He's worked for environmental and human protection organizations. He founded the Student Animal Rights Alliance, the organization that started "Liberation Now," the National Student Animal Rights Conference. At age 22, Patrick Kwan is a true leader in the movement to alleviate animal suffering.
Laurel: What prompted you to start the Student Animal Rights Alliance?
Patrick: I started the Student Animal Rights Alliance after taking a year off to work for Amnesty International. I saw the incredible youth support network of Amnesty International. I started from there and I got more involved in youth organizing at Amnesty International, in the animal rights movement, and also in the Center for Environmental Citizenship, an environmental group, of which I was a former youth advisory board member. I started looking at the animal rights movement, and I go, "You know what? There are so many young people involved in the animal rights movement, but there's no one organization dedicated to youth mobilization. From then on, I just started it.
What are some of the things the Student Animal Rights Alliance does?
We are a small organization. We've done the national Student Animal Rights Conference each year. This past February we added a new program called our "Grassroots Training Program" where we brought together 15 incredible young activists for a week. They were given media training, public speaking skills training, and they learned how to launch campaigns and actions.
This year we're adding an event called "Get on the Hill." This is the very first training and student lobby day. We started the program after realizing there are so many young people who are interested in taking political action for animals. There are so many people out there, especially with the huge explosion of law schools that are offering Animal Law, so we have all these people out there interested in taking political action, yet there wasn't organization getting them involved in this. We are hoping that this will lead many of them taking much more political action down the road.
Currently we are working with PETA2 on a series of regional student action conferences. They are going to happen in the spring.
How successful have the past two Liberation Now conferences been?
The very first conference was bigger and more successful than we ever could have dreamed. We were expecting 70 people Friday night to hear Carol Adams talk, so we decided to get a regular classroom. Much to our amazement and shock, over 200 people showed up. Carol Adams was extremely thrilled.
The next day another 100 people signed up. That was when Ingrid Newkirk was delivering her speech where we over packed an auditorium.
How is this year's conference going to stand out from the last two?
We have some incredible speakers lined up. I think this year's speakers list is the best we've had. The highlight this year is definitely Peter Singer who will be delivering our opening address. He's someone many people have asked for. We also have Ingrid Newkirk returning and everybody loves Ingrid! We have Carol Adams and Gene Bauston, the co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. Another great person we're looking forward to having is David Wolfson. He will be teaching the Harvard Animal Law course. Wayne Pacelle, the Vice President of the Humane Society of the United States will be there. One of the reasons we're thrilled to have him is because he actually started the Yale Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals when he was in college.
Have there been any obstacles you have had to overcome?
A: For the Student Animal Rights Alliance, just getting started and getting people to support our work were obstacles. A lot of people in the animal rights movement have seen youth outreach mobilization as just "we'll go and talk to them, give them a lecture, throw some literature at them." If you're going to educate people about veganism and animal rights, you also have to take the very next step and educate them about how they can take action for animals. I think that really reflects in our conferences, where we sincerely believe young people are not only leaders of tomorrow, they are leaders of today.
At the Animal Rights 2003 East conference, you spoke about lack of diversity in the movement. Could you tell me more about that?
The SARA mission statement is to build a strong and diverse movement for animals. If we look at ecosystems, we understand that it's important to have different organisms; it's something that keeps an ecosystem alive. I think for movements it's the very same thing. If you're not reflecting society as it is, you will just become more homogeneous. The animal rights movement has not been doing its part in building diversity.
There's opinion poll after opinion poll showing people of color have interest in animal rights. One of the most interesting ones was a Zogby poll commissioned by PETA where over 86% of Hispanic women and youth said there needs to be stronger laws to protect farmed animals. That's higher than any other ethnic group! Hispanics and blacks are more likely than whites to support laws for humane treatment of farmed animals. Diversity and building diversity are not just something you talk about and write about; you have to actually go out there and work on it.
I'm hoping in the near future to do a people of color grassroots training program. At our conferences, we have had over 20% people of color.
Anything else you'd like to add?
There are surely many people to thank but the Student Animal Rights Alliance really couldn't have existed without the help of my two ex-roommates: Amanda Moeckel, who came up with the crazy idea of a national conference with me, and Paul Shapiro, who has done too much to list, especially in the area of keeping me sane-though some may say he really hasn't been doing that great of a job in this area!
--
Send feedback about this interview
