, fur industry, all connected.” (Appendix: B2).
This development in addition to the convergence of Buddhist Modernism practices and Vegan lifestyles have created a distinctive space for mobilization in Taiwan. One in which the plethora of animal advocacy groups can strive to live ethically and with kindness, and to resist against the system of money and power backing the exploitation of animals and the environment within various industries (Appendix: A1, A3, A7, D2). What is more, this space in question facilitates the emergence of a community, the creation of a subcultural ‘communications group’
seeking to define a personal and collective identity (Habermas, 1981: 36). This dynamic is highlighted by the spread of socio-political spaces and markets for animal advocates and animal lovers to define their identity. More specifically, “cruelty free”, ethical, or vegan restaurants, stores, fashion, cosmetic, fairs, online and physical networks and so on (Appendix: A3, A7, C).
Therefore, resulting a community characterized by local, small social spaces, decentralized, de-specialized, simple interaction and non-differentiated public sphere. Consequently, they resist integration into the wider economic, social, and political apparatus, and as a result “the new conflicts thus arise at the seam between the system and the life-world” (Habermas, 1981:36).