ABSTRACT
This chapter will explore the complex relationship between animal rights, feminism, scientific advances in animal welfare, and changing public attitudes to farmers. Animal rights philosophy emerged in the 1970s, and it is now a worldwide phenomenon, but it is unclear how far it has influenced public opinion on hunting. For example, some hunt saboteurs read Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, but many others were motivated more by the politics of direct action. Indeed, other factors seem to have had a greater influence on attitudes to animals in general, such as traditional animal welfare concerns, wildlife conservation and growing affection and compassion for the wild animals portrayed in visual culture. The increasing philosophical and scientific interest in animals and their behaviour from the 1970s, based on an emerging appreciation that animals experienced pain and suffering, undermined traditional support for hunters.
