Resources

MAKING ANIMAL LIBERATION ACCESSIBLE –
A HOW-TO GUIDE

ELK’s “Report-Back!” Cash Fund

ELK’s Burning Phoenixes Award

• Every slaughterhouse in Ontario
  This map may seem overwhelming, but it visualizes how this violence is shared in all of our communities. Note the frequency of reports of worker abuse, health and environmental violations, or received massive grants from the Canadian governments.
• All fur-bearing exploitation in Ontario
  An interactive map of furbearing animal exploitation in Ontario. This includes ‘farms’, trade sites and major suppliers in Ontario where fur-bearing animals are held captive, abused and oppressed. This does not include retail stores.
• All captive animal ‘entertainment’ in Ontario
  An interactive map of all major captive animal facilities in Ontario, where animals are held and exploited for “entertainment”.

The following is a list of resources regarding anti-oppressive education and organizing. This list is by no means comprehensive & will be continuously updated.
If you see a resource here that should be or should not be listed, please contact us!

1. Direct action & Legal rights during protest
2. Independent News, Radio & Media
3. Police, Prisons & Political Repression
4. Privilege, Allyship & Anti-oppressive organizing
5. Earth, Environmental defense & Pipelines
6. Ableism and mental, physical, emotional (dis)abilities
7. Religion & Spirituality
8. Consumerism, Food justice & Capitalism
9. Animal Rights, Veganism & Speciesism

 

Direct action & Legal rights during protest
*The information should not be intended as legal advice, as laws are always changing*

• A legal guide for activists
  Produced by the Movement Defence Committee of the Law Union of Ontario, June, 2010
• ARRESTED at a demo or other political action? REPORTING an arrest?
  Movement Defence Committee in Toronto
• Know Your Rights: A Citizen’s Guide to Rights When Dealing With Police
  Canadian Civil Liberties Association
• KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Protesters’ Edition
  Canadian Civil Liberties Association
• Know Your Rights: an activist’s guide to the law
  OPIRG-Carleton
• What To Do If The Police Come Knockin
  Developed by the Movement Defence Committee and the Summit Legal Project of the Law Union of Ontario
• PROTESTERS’ GUIDE TO THE LAW OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
  ‘Take Back Our Community’ Edition
  Produced by Leo McGrady Q.C. McGrady & Company Lawyers
• A LEGAL PRIMER FOR U.S. ACTIVISTS ATTENDING PROTESTS IN CANADA
  Movement Defence Committee in Toronto
• The Activists’ Legal Project
  A not for profit collective which provides information about the law to a wide range of grassroots social change activists as well as people who are considering taking action for the first time.

 

