where science and ethics intersect with politics
Today is Earth Day, and today is the 10th anniversary of the Humane Party, which was founded on the fundamental ideas of abolition of exploitation. The party’s hundreds of volunteers and thousands of followers see the necessity of such a party when the current political parties always seem to offer more of the same. The Humane Party’s platform is different. It is far-reaching and encompasses ideals beyond safeguarding the environment and ending the suffering of species.
In recognition of the Humane Party’s 10th birthday, here’s a brief account of some milestones from the organization’s first decade. … More
As the 10th anniversary (April 22) of the official launch of the Humane Party approaches, it may be beneficial to … More
This Thursday, December 6, 2018, marks the third annual celebration of Abolition Day. Abolition Day was launched by the Humane Party in 2015 both (i) to commemorate the end of human slavery in the United States (1865) and (ii) to promote the abolition of all slavery. The date of December 6 was chosen for this national celebration because it was on this day in 1865 that the number of states necessary to ratify the 13th Amendment was reached.
Carnist candidates swept elections in all 50 states on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. While the Democrat-Republicans retain their exclusive hegemony in both houses of the U.S. Congress as well as in all 50 state legislatures, more than one billion animals are tortured, mutilated, raped, molested, kidnapped, and killed each year in the U.S. These violent and perverse acts remain legal as a direct result of Democrat-Republican political supremacy at the state and federal level. However, ramp-up for the 2020 U.S. Senate, House, and Presidential races begins immediately. There is no time for delay. Environmentalists, animal rights activists, vegans, and abolitionists who wish to halt and reverse this process are invited to run for office.
Each year, more than a billion animals are mutilated, tortured, kidnapped, raped, slashed, electrocuted, strangled, burned, skinned, and/or killed in U.S. vivisection laboratories, slaughterhouses, and other mass-killing facilities. On Election Day, November 6th, 2018, all of that could change.
At this special moment in history, we are witnessing a revolution in philosophy and political science: the zoocracy system of government extends the political franchise beyond the species barrier to include all forms of sentient life. The Humane Party has been developing the zoocratic system and the HP’s future governing body, the Humane National Committee (HNC).
Earth Day 2018 (Sunday, April 22) will mark the 9th anniversary of the launch of the Humane Party. As per tradition, the HP will also release its bi-annual party platform on Earth Day. The 2018-19 platform includes two new sections and several significant updates.
In support of the Humane Party‘s zoocracy concept and model, the present article seeks to offer a conceptual framework that may be regarded as fully including personhood but also as being more comprehensive, with respect to the goal of animal protection, than that of personhood alone, namely, that of “peoplehood.” Personhood does not necessarily imply peoplehood, and, without recognition of this latter concept—recognition of other animals’ cultures, their relationships, their languages and communication styles, their full-fledged existence, dignity, and sovereignty as other “peoples”—animal-protection measures will tend to be severely under-inclusive in theory and under-performing in practice.
Zoocracy is a representative form of government in which members of all sentient species—not just homo sapiens—hold permanent political power of equal dignity. Zoocracy is akin to democracy, in that decisions are made by vote of an enfranchised population. But democracy pertains to an enfranchised population that is limited to humans, whereas zoocracy extends the franchise to all species.
On April 4, 2017, Judge Maria Alejandra Maurício of the Third Court of Guarantees of the Judiciary in the Argentinean State of Mendoza ruled that Cecília, a chimpanzee living alone in a concrete enclosure at the Mendocino Zoo in Argentina, had the right to health and happiness.
On April 1st, 2017, the Position of Chief Executive Officer of the Humane Party Rotates from Clifton Roberts to Shelley Harrison
On March 14, 2017, the Berkeley City Council will discuss a proposal to ban the sale of fur in the city. The proposal is the result of a petition started by the group Berkeley Coalition for Animals (BCA), a volunteer-led coalition addressing issues of animal rights legislation, business, and culture.
The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) has developed a partnership with the Good Food Institute and UCB’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) that challenges students to develop plant-based meat alternatives in a semester-long course.
Jeb, a service dog in Michigan, was accused of killing a neighbor’s dog. DNA testing was used to prove his innocence. Without the DNA testing, Jeb would have been destroyed (i.e, killed) as a legally “dangerous animal.”
Diane Gandee Sorbi was charged with theft for rescuing a dying hen during a DxE undercover investigation of Costco egg supplier Pleasant Valley Farms.
The Humane Herald 