It's political. (It is?)

"Rescue is a political act,” according to Donna Reynolds and Tim Racer, founders of BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls).

This may not be something a lot of rescuers think about very much (who has time?) but it's worth some reflection.  BAD RAP's claim goes against the conventional wisdom, which sees animal rescue as apolitical.  Rescue seems apart from politics both because animals do not seem to be political creatures and because rescue seems to be an individual act, an effort to save a particular animal from a bad fate, such as euthanasia, abuse, neglect, hoarding, or warehousing.  It can be done on a large scale, of course, but at root it is about particular, concrete animals.  Politics, on the other hand, is about power, in the broadest sense, and its location, distribution, and use in human social settings, including but not limited to government institutions.

If rescue is inherently individual, and politics is inherently collective (and human), how do they go together?  For many people who care about one or the other, they do not.  In this perspective, rescue is apolitical, an act of care inspired by sympathy for an individual animal and made necessary by individual acts of human cruelty or neglect.   It is not connected to institutions, structures, or power dynamics.

Marty on a chain, before rescue

Animal welfare in general and rescue in particular do not map easily onto the American political landscape.  Unlike environmentalism, feminism, or other social movements, animal welfare has an ambiguous, eclectic political identity and its supporters have diverse political affiliations, ranging across the entire ideological spectrum.  Thus most animal rescue organizations include a broader ideological cross-section than local chapters of the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, or the National Rifle Association.  It is not just that animal welfare does not fit easily with other political ideologies.  Animal issues – and animals – are de-politicized in general.  Many animal advocates would identify the motivation for their concern and activism as love of animals, either animals in general, or of specific breeds or types.  It is not about politics but about care and sympathy.

Marty after rescue (and heartworm treatment)

                           
In this context, to assert that rescue is a political act thus challenges the dominant view of animal rescue and proposes a new definition. Where does this get us?

If rescue is a political act, it is about changing larger structures and attitudes as well as about addressing individual cases.  Above all, it is about connecting the structures and the individuals.  Animal abuse and neglect do not happen in an ideological, political, or cultural vacuum, any more than does abuse of particular categories of people.  There was a time when sociologists believed that racism was largely an individual pathology, but now racism (and sexism, homophobia, and other prejudices) are understood as the result of collective and structural factors, not just individual choices.  Political conditions, broadly defined, make it more or less easy and appealing for people both to harbor prejudices and to act on them. Understanding a problem as political rather than simply individual or psychological changes the way we go about trying to resolve it

Hector, one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick

For BAD RAP, the politics of rescue focus on changing attitudes and also policies and laws that demonize pit bulls.  The rescue of the Vick dogs is the best-known example: BAD RAP and the other organizations involved in the rescue not only saved individual dogs from terrible suffering but also used the case to call attention to the cruelty of dog fighting and the injustice and inaccuracy of stereotypes about pit bull type dogs.  The success of the dogs’ rescue and rehabilitation led to a wave of changes in laws not only about fight bust dogs but also about pit bulls in general.

Connecting individual acts of compassion to politics can make rescue even messier and more complicated than it already is.  However, it can also empower us and the animals we seek to help.

What do you think?  Should animal rescue be seen as a political movement or cause?  Can we avoid seeing it that way?