Independent News, Radio & Media

• ACAB Media
  Anti-Capitalist / Anarchist Based Media.
• Animal Voices
  Animal liberation radio show broadcasting in Toronto, covers local, national, global, and politically diverse campaigns, struggles and victories of the animal liberation movement. Tune in for interviews with a broad spectrum of activists and academics working toward the liberation of animals, social justice, and environmental health.
• Animal Voices (Vancouver)
  Western Canada’s only program dedicated solely to animal advocacy and compassionate living. Each week we delve into various issues from agriculture, vivisection, and fashion, to the “pet” industry, conservation, and intersections.
• ARZone
  A place for animal advocates to gather and discuss issues, exchange ideas, and share information.
• Democracy Now! 
  A national, daily, independent, award-winning news program.
• The Dodo
  We’re witnessing a profound shift in the way people regard animals. The Dodo will channel this shift every day by covering the most important and fascinating stories including photos, videos, Vines, etc. And we want you to join us: Share your stories, your pictures, your media, anything animal-related, and you’ll be part of an unprecedented community for all those who love animals, are concerned about their welfare — and want to make a difference.
• Freedom of Species
  A radio show that draws on all disciplines that have a fascination, an appreciation and a belief in a better world for all animals: conservation, philosophy, sociology, art, literature, science, film, history, politics and the vegan and animal rights movements.
• Indigenous Action Media (IAM)
  Providing strategic media support and direct action to address issues impacting Indigenous communities. IAM offers media strategy consultation and support in the face of environmental & social injustices. We do this through direct support, workshops, web and graphic design services, documentaries and youth empowerment projects.
• The Indignants
  An independent alternative media team based out of London, Ontario, Canada. We identify as an anarchist collective and seek to fill in the gaps left by the mainstream corporate-controlled media and their lack of accurate representation at the community level.
• Intercontinental Cry (IC)
  An independent volunteer-run magazine that provides intelligent news and analysis, insightful videos and hard-hitting commentary in support of the global indigenous movement.
• The Media Co-op 
  A coast-to-coast network of local media co-operatives dedicated to providing grassroots, democratic coverage of their communities and of Canada.
• The Peak Magazine
  The Peak is a web and print magazine published five times a year in Guelph, Ont. We focus our energies on publishing under reported news and analysis from the local anarchist and antagonistic movements in Southern Ontario. We are the cheerleaders of a coming storm which wishes to see the end of capitalism and the social relations developed within it. We are in it for total freedom, and nothing less.
• POOR Magazine
  A poor people led/indigenous people led, grassroots non-profit,arts organization dedicated to providing revolutionary media access, art, education and advocacy to silenced youth, adults and elders in poverty across the globe.
• Sentient Cincinnati 
  Independent news on the human-animal community, offering analysis of the ideas, policies, and relationships that bind us animals to each other.
• Slingshot 
  A quarterly, independent, radical, newspaper published in the East Bay since 1988 by the Slingshot Collective.
• The Talon Conspiracy
  An online archive preserving the history of protest movements for animal rights and environmentalism.
• Team Earthling
  An independent Australian vegan podcast and blog dedicated to the idea that animals are not ours to use.
• T.O.F.U. magazine
  Focuses on promoting and supporting those who dedicate their lives to change. From highlighting their stories within the magazine to sponsoring their projects through the T.O.F.U. grant program, the magazine understands that we are all in this together. With each issue, the hope is to encourage readers to think for themselves in a world that so often hopes you do just as you’re told.
• The Sparrow Project 
  A boutique publicity and creative direction agency. We help grassroots projects for social change claim their own media narratives, through distributing targeted press releases, specialized event promotions and impeccably subversive art direction.
• Two Row Times
  A free weekly news publication aimed at reaching the Ontario-wide Native market as well as Haudenosaunee communities in the United States.
• Upside Down World
  An online magazine covering activism and politics in Latin America.
• Warrior Publications
  Published in occupied Coast Salish territory (Vancouver, Canada).  Its purpose is to promote warrior culture, fighting spirit, and resistance movements.

 

Police, Prisons & Political Repression

• RECON 2013: POLICING & COUNTERINSURGENCY
• Committee Against Political Repression
  Against all forms of repression, including repression of those who challenge capitalism, the state, hierarchy, and domination.
• The Equal Justice Alliance
  Coalition of animal protection and other social justice organizations formed in November of 2006 to defend freedom of speech and assembly by defeating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA).
• Green is the New Red
  Focus on how fear of “terrorism” is being exploited to push a political and corporate agenda. Specifically, I focus on how animal rights and environmental advocates are being branded “eco-terrorists” in what many are calling the Green Scare.
• How to Write Your First Letter to Someone in Prison
  by Pretty Queer
• Suggestions for Supporting Prisoners
  Earth First!
• Anarchist Black Cross Federation
  Since the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), has been on the frontline in supporting those imprisoned for struggling for freedom and liberty.
• bored but not broken
  i expect to spend most of 2012 in jail for my participation in organizing the protests against the G20 leaders summit in toronto in the summer of 2010. this blog is for me to communicate with you while i’m locked up.
• RECON 2013: FIGHTING CORPORATE CONTROL
• Political Prison
  By Walter Bond

 

