Given Pro-Animal Future’s ongoing dual-ballot measure campaign in the city and county of Denver, we sought to poll Denver residents to better understand their baseline level of support for these two measures, which would 1)...
By understanding and valuing individuals' reasons for meat consumption, rather than directly countering, we build bridges for meaningful dialogue. This empathetic approach makes others more receptive to alternate views, driving positive change in animal freedom...
Anti-vegan bias, manifesting as alienating comments, jokes, and structures, can be viewed through the lens of microaggressions. Recognizing the parallels between these experiences and their often unintentional authorship can help us promote inclusivity and empathy,...
In the most basic sense, Nonviolent Communication gives us two options in every moment: we can give empathy to someone else’s experience or we can express our own, and we can do either of these...
This blog post introduces an exercise to understand and channel anger, which can be both a protective force and an overwhelming emotion. It shares a personal example of how the exercise helped diminish a recurring...
Start simple, practice self-empathy, and prepare to navigate a challenging conversation. Journal exercises, observation of habits, and empathy are first steps in practice.
Observations and requests are NVC strategies to foster collaboration and minimize defensiveness. Observations offer clarity without blame, covering both external and internal experiences. NVC requests are clear and positive, differentiating between non-coercive requests and demands....
This post covers feelings and needs, emphasizing the importance of empathy by identifying underlying needs in conflicts and interactions.
Empathy is a central aspect of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and is essential to transforming interactions and conflicts.
In work that is mainly limited by person-hours and the ability to work together, conflict represents a grave threat. At the same time, conflict is, to misquote Melanie Joy, normal, natural, and necessary. That’s to...
By switching to the vocabulary of inside game/outside game, the animal freedom movement can shift from infighting to collaboration.
Aidan argues that the narrative of "welfarism vs. abolitionism" missed the mark and created unnecessary conflict among animal advocates.
Eva speaks from her experience as DxE’s former legal coordinator and current felony Open Rescue defendant, reflecting on some lessons learned from the Smithfield victory and the implications for future movement strategy.
Eva advocates for an empathy-first persuasion approach and proposes understanding objections to animal freedom through a trauma lens.
This piece contains the processed data informing the findings we present in Where the Animal Movement will be Reborn. We recommend reading that piece first if you haven't already, then coming back here if you...
Informed by research on social change and data published by Facebook on connectedness between certain geographies in the US, Eva suggests a new strategy for concentration in the Animal Freedom Movement.
In part 3 of "It’s Social Norms, Stupid," Aidan shows how social movements can unleash the power of social networks to change norms at scale, including for the animal freedom movement. If you don’t know...
In part 2 of "It’s Social Norms, Stupid," we see how the science of social networks has cast new light on how changes in norms spread. This research points to a new strategy animal advocates...
In Part 1 of the "It’s Social Norms, Stupid" series, Aidan explains how the farmed animal movement’s dominant theory of change neglects the role of social norms in shaping people’s attachment to meat. As a...
Eva shares a sample letter to start the conversation with loved ones in light of the updated Liberation Pledge.
Eva proposes the new Liberation Pledge: to have brave conversations with people we’re close to, where a solution is found in collaboration with the other, to ask for meaningful solidarity.
It was a fascinating idea and a bit of a disaster. Instead of energizing supporters’ social networks to create change, as its creators intended, it often had the opposite effect- to isolate advocates from their...
Watch our fellows present preliminary findings from Pax Fauna's ongoing messaging study.
What do emotions have to do with animal rights advocacy?
Ballot measures are an underutilized strategy animal advocates can use to get our movement on the agenda.
There are two fundamentally divergent theories of change behind direct action campaigns. They should never mix.
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