Abbreviation | AV |
---|---|
Formation | April 16, 2016 |
Type | Nonprofit organisation |
Purpose | Animal rights |
Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
Website | anonymousforthevoiceless |
Anonymous for the Voiceless (AV) is a grassroots animal rights organization specializing in street activism formed in April 2016, in Melbourne, Australia. [1] [2] Operating worldwide, Anonymous for the Voiceless now coordinate 100,000 volunteers in 375 AV chapters in 61 countries, with teams of volunteers organising and staging peaceful protest actions called 'Cubes of Truth'. These protests involve volunteers standing in a square formation wearing Guy Fawkes masks while holding screens showing footage of standard practice in the animal agriculture industry [3] with the intention of empowering the public to support animal rights and be vegan.
It is not affiliated to the hacktivist group "Anonymous", despite the similarities of names and the use of the Guy Fawkes mask.
The Cube of Truth is an outreach and education method in which a group of black-clad people wearing Guy Fawkes masks form a square facing outward while holding signs and video screens showing footage of inside slaughterhouses, farms, and vivisection labs. [4] [5] The cubes vary in size according to the number of activists or space. [1] Unmasked members of AV, known as "outreachers", [1] talk to people onlooking and encourage adopting a vegan lifestyle. The AV activists offer a 22-day vegan challenge called "Challenge 22" to onlookers who decide they want to take the option of a vegan diet. [2]
The Melbourne group's actions began in April 2016, to be followed by a Sydney group from November. [2]
On 5 November 2016, AV held 200 Cube of Truth actions across the world on the same day for the first of the now annual 'International Cube Day' campaigns. [6] [7]
While it has been claimed that AV is a grassroots effort with no central organizing force beyond a website that links to each chapter and a series of Facebook groups that coordinate events, [8] the organisation does have a small team which includes the Co-Founders and Directors. This team is responsible for coordinating volunteers globally, providing chapters with essential equipment and support, running activist training programmes, and delivering impactful online campaigns. [9]
Anonymous for the Voiceless holds an abolitionist stance on animal exploitation. [8]
Paul Bashir and Asal Alamdari founded the original group in Melbourne, [2] although its headquarters are now in Chiang Mai, Thailand. [1] [2]
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates. It has been the subject of several major leaks or undercover investigations by activists and reporters since 1989.
David Lloyd is an English comics artist best known as the illustrator of the story V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, and the designer of its anarchist protagonist V and the modern Guy Fawkes/V mask, the latter going on to become a symbol of protest.
The Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) is an American grassroots animal rights organization, founded in 2003, based in California's San Diego and Orange Counties.
The animal rightsmovement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and an end to their use in the research, food, clothing, and entertainment industries.
Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1993. Originally known as Animal Liberation Action (ALA), the group was founded by Matt Ball and Jack Norris in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1993.
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Veggies of Nottingham, also known as Veggies Catering Campaign, is a company and a campaigning group based in Nottingham, England, promoting ethical alternatives to mainstream fast food. It does this by hosting events such as the annual East Midlands Vegan Festival, publishing books and leaflets, and maintaining an extensive website, including a Contacts Directory of groups with similar aims. As a non-profit worker co-operative it also provides affordable, wholesome, minimally-packaged vegan catering at a wide range of events and protests using fair trade, organic and/or locally sourced ingredients.
Animal Liberation Victoria Inc. (ALV) are an independent not-for-profit animal rights organisation incorporated in the state of Victoria, Australia, and are a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNA). ALV were founded in 1978 by Patty Mark, with the mission of saving lives and ending animal exploitation. Their mission is to abolish the property status of animals, change speciesist attitudes and practices, educate the public about animal rights and veganism, and embrace the principles of non-violence and compassion. ALV is managed by an elected committee in accordance with the Victorian Incorporated Associations Act.
The Guy Fawkes mask is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes created by illustrator David Lloyd for the 1982–1989 graphic novel V for Vendetta. Derived from the masks used to represent Fawkes being burned on an effigy having long previously had roots as part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations, Lloyd designed the mask as a smiling face with red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, worn in the graphic novel's narrative by anarchist protagonist V.
Roger Yates is an English lecturer in sociology at University College Dublin and the University of Wales, specialising in animal rights. He is a former executive committee member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), a former Animal Liberation Front (ALF) press officer, and a co-founder of the Fur Action Group.
Liberation BC is a non-profit animal rights organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 2004. It is run entirely by volunteers, including the board of directors, and has an e-mail network of nearly 4000 supporters. The stated mission of Liberation BC is "to expose animal exploitation through outreach and education, to promote a vegan lifestyle as the most effective and attainable way to protect animals, and to build and provide support for a strong community of effective animal advocates."
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that advocates and engages in what it calls non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in Britain in the 1970s from the Bands of Mercy. Participants state it is a modern-day Underground Railroad, removing animals from laboratories and farms, destroying facilities, arranging safe houses, veterinary care and operating sanctuaries where the animals subsequently live. Critics have labelled them as eco-terrorists.
Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is an international nonprofit organization working to promote a vegan lifestyle and animal rights through public education and grass roots outreach. It operates ten national and international programs from its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. FARM has the abolitionist vision of a world where animals are free from all forms of human exploitation, including, food and clothing, research and testing, entertainment and hunting. FARM's mission is to spare the largest number of animals from being bred, abused, and slaughtered for food, as this accounts for 98% of all animal abuse and slaughter.
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Joseph Dominic Armstrong, known professionally as Joey Carbstrong, is an Australian animal rights activist. A former criminal, he has since become an advocate for animal liberation and veganism through social media and public speaking engagements, as well as debates and various televised interviews.
Dominion is a 2018 Australian documentary film. The documentary was primarily filmed with hidden cameras and drones inside Australian farms and abattoirs. According to the New York Times, Dominion "claims to expose the routine and inhumane practices of animal agriculture in Australia". The film portrays the killing of livestock through methods such as using carbon dioxide to gas pigs, maceration of chicks, and skinning foxes alive. The film uses shock tactics with footage in multiple industries in Australia, especially agricultural livestock while focusing its message on animal rights.
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