Contemporary animal advocacy in Italy

Abstract

In spite of the great tradition in social movement studies, Italy completely lacks any contribution regarding animal advocacy from the point of view of political sociology. This is despite the fact that, as in the rest of Western societies, interest in the wellbeing, rights and status of non-human animals is growing. This can be seen both among the general population and in the very varied organised forms of welfare and activism. In this article, we will investigate this internal differentiation, starting from an initial stratification in welfare, protectionism and anti-speciesism, and focusing in particular on the following two aspects: ethical values; and political ‘careers’ and multi-membership affiliations. The investigation was accomplished by means of 20 semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire answered by 704 volunteers and activists. The tripartition hypothesised was confirmed, although with a few exceptions: more progressive values emerged among anti-speciesists, and conservative positions among protectionists and welfarists, but the overall spectrum is characterised by utilitarian perspectives. Similarly, previous experience in the specific field of animal advocacy is typical of the protectionist area, while anti-speciesists also come from other opposition movements.

Political Generations and the Italian Environmental Movement(s): Innovative Youth Activism and the Permanence of Collective Actors

“…The main contraposition is probably between pure environmental organizations such as Legambiente, or WWF, on the one hand, and the animal welfare ones such as LAV, Animal Equality, and Essere Animali on the other hand, with GreenPeace in the middle. Such contraposition can be summarized in a greater focus on animals as a species or on animals as individuals (Almiron, 2019;Bertuzzi, 2018aBertuzzi, , 2018bBertuzzi, , 2019Faria & Paez, 2019). However, a more general common ideological reference remains across the entire subarea: I refer to the absolute trust in formal politics and representative democracy and the idea that the best way to improve environmental issues is by reforming the current political/economic system.…”

“…On the contrary, the NGOs, and especially the animal advocacy field, are moving in the opposite direction: In fact, numerous grassroots animal rights activists moved to animal protection associations in order to professionalize their activities and acquire more technical knowledge, while abandoning some wider political frames and ideological connections (Bertuzzi, 2018a(Bertuzzi, , 2018b(Bertuzzi, , 2019, as explained by a 33-year-old member of Animal Equality Italia.…”

“… 8. I also included in the sample some animal welfare/animal rights associations and groups, even though aware of the considerable differences between environmental and animal advocacy approaches (Bertuzzi, 2018a, 2018b, 2019). …”

Take politics off the table: A study of Italian youth’s self-managed dairy restriction and healthy consumerism

“…In other words, milk is a political issue not only due to its political economy of production and price regulation, but also in its consumption patterns. Even the capacity for absorbing lactose has been mobilized by racist white supremacists (DuPuis, 2002; see also Harmon, 2018; Moon, 2018) and questioned by new waves of animalist protest (Bertuzzi, 2018, 2019). These works are important but are based more on the empirical analyses of activist frames and ideological constructions or are directly engaged in political combats; they neither provide evidence on the spread of competing frames in citizens attitudes’ nor on the degree of cultural wars’ penetration on the fraught political status of milk within the population.…”

Normalising the ‘alter-Europe’ or going beyond this Europe? Italian environmental movements’ perspectives on Europe, democracy and the ecological crisis

“…Therefore, Europe is perceived as an effective means to achieve environmental ends, but not as a relevant dimension for individual identity construction nor for the political narrative of most organisations. This is the case for both environmental but especially animal advocacy organisations (Bertuzzi, 2019b). For example, Essere Animali, an association that has been at the forefront of the relevant ECI #StopVivisection 11 (Weisskircher, 2019), stresses the action of the European Parliament on various issues, which has slashed 'animal suffering, thus limiting the use of antibiotics and preventing the problem of antibiotic resistance'.…”