Against Animal Testing - Policy Environment, Developing the Strategy, Campaign Outcomes - Term Paper Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Table of figures 1 Executive Summary 3 1.0 Background 3 2.0 Policy Environment 5 3.0 Developing the Strategy 8 4.0 Implementation of the Plan 11 5.0 Critical Discussion on Campaign Outcomes 13 6.0 Conclusion 15 Bibliography 15 APPENDIX 18 Table of figures Figure 1: power holder map 8 Figure 2: integrated strategy map Adopted from (Ricketts, 2012). 11 Figure 3: strategy campaign calendar 13 ACTIVISM CAMPAIGN Against animal testing for commercial purposes Executive Summary Toxic product testing on animals is not only cruel but also ultimately unnecessary. It causes some worse effects on dogs, rabbits, and other animals. These tests can poison them, make them blind, burn them, and at worst kill them (Watson, 2009). “Choose Cruelty Free” is an Australian campaign aiming at stopping cosmetic producing firms from using animals to test their products. Ricketts, in The Activists Handout defines campaigns as highly organized operations geared towards influencing change. On the other hand, he stipulates that activism encompasses undertakings designed intentionally to put pressure on a democratic process to stop a particular vice within the society (Ricketts, 2012). The concept of public interest is essential in our discussion as it is viewed as the heart of genuine advocacy for social change. The sections below will critically analyze the cruelty free campaign and give more information on the planning and implementation activities of this course. 1.0 Background Some animals such as dogs and rabbits continue to undergo painful and meaningless procedures to promote product testing for commercial purposes. However, when these products are used by humans, there have been misleading results inferring to the problematic nature of practicing the tests on animals in the first place (Rattazzi, 1976 p.97). Animals and human beings react differently to chemical substances majorly due to their physiological disparities (Remorenko, 2016 p.21). Therefore, using animals to test the harmfulness of beauty products is so far unreliable scientifically and unethically businesswise. Some of these tests conducted on them cause irritations on the animal’s very sensitive skin, and can also lead to burns due to the toxicity of the chemicals used. Other methods of product testing such as ingestion of the cosmetics by the animals can result in serious poisoning that can even cause their death (Campbell, 2016 p.52). There are many alternatives available to animal testing, yet still, some animals are subjected to these painful procedures. It is disheartening to realize that companies must be compelled through legislation so as to stop these negative vices (Mojica, 2016 p.12). For instance, manufactures of beauty products have an option of combining ingredients that are scientifically proven as human safe to produce their products rather than fostering animal testing (Rattazzi, 1976 p.71). Nevertheless, it is also understood that there is a high level of bureaucracy in large companies that tends to inhibit the transition to alternative methods (Aldworth, 2016 p.17). Some industries have a tendency to resist change unless this variation brings them more profits. Therefore, they opt to stick to their normal procedures irrespective of whether they are causing harms to another species in the ecosystem to propagate sustainability of their enterprises (Elkington,1994 p.41). The Choose cruelty free campaign aims at seeking the Australian Government’s intervention to establish legislation that will abolish the importation and production of cosmetics and their ingredients that have been tested on animals. The purpose of this social change activity is to articulate the message to those countries supporting the use of animals to test products that there are other available options to undertaking their tests without endangering or inflicting pain on animals (Linzey,& Tutu, 2013 p.19). It calls for action by the consumers also to avoid purchasing cosmetic products or their components that are known to have originated from states where animal testing is still permissible. The global campaign to end animal cruelty is led by Choose Cruelty Free, their activities include petitioning governments and politicians to abolish the practice of testing cosmetics on animals, and persuading the regulatory authorities to forbid products known to have been tested on animals from the market place. Also, it is their purpose to certify companies that go cruelty free through issuing them with the Leaping Bunny Certification. Such actions seek to promote and persuade manufacturing firms to adopt the change and go cruelty free in order to protect the environment while remaining sustainable. They also intend to rally animal sympathisers by using celebrities to campaign for this course (Sandler, 2013 p.2). Consequently, one of the problems that activists encounter in achieving the intended results on an issue is that they must first convince the public that the issue is legal (Ricketts, 2012). Also, it is important to develop your campaign message in a manner that many individuals can identify themselves with the issue and offer to support your course. The cruelty free campaign has been launched in some European Union member states whereby they have developed laws stopping the use of animals to test beauty products for human safety as well as banning the import of such products and their components. It is an indication that the objectives of this campaign can be achieved if the message is spread effectively to those states which have not yet created laws to stop such practices. Choose cruelty Free has urged millions of individuals to pledge their support to the restriction on animal testing helping place the issue on the Australian government agenda. The influence can be felt through the thousands of The Body Shop outlets that have accepted the campaign (Laura 2016 p.1). 