One of the threads running through the Unbound Project is a celebration of women who have made a difference for animals in previous eras. So often their stories are forgotten over time, and we want to change that. We want to celebrate these women and share their stories with the world. We were absolutely thrilled when we received a grant from Brock University that allowed us to hire Brittany Brooks to make a short animated feature about Ada Cole, an English woman who fought against the cruelty of the live horse export industry in the early 20th century.
Ada Cole did not set out to be an activist, but once she came face-to-face with the cruelty of the live export industry she knew she had to do something about it. She was an ordinary citizen who took matters in to her own hands. She witnessed cruelty and refused to look away. Cole used photography and film to document what she saw and hoped that the resulting images would get others to join her campaign against these cruel practices. As one might expect, she did not receive a warm welcome from those working in the live export industry and her efforts to take pictures were often thwarted. Cole hired a painter named Kurt Peiser to go undercover dressed as a dock worker so that he could sketch and paint what he was seeing as horses were unloaded from the ships that had sailed from England to Belgium.
Given the prevalence of visual encounters (witnessing, photography, film, art) in this story, we knew that we wanted to tell it in a very visually appealing way. We think that Brittany’s work is a perfect fit for The Unbound Project!
Brittany created over 100 hand painted water colour pieces for this animation and those paintings were then animated in Adobe After Effects.
We asked Brittany to tell us a bit about her involvement with this project.
Was there something about Ada Cole’s story that really stood out for you when you were doing the research for this project?
I was immediately drawn into Ada Cole’s story because of her ambition and determination. In a day and age when women did not even have the right to vote, Ada was driven to better the world for animals. I also found her story very inspiring because she used her camera as a tool of social justice. As a visual artist, it was exciting to see Ada use photographs and paintings to show the truth that people chose to ignore.
What did you learn by doing this project?
Before this project I had never heard of Ada Cole so I was very keen to begin researching her. Not only was I unfamiliar with her story, but I was also unaware of the way in which animals were being treated in the late 19th century. I learned how important activists like Ada were at this time who chose to question vivisection practices and were interested in animal welfare.
From a technical perspective, I learned many new animation techniques that I had never experimented with before. I used a process that required both analogue and digital methods. I began by using the research I had conducted to create a storyboard outlining the key points of Ada’s story. I then hand-painted all of the characters, backgrounds and scenery using gouache and scanned them into Photoshop where I separated each element from it’s background.
Using Adobe After Effects I was able to digitally animate the elements by layering and mapping their movement paths. Since I had never used a digital technique like this before I relied heavily on After Effects video tutorials and online forums. Combining my previous analogue animation experience and these new digital techniques I was able to create this work using an entirely new approach.
How important is art in connecting viewers with the past?
I think that art actualizes the past and is an invitation for viewers to look at a historical moment through a new lens. With Ada Cole’s story, information was not very easy to find and this required me to do some deep research. Hopefully this artwork will make Ada’s story more accessible and present viewers with a snapshot of her life and work in a via visuals and sounds.
What do you see as being the connection between art and activism/social justice?
Both artists and activists question boundaries and challenge cultural issues. Art becomes even more powerful when it is used as a tool of social justice as it acts as a vehicle that empowers individuals and communities. Art belongs to everyone and helps give a voice to those who want to share the truth and advocate for what they believe.
Why was this a project that you wanted to take on?
There were many reasons I signed up for this special project. It began by being very inspired by the mission of the Unbound Project and my desire to help celebrate these women who are interested in animal welfare.I listened to Jo-Anne McArthur give a lecture on her work and was absolutely taken by how powerful her photographs are. I also enjoyed that Unbound was a multimedia project and was open to using a variety of mediums and art forms to share these stories. I am so excited to be a part of Unbound, as it was a huge learning opportunity and a wonderful new challenge for me as an artist and activist.
Brittany Brooks is a multidisciplinary artist who splits her time between St. Catharines and Toronto, ON. Her practice includes, but is not limited to; visual art, performance and music.
Brittany recently earned her undergraduate degree from Brock University, majoring in Studio Art. She has participated in residencies at Spark Box Studios, White Rabbit Arts, and The Green Belt Gallery which cultivated her solo exhibition Rutabager and her original handmade layered projection show The Fireside Book of Fictitious Folk Songs. Her band Creature Speak released a full length album Shadow Songs, which has since drawn international praise from Bandcamp, Bitch-Media, Exclaim, Folk Radio UK and more. She is a Jr. Programmer for the In the Soil Arts Festival and is currently working at the Art Museum at The University of Toronto.
