THERE IS TODAY a fresh approach to the issue of food, farm animal welfare, and policy change through this initiative.
I see these new strategies of dialogue, collaboration, and partnership as game changers and a desire on the part of activists - be they environmentalists or animal rights activists - to forge a new direction aimed at cooperation to achieve our goals rather than confrontation, antagonism and hostility, which, in my view, does not help to improve the situation in any way. I wish to engage with three major themes of discussion: a) why we need to shift our habitual tendency to view humans as offending parties and towards viewing them as partners, b) the politics of food in the country, particularly cultural wars over diversity and purity, and c) what does this reshaping of how nonhuman rights activism engages with human communities look like?
From “Humans as Offending Party” to “Humans as Partners”
My journey in animal welfare began in the mid-1990s, addressing two issues: the protection of street dogs from being killed by municipalities and the unimaginable cruelty inflicted on animals used for entertainment. Those were days when street dogs in Goa were shot dead by dog shooters - a profession in itself - just because they were found in public spaces - streets, parks, beaches etc. Those were also the days when bull fights were a legitimate form of entertainment with chief ministers and high profile dignitaries attending as chief guests on feast days.
