Animal rights activists, NRA use similar tactics

Sara Lilygren, former Tyson Foods vice president of corporate affairs, says animal rights activists and the National Rifle Association use similar tactics to implement change. When it comes to implementing change, two distinctly different causes take similar avenues. Both camps have an agenda they are pushing to implement change, and both have used the same tactics in order to initiate change.While policy changes, whether related to animal agriculture or gun issues, should be made with the input of the general public considered, that isn’t always what happens.Lilygren said the animal rights lobby went straight to decision-makers rather than the consumers who buy the eggs and/or pork products.“This is what was interesting to me. Consumers weren’t the audience,” said Lilygren. “It was policymakers who didn’t want to be shamed in one way or another or blackmailed, or embarrassed. Or in some cases, it was big retail and foodservice companies who didn’t want to be shamed or blackmailed or embarrassed.”Lilygren said in the case of gestation crates: “Consumers didn’t know what it was or didn’t even care about it.” But retailers who sell those products do, and for a lot of different reasons.