Swerve Autumn 2006
by Myles Formby

The number of Australian animal rights' groups is on the rise. Though high profile and controversial groups like PETA grab headlines overseas, until recently, Australian animal rights groups have lacked bite. Animal Club is the latest offshoot of Voiceless, a group started by rags-to-riches millionaire Brian Sherman and his daughter Ondine in 2004.

Voiceless know the power of celebrity and money. Candy star Abbie Cornish, The Matrix star Hugo Weaving and Nobel prize winning author JM Coetzee are all behind Voiceless and Animal Club. Through their grants program, Voiceless gave out almost a quarter of a million dollars in 2005 to groups fighting for better lives for animals.

However, Voiceless have ruffled many feathers. Australian farmers say Voiceless and Animal Club have started a propaganda war against them and Taronga Zoo is worried about Animal Club's anti-zoo message taught to children. Read the story behind Animal Club, the birth of animal rights law in Australia and the fight between Voiceless and the farmers.

Southern Cross University is the latest university to offer a course in the growing field of animal law.

The university joins University of New South Wales, Monash University and Griffith University in the nascent field of animal law. The ever increasing number of courses available in Australia mirrors a world-wide trend started in the USA. The website of a California based group, Animal Legal Defence Fund, lists 67 courses offered at universities in the US.

	Australia's first Animal Protection Lawyer, Katrina Sharman. Photo courtesy Voiceless

Though growing, the field is still in its infancy in Australia.  Katrina Sharman, the Legal Counsel for Voiceless is the only Australian full-time animal protection lawyer. She said animal law is in the same place as environmental law 20 years ago in Australia, and described the need for more animal lawyers.

“Everything that we do to animals is regulated by law, whether it’s raising them for food production or using them in experimentation, keeping them in zoos or circuses, using them in rodeos or living with them as companion animals.  All of these things are regulated by law, but until now there haven’t really been a group of lawyers who have come forward to look at the adequacies of the laws that we have,” she said.

UNSW Law Lecturer Geoffrey Bloom said the field is growing and in agriculture, the most money is in animal law.  “The agriculture industry is subject to increased regulations about the way they treat animals and there will be work for lawyers navigating that,” he said.

Both Mr Bloom and Ms Sharman are careful to not to describe their areas of expertise as animal rights – a controversial area. 

“At Voiceless we usually use the term animal protection lawyer,” said Ms Sharman.

She added: “We prefer not to label ourselves any particular way, be it welfare or rights.  We see our mission as promoting compassion and respect for animals.”

Mr Bloom said: “The course that I run, the aim is to expose people to the different points of view and the different areas of law and to encourage people to make up their own minds.  I try not to espouse strong personal views in public.  Because I don’t think it’s particularly appropriate in an academic context to be pushing any specific barrow.”

Despite Ms Sharman’s careful distinction between animal rights and animal protection, the abuse and objectification of animals is very topical. “Animals in law are property, they’re technically classified as property at the moment, the same as a table or chair,” she said.

“That’s why they’re referred to in property style terms like livestock.  We buy and sell animals as if they’re things,” she added.

In a news release on their website, the National Farmers’ Federation criticised Voiceless, describing them as animal rights activists running a propaganda campaign: “The National Farmers’ Federation today warned parents and called on governments to ban special interest agendas from un-vetted entrée to classrooms.”

Mr Bloom said though he fielded criticism of the animal law course by a NSW Labor Party MP when it first ran, the NFF has been supportive. In the first course, they sent a speaker and in the second course, commissioned an academic to write a paper which Mr Bloom used in his course materials.

“The farming industry is sophisticated enough to know that it needs to be participating in this field rather than simply denouncing it," he added.

Rights or welfare?

Animal rights issues are emotionally and politically charged.  If you thought all groups looking out for animals were the same, think again. 

• Animal welfare groups take the softer approach.  Rather than outlaw all factory farming or animal use for food or clothing, animal welfare groups work on incremental improvements in the lives of animals.  Elaine Morris from Voiceless gave an example.  Rather than outlaw factory farms, she said an animal welfare group would fight for bigger, more humane cages within the farms.  Hardline animal rights’ groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are critical of animal welfare groups.  PETA give their opinion of animal welfare groups on their website: “Animal welfare theories accept that animals have interests but allow those interests to be traded away as long as the human benefits are thought to justify the sacrifice.”  The RSPCA is an example of an animal welfare group.

• Animal rights’ groups take the hardline approach.  They see animals on an equal footing with humans and dream of a world where animals are not used for food, clothing, entertainment or experimentation.  Animals are all equal in the eyes of animal rights’ groups.   The PETA website said all animals are sentient beings.  All animals are created equal, regardless of whether they are “cute, useful to humans, or endangered.”  PETA is an example of an animal rights’ group.

• Animal Club have created a third classification: animal protection group, which is a blend of animal rights and animal welfare.  Elaine from Animal Club said they call themselves an animal protection group to gain distance from the debate between animal rights’ and animal welfare groups.  “We don’t want to go there.  We’re an animal protection organisation and we just care about improving the lives of animals in whatever means we can,” she said. 

Communications Manager for Voiceless, Elaine Morris. Photo courtesy of Voiceless

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