Philosophy, Activism, and an “Attentive Willingness to Reconsider One’s Duty Toward Others”
“Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.” – Iris Murdoch
Elisa Aaltola with Ida, Siiri, and Rosie
Dr. Elisa Aaltola is a force to be reckoned with. You only need to spend a short time in her presence before you become aware of two things: she is incredibly smart, and she uses her intellect to help create a better world for animals. Aaltola is a philosopher who believes that her chosen academic field has much to teach activists about how to most effectively work for change. She is a compassionate, engaging person with a mischievous smile and a twinkle in her eyes. She is attentive and curious, and eager to chat about her two great passions, animals and philosophy. Aaltola currently shares her home in Finland with 3 rescue dogs, Ida, Siiri and Rosie, who she considers to be part of her family. She recently had to say goodbye to Vincent, a Rottweiler/Pit mix who will always have a special place in her heart. Vincent was rescued from a home in which he was confined to a crate 24 hours a day. He was not given opportunities to exercise and was forced to live in his own excrement. His human companions didn’t want him, but “didn’t have the heart to euthanize him.” Thankfully compassionate activists rescued Vincent and he found his forever home with Aaltola. He was, at first, nervous and scared in his new home, so she decided to put him in a crate one night, thinking that this might help calm him down as that was what he had been used to. She spent that night on the floor next to the crate with her fingers woven through bars so that she and Vincent could touch one another for comfort. After that night they became inseparable—“he was my shadow,” she recalls. Vincent lived to be 17 and even though he never fully shook his anxiety he had many happy moments as part of Aaltola’s family.
Animals have always been an important and influential part of Aaltola’s life. She grew up in the country where she was surrounded by many different kinds of animals. She was just seven years old when she became abruptly aware of the connection between the animals she encountered on a day-to-day basis and the meat that appeared on the dinner plate after discovering the severed head of a cow in one of the barns she regularly visited. This was, of course, a deeply upsetting experience for young Aaltola. While the discovery of the cow’s head was disturbing enough, she was even more distressed when she realized that this was the head of a cow she recognized, a cow she had once lovingly petted. This shocking encounter was the first time she had realized that animals—including many she knew personally—were sent to slaughter.
A few years after this incident Aaltola decided to become a vegetarian, something that her family supported. In 2002 she became vegan after joining an animal rights group. She identified herself as a vegetarian at one of the first meetings that she attended, and this revelation was met with silence and glares–one of the members of the group demanded that she justify how she could not be a vegan and yet still be supportive of animal rights. She realized that she was unable to defend this position, so she turned the tables and asked the members of the organization to explain to her why she should go vegan. Within a few minutes she had been won over by their arguments, and has not looked back. This incident demonstrates that even though Aaltola has strong convictions, she is also open-minded and willing to engage with perspectives that are different from her own.
Aaltola’s family raised goats when she was young, and she fondly recalls the relationships she had with these animals, especially her friendship with a goat named Tuhkimo (“Cinderella”). Her parents allowed her to keep Tuhkimo as long as she promised to look after her, which she did. Aaltola developed a special friendship with Tuhkimo, and it was very difficult for her to move away when it was time for her to begin university. A few years after she left, her parents also moved and were no longer able to keep Tuhkimo, so she was sent to live at another farm. Aaltola was heartbroken when she did not have the chance to see Tuhkimo again, and she feels that this experience certainly influenced her current compassion for animals.
While Aaltola was attending university she became a member of a committee that oversaw the regulations and procedures for experiments involving animals on her campus. She purposely took a position on this committee so that she could be fully informed about animal experimentation taking place at the university, and so that she could have an active role in reducing the number of animals used in experiments at that school. This role gave her access to detailed records about the studies being done and she quickly realized that many mistakes were being made. For example, she was able to determine that pain medication was, at times, not being administered properly. She also noticed a lack of justification in terms of the number of animals involved in many of the studies. Aaltoloa spoke up about what she was finding and others on the committee (including the Chair of the committee and the veterinarian who was on the committee) began to pay attention to her complaints. While it may strike some as strange that someone dedicated to animal rights chose to be involved on a committee overseeing animal testing, Aaltola saw this as an opportunity to enact change from within the system—her motivation for taking this position on was to reduce suffering. She eventually quit over a proposed experiment that was to involve 36 beagles. The dogs were to be used in lethal toxicity tests for a fertilizing agent, and this proposal was so devastating to Aaltola that she could no longer stay involved with the committee. She also decided to leak the information about this proposed experiment to a Animalia, a Finnish Animal Rights group. This was a highly controversial move that angered many of her former colleagues on the committee, some of whom threatened to ruin Aaltola’s academic career over this action. This story made headlines and the increased attention resulted in the proposed experiment being cancelled.
Aaltola’s second great passion is for philosophy, and she sees her scholarly work in this area as having the potential to “help human animals to reflect on their attitudes toward nonhuman others, and thereby spark some change in how the latter are valued and treated.” Her father was a professor of philosophy and as she was growing up he would often share some of his work with her. This piqued her interest in the field, but it wasn’t until she was in university and one of her favourite professors brought animal ethics in to a philosophy lecture that she realized that it was possible to blend her academic work and her animal advocacy. While some might see philosophy as incompatible with animal rights—after all, as she points out, “philosophy as a discipline tends to be anthropocentric”—Aaltola sees philosophical debates as an essential for reframing the relationships that humans have with nonhuman animals. As she notes, “the nonhuman animal issue has slowly managed to become increasingly accepted as something that ‘serious philosophy’ can focus on.”