2.0 Policy Environment In advocating for the animal rights issue it is mainly important that you marshal the support of the public to your side since it is them that you ultimately intend to convince. However, in the short-term it will be important for you to focus your energy to convince a few power-holders to divert from what they are currently practicing. Power-holders have more direct influence in the short-term rather than that of public opinion (Ricketts, 2012). For instance, when there are potential vested interests at stake, power-holders may not respond appropriately to public opinion. They are more likely to ignore public opinion if they feel they can go unpunished for it. Therefore, activists must always endeavour to influence public opinion as well as convincing power-holders to listen to their message. A power holder map is essential in making people understand the flow of power. Identifying the source of power helps you to understand where to put more pressure. A power-holder map not only describes the direction of flow of power but also acts as a strategic planning tool (Rickets, 2012). Thus, power holder maps help identify the various stakeholders involved in making decisions pertaining the issue at hand.Stakeholders are the individuals or parties with an interest or stake in the outcomes of an activity (Gupta, 2015). Getting the support of all the stakeholders involved in an issue is a difficult task since a majority of people will view the issue from their angle of interest. The major stakeholders in the cruelty free campaign include the government, RSPCA, the public, animal owners, corporate industries, and the regulatory and standardization board. In addition, the Australian labour Party and international organizations such as Humane Society International have indicated their support to the campaign. However, the parliament or legislative arm, bureaucrats, and local authorities could be involved in making decisions. Choose Cruelty Free operates as an independent entity in Australia. However, in every organization there are both internal and external forces that influence decisions related to its operations. The government is responsible for implementing laws against animal cruelty and ensuring those who violate animal rights are brought to justice. The legislature enacts animal protection laws and oversees the operations of state institutions. RSPCA is a movement that employs inspectors whose responsibility is to look into the violation of animal safety regulations. The public as well as animal owners have an interest in animal rights since animals provide them with various benefits including food. Corporations, especially in the cosmetics industry, have a duty to produce products that are human safe and made from ingredients that have not been tested on animals. Their profits can decrease if they do not practice these ethical stances. The Australian standards and regulatory board is entitled to inspect products for quality, quantity, and that the products do not violate consumer laws and other national regulations. The support of political leaders can influence if a bill against animal testing can be passed in parliament. The Australian Labour party is one of such organizations that have pledged its support for the Choose Cruelty Free campaign. The international community is also affected by this campaign since there are many activists across the globe fighting for the same animal rights. The Humane Society International is one of the international not-for-profit organizations that are against animal testing. Power-holders Map for the Cruelty Free Campaign Figure 1: power holder map 3.0 Developing the Strategy Once the campaign objectives are set out clearly, the next step is usually to come up with relevant strategies on how to achieve them. Having an effective strategic plan helps the campaign team to have a common understanding of the plan and can help avert harmful disagreements on the presumed significance of each tactic or chosen component strategy (Ricketts, 2012). Also, it enables the activists to hold a balanced and visionary view of the campaign. Having a clear strategic plan can also be helpful for informing new members about the current state of progress (Ricketts, 2012). The Cruelty Free campaign’s main objective is to stop the use of animals to test cosmetics. The immediate goal is to abolish the production and importation of beauty products and ingredients that have been tested on animals. The grand strategy is to rally governments and political leaders to outlaw the use of animals in cosmetics testing for purposes of sustaining the environment and maintaining our social morality. There are five component strategies that can help the campaign team achieve their goal. These include: raising public awareness digital activism media exerting political pressure pursuing legal avenues Tactics will help the campaign team to approach the issue from different avenues and to spread the risk of their actions yielding no results. Each component strategy will require diverse tactical approaches. To reach to the society or to the public, they have to undertake community awareness within those countries where animal testing is highly practiced. The media is also a helpful tactic when it comes to disseminating information. A letter to newspaper editors will ensure readers get an understanding of their campaign aims. Rallying politicians and other prominent figures in the society to support the campaign will exert more pressure for the government to take an action. Inquiry from state officials and also asking for approval by the ministry concerned will ensure the protests are having the necessary political support. The standardization and regulatory boards in different countries across the globe can play a great role in pushing for the legislation against animal testing. Legal redress can be sought to inspect tendering procedures for those companies dealing in beauty products to ensure that suppliers use alternative testing procedures that are confirmed scientifically. The number of tactics used is not significant as long as you can achieve the goals of the campaign. Sometimes disruptive tactics that were not part of the main tactics can be useful especially when dealing with the government or the corporate sector. These sectors are usually prepared for your tactics and would always be prepared