Posts from October 2008


The Failure of the Single Issue Campaign
22 October 2008

I can tell when the propaganda machine at PETA has decided that an issue matters, because slowly but surely, it starts to make its way into my consciousness, no matter how much I might wish to avoid the idiocy. Such was the case with the recent Action Alert from PETA which got Zappo’s—the massive online shoe retailer—to stop selling fur.

On their site, PETA says:

Well, it seems that Zappos.com got the message that people hate fur, because yesterday, the company officially adopted a permanent policy never to sell any products containing the fur of an animal!

Like I told the people on Twitter who nagged me about this pointless single issue campaign, this isn’t really a victory in any real sense for several reasons.

First, Zappo’s may have agreed to stop selling fur, but have a look around their site: they still sell leather and wool. And if you can manage to be honest with yourself—something that a lot of animal rights activists seem unwilling to do, or incapable of these days—what is the real difference between leather and fur when it comes to the animal rights issues involved? Leather is simply the hide of a different kind of animal with the hair removed. Unlike the implicit argument in a lot of these anti-fur campaigns, I do not think that fur is worse because it is more expensive, and in any case, I’m really not into comparing wrongs in this regard: if you believe that animal exploitation is wrong, fur is just as bad as leather—period. Yet, to argue that fur is “bad” while implicitly accepting that leather is okay sends an odd message about what we’re demanding. Do we think that all animal products are cruel, or just ones that wealthy people can afford, and/or ones which we somehow view as “frivolous?” Thanks to PETA, there is ample confusion on this front. This campaign reinforces that confusion.

Second, false “victories” like these distract from the actual issue at hand. If you read around Twitter and search on the terms “fur” and “zappos”, you’ll see that people seem genuinely excited about this so-called “victory,” and many have again pledged to shop at Zappo’s after threatening to boycott the store if they did not cave to PETA’s demands. But again, I remain confused by this excitement. The best thing I can come up with to explain it is that people who are supporting this are not thinking clearly about the similarities between leather and fur. The result is that people who ostensibly care about animals are distracted by these pseudo-wins from the actual single thing that can make a real difference in this whole fight: going vegan and getting others to do the same. Veganism is the conscious rejection of all forms of animal cruelty and exploitation in one’s life; it is the only real and all-encompassing solution. If you want to make a difference, don’t bother with Zappo’s and fur; don’t bother with cage-free eggs; don’t bother with organic milk. Go vegan, use your talents to get others to consider veganism, and help build a genuine movement of people who will directly challenge the root causes of animal exploitation. Anything else is ignoring the real problem.

Finally, if this campaign was good for anyone, it was good for the public relations machine that is PETA. Sadly, however, PETA has ceased to be much more than a propagandist for its own brand. That said, I know the predictable reactions from those of you who supported this campaign, or who think it is a good idea. Some of you will say “we have to start somewhere,” or “doing something is better than doing nothing,” and I agree: we do have to start somewhere, and I obviously believe doing something is better than nothing. To be completely clear, I’m not urging inaction, I’m just urging a different kind of action. In a world where time and attention are limited, we need to be especially cautious and thoughtful about what we promote and what it says about our overall message in the long run. The only sensible place to start is to go vegan if you aren’t already and to promote ethical veganism. Anything short of that is forestalling actual awareness of the issues.

  Posted by Bob Torres    Permalink    Filed under: categories

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