Aaltola is a prolific writer and lectures at both the University of Turku and at the University of Eastern Finland. She also frequently gives presentations outside the academic setting because she wants to “persuade people to consider veganism, and nudge them toward rethinking their attitudes toward animals.” She also feels that there are important insights that animal rights and animal liberation activists can take from philosophy and because of this makes a point of reaching beyond typical academic audiences with her work. This makes her quite different than many of her colleagues in philosophy, something that Aaltola thinks needs to urgently change.
I feel quite strongly that the ivory tower mentality of much of academic work is misplaced. Most philosophers write in a manner only accessible to other philosophers, and never seek to test their ideas among the broader audiences, nor try to make those ideas effective and helpful in practice – yet particularly if you are researching topics concerning morality or politics, this seems absurd, for surely seeking practical moral and political change is part of the process. Some activists feel that academic work is too far removed from the actual, on the ground campaigning that comprises the animal rights and animal liberation movements, but Aaltola takes issue with this, noting that “what the world needs is not less but far more academic research on animals.” What is crucial, she stresses, is that “this research needs to be made accessible and spread out far and wide, so that it can have more practical impact.” She agrees that much academic work is “inaccessible” and written for specialist audiences, but feels that this does not have to be the case, that academic work can certainly be used to “help nonhumans on a concrete level.” Her work stands as an important model in this respect.
As an example she points to her work on the importance of reason in activism. She notes that in recent years there has been “an affective turn” in many aspects of Western culture. In other words, there is more of a focus on emotions, and in the realm of philosophy this has translated in to a focus on the role of emotions in “making us into moral creatures.” What this means is that “the relevance of empathy has been underlined,” something that Aaltola sees as extremely important. There are, as she points out, many positive benefits to this shift, “since emphasising pure rationality is deeply problematic” and can lead to the exploitation of nonhuman animals. At the same time, however, she cautions both academics and activists from completely disregarding reason in the rush to embrace empathy, affect, and emotion. As she argues, “emotions—even empathy—can also be highly destructive from the perspective of how we treat others.” She elaborates by noting that, for example, “empathy tends to focus most on those who are closest to us or most similar to us, and thereby can even support social prejudices and hierarchies.” Aaltola also reminds us that emotions also, of course, include “negative and even hostile emotions such as shame, contempt, fury, pride, and so on,” and that “these negative emotions are important upholders of anthropocentric attitudes.”
What Aaltola wants people—especially those working to change the world for animals—to understand is that “celebrating emotions should not, therefore, be naive, for emotions can also spark inequality, power-relations, and instrumentalisation of others.” This recognition has important implications for activism, and Aaltola points out that “following emotions alone can lead to various dogmas and even fundamentalism, which alienate the broader audience, and fail to communicate persuasively the need for inter-species justice.” She uses the example of activists screaming things like “murderer!” at someone who eats meat. Of this tactic, Aaltola stresses that this “is not the most productive way of doing vegan outreach.” She feels that it is very important for activists to “pay attention to what sort of emotions they are raising in their audiences, and how/if their message is managing to spark reflection on anthropocentric emotions (such as contempt).” She believes that tactics that incite feelings of shame or anger can often be “counter-productive.” Further, she points out that even though encouraging empathy with other animals is important for activism, it is not enough, and that it “will fail to convince those, who are reason-orientated.” Her work, therefore, argues for a much more nuanced approach to animal advocacy.
Aaltola has found that people are generally quite receptive to her work, although it does often depend on the audience. Even though philosophy tends to be anthropocentric in focus, her academic colleagues have “generally given encouraging feedback” and “the nonhuman animal issue has slowly managed to become increasingly accepted as something that ‘serious philosophy’ can focus on.” She has found that her work has been less well received by those in the natural sciences and speculates that this may be because “many of them feel that how nonhuman animals are treated is a matter of ‘hard sciences,’ not moral or philosophical reflection.” She has often had scientists argue with her about what we are capable of knowing in terms of nonhuman animal emotions.
I often hear welfare scientists, veterinarians and cognitive scientists emphasising various points of “evidence” regarding animal minds (suggesting for instance that “we do not know if hens can experience joy”), whilst overlooking that the way in which that evidence is approached (and the fact that evidence is asked for) depends on our broader philosophical and cultural attitudes toward other animals.
She gives an example of a recent debate she had with a scientist whose research focuses on canine emotions. This scientist firmly believed “there was not enough evidence to suggest that dogs have emotions, or indeed that they are even conscious, aware creatures.” Aaltola “calmly tried to explain to him that ‘evidence’ in such a context may be absurd, and that his particular old-school way of searching for it is dependent on a philosophically naive take on what it is to have and know minds, and what ‘evidence’ means to begin with.”
