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| How do we motivate behaviour change so that we can align our behaviour (and its impact on other species) with our actions? |
Are animal lovers doing enough to translate our
beliefs and empathy about animals into behaviour? Rob Percival, founder of the
Charter for Animal Compassion – a non-political, non-ideological initiative, -
believes there is much work to do. Anyone can sign the Charter if they agree
with it. Rob took time out to explain to us what the charter is about.
Why do
we need a charter for animal compassion?
The Charter hopes to start a conversation about the
significance of compassion in an age of animal suffering, wildlife destruction
and species extinctions. It is predicated on the belief that as a society we
have become stranded beyond an ‘empathy gap’ – we struggle to understand the
experiences, emotions and mentality of nonhuman animals. As a result, we pay
scant heed to their points of view in deciding how to feed ourselves, organise
ourselves, or interact with our natural environment.
In one sense, our predicament is peculiar – no
society has ever undertaken such rigorous research into animal sentience, into
the sensory and cognitive abilities of other species; no society has ever had
such a wealth of science at its fingertips. And yet no society has ever acted
with such destructive consequence. The science of animal sentience has not been
translated into more empathetic behaviour. The Charter hopes to contribute
towards such a shift.
Who
are you hoping will sign the Charter?
The Charter aims to engage a spectrum of audiences
and has already been affirmed by hundreds of people from more than a dozen
countries. We want everyone to sign the Charter, to highlight the significance
of compassion in our relationship with animals We’re reaching out to researchers,
scientists, philosophers, lawyers, activists and advocates. Ultimately,
however, our aim is to engage visual artists and creative writers.
Why
have you made a specific call to artists and writers and how can they help?
The Charter poses a question: What does it mean to
be an artist in an age of animal suffering, wildlife destruction and species
extinctions? A hundred years from now our descendants, living in a diminished
world, will look back at our time, at the novels being written and the galleries
filled with art, and they will see little but distraction and dishonesty. How
was it, they will ask, that the web of life was unravelling before your very
eyes, and you did not respond? Where were the artists whose work confronted the
reality of extinction? Where were the poets whose verse plumbed the suffering
of a factory farmed pig? Why, they will ask, did our ancestors not seek to
harness art, in its various guises, to engender inter-species empathy, before
it was too late?
The Charter hopes to galvanise inter-disciplinary
collaboration between artists, writers and researchers, with a view to
inspiring compassion towards nonhuman animals. It will work to promote the
artists and writers whose work responds to, interprets, or celebrates the science
of animal sentience. It will be calling for a more authentic reaction to the
time in which we are living.
The Charter
outlines important concepts. Is there any guidance on how signatories might
turn this into action?
The Charter is setting out a direction of travel.
It is a call to arms and to compassionate action. Over the next year we will be
compiling an online library that archives some of the key papers in the science
of animal sentience and which will act as an interdisciplinary hub. We'll be featuring
content from philosophers, photographers, writers and researchers, all geared
towards engendering inter-species empathy. The will, we hope, include some
guidance on how to turn a commitment to animal compassion into practical
action.
How
can people support this project?
By signing the Charter, and sharing it widely. We
want to reach as many people as possible. We are also on Twitter
@animalcharter, so please do engage with us on social media.
Do you
have any advice you'd like to share with veterinarians and future
veterinarians?
Make yourself heard. As a veterinarian, you are on
the front line of our broken relationship with the animal world - you have
insights that the rest of us need to hear, you have a role to play to moving
human society towards a more compassionate and equitable relationship with the
animal world. Join the movement for animal compassion. The hour is already
late.
Thank
you Rob for your time. You can find out more at the Charter website here https://charterforanimalcompassion.com/. You can read about the award-winning Charter for Compassion (for humans) here.
