Policies

Want to submit content to the Animal People Forum? Great! But first, please read our policies:

ANIMAL PEOPLE is an animal rights charitable organization dedicated to the principle that animals’ lives have intrinsic value apart from human interests. We believe there is an urgent need to cultivate human compassion for the other creatures with whom we share the earth. To that end, ANIMAL PEOPLE seeks to further animal advocacy by providing a global forum in which people who care about animals can speak and be heard. Not only do we welcome diverse philosophical, cultural, and spiritual perspectives from within the animal rights community, we invite submissions that challenge the theoretical concepts upon which the animal defense movement is based. Employing the Socratic method of the dialectic as a means of uncovering universal truths through the dynamic interaction of opposing ideas, we believe it is possible to arrive at a deeper understanding of truth. However, being well aware that most of the daily work of caring for animals involves cleaning, feeding, and health care, we also invite submissions dealing with the mundane aspects of animal care.

Definition of Animal Rights

So as to include the widest possible range of perspectives, we define "animal rights" to mean simply the belief that non-human animals' lives and experiences deserve human moral or ethical consideration, apart from and irreducible to any practical value they may have for human use. Under this umbrella definition, we recognize a vast array of diverse ethical theories, lifestyles, and approaches to activism, including ones not expressly affiliated with the animal rights movement, all of which are welcome for discussion on the Animal People Forum.

Perspectives in opposition to animal rights, as here defined, are invited as well, provided they are clearly identified as such and valuable for generating discourse on issues relevant to animal rights concerns.

The views expressed on the Animal People Forum, including those of Animal People employees and board members, do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Animal People, Inc. However, we reserve the right to issue official statements of position on topics we deem important to the fundamental integrity of the animal rights movement. Official statements of position require unanimous agreement by all members of Animal People's board of directors, and will be clearly identified and posted in the name of Animal People, Inc. rather than any individual.

Policy on Violence

Arresting the cycle of violence in human affairs is of greater importance than the accomplishment of any single tactical objective... whether trying to stop the slaughter of animals for food, fur, sport, or religious rituals; addressing the scientific use of animals; or dealing with any other particular exploitation of animals. We enjoy the opportunity to address social injustices, inequities, and cruelties (toward animals, children, women, LGBTQIA people, poor people, and racial, ethnic, and religious groups) because we are privileged to live in a democratic society, which through the effort of generations of our forebears has (however tenuously at times) replaced the old paradigm of "might makes right" with respect for the rights of individuals, democratic process, public debate, freedom of expression, and divergent points of view.

Part of our social contract as civilized people is that we agree to trust in the ability of our ideas to persuade, and to operate within established systems until they can be improved by peaceful means.

We believe that no principle should be more inviolable than the principle that violence - including psychological violence such as intimidation, the invasion of familial privacy, and engagement with persons not responsible for or directly involved in issues (such as relatives of parties with whom there is a dispute) - must never be employed as means to achieve moral progress and advance social change.

Protesters have the right to express dissent, rally, and even agitate in order to arouse public concern in the hope of prompting action, but demonstrations, rallies, and actions involving civil disobedience should be held at appropriate sites, such as public areas including shopping malls, universities, government buildings, or office buildings connected to the issues of concern.

Submissions Policy

We welcome submissions from anyone of any background, on any topic relevant to animal rights (see Definition of Animal Rights). Perspectives in opposition to animal rights are also invited, provided they are clearly identified as such and relevant to animal rights concerns.

All submissions will be reviewed by an administrator pending approval for publication on the website. We reserve the right to correct spelling and grammatical errors, adjust formatting, and make other minor revisions for the sake of clarity or factual accuracy, but will strive to avoid changes that risk altering the substance or voice of the article. If substantial revisions are deemed necessary, we will request that the author rewrite and resubmit the piece.

In an effort to make the Animal People Forum globally accessible, we have enabled Google Translate to provide instantaneous translation of all articles between any of 90+ languages. Accordingly, we will accept submissions in any language supported by Google Translate. However, please note that due to the imperfect nature of automatic translation, our administrators will be more limited in their ability to provide feedback for articles in languages other than English.