to avert them in whichever way possible so that the activists can lose their focus. It is important for activists to remember that the power-holders have everything to lose. Having this view, they can turn their otherwise powerless strategy into a powerful tool. Additionally, digital activism is gaining a lot of popularity as a campaign tool. Digital platforms have facilitated communication both in internal and external environments. It has helped team members to exchange information and creating public-awareness through generation of campaign advertisements online. The current technology trends enable people to organize campaigns and lobby individuals to support them online by sharing them on multiple platforms to generate funds. Creating digital content demands some skills, and this will require the campaign coordinators to do an assessment of the available skills within the group. Integrated Strategy Map Figure 2: integrated strategy map Adopted from (Ricketts, 2012). 4.0 Implementation of the Plan The first step of implementing the strategic plan is determining the timelines for the various tasks identified in the plan. To determine the timelines, it is essential to find out information about government approval procedures, avenues for court action, legislative timetables, prevailing laws, and methods of public consultation. Such timelines will be influenced by social activities and national events that are likely to attract crowds of people (Ricketts, 2012). The next action could be to publicize the campaign through various publicity materials such as badges, caps, t-shirts, or buttons with the message and wearing them in the street. Also, these materials can be worn during public holiday gatherings where there are crowds of people. The campaigners can also create a Facebook group for members to share information about events and accomplishments. They can also publicize Facebook ‘events’ related to the campaign. Some locations such as shop windows and the passenger windows of cars can be used to paste a powerful message for people to read geared towards achieving the campaign goals. The message should be short and have an attractive image such as the image of celebrities within the country (Gupta, 2015 p.43). The team can also organize for an interview spot on national television channel. Alternatively, they can create a video with a powerful message and air it on international news channels as well as national geographic channel that are watched by almost everybody across the globe. Similarly, digital activism can be organized and inter-linked so that individuals can share the content whenever they view them in various social media platforms. In addition, they can create a Short message forum through which they can use to communicate or publicize the campaign. It is important that the campaign involves advocacy arguments that help to summarize the message in a manner that persuades the reader to agree with the goals of the campaign for instance, stopping animal testing for commercial purposes (Engebretson, n.d). The next course could be to plan for meetings with government and ministerial officials to discuss the purpose of the campaign. The approval of the government is important if there are any intended street demonstrations to rally for support. Future meetings can be to discuss on the progress of the campaign so as to inform decision-making by the relevant authorities (Hall 2016 p.71). Questions can be sent to the parliament or the local authorities for debate on the issue. The legislative arm is responsible for developing laws. Therefore, it would be important to get the support of the legislators so that if the issue is put up for voting, they can pass the bill into a law. The members of the parliament represent the people and therefore they have a duty to protect public interest. The strategy should be divided into tasks so that everybody interested in the issue can be assigned a role in the campaign. A coordinator should be appointed for each component strategy. The campaign team has to be assigned specific duties that are related to the strategic plan. It is important that the people are connected to tasks and they are given the freedom to perform them (Hall 2016 p.63). Campaign Calendar Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Key Publicizing the campaign Plan Meetings with government and Ministerial Officials Present Questions to Parliament for Debate Meetings with the public, animal rights movements, and political parties Digital activism campaigns Figure 3: strategy campaign calendar 5.0 Critical Discussion on Campaign Outcomes Choose cruelty free campaign has achieved a great deal of outcomes since it was first launched. The global initiative has seen the entire European Union ban cosmetic testing on animals and as such it has become the world’s largest cruelty-free beauty products market (ANSA, 2016 p.4). Over more than hundred years of the initiative’s operation Choose Cruelty Free is the top organization advocating ending animal experiments. The campaign has also helped to protect wild monkeys in the UK from being used for research purposes. Also, thousands of animals have been saved from experimentation by the European Chemical testing programme, REACH. Australia is the recent country to ban animal experimentation in June 2016. A campaign run by Choose Cruelty Free saw Australia undergo procedures to outlaw the use of animals to test ingredients of beauty products. The law also abolished the trading of beauty products and components that have been experimented on animals outside Australia (Stuart, (2016 p. 2). The campaign has also seen the ban on animal experimentation in Norway, India, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. However, there are proposed bills to abolish animal experimentation that are currently under debate in Brazil, the United States, Taiwan and Vietnam. Nevertheless, animal testing is still legal in almost 80% of countries worldwide thus a clear indication of the positive outcomes of the campaign (Brekelmans,2007 p.2). Choose cruelty free is partnering with Cruelty Free International Trust to teach the public about animal testing. The organization also works