Animal Rights As A Post-Citizenship Movement

Findings from this survey of animal advocates supports classifying the “animal rights” movement as a post-citizenship social movement. The movement’s advocates were found to be well-educated and most reported being in the middle income or affluent range. A large segment indicated that their deeply held commitment to the movement stemmed from moral grounds. Personal commitment to the values of the movement was evidenced by respondents’ lifestyle choices: over two-thirds maintained a vegan diet (with a further quarter identifying as vegetarian). There was also a significant commitment to cruelty-free clothing and an interest in supporting animal-friendly companies.

“Post-citizenship movements include persons who are well integrated into the economic and educational structures of their society, advocate goals that offer little or no benefit to movement members, and pursue cultural changes in addition to more traditional social movement goals (Jasper, 1997). This survey of 105 attendees at the Animal Rights 2000 conference, described by organizers as the largest event of its kind, supported viewing the animal rights movement as a post-citizenship movement. While confirming the high level of economic and education integration, as well as the moral motivation of participants, this study also showed a threefold increase in veganism over an earlier survey (Plous, 1991), supporting the importance of Jasper’s cultural dimension of the post-citizenship model.”