The Humane Myth Busters

Nonhuman animal advocacy means more than filling in the gaps in our knowledge about how other animals are exploited, it also requires us to address how a lack of knowledge is produced and sustained for the purpose of human supremacy and the exploitation of other animals. With the website HumaneMyth.org, James Laveck and Jenny Stein, co-founders of Tribe of Heart, are taking on the myth that the exploitation of other animals can be "humane." From the "About" section of HumaneMyth.org:

Currently, both the animal-using industry and some animal advocacy organizations are propagating the idea that it is possible to use and kill animals in a manner that can be fairly described as respectful or compassionate or humane. We believe that this "Humane Myth" misrepresents the realities of animal use, and cultivates a positive image of activities that are neither just nor kind nor sustainable.

By misrepresenting the reality of nonhuman animals' oppression, the "Humane Myth" is an example of obscurantism. That is, the myth's cultivation of a positive image of exploitation is deliberate opposition to our knowledge about the oppression other animals. Stated differently, the "Humane Myth" produces a lack of knowledge or unlearning about other animals and their oppression that furthers the purpose of human dominance and exploitation of other animals.

So addressing this produced lack of knowledge and unlearning is an important part nonhuman animal advocacy. As stated in HumaneMyth.org's "Humane Declaration":

The public deserves to be told the full truth of who animals are and what is being done to them behind closed doors, as well as the catastrophic impact that the continuing consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products will have on human health, wildlife and the environment. We will do all we can to uphold this public trust.

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Recognizing that progress toward social justice is gradual and depends on more and more people becoming aware of the truth, we will do all we can to insure that each of the steps our culture takes is toward an accurate understanding of the ways animals are being harmed, and away from the false and misleading idea that the production of meat, eggs, and dairy products can be carried out without cruelty, violence, or injustice.

I believe HumaneMyth.org offers an important challenge to the deliberate opposition to our knowledge about other animals and their oppression. That said, I would like to see the website go further and address how the problems with the "Humane Myth" are rooted in the very concept of "humane." I discuss this at greater length in my post on veganism and prison abolition.