closely with various Cruelty Free campaigns in different countries to research alternatives that can be used to test beauty products in order to save the animals that could otherwise be used for experiments. It also works to observe that the laws governing animal experimentation are appropriately followed within United Kingdom and other countries (Anon, n.d p.2). The organization is not funded by the government and entirely depends on generous donations from supporters of their campaign (Anon, n.d p.2). Many celebrities have since joined hands with Choose Cruelty free to help in publicizing the campaign and also act as agents of cruelty-free cosmetics (Anon, n.d. p.4). A majority of these celebrities have written messages of support that have helped change the perception of the public towards the use of beauty products tested on animals. The fact that a substantial percentage of world countries, 81%, are still conducting animal experimentation, indication a need for a great deal of action that needs to be taken to save the animals in these countries. Aggressive advertising of this campaign can help to advocate animal rights in these countries. The issue should also be regarded a crucial matter to be discussed as an agenda in World Trade forums (Escobar 2016 p.4). 6.0 Conclusion Activism influences the society to take an action to correct their flaws and differences in an aim to promote sustainability of the environment. The Choose Cruelty Free campaign has achieved significant results in Australia which has successfully outlawed animal experimentation. There are several alternative methods of performs tests that are scientific. They have been proved to have more accurate outcomes to the expected human safety results when experimented on animals. The most important aspect in campaigning is that you are required to articulate your message in a way that it doesn’t portray private interests or vested interests of a particular group. It is also important to remember that the power-holders are the ones with the most things to lose. Therefore, persisting on reminding them about the course of your campaign might yield positive results. The plan should be flexible such that more information can be added to it if circumstances change. Bibliography Aldworth, R. 2016. To End Cosmetics Animal Testing Cruelty. The Huffington Post. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rebecca-aldworth/end-cosmetics-animal-testing-_b_11977982.html. Anon Be Cruelty-Free Australia Campaign [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Anon Cruelty-free [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Anon (2012) Erratum. Journal of Applied Animal Research, 40 (1), pp.80–80. Anon 2015. Stop Testing Postcards. CCF Official Site RSS. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au/stop-testing-postcards/. Anon (2016) Why We Choose Cruelty-Free! [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. ANSA, R. 2016. EU court bans cosmetics tests on animals - English. ANSA.it. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/business/2016/09/21/eu-court-bans-cosmetics-tests-on-animals_202c0da1-89e1-4842-ad05-b34a1259d1c2.html. Brekelmans, C. (2007) The European partnership for alternative approaches to animal testing. Toxicology, 231 (2-3), pp.92–92. Campbell, C. 2016. OPINION — Animal testing must be stopped. The Daily Toreador. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.dailytoreador.com/opinion/opinion-animal-testing-must-be-stopped/article_21d04ebc-7edd-11e6-a81f-f3b777e51bf4.html. Elkington, J. (1994) Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business Strategies for Sustainable Development. California Management Review, 36 (2), pp.90–100. Engebretson, M. Being Green and Cruelty-Free. The Huffington Post. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-engebretson/being-green-and-cruelty-f_b_7103248.html. Escobar, S.C. (2016) Protecting animals from harm: cosmetic and convenience surgeries, sheltering, wildlife crime, and livestock & Ag-Gag laws. Contemporary Justice Review, 19 (2), pp.169–173. Gupta, K. (2015) Environmental Sustainability and Implied Cost of Equity: International Evidence. J Bus Ethics Journal of Business Ethics. Hall, B. (2016) Labor to move against testing cosmetics on animals [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. H.R.A. Be Cruelty-Free Australia Campaign. Be Cruelty-Free Australia Campaign. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.humaneresearch.org.au/campaigns/choosingcrueltyfree. Laura House For Daily Mail Australia (2016) As the government pledges to ban cosmetic animal testing for good... FEMAIL reveal the best cruelty-free cosmetics you can buy [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Linzey, A. and Tutu, D. 2013. The global guide to animal protection. Lisa Acho Remorenko (Contact) 2016. Hurting Bunnies for Vanity. Hurting Bunnies for Vanity. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.independent.com/news/2016/sep/02/hurting-bunnies-vanity/. Mojica, N. 2016. 11 Beauty And Cosmetic Brands That Don't Test On Animals. International Business Times. [Online]. [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Available from: http://www.ibtimes.com/cruelty-free-makeup-11-beauty-cosmetic-brands-dont-test-animals-2421015. Rattazzi, M.C. (1976) Animal Welfare and Scientific Research. Science, 194 (4267), pp.862–862. Ricketts, A. 2012. The activists' handbook: a step-by-step guide to participatory democracy. London: Zed Books. Sandler, J. (2013) Against Animal Testing [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Stuart, H. (2016) Australia to ban cosmetics animal testing and trade : Humane Society International [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 28 September 2016]. Watson, S. 2009. Animal testing: issues and ethics. New York: Rosen Pub. APPENDIX 1. Choose Cruelty-Free – Human Research Australia 2. Campaign Calendar Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec KEY Publicizing the campaign Plan Meetings with government and Ministerial Officials Present Questions to Parliament for Debate Meetings with the public, animal rights movements, and political parties Digital activism campaigns Read More