Aaltola looks for opportunities to bring her work out of academic circles and frequently gives talks for broader audiences, something that is very much in line with her beliefs about needing to change the inaccessible culture of much academic work. In fact, she was one of the featured speakers at the 2015 International Animal Rights conference in Luxembourg, and it was there that we realized she would be an excellent fit for The Unbound Project. She finds that the responses she receives at events like this tend to be “mixed,” something she entirely anticipates. Some people come up to her afterwards and tell her “they had never thought of the issue properly before,” and that after hearing her talk they plan to become vegetarian or vegan. Other people “get angry or even furious” and find it insulting “that their customary ways of treating nonhuman animals should be philosophically criticised.” Aaltola has a calm, yet commanding presence when she speaks, and this undoubtedly allows her to reach a broad audience. As she notes, she her goal is to find “a way of speaking that does not spark hostility or cynicism, but rather change.” And Aaltola has witnessed first-hand how people can change–her mother used to have a rather harsh, utilitarian outlook when it came to animals, doing such things as poisoning animals who were considered “pests.” Today, however, Aaltola’s mother is passionate about animal rights. This shift in her mother’s understanding of how to treat animals has been really important for Aaltola to witness and has influenced the way she frames her work for a broader audience.
Aaltola lived in England for a while, but realized that she greatly missed the wildness of the Finnish countryside as she found the natural spaces of England were too manicured for her tastes. She moved back to Finland in 2010 and has since created a sanctuary for herself in an old house in the woods. Here she spends hours working at her desk, but when she needs to clear her head with a change of scenery she gathers Ida, Siiri and Rosie, and the four of them step outdoors to enjoy and explore the network of paths behind her house that wind deeper in to the forest. Aaltola finds that a peaceful, tranquil setting is essential for her work, and she moved from England to this space specifically seeking focus and clarity. This change of scenery has clearly been a positive one for Aaltola as she is an incredibly prolific writer and thinker. She has published dozens of essays (in both scholarly journals and popular magazines), and is also the author of number books on animal ethics. She is currently working on a book about “ineffable, non-lingual ways of understanding nonhuman animals,” and has two books about to be published—one on how empathy and moral psychology function within the framework of animal philosophy, and one on what she terms “omnivore’s akrasia,” which is an exploration of the philosophical tension that arises when a person does something that conflicts with their better judgement.
Aaltola cites female philosophers Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, and Iris Murdoch as her greatest inspirations as “they all challenged dominant moral and political notions not only with their writing, but also their personal choices and ways of life, which were quite bohemian and radical.” She especially admires “their capacity to step outside culturally accepted norms,” and is in awe of the fact that “they could do this in times which were still often aggressively antagonistic toward female philosophers.” While the work of Weil, de Beauvoir, and Murdoch is all quite different, the common thread that Aaltola sees in their philosophies is the “theme of attentive willingness to reconsider one’s duty toward others,” something that she feels is “always relevant also in the nonhuman context.”
When asked who she would like to see featured in the Unbound Project, Aaltola pointed to Lynn Sawyer, a “long-time UK activist, who has spent incredible amount of energy on helping other animals.” Of this nomination, Aaltola noted that “often male activists get the biggest credentials, and Lynn is one of the hard-working women, who have remained on the background. I don’t know her well, but I know much of her, and she is sheer devotion, empathy and humility.” We wholeheartedly agree with Aaltola’s nomination and feel that this description could also apply to her.
Elisa Aaltola, PhD, has published circa 35 peer-reviewed papers, three monographs and three edited volumes on animal philosophy. Her books include Animal Suffering: Philosophy and Culture (Palgrave MacMillan 2012), and Animal Ethics and Philosophy: Questioning the Orthodoxy (co-edited with John Hadley, Rowman & Littlefields 2014). She currently works as a Senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Eastern Finland (and as of 2016, will work as a Research fellow at the University of Turku).
“A Guiding Light for the Future”: Carolyn Merino Mullin’s Journey to Create the World’s First Museum Dedicated to The Human-Animal Bond
Carolyn Merino Mullin (photo by Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals)
Perhaps it all started with a photograph, a photograph taken in the 1980s of a prominent leader in the animal advocacy movement. It was 2006 and Carolyn Merino Mullin was doing spring cleaning in the office of the animal advocacy organization where she worked when she came across an old newsletter and her eyes stopped on this photograph. The man in the photograph was a recognizable figure, but what caught Mullin’s attention was his hairstyle – he was sporting a 1980s style mullet! She giggled to herself as she saw it (oh, how styles have changed!), but at the same time she also recognized that this photograph and the newsletter it was published in was a piece of history. “Who,” she wondered, “is collecting and preserving the history of animal advocacy?” As she sat in her office and pondered over whether to save or recycle the newsletter she held in her hands, she began thinking deeper about the need for the animal protection movement’s story to be archived. She knew there were museums dedicated to other social justice issues but could not recall ever having heard of an institution dedicated to preserving and collecting the historical material generated by animal advocacy groups. A bit of research confirmed her suspicion–there was no museum dedicated to this topic. This “epiphany moment” set the wheels in motion for the founding of the National Museum of Animals & Society (NMAS), the first museum of its kind in the world.
In 2014 NMAS featured an exhibit called “Light in Dark Places: Anti-Vivisection from the Victorian Era to the Modern Day.” (photo by Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals)
Be Kind to Animals Week® poster featuring artwork by “Edwina.” 1940s. Collection of Robert Penney. This image is part of the NMAS exhibition called “Be Kind: A Visual History of Humane Education.”
