Women’s Rights and Animal Rights have long been linked together. History makes this clear.
And that’s no surprise. Women understand oppression. Women understand not having agency over one’s own body. Women understand living in a world where laws are designed to control us, not empower us. Many women have made the connection that patriarchy and dominance lead to the victimization of female persons, as well as other sentient but vulnerable beings, non-human animals.
Another International Women’s Day reminds us of how far we have come, and how very far we still have to go. Even in nations like Canada, our House of Commons has 103 women elected out of a total of 338 Members of Parliament. Women make up less than one third of the elected representatives who make decisions on the laws and policies that define our nation and secure our rights and privileges. And, to our shame, Canadian laws to protect animals are rooted in 18th century social ideas and a backward reliance on animal-based industries within our economy.
Early female suffragettes and abolitionists fought for themselves, for enslaved peoples, and against the abuse of animals used in research and labour. The early anti-vivisection movement of the 19th century was powered by women who were prominent feminists. At a time when being a suffragette could lead to imprisonment, some women were brave enough to expand their activism even further to include animals.
During the 19th century the fight for women’s right to vote was bitterly contested. It was also a time when there was extensive debate and activism around vivisection, the use of living animals in research. The anti-vivisection movement was dominated by women who were fighting against the mostly male-dominated scientific community. And, these women leading the fight to end vivisection were also fighting for female suffrage and working for the abolition of slavery.
Today, women are still heavily represented in animal rights and protection advocacy. We see far more involvement among men today than in the early days of the anti-vivisection movement. But women still make up a vast percentage of the animal protection community.
At Animal Alliance of Canada (AAC), dedicated and skilled animal advocates have powered our team from our earliest days. We value and recognize their contributions to our organization and to the entire animal protection movement.
Liz White, our lead campaigner and director, is also a co-founder of both our AAC advocacy organization and the Animal Protection Party of Canada (APPC). Liz is also the leader of the APPC, Canada’s first and only federal political party dedicated to the protection of all beings, including non-human animals. Liz remains a revolutionary leader in our movement, working for animals and the environment for close to 40 years.
Anne Streeter is a founding board member, still serving on the AAC board, bringing a highly progressive, sometimes radical approach to animal activism. Anne brings decades of advocacy experience and wisdom to our team.
Anne has been a long-time anti-fur activist in Montreal since the 1980s. Montreal has played a significant role in the fur trade and fur-fashion industry, so Anne rose to the challenge and became an anti-fur activist. Anne and her fellow activists rightly saw fur-fashion as a Stone-Age business, so one of their many actions involved dressing as caricatures of Stone-Age people to protest the fur industry.
To protest hunting, Anne and a friend dressed as wild animals, driving a vehicle with the mannequin of a human tied to the hood and an obviously fake gun displayed. Anne dressed in a bear costume and her friend wore antlers and face paint to look like a deer. Their action got media attention, and made their point that hunting is the brutal killing of living beings.
Sinikka Crosland is another AAC board member, helping to shape our policies and campaigns. Sinikka is also a founding member and president of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC). She says: “I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember.”
In 1994 she became aware of a case of horses being neglected, and a group was formed to take action. These horses were successfully saved, and this led to numerous rescue and adoption missions of foals born at Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) facilities. The urine of pregnant mares is rich in estrogen, and at PMU facilities female horses are kept constantly pregnant so their urine can be collected to use in hormone replacement medications. Their foals are taken from their mothers and sold, some for riding and some for meat. It’s a cruel industry that inflicts confinement and distress on mares, and death and exploitation on their children.
In 2004, the CHDC was formed, committed to ending the slaughter of horses, and the live export of horses to be killed for meat.
The CHDC founded their ‘Live Horse Export’ campaign in 2012, after volunteers in the field presented them evidence that the shipment of live horses by air cargo for overseas slaughter is not only cruel, but also violates ‘Health of Animals’ regulations. Since then, the CHDC has been working with other national and international organizations as well as acclaimed singer/songwriter Jann Arden, fighting to end the live export of horses to Japan for slaughter. A private member’s bill to end live horse export is being discussed by the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee right now, and this long, hard-fought campaign will hopefully be won this year.
Our most recently-hired staff person is Nicole Sapalovski, a dedicated advocate who is very active in the animal rights and protection movement. Anywhere that Nicole can help animals, she makes the effort.
Nicole’s earliest activist action was the ‘March for Elephants and Rhinos’ in 2013. She later worked as a teacher in South Korea in 2014, and volunteered with cat and dog rescue groups during that time. She returned to Toronto with a fire ignited within her to become a committed animal advocate. Since then, she has engaged in actions regarding the exploitation of animals for food, clothing, entertainment and research – the full range of animal abuse/use issues. Nicole also volunteers at a variety of farmed animal sanctuaries. Since 2019, she has been working to shed light on the brutality of the dog-sledding industry, and the fact that even dogs, supposedly the most privileged animal species, are too often victims of speciesism too. Nicole is active with an organization called: ‘End the Dog Sledding Industry’. They describe themselves like this:
“We are a team of grassroots activists campaigning to dismantle the dog sledding industry. Inherently violent and exploitative, this industry views dogs as property, whose function is to serve humans, not beings who deserve respect and moral consideration.”
We recognize and value the contributions and leadership of so many men who share this movement with women. And we also look back on the centuries of activism by radical, brave women who came before us; women who understood that sexism, racism, and speciesism have the same poisoned roots.
Two such women were Alice Morgan Wright and Edith Goode. In the early twentieth century they participated in the suffrage movement, and campaigned for other feminist causes as well as animal protection. They helped bring about America’s first law on humane slaughter in 1958, an early attempt to mitigate some of the worst slaughter practices of that time. They understood the connection between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals.
We build on their work, and the work of so many others who challenged their societies at a time when protest and dissent were dangerous actions for anyone, especially women, to engage in.
Today we see that none of these causes are resolved. Women can vote in westernized nations, but are still vastly under-represented in positions of high political office. In some nations, women still have no political power or influence; or any meaningful measure of autonomy.
Today, more of us understand that there is no such thing as humane slaughter. Yet many of the practices of animal agriculture are more brutal, not less: confining female pigs in gestation and farrowing crates, and hens used for egg production in battery cages. There has been surprisingly little progress in the anti-vivisection movement, as millions of animals are still used for research and testing in nations across the planet.
No matter how long it takes, or how much struggle, we must end the use of animals in research and testing and at last fulfill the work of the early anti-vivisection campaigners who started this effort in the 19th century.
We stand on the shoulders of brave women before us.
And, we fight on.
With gratitude,
Vicki Van Linden
Board Member
