Principle 2: Non-human Animal Centric Framing
Animal rights activists rely on a wide range of arguments related to different topics to try to convince other humans to stop exploiting non-human animals. These arguments may rely on environmentalism (raising non-human animals on farms uses many resources such as fresh water), human health arguments (eating the flesh and/or secretions of non-human animals may harm your health) and human rights arguments (slaughterhouse workers suffer PTSD). There are three primary reasons Challenge Speciesism avoids human-centric arguments.
These arguments often centre humans in our advocacy which is problematic in spaces that are meant to be dedicated to non-human animals. Non-human animals are worthy of their own movement whose sole purpose is to eradicate the prejudice affecting them (speciesism).
When non-human animals are not centred, these other types of arguments can also have negative consequences for non-human animals. While this is a complex topic, here is one brief example: “Eggs are not a health food.”
This slogan is a human health argument (i.e. we should not consume chickens’ eggs because they will harm us). This slogan reinforces and legitimizes the current paradigm where the secretions of non-human animals are viewed as commodities and products for humans to consume by explicitly referring to eggs as a “food” (just not a health food).
Non-human animal centric alternative: “Chickens’ eggs are not food.”
While these arguments may stop humans from exploiting non-human animals in some ways, they do not address the root issue of non-human animal oppression — speciesism. For non-human animals to truly be free of human tyranny, we must change our attitudes and beliefs about them. This can only be done by talking about the core of the issue — speciesism.
Important Note: Focussing on speciesism does not mean ignoring other forms of oppression. We should never denigrate one group in the name of another (e.g. use sexist imagery to promote anti-speciesism) and we should continue to support other movements and discuss how overlapping forms of oppression are intertwined.