Miss B’Kind Club Blotter, c.1930s-1940s. Collection of National Museum of Animals & Society.
Beautiful Joe, published in 1893 by Margaret Marshall Saunders. Collection of National Museum of Animals & Society.
As founder of the NMAS Mullin had her work cut out for her. “Who starts a museum?” she laughed when I asked her about the challenges she has faced. Even though she had considerable experience working in museums and animal advocacy organizations, this marked the first time that she had set out to undertake a project of this scope and scale. This was, to be sure, a daunting task, but she drew inspiration from the many change-makers who had come before her. As someone who is passionate about the history of animal advocacy she recognized that there have been so many people who have taken risks and ventured in to new territories in order to make a difference for animals. She drew inspiration from people like Henry Bergh, founder of the first animal welfare organization in the USA, and Caroline Earle White, founder of the first animal shelter in the USA. Mullin recognized that many people had carved out niches in response to needs that they recognized, and embraced this pioneering spirit as she set out to create the world’s first museum dedicated to telling the story of the human-animal bond.
In 2010 the National Museum of Animals & Society was officially launched, at first existing only as an online museum. By 2014 Mullin and her team had moved into their first physical location in Los Angeles, and to date NMAS has curated 10 exhibitions on topics ranging from the history of the anti-vivisection movement to anupcoming exhibit called “Crazy Cat Ladies.” Many of these exhibitions have online or pop-up components that allow viewers to access much of the material after the physical exhibition has closed.
Through exhibitions, outreach, and programming NMAS aims to promote “respect for life and compassionate ethics in advancing healthy, meaningful interconnections with the animal world.” Care is taken to create engaging and thought-provoking exhibits that offer a wide range of material. In these installations and displays it is not uncommon to find art and science woven in to a narrative that also includes legal and historical aspects of the animal advocacy movement. While there are many difficult and disturbing aspects that make up the history of animal advocacy, Mullin and her team are careful to strike a balance with their curatorial and educational efforts. As she quips,” nobody wants to come to a museum and see an animal rights brochure!” NMAS doesn’t shy away from challenging subject matter, but there is always an overarching focus on the strength of the movement throughout its history.
Mullin sees animal advocacy as the “deepest and truest expression of the human-animal bond,” and this is what the various exhibits curated for NMAS attempt to convey. Within this framework there are many perspectives, voices, and stories–as she points out, “this is a living history and we are surrounded by this amazingly strong, diverse, global community. Knowing our history is powerful in the sense that it gives us a legacy to be proud of and momentum to keep fighting on.” Mullin feels that it is important for activists to know the history of the movement they are involved in because the past can serve as a “guiding light for the future.”
Mullin sees NMAS as a “different breed of a museum, one that has an impact on real lives of both humans and animals.” Over and over again she has witnessed the power of storytelling, how the narratives woven in to the exhibits have made a real difference in the lives of so many. For example, the exhibit called My Dog is My Home (curated by Christine Kim) explored the “experience of human-animal homelessness” and it brought together people from a wide variety of backgrounds and demographics. Some who were drawn to the exhibit simply because they love dogs have told Mullin that they learned so much through this exhibit and that, as a result, their behaviour and attitudes towards marginally housed people and their companion animals have radically changed. Likewise, the Uncooped exhibit (curated by Abbie Rogers and L.A. Watson) has had a profound impact on many viewers, changing the way they think about chickens. With every exhibition Mullin and her team spend much time thinking about the most effective way to tell the stories they want to tell. As she notes, “every exhibit challenges us to present the material in a new light, in a new way. You are never going to have the same range of responses with each exhibit. Museums are reaching dynamic audiences so we have to think about different ways of reaching people.”
2016 promises to be an exciting year for NMAS. Not only is a brand new permanent exhibition celebrating 200 years of animal advocacy in the United States slated to open (this permanent installation is curated by historian Diane Beers), but NMAS is also on the move! The museum is currently closed as the move to a bigger space in Los Angeles takes place. Look for the grand re-opening this Spring!
NMAS has a growing collection of objects and artefacts (over 10,000 items), but Mullin recognizes that this is just a fraction of all of the items that have been produced throughout the history of organized animal advocacy. She is actively seeking more items that help share the stories of this large and diverse movement. If you have an archive of photographs, letters, posters, banners, or other campaign materials that you aren’t sure what to do with, you might consider donating them to the NMAS collection. For more information on donating materials or on the museum, Carolyn Merino Mullin can be reached at info@museumofanimals.org.
Note: the phrase “Be Kind to Animals Week”® is a Registered Trademark of the American Humane Association and is used with their permission in the NMAS exhibition.
