Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life

I’ve received my final assignments for FARM’s national animal rights conference, running from August 14-18, 2008 at the Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria, VA (the program). This conference certainly makes for some strange “bedfellows”, but at least it does not censor abolitionist views, which is a rare plus.

I’ll start things off Thursday by moderating the opening night plenary, which I also did last year. The plenary consists of an overview of the various animal protection campaigns being conducted in the several broad categories of animal use. It’s requested that plenary hosts not add their two cents during the session (I’m the host, not an invited speaker), so I will avoid editorializing that night. However, I would like to ask all participants in advance (and everyone, really) to consider the common roots enabling the different types of animal use in the first place. This is an animal rights conference, after all, not an animal welfare conference (and precious little animal rights discussion actually occurs at any of the national conferences).

Friday you can find me at four more sessions, including the Newcomer Orientation, at which I will present an introduction to animal rights. Later on, I will dine with other New Englanders interested in local/regional issues and networking at a Regional Lunch session at noon (come eat with me–I’ll try not to speak with my mouth full). After lunch, I’ll focus on Developing Leadership Skills and moderate a rap session called What Rights? Which Animals? It’s a sign of how fragmented the ‘movement’ is that those questions are even being asked, so I’m looking forward to seeing where the various participants in that discussion are at on the subject.

Saturday I’ll discuss Running a Local Group (something I happen to do), followed by a Perceptions of Animals panel, at which I intend to speak about the human tendency to compartmentalize their attitudes toward nonhuman animals.

Finally, if you plan on attending the conference through Monday morning, join me for an hour of public speaking training, along with long-time public speaker Howard Lyman. We’ll put you on the spot for 1-2 minutes to help identify your strengths and weaknesses as a public speaker.

I wasn’t invited to speak on behalf of abolitionism for the annual Paths to Animal Liberation debateplenary, though it looks like D.C. attorney and activist Sean Day will be representing that viewpoint, as he did at AR2006 and at the United Poultry Concerns’ annual forum, where he “emphasized that any welfare action that isn’t at least a step toward abolition is not doing the animals any good.”

I’ll also be sure to stop in on a couple of rap sessions covering this same topic, Which Path To Animal Liberation? (moderated by Harold Brown, who spoke in favor of abolition on AR2007’s Paths to Animal Liberation panel) and Does Welfare Bring Abolition? (moderated by Karen Davis, who hosted the UPC conference addressing this topic as well). I hope you’ll join in on these discussions.

If you’re a regular AAFL reader, please don’t be shy — come say hi during the conference. It’s always nice to put a face with comments!

I like to hear from you. Comment below or email me.

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