Famous Vegans - Steven Best

Steven Best in London, 2007.

Steven Best

Born December 1955. He is an American Animal Rights Activist, author, talk-show host and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas El Paso. He is the co-founder of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS), a group dedicated to the philosophical discussion of animal liberation. He also co-founded the Animal Liberation Press Office, which acts as a media office for several animal rights groups, including the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). He is an editor of the 2004 book Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals and the 2006 book Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth. He also co-wrote the 2011 book The Animal Liberation Front. You can find his website at this link.

Quotes by Steven Best:

"In 1987 I read Peter Singer’s book, Animal Liberation. Like so many other people, that book changed my life in an instant. I became ill from the emotional stress of what I was learning about the exploitation of animals in factory farms, slaughterhouses, vivisection labs, and other human-manufactured hellholes."

"Realizing that animals suffered far more than human beings in the quantity and quality of their pain, suffering, and death, I shifted from human rights to animal rights activism. Whereas most human beings have at least some rights, no animals have the most basic right to life and bodily integrity. When I studied the impact of meat production on world hunger and the environment, I realized that by helping the animals I would also be helping humans in the most productive way possible. I saw animal rights as the most radical, complete, and holistic form of activism."

"Vegan outreach and education is the most radical strategy, in the literal sense that it gets to the root (“radic”) of the problem, which is the uncompassionate and ignorant preference for a carnivorous rather than vegan diet and lifestyle. But as this lengthy education process unfolds – and as, sadly, more, not less, animals are killed each year for food despite every education effort -- we also need to stop the torture animals undergo after the alleged stunning process, and we need to end factory farming."

"While animal welfarism simply acquiesces to the objectification of animals as property, the animal rights and (direct action) animal liberation movements challenge it head-on. The ALF, for instance, de-commodifies animals by removing them from their cages and adopting them to loving homes."

When asked about whether he supports violence as a legitimate tactic for animal liberation, he answered:

"That depends on what you mean by “violence.” I do not include attacks on inanimate objects as violence (vandalism, sabotage, and other terms work better here), but I certainly do include assaults on animals. ... if the term involves this circumscribed speciesist definition that favors the interests of animal exploiters over exploited animals, then, yes, I support “violence” in any situation where it will liberate an enslaved animal."

"Why are the anti-Nazi resistance fighters heroes, and the ALF are terrorists? Why is violence acceptable to use in defence of human beings but not animals? This gross inconsistency ought to embarrass every unprejudiced and logical person and it is a scandal when paraded about by a so-called “animal advocate.” It is just a disguised form of speciesism whereby extraordinary actions are courageous and laudable if done on behalf of human animals but despicable and deplorable if taken for nonhuman animals."

"That said, I do not advocate physical violence against human beings as an ethical or effective tactic for the animal liberation movement. It is a moral imperative to first pursue peaceful methods of change to bring about justice for an oppressed group; if these channels are blocked, however, it is a defensible and legitimate alternative to use violent means of struggle. ... I do not endorse violent solutions to a political conflict lightly, but nor am I a pacifist. I am too much a realist about political dynamics and “human nature,” and too adamant a defender of animal rights."

When asked about why he openly supports the ALF, he answered:

"All paths are necessary. ... the ALF has never used physical violence against any animal exploiter. And like all contemporary movements fighting for peace, justice, and human rights, the ALF intends to help secure all these values for the most defenseless victims of all, the animals who are utterly dependent upon us for their liberation."

"Over the last three decades of operation in the UK, the US, and throughout the world, the ALF has rescued and released countless thousands of animals no one else could, they have weakened and shut down many industries and sadistic vivisection projects, and they have obtained video documentation of animal exploitation that has provoked valuable change and public dialogue."

"For those in the aboveground movement who cannot join the underground it is important they at least show support for those who work with masks in whatever way they can. It is crucial that all aspects of the animal advocacy movement – welfare, rights, and liberation standpoints -- co-exist in a pluralistic environment. Every possible tactic – both legal and illegal – is needed to win the fight for animals."

Quotes are from his 2004 interview with Claudette Vaughn of Vegan Voice.