Dr. Aysha Akhtar’s Lifelong Commitment to Animal Advocacy
Dr. Aysha Akhtar is also an accomplished painter
“It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in power. We are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible, and which are not.” – Carl Sagan
Activism has long been an important part of Dr. Aysha Akhtar’s life. When she was a teenager she accompanied her mother and sister to protests and other animal protection events. Growing up in a family that believed in standing up for animals had a tremendous impact on Akhtar, and she appreciates that her mother—who she refers to as “the toughest little thing in animal rights”—instilled these values in her. She fondly recalls trips she took with her mother and her sister during the 1980s and 1990s. However, these were not typical family vacations. Instead, Akhtar and her family travelled up and down the east coast of the United States, getting up at the break of dawn in order to join other activists who were protesting pigeon, wild deer, and turkey hunts. She also recalls driving 16 hours round trip to and from Connecticut to attend a 2-hour animal protection demonstration. Akhtar describes her mother as having “the kindest heart I know toward anyone who is suffering,” and recalls one particular incident when her family was protesting a pigeon shoot, a scene of “pure violence and cruelty.” There were many who had gathered to protest the hunt, but there were also locals gathered to heckle the protesters. Tempers flared and at one point a man pulled a knife on her mother. Akhtar remembers her mother calmly saying, “go ahead, I dare you.” Witnessing her mother’s “tremendous courage,” in particular when she was standing up for someone innocent and vulnerable, had a profound impact on her.
Akhtar also credits a special dog named Sylvester for helping to develop her love of animals. Sylvester was her grandparents’ dog, the first animal she ever bonded with, and because of Sylvester she began to pay closer attention to other animals she encountered. As she recalls,
Through Sylvester, I became more aware of all the animals around me. As a kid I tried to become friends with and started to try to help so many critters around me. I took in orphaned birds and tried to rehabilitate them. I fed what I thought at the time were stray cats (but it turned out they were our neighbor’s cats who just happened to find a good deal at our place!). I learned to love animals.
Sylvester was a special friend and teacher, and he helped Akhtar through a traumatic time in her childhood. Akhtar finds that the lessons Sylvester taught her remain with her to the present day. (In fact, she is currently working on a book about the relationships and connections people have with animals and how those relationships impact our wellbeing, and Sylvester figures prominently in it.) She finds animals to be “great company” and is especially intrigued by the many ways in which they are so different from humans.
… what makes them so great is not just how they are so like us, but how they are so unlike us in so many ways. Their differences are what makes them so much fun to be around. This world would be so boring if it was only populated with humans. Whenever I was in the company of an animal, I learned to see the world differently. I saw the world through his or her eyes and it opened up my experiences with the world around me.
This sense of compassion for and curiosity about other animals has stayed with her throughout her life. Her experience with the suffering of animals greatly influenced her decision to become a doctor and her desire to alleviate all suffering.
Animal advocacy was a way of life when Akhtar was growing up, and it remains just as important to her today. Her friend, Dr. Alka Chandna, Senior Laboratory Oversight Specialist for PETA, believes that Akhtar is “just as passionate today as she was when she was a young girl.” Dr. Akhtar is now a neurologist and public health specialist who has made it her mission to explore and explain the connections that exist between human health and the wellbeing of animals. Her commitment to animal advocacy remains an important aspect of both her personal and professional life. “Aysha brings her extensive training and smarts to her advocacy,” Chandna stresses, “she has that rare gift of being able to master mind-bogglingly detailed and technical scientific concepts and present them to the public in an accessible, engaging, and even entertaining way.”
Through her love of science Akhtar became acquainted with Carl Sagan’s writings, and she quickly became a big fan, reading all she could get her hands on. The only time she ever skipped school was to attend one of Sagan’s lectures! Akhtar especially admires that Sagan had both a “curiosity about the world around us” and a sense of dedication “to using his curiosity to do good things.” She respects how Sagan did not shy away from taking an unpopular or controversial position if it meant speaking up about something he believed in.
Like Sagan, Akhtar is not afraid to speak out against the status quo on issues she feels are important. For instance, she strongly believes that in order to improve the health and welfare of humans it is essential that the wellbeing of animals also be taken seriously and greatly improved. For Akhtar the two issues are deeply connected, and her work is an important counter to suggestions that those who care about how animals are treated are somehow less concerned about human health. She has repeatedly demonstrated that the ways in which animals are treated have profound implications for public health concerns, and that much more attention needs to be paid to this connection.
When she was in medical school Akhtar noticed that there was no discussion in her classes about how the wellbeing of animals could be connected to major public health concerns, and that the focus tended to be more on treatment and less on preventing the issues in the first place. For example, she would learn about an infectious disease like SARS or the increase in heart disease in the United States, but was left asking questions about their root causes, causes that she was learning could frequently be linked back to broader systemic issues relating to the treatment of animals. She remembers being “increasingly frustrated” by these gaps in her education and became compelled to dig deeper in to the connections between human and animal health. As she notes, “if the people with power are going to ignore these connections, well, then I had to raise the issues.”
Today, through her writings and public talks, Akhtar demonstrates the range of ways in which the health and wellbeing of humans and animals are linked. For instance, she points to the ways in which viruses and infectious diseases can be associated with the cramped and unsanitary conditions that most animals who are raised for food in the 21st century live in. She also underscores that fluctuating weather patterns attributed to climate change can create health and safety risks for humans (e.g.: flooding, drought, scarcity of resources), and that industrial or “factory farming” practices are a leading contributor of climate change. On a related point, she notes that many humans put their lives in jeopardy when they refuse to evacuate an area hit by a natural disaster unless they are permitted to take their companion animals with them. In the realm of entertainment, there are numerous examples of animals in captivity harming those humans they are in closest contact with. The same is true with animals who are at the centre of the “exotic” pet trade. On the more positive side of the equation, Akhtar points to the many health benefits that are associated with sharing our lives with companion animals. Research has pointed to the ways in which having this kind of positive relationship with animals can help with things like stress and high blood pressure.