Privilege, Allyship & Anti-oppressive organizing

• Allyship & Solidarity Guidelines
  Interview with Harsha Walia
• Anti-Oppression Facilitation Guide, Resource Zine, Spring, 2014
  ANTI-OPPRESSION RESOURCE AND TRAINING ALLIANCE (AORTA)
• 4 Ways to Push Back Against Your Privilege
  By Mia McKenzie
• Calling IN: A Less Disposable Way of Holding Each Other Accountable
  By Ngọc Loan Trần
• HeteroPatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing
  By Andrea Smith
• SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ALLY! A zine on anti-oppression, allyship, and being a less shitty person
• Ally Bill of Responsibilities
  By Dr. Lynn Gehl, Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe
• Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally-Industrial Complex
• The Anti Oppression Network
  A community collective dedicated to helping individuals, community collectives, groups, non profit organizations and society as a whole re-evaluate, unlearn, relearn, and understand, in a deep and meaningful way, the importance of decolonization and anti-oppression principles and policy. We are interested in building self-capacity in order to fully support and utilize privileges in the best interest of marginalized beings and mother earth.
• ANTI-OPPRESSION RESOURCE AND TRAINING ALLIANCE (AORTA)
  AORTA is a collective of educators devoted to strengthening movements for social justice and a solidarity economy. AORTA works as consultants and facilitators to expand the capacity of cooperative, collective, and community-based projects through education, training, and planning. AORTA bases trainings on an intersectional approach to liberation because we believe that true change requires uprooting all systems of oppression.
• No More “Allies”
  By Mia McKenzie
• So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All ‘Allies’ Need to Know
  By Jamie Utt
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Being a Good Ally
  By karnythia
• ALLYSHIP
  An active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person of privilege seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group of people
• RECON 2013: BUILDING AN INTER-GENERATIONAL MOVEMENT
• EMBODYING ANTI-OPPRESSION
  By Kim Milan
• Seeds for Change
  We’re a network of independent activist training co-ops providing training and workshops on group and campaign skills. We support people who want to make our world a better and more sustainable place.
• Training for Change
  Reliable training tools (or activities/exercises), based on our direct education approach, rooted in popular education.
• Center for Story-based Strategy (CSS)
  A national movement-building organization dedicated to harnessing the power of narrative for social change.
• People’s Commission Facilitator’s Manual
  The facilitator’s manual was developed as a guide for leading discussions and classes on immigration security measures, racism, and exclusion.

 

Earth, Environmental defense & Pipelines

• RECON 2013: COMMUNITY COALITIONS TO DEFEAT ENERGY EXPORTS
• The Earth First! Journal 
  The voice of the radical environmental movement. Published quarterly, it contains reports on direct action; articles on the preservation of wilderness and biological diversity; news and announcements about EF! and other radical environmental groups; investigative articles; critiques of the entire environmental movement; book and music reviews; essays exploring ecological theory and a sometimes-lively letters to the editor section.
• The FracTracker Alliance
  A non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the public’s understanding of the impacts of the global oil and gas industry by collecting, interpreting, and sharing data and visualizations.
• The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN)
  A grassroots, volunteer-run group that works to bring the voices and experiences of communities impacted by extractive industries to Toronto, Canada, a country where over 75% of global mining businesses ar
• Pipe Up Against Enbridge
  BC communities & First Nations working to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.
• Resistance Ecology
  We want to build a movement for animal and ecological liberation and resistance
  that is multi-layered, unified, diverse and intersectional. Animal
  liberation and radical ecology do not need to be isolated, disparate,
  ahistorical, and fragmented movements. They can and must become part of
  the language and dialogue of social justice.
• Rising Tide – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories 
  A grassroots environmental justice collective committed to fighting the root causes of climate change and the interconnected destruction of land, water, and air.
• Whiteness and Sustainability: Reflecting on Race, Class, and Green Living
  By Cosmology of Whiteness
• Rainforest Action Network
  Campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.

 

Ableism and mental, physical, emotional (dis)abilities

• Social Justice Project – Ableism
• Disability & Sexuality
  By Mia Mingus
• Queer Vegan Cat Lady
  My name is Allyson, I am a 26 year old Pagan, Vegan, Queer cat lady, suffering from chronic illnesses. I love science fiction, books, Doctor Who, crafts, tattoos, animals, and all manner of geekery!
• Disabled Vegan Chick
  A blog dedicated to being a gluten-free vegan spoonie.
• Chronically Vegan
  Mary. Ethical inclusive vegan. Environmentalist. Feminist. Queer. Cis (she/her pronouns). In 20s. Chronic illness warrior.
• 2012 Queer & Asian Conference
  By Mia Mingus
• animalsanddisability
  Examining the intersections of disability and animal liberation.
• The Eco-Ability Collective
  A collective of academics and activists bridging the gap for social justice between dis-ability, animals, and the environment.
• Fear of Feeling: Trauma and Recovery in the Animal Liberation Movement
  By pattrice jones
• Able-bodied Privilege : Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
• Learn American Sign Language (ASL)
• Disability Justice Activists Look at “Ways to Maintain Ableism”
• The Icarus Project
  Envisioning a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of ‘mental illness’ rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework.
• Moving Beyond Disablism in Environmentalism and Animal Advocacy
• Home Remodelling
  A guide that hopes to help caregivers and those living with disabilities understand the available federal grants as well as tools that can help create a home that is accessible.

