What Is Italian Antispeciesism? An Overview of Recent Tendencies in Animal Advocacy

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   The first independent translation was provided by LAV, Lega Anti Vivisezione (Anti-vivisection League, 1977–current). Several years later the book was published by an official editor, Mondadori.

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   Original edition: 1983

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   According to Eurispes 2019, the percentage of Italian vegetarians and vegans is 7.3% of the population, meaning +0.2% compared to 2018, −0.3% compared to 2017, −0.7% compared to 2016, and +1.4% compared to 2015. Such oscillation indicates the instability of the phenomenon, but these fluctuations could be due to a limitation in data collection due to response bias, stigmatization issues, or distinct personal definitions of vegetarianism and veganism.

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   Consider the success of ruthless business operations like the label Vegan OK (2000–current), which identifies wholly vegan products on supermarket shelves.

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   The first Italian vegetarian association, founded in 1952 by Aldo Capitini, was called Società Vegetariana (Vegetarian Society). Capitini, an anti-fascist philosopher and politician, is known as the “Italian Gandhi” and initiated the famous Perugia-Assisi Peace March.

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   With strategies analogous to the American PETA (1980–current), Animalisti Italiani adopted as a sponsor porn star Rocco Siffredi, with slogans like “Pene più dure” (“Harsher penalties” but also “A harder penis”) for those who abandon their pets.

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   By “ecumenical” we mean here that the approach aims at uniting all animal advocates, regardless of their political ideas and the tactics they use.

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   Much attention has been given recently to her book, Tritacarne (Innocenzi 2017).

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   This is a quote of a famous Italian song entitled La coppia più bella del mondo (Adriano Celentano and Claudia Mori 1968). Such quote sounds extremely weird referring to an animal advocate and a chef who supports culinary traditions and practices that are strongly meat-based, ferociously adverse to veganism.

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    Similar online initiatives have been promoted in the past years, for example, by the network Agire Ora (Act Now, 2003–current).

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    The present analysis of Mainstream Positions, including self-defined antispeciesist activists and influencers whose political postures go from liberal to populist, excludes those figures affiliated with right-wing political movements that could hardly fit into the theoretical framework of antispeciesism. For an examination of this area of activism, we refer to the booklet Conoscerli per isolarli (2016) by Antispefa: https://antispefa.noblogs.org/files/2016/02/Conoscerli-per-isolarli-antispefa-2016.pdf. This text precedes the formation of Movimento Animalista (2017–current) by Vittoria Brambilla, publicly endorsed by Silvio Berlusconi. For a more updated retrospective, see Bertuzzi and Reggio (2019).

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    Particularly the campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (1999–2014) in the UK

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    In 2018 Professor Mormino launched the first official course on animal studies in Italy, at the University of Milan. Thanks to the efforts of Mormino and others, the University of Milan has recently become a centre for research, seminars, and conferences about the question of animality.

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    Although the first complete Italian translation of Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat was published by Vanda in early 2020, excerpts of the book and other essays by the famous eco-feminist have been published before, for example, in 2010 in Liberazioni 1, 23–56, and in Filippi and Trasatti (2010: 23–38).

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    http://bioviolenza.blogspot.com/2015/06/lettera-aperta-ciwf-compassion-in-world.html

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    https://resistenzanimale.noblogs.org/

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    This is a project about the public stigmatization of veganism and vegetarianism: http