In general, we will decline submissions that are topically irrelevant, factually inaccurate, potentially libelous, obscene or pornographic, that encourage violence toward animals (including humans), advocate terrorism or psychological violence as an activist tactic, solicit support for violent activities, or that otherwise fail to meet our professional standards. While we encourage criticism of any and all practices harmful to animals, including ones with cultural or religious significance, we will not accept pieces that promote bigotry or discrimination on the basis of sex, race, age, social class, disability, color, creed, national or cultural origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

We reserve the right to make exceptions to the above restrictions, for submissions we deem highly important for generating discourse on animal rights, in cases where editing such pieces to conform with our general standards would significantly detract from their effectiveness or usefulness.

The copyright for all submitted material, including media (such as images, videos, and audio tracks) used in your work, should be owned by you, used and credited under a public copyright license (e.g. Creative Commons) or in accord with the principles of fair use, or in the public domain. See Copyright and Fair Use. If media is in violation of copyright, or its legal ownership cannot be determined, we reserve the right to omit it or substitute a similar file.

By submitting a piece to the Animal People Forum, you grant Animal People, Inc. a perpetual non-exclusive license to distribute said piece, in whole or in part, with proper attribution, in any electronic, print, or other medium currently existing or yet to be invented. All other applicable rights to your work will remain your own.

Social Networking Rules

Animal People Forum users are welcome to use our social network to post statuses and links visible only to contacts, without requiring administrative approval. Nonetheless, we expect all users to abide by the rules listed below. We reserve the right to delete content that violates these terms, and repeat offenders may have their accounts suspended or terminated.

The following actions are not permitted on the Animal People Forum's social network:

• Encouraging violence against animals (including humans), advocating terrorism or psychological violence as an activist tactic, or soliciting support for violent activities

• Making hateful statements or promoting bigotry on the basis of sex, race, age, social class, disability, color, creed, national or cultural origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity

• Any form of cyber-bullying, including threatening, harassing, or abusive language toward other users, or doxxing, the sharing of others' personally identifiable information (including home addresses or private contact information)

• Sharing pornography or linking to pornographic sites, except for the purposes of exposing or protesting depictions of cruelty to animals

• Linking directly to a donations or fundraising page, either in one's profile or through the activity feed

Animal People, Inc. lacks the time or resources to monitor all content posted to the Animal People Forum social network. We rely on users to report violations of the above terms.

Animal People, Inc. respects the privacy of the Forum's users, and we do not read private messages sent between users. However, we take reports of harassing, threatening, or abusive messages very seriously, and confirmed offenders may have their accounts suspended or terminated.

Privacy Policy

In order to submit material for publication on the Animal People Forum, or utilize the Animal People Forum's social network, users must first register an author account on the site. The registration process requires that one submit a legitimate e-mail address, display name and username of their creation to Animal People, Inc. Of these, only the display name and username will be publicly viewable. Users may choose to submit additional personal data, including but not limited to their organizational affiliation, location, gender, and animal issues of interest. This information is purely voluntary, and by choosing to submit such data users consent to it being publicly displayed on their user profile page and/or author biography underneath published submissions. Animal People, Inc. accepts no liability for any consequences that may follow the user's decision to publicly share personal data via the Animal People Forum.

Users may delete their author accounts at any time, by navigating to their account profiles and selecting the "Settings" tab. All user data will thereafter be completely irrecoverable, except for articles accepted and approved for publication on the Animal People Forum, to which Animal People, Inc. retains a perpetual non-exclusive right of distribution as per our Copyright and Fair Use policy.

Additionally, visitors to the Animal People Forum may subscribe to our e-mail list to receive regular newsletters as well as occasional updates, alerts, and appeals via e-mail. The subscription process requires that one submit a legitimate e-mail address and display name to Animal People, Inc. Neither will be publicly viewable. Our e-mail list is hosted by AWeber, whose privacy policy may be viewed at this link. Users may unsubscribe from this list at any time using the link at the bottom of all Animal People, Inc. bulk e-mail communications.

Animal People, Inc. strives to comply with all relevant legal regulations concerning online communications and personal data, including state and federal U.S. privacy laws and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Except as described above, Animal People, Inc. will never disclose, trade, sell, or otherwise disseminate any user's personal data without first obtaining their permission.