 

Religion & Spirituality

• Call to Compassion: Religious Perspectives on Animal Advocacy
  By Lisa Kemmerer and Anthony J. Nocella
• Animals and World Religions
  By Lisa Kemmerer
• Zen Habits
  Finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.
• Decolonizing Yoga
  Where spirituality meets social justice.
• How Do You Define Yourself?
  By Alan Watts
• Examining Power & Privilege In Yoga
  Kim Milan
• moonlitmoth
  yoga and social justice

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12. Consumerism, Food justice & Capitalism

• Food Empowerment Project
  Creating a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices. We encourage healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in low-income areas.
• Food Not Bombs
  A loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan in acts of solidarity – not charity.
• Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
  OCAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We mount campaigns against regressive government policies as they affect poor and working people. In addition, we provide direct-action advocacy for individuals against welfare and ODSP, public housing and others who deny poor people what they are entitled to. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves. We believe in the power of resistance.
• Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW)
  A grassroots advocacy group based in Toronto and Vancouver. Composed of migrant workers and allies, we fight for the interests of workers in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program, including workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Agricultural Stream.
• Story of Stuff
  A story of consumerism & waste
• 30+ Examples of Middle-to-Upper Class Privilege
• Cultivating Radical Activism, Vitality, & Education (CRAVE)
  A grassroots food justice movement growing youth leadership with critical analysis, creative art, & direct action.
• United Farm Workers
  To provide farm workers and other working people with the inspiration and tools to share in society’s bounty.
• When did slavery get a pass?
  APPETITE FOR JUSTICE BY FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT
• The Nature Of White Supremacy and Capitalism
  By Junot Diaz

 

