Animal Rights Advocates Inc. hosted a forum yesterday looking at the structure of animal welfare legislation in Western Australia and the lmiitations thereof.

It often comes as a surprise to people that ARA doesn't pursue changes in legislation as an avenue to help animals. Indeed we believe that welfare reforms:

• do not provide significant protection for animal interests;
• make the public feel better about exploiting animals;
• may actually increase net suffering;
• further entrenches the view of animals as commodities; and
• divert resources from vegan/abolitionist education.

While we believe that most animal advocates have the best interests of animals at heart we think that many of the campaigns that are currently run within the animal protection movement are strategically misguided and philosophically inconsistent with actually ending animal exploitation. That may sound harsh but we think that it is important that there is critical reflection on what we put our energies into rather than just going along with the campaigns of the large animal organisations that have progressively become more conservative over time.

We encourage people who either do not understand why ARA does not run welfare campaigns, or think we should, to read the following arguments and reflect on what this means for their activism. We'd also like to hear your thoughts so get in touch on info@ara.org.au

The Four Problems of Animal Welfare: In a Nutshell