Join Dartmouth Animal Welfare Group
on Thursday, April 2nd in Rocky 2
6:30 for food, 6:45 for the presentation...
From Corporate Law to Climbing Barbed Wire: How Open Rescue Exposes and Stops Violence Against Animals
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) co-founder Wayne Hsiung was once a corporate attorney and a Northwestern law professor, specializing in law and economics, and DxE press coordinator Brian Burns was an unassuming student of mathematical physics at UC Berkeley. But on spare weekends and evenings, they were also doing something none of their colleagues could have imagined: sneaking into animal farms with a camera in the dead of night, and rescuing animals from nightmarish abuse.
In this talk, Hsiung will:
- discuss the findings of a recent open rescue exposing shocking cruelty at a "humane" Whole Foods farm;
- explain the importance of open rescue to both the history and future of animal advocacy; and
- show how DxE's campaigns have provoked public consciousness (including coverage in The New York Times and CNN), inspired nonviolent direct action in over 95 cities and 20 countries, and saved the lives of individual animals such as Mei Hua.
Afterwards, Burns will discuss:
- What successful social justice movements and groundbreaking sociological research say about the nature of social change
- How DxE incorporates these results to provoke the public and build a mass movement for animals
The presentation will include a viewing of a 17 minute documentary short, "Truth Matters; It's not Food. It's Violence.", which was described by food writer James McWilliams as "perhaps the most strategically incisive undercover strike ever in the age of 'humane' animal products." It will conclude with a short Q&A.
Whether you are newly exposed to the hidden reality of animal agriculture, a proponent of civil liberties concerned about so-called "ag-gag" laws and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, or a veteran activist looking to join DxE's newly-announced Open Rescue Network, this talk will have something for you.
For more on open rescue, see here: http://bit.ly/dxe_or