Animal Rights, Veganism & Speciesism

• Animal Liberation Front
  To abolish institutionalized animal exploitation because it assumes that animals are property.
• Animal Rights & AntiOppression 
  Dedicated to advocating for animal rights and other causes, from an antioppression perspective and featuring independent voices.
• Animal Visions
  A blog dedicated to animal liberation and healing animal-human relationships.
• Carnism Awareness & Action Network (CAAN)
  CAAN is a charitable organization dedicated to raising awareness of and transforming carnism, the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals.
• Connect the Dots (CtD)
  A forthcoming collection of essays exploring the above, often referred to as the commonality of oppression.  CtD highlights the indisputable links between human, animal, and environmental well-being, fostering a connectionist movement – a movement of individuals who reject the false dichotomies dividing our movements and are dedicated to working comprehensively towards a peaceful and just world FOR ALL.
• Counting Animals
  A blog that aims to collect, generate, analyze, organize, present and interpret quantitative information related to the animal advocacy movement. Occasionally, it will employ tools and insights from computer science and mathematics to discover facts pertinent to the animal advocacy movement. From time to time, it may also make number-related nerdy observations of no use to anybody.
• Esther the Wonder Pig
  Esther is some pig. She was misrepresented as a “micro pig” and sold to Steve and Derek in the Summer of 2012. She was just 4 pounds, and in under 2 years she grew to be 500 pounds!  Derek and Steve kept Esther anyways. She was accustomed to home life, and so the whole family went on an adventure of a lifetime.
• The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals (APFA)
  One of the oldest animal protection groups in Canada, working to end the commercial fur trade.
• These Glass Walls
  A dedicated space to raise awareness of animal rights and welfare issues. I care deeply for the welfare and rights of all animals, but I have a special interest in farmed animals; they are systematically abused and cruelly slaughtered by the billions every year, in North America alone. And most people don’t give this a thought.
• Guide to Vegan Living
  This guide aims to explain and simplify the essentials of vegan living.  It also offers a step-by-step guide for transitioning to a vegan lifestyle, and aims to help overcome any perceived barriers to vegan living.
• H.E.A.L.T.H.
  Blog dedicated to lifting living beings from all forms of oppression including speciesism, racism, classism, genderism and nationalism.
• Hunt Saboteurs Association
  The only organisation that works directly in the field to protect wildlife from the hunter.
• Human Liberation is Animal Liberation
  By educating ourselves on the intersections between our movements, and by building an intersectional analysis of oppression into our activism, we can simultaneously fight for the liberation of humans, nonhuman animals, and the earth, strengthening all movements.
• Institute for Critical Animal Studies
  Academic field of study dedicated to the abolition of animal and ecological exploitation, oppression, and domination. ICAS is grounded in a broad global emancipatory inclusionary movement for total  liberation and freedom.
• Students for Critical Animal Studies
  An international association of students dedicated to the abolition of animal and ecological exploitation, oppression, and domination. SCAS challenges students to view social justice from a more inclusive and intersectional perspective, while providing a forum for the meeting of academia and activism.
• Kindred Animality
  The goal of this blog is to address the nature of the human and nonhuman animal condition both in relation to each other and separate from one another, and to reach a higher appreciation of animals through a deeper understanding of animal behavior, learning, and psychology.
• Liberation BC
  A world in which humans recognize and respect that all animals have a fundamental right to life, liberty and the freedom from human-caused exploitation and harm.
• Liberation Lens
  A blog that highlights movements and insights that foster true ecological and social transformation. We only get better through collaboration.
• One Green Planet
  Your online guide to making conscious choices that help people, animals and the planet. Our goal is to cut through the noise around issues related to food, health, animals and the environment and empower you to not only make better choices, but also take action and bring about change.
• Other Nations
  Offering information, inspiration, and support for human beings working to end speciesism.
• Our Hen House
  Produces resources that you can use in order to find your own way to create change for animals.  Using video, audio, interviews, reviews, and the written word, it provides daily updates on what you need to create change. Changemakers come in all shapes and sizes –artists, grassroots activists, academics, lawyers, students, business moguls, media darlings, etc. No matter what your niche is, Our Hen House aims to give you what you need to be part of a new world for animals.
• SATYA
  While out of print, Satya maintains a website with back issues of their wonderful magazine that explores issues of vegetarianism, environmentalism, animal advocacy, and social justice.
• Quit Day
  Information on how tobacco companies still conduct animal testing.
• Animal Blawg
  Blog focuses on animal law, ethics and policy.  It provides a forum for community and collegiality as well as debate and the exchange of ideas.
• The Save Movement
  A global network of Save groups promoting a vegan lifestyle and mass-based, grassroots activism by bearing witness of farmed animals.
• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS)
  An international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
• Striking at the Roots
  Welcome to the official blog for Striking at the Roots by Mark Hawthorne, your source for more effective animal activism.
• The Thinking Vegan
  Focuses on ethical veganism as a social justice movement, as opposed to a dietary plan, and covers issues related to the use of animals for food, clothing, entertainment, scientific “research,” labor and pets.
• UBC Activists for Animals
  A club dedicated to challenging how we think about animals and ultimately, to expose and ameliorate the oppression of animals.
• United Poultry Concerns (UPC)
  The world’s foremost non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the respectful treatment of domestic fowl. UPC runs a haven for chickens in Virginia, and also teaches people about the egg and chicken meat industries, the natural lives of free chickens, pleasures and benefits of human-chicken companionship, and alternatives to chicken farming and the use of chickens in education and scientific experimentation.
• Vancouver Animal Rights Campaigns!
  An expanding into an environmental and social forum for important events. We have been an independent organization in service to the community, listing various activities around Vancouver to support the activists working for animals.
• The Veganomoly
  I am unapologetically vegan, but that doesn’t mean I want non-vegans to be apologetic.Rather, I want them to consider changing the way they think about and use other animals.
• We Animals
  An ambitious project which documents, through photography, animals in the human environment. We Animals aims to break down the barriers that humans have built which allow us to treat non-human animals as objects and not as beings with moral significance. The objective is to photograph our interactions with animals in such a way that the viewer finds new significance in these ordinary, often unnoticed situations of use, abuse and sharing of spaces.
• Healthy Vegan Recipes for the Family!

If you see a resource here that should be or should not be listed, please contact us!