One way Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) helps to protect the animal agriculture community is by monitoring animal rights activism. Early in the pandemic, animal rights activists attempted to tie the COVID-19 pandemic to animal agriculture. Communications specialist for AAA, Emily Solis said that narrative is shifting. She explained, “now they’re kind of switching their language a little bit, saying that it will be the cause of future pandemics.” Since animals are sometimes raised in confinement, animal rights activists have claimed disease is ready to be spread throughout livestock and then eventually to people.
To combat these claims, AAA shares research from scientists who have studied the pandemic and concluded that animal agriculture is not responsible. Solis said they also try to promote the fact that farmers have biosecurity practices in place to make sure that they are taking proper care of their animals. Solis added, “[farmers] have animal health protocols they follow to ensure the animals are healthy and that they can mitigate the potential for disease outbreak on the farm.”
Despite COVID-19, there has been a steady amount of protesting and activism that continues to take place. Solis said, “[animal rights activists] are using the pandemic to further their agenda; to end animal agriculture.” Solis explained the pandemic hasn’t slowed them down at all. “They’re still at farms, and still at processing plants protesting.” AAA monitors activist pages, so if something is planned out and public, they can work closely with the farms that could potentially be targeted.
Animal Agriculture Alliance has a wide variety of resources available on their website, including farm security resources and tips for protecting your farm from potential activist activity. On social media, AAA suggests not engaging with activists to avoid elevating their comments any further since little progress can be made in those conversations.
For more information, you can visit https://animalagalliance.org/.