Rights of Animals, Perceptions of Science, and Political Activism: Profile of American Animal Rights Activists

This article reports original research examining characteristics of the active followers of the American animal rights movement. Typical respondents were Caucasian, highly educated urban professional women approximately thirty years old with a median income of $33,000 (1989). Most activists think of themselves as Democrats or as Independents, and have moderate to liberal political views. They were often suspicious of science and made no distinctions between basic and applied science, or public versus private animal-based research. The research suggests that animal rights activism is in part a symbolic manifestation of egalitarian social and political views concerning scientific and technological change.