Animal experimentation is perhaps the most contentious arena in which human and animal health overlap. In this context, human health concerns are quite often pitted against the wellbeing of the animals who are tested upon—the issue is presented as a zero-sum game as if it is always necessary for either humans or animals to suffer. Akhtar’s work in this area presents an important alternative narrative. While she acknowledges that simply due to the sheer number of experiments being performed, we will learn some things from vivisection, she argues that animal experimentation is not as beneficial to human health as it is often touted to be and is, on the whole, counter to human health. She argues that animal experiments are largely ineffective because we can’t rely on them to predict human outcomes due to inter-species differences in physiology. The questions we should be asking, according to Akhtar, are: “is animal experimentation the most useful and most effective way to get information today? Do animal experiments accurately predict what we are going to find in humans?” Akhtar’s work in this area demonstrates that the answer to both of these questions is a resounding “no.” For example, she points to the fact that most drugs that pass pre-clinical trials (in which animal testing plays a large part) end up being ineffective and often downright unsafe for humans.
There are, therefore, many ways in which important human health concerns are clearly related to the welfare and wellbeing of animals. However, in spite of this growing recognition the changes in policies and approaches necessary to address these concerns have been slow to arrive. One of the few contexts in which Akhtar feels that connections between human and animal wellbeing has started to be taken seriously is in instances of domestic abuse. The recognition that victims of domestic violence may choose to stay in a dangerous situation because they can not face leaving their companion animals behind has led to a rethinking of guidelines and regulations for shelters in many communities. It is becoming increasingly common for domestic violence shelters to allow people to bring their companion animals with them when seeking refuge from an abusive situation.
Akhtar is encouraged by a growing interest in the connections between human and animal health among students wanting to work in public health. She has been contacted by many of them who want to know more about her work, and she attributes this to the fact that “younger generations are growing up in a world where concern for animals is a legitimate social issue and they are so excited to break free of old paradigms that view the welfare of humans and animals as separate.” She is optimistic about this shift because she knows that this next generation of public health practitioners will eventually enact the changes on this front that are so desperately needed.
Akhtar takes what she describes as a “friendly approach” when discussing these issues. She recognizes that when people start thinking about the many different ways that human health is positively or negatively impacted by animal welfare they may feel overwhelmed or defensive. She has found that the best strategy for combating this is to demonstrate to her audience that she understands these feelings, that in spite of her groundbreaking work in this area she is not that different from everyone else. As she notes, “I used to not think about these issues. I used to eat animals and yet, I loved my cats. I used to think animal experiments were necessary for human health. I was like everyone else.” This approach has helped to break down defenses and to create situations where people are more willing to hear her out, to think critically about these important connections between human health and the wellbeing of the animals we share the planet with.
When asked who she would nominate to be featured in The Unbound Project, Akhtar mentioned her sister Jabeen who spends a lot of her time volunteering with shelters that help homeless animals, doing such underappreciated tasks as cleaning out cat litter boxes. “She does not do it for attention,” Akhtar stresses, “she does it simply because it is work that helps homeless cats.” She also nominated the brave women who help shed light on animal cruelty through undercover investigations.
I truly cannot express my gratitude for their work. Without them, the abuses would never come to light. And, I cannot imagine how horrible and gut-wrenching it must be for these women to witness these abuses. I often wonder how many of them… have suffered PTSD as a result of this type of work. That is real sacrifice.
Akhtar admires “people with guts” and “folks who go against the tide, even if it means public humiliation or disdain from their friends or colleagues.” She believes that it is these people “who change history.” When asked what advice she has for young women aspiring to do the work that she does, Akhtar emphasized the need to be open to learning new things, to be willing to take chances, and to not be afraid to step outside of your “comfort zone.”
I have had to repeatedly go out of my comfort zone to do things that I did not want to do. I hated public speaking–as a child I had a learning disability in speaking and went to special ed classes for this. But because I so care about being effective in my work, I studied hard. I practiced public speaking again and again and studied the best speakers out there, past and present. I’m not saying I nailed public speaking by any means, but I have much more confidence to do it now. And I continue to practice and study to get better with time. I am constantly trying to improve myself—to be as effective as I can.
Akhtar also notes the importance of being true to oneself. For a number of years she downplayed her animal advocacy even though it is an important aspect of both her professional and personal life. A few years ago she decided to “come out” about this, to be proud and upfront about the fact that she is a doctor who “gives a damn about human suffering and gives a damn about animal suffering!” She urges anyone who feels compassion for animals to do the same, to speak out and to be true to themselves—“concern for anyone who suffers—human or non-human is not only okay, it’s right.” Akhtar is happy to speak with students and young people who are seeking advice on how to blend their concern for both human and animal health in their careers. She can be reached at aa@ayshaakhtar.com.
