(Franz Marc’ “Yellow Cow”)

“To change the world, my friend Sancho, isn’t madness nor utopia. It’s justice.”

 Miguel de Cervantes, ״Don Quixote״

It is said that the purpose of meditating about the world is to change the world. Culture evolves, adapting to change in a new time, a new world, and what is of deep significance is what one shapes for oneself out of one’s conscience and imagination, a rejection of comfortable beliefs and the tyranny of old habits.

It is through arts advocacy, communicating worlds of meaning—like an act of deliverance out of a deadly and dark place—when an intimate window reveals the lives of more-than-human animals, their sorrows and breathtaking wonder.

Art allows us to imagine again, to understand in a new way, alternate realities, and possibilities, which is best captured by Annie Potts, professor of Human-Animal Studies, co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury, and moderator of our most recent event, “Revealing Hidden Worlds: Art, Animals, and Advocacy.”

“Animal advocacy through art is all about raising awareness of animal exploitation. It's also about disrupting boundaries that might be taken for granted regarding human exceptionalism or human supremacy. It's about disturbing the ideas we have about using and consuming other species. Importantly, it can also be about imagining and manifesting worlds in which human-animal relationships are different—not based on the current domination and control that humankind exerts on other species, but perhaps even worlds where compassionate coexistence can exist.”

The incandescence of art can rouse us all into taking a stand against the ocean of suffering of other species, the alarming diminution of the lives of more-than-human animals, to which the most appalling cruelties are visited upon, where life is to be clung to, if only precariously, until snuffed out.

(Courtesy of United Poultry Concerns)

Inspiring Change: The Emotional Impact of Activist Art

“I teach courses in Human Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury, coming from a specifically political perspective called Critical Animal Studies,” said Annie Potts. “I am always deeply politicized about topics that cover the power and control of humans over animals, other people, and the environment. One of the reasons I was so excited to host this event when Arukah Animal International asked me to, is that I'm personally in awe of activist art and the myriad forms it might take. I have witnessed the transformation of attitudes towards animals because of art, not just attitudes, but students often seek to align their changes in attitudes or beliefs with their practices, maybe not big at first, but little jumps first, and they're on a journey. Several of the artists featured in today's event are prominent teachers in my courses, though they may not know that, and it's through their art that students' beliefs and practices have changed or begun to change. The old saying, ‘A picture paints a thousand words,’ is spot-on for animal advocacy, whether the picture is an actual painting or sculpture, an illustration in a book, an animation in a video, a performance, or imagined in literature, poetry, or some other artistic medium.

Activist art inspires critical thinking, and perhaps most of all, it inspires emotions. The emotional aspects of activist art are often key to my students' transformation. I think this is very much the case when something you find out about is revealed or expressed in art. Sometimes, knowing or finding out about something through ART can occur gently or in a more provocative or graphic way. One of the most effective photographs I use in my classes shows a solitary male chick just hatched—the last individual in his group of new hatchlings to go down the shoot to be macerated. Male chicks are redundant in an industry that profits from hens laying eggs; they're not needed and are immediately killed upon hatching. We're told that this macerating blades method is the most humane. The photograph also shows the exploited people behind this kind of work—low-paid workers, often immigrants in the United States, preparing to shut down the conveyor belt after this final chicken is killed. This photo has provided both a provocative and a gentle way into teaching students about the egg industry. Context is everything; some students at first think the image is cute until the context is explained in the conversation. This photograph has generated discussions in my classes reflecting students' new awareness of the egg industry. They have an enormous emotional response once they know what's happening to this lone male chick destined to meet the same fate as the thousands who have gone before him that day, and this is accompanied by a desire to intervene and to save him—this is what they express in their discussions. So, having experienced how art can change mindsets, from behavioral changes to benefiting more-than-human animals, I feel very humbled to be in the presence of these amazing artists presenting today."

Art’s Power to Transform Lives

More than ever, art is essential and consequential for cultural transformation. Art resists, it challenges, it tells new stories, distilling nature into art.

Carol Gigliotti, who wrote “The Creative Lives of Animals,” said, “the whole goal was to have people start to look at animals not as victims but as powerful, essential beings. All the research on creativity and culture makes that point well and is continuing to do that. If scientists' minds can be changed, then all kinds of people can change their minds. I wanted to show something that was not just about the misery. So, after a lifetime of doing that, I felt like I really needed to do something different. I found that in a number of the pieces that people are working on in one way or another."
 

Because of your generous donations, we have been able to showcase two dazzling online events and a film premiere: our virtual launch featuring a conversation with such animal-rights luminaries as Marc Bekoff, Jeff Sebo, Dana Ellyn, Annie Potts, Steve Jenkins, and the late and magnificent Esther the Wonder Pig, hosted by Claudia Hirtenfelder; the film “Pigs and Pathogens: What’s on your plate? Rather, WHO’s on Your Plate?”; and our most recent event, “Revealing Hidden Worlds: Art, Animals, and Advocacy,” presenting extraordinary animal-rights artists Bubi the Bear, Julia Denos, Carol Gigliotti, Shannon Johnstone, EvaMarie Lindahl, Maria Martelli of Just Wondering, Laura Jean McKay, and Michelle Waters, hosted by Annie Potts, all of which have had a remarkable impact upon audiences—from testimonials about forswearing ever eating animals again to removing one’s blinders about the hidden, harrowing lives of more-than-human animals to wanting to collaborate with us. There was an electric freshness that radiated and illuminated something urgent and astonishing.

 As a true measure of one’s own defining imperative, we ask for your help, as Arukah Animal International seeks in our work a world configured toward possibilities; specifically, creating our next film and holding another online event to reach great numbers of listeners to bring into a radical embrace of other species. Please make it possible through arts advocacy to create a passageway to imaginative seeing and a profound empathy.

From Tragedy to Rebirth: Stories of Resilience from Ukrainian Animal Shelters

In our most recent blog, “Shelter Stories from Ukraine,” by nonprofit Tailed Banda volunteers, Lena Palagnuk and Lena Moskalets, tell of the anguish and heartbreak of the shelter at Borodyanka, where 222 dogs succumbed to starvation in the early days of Russia’s relentless rocket and artillery fire, as the shelter’s management fled the scene, leaving the dogs locked in their cages with no way out. Despite facing challenges like blown-up bridges and mined territories, Tailed Banda volunteers defied the odds to rescue 27 surviving dogs, providing them with care and a chance at a new life in eight European countries. Meanwhile, the "Best Friends" shelter in Makarov weathered bombings and a fire, resulting in the loss of 300 cats. Amidst the chaos, shelter workers and volunteers risked their lives to deliver aid and evacuate animals. Post-liberation, "Best Friends" is on the road to recovery, rebuilding shattered lives and homes.

As Arukah Animal International continues to partner with organizations like "Tailed Banda," let us be inspired to create a world where no animal suffers needlessly. These stories of resilience in the face of adversity serve as a testament to the enduring bond between humans and animals, highlighting the need for continued compassion and support in rebuilding lives affected by conflict and war. Read the full blog by clicking the link below.

With heartfelt gratitude, 

Robin Dorman 

President and Executive Director 

P.S. Your support makes all the difference, and a profound one at that, in helping to create awareness about the terrible cruelty and catastrophic effects of factory farming.

Arukah means Healing, Restoring, and Repairing