Dr. Akhtar is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and works for the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She serves as Lieutenant Commander in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to protect the public from public health threats. You can learn more about her work on her website.
As she works for the U.S. government, Dr. Akhtar has provided the following obligatory disclaimer: “The opinions expressed here are those of Dr. Akhtar and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. government.”
O ne of the threads running through the Unbound Project is a celebration of women who have made a difference for animals in previous eras. So often their stories are forgotten over time, and we want to change that. We want to celebrate these women and share their stories with the world. We were absolutely thrilled when we received a grant from Brock University that allowed us to hire Brittany Brooks to make a short animated feature about Ada Cole, an English woman who fought against the cruelty of the live horse export industry in the early 20th century.
Ada Cole did not set out to be an activist, but once she came face-to-face with the cruelty of the live export industry she knew she had to do something about it. She was an ordinary citizen who took matters in to her own hands. She witnessed cruelty and refused to look away. Cole used photography and film to document what she saw and hoped that the resulting images would get others to join her campaign against these cruel practices. As one might expect, she did not receive a warm welcome from those working in the live export industry and her efforts to take pictures were often thwarted. Cole hired a painter named Kurt Peiser to go undercover dressed as a dock worker so that he could sketch and paint what he was seeing as horses were unloaded from the ships that had sailed from England to Belgium.
Given the prevalence of visual encounters (witnessing, photography, film, art) in this story, we knew that we wanted to tell it in a very visually appealing way. We think that Brittany’s work is a perfect fit for The Unbound Project!
Brittany created over 100 hand painted water colour pieces for this animation and those paintings were then animated in Adobe After Effects.
We asked Brittany to tell us a bit about her involvement with this project.
Was there something about Ada Cole’s story that really stood out for you when you were doing research for this project?
I was immediately drawn into Ada Cole’s story because of her ambition and determination. In a day and age when women did not even have the right to vote, Ada was driven to better the world for animals. I also found her story very inspiring because she used her camera as a tool of social justice. As a visual artist, it was exciting to see Ada use photographs and paintings to show the truth that people chose to ignore.
What did you learn by doing this project?
Before this project I had never heard of Ada Cole so I was very keen to begin researching her. Not only was I unfamiliar with her story, but I was also unaware of the way in which animals were being treated in the late 19th century. I learned how important activists like Ada were at this time who chose to question vivisection practices and were interested in animal welfare.
From a technical perspective, I learned many new animation techniques that I had never experimented with before. I used a process that required both analogue and digital methods. I began by using the research I had conducted to create a storyboard outlining the key points of Ada’s story. I then hand-painted all of the characters, backgrounds and scenery using gouache and scanned them into Photoshop where I separated each element from it’s background.
Using Adobe After Effects I was able to digitally animate the elements by layering and mapping their movement paths. Since I had never used a digital technique like this before I relied heavily on After Effects video tutorials and online forums. Combining my previous analogue animation experience and these new digital techniques I was able to create this work using an entirely new approach.
How important is art in connecting viewers with the past?
I think that art actualizes the past and is an invitation for viewers to look at a historical moment through a new lens. With Ada Cole’s story, information was not very easy to find and this required me to do some deep research. Hopefully this artwork will make Ada’s story more accessible and present viewers with a snapshot of her life and work in a via visuals and sounds.
What do you see as being the connection between art and activism/social justice?
Both artists and activists question boundaries and challenge cultural issues. Art becomes even more powerful when it is used as a tool of social justice as it acts as a vehicle that empowers individuals and communities. Art belongs to everyone and helps give a voice to those who want to share the truth and advocate for what they believe.
Why was this a project that you wanted to take on?
There were many reasons I signed up for this special project. It began by being very inspired by the mission of the Unbound Project and my desire to help celebrate these women who are interested in animal welfare.I listened to Jo-Anne McArthur give a lecture on her work and was absolutely taken by how powerful her photographs are. I also enjoyed that Unbound was a multimedia project and was open to using a variety of mediums and art forms to share these stories. I am so excited to be a part of Unbound, as it was a huge learning opportunity and a wonderful new challenge for me as an artist and activist.
Brittany Brooks is a multidisciplinary artist who splits her time between St. Catharines and Toronto, ON. Her practice includes, but is not limited to; visual art, performance and music. Brittany recently earned her undergraduate degree from Brock University, majoring in Studio Art. She has participated in residencies at Spark Box Studios, White Rabbit Arts, and The Green Belt Gallery which cultivated her solo exhibition Rutabager and her original handmade layered projection show The Fireside Book of Fictitious Folk Songs. Her band Creature Speak released a full length album Shadow Songs, which has since drawn international praise from Bandcamp, Bitch-Media, Exclaim, Folk Radio UK and more. She is a Jr. Programmer for the In the Soil Arts Festival and is currently working at the Art Museum at The University of Toronto.
Brittany Brooks is a multidisciplinary artist who splits her time between St. Catharines and Toronto, ON. Her practice includes, but is not limited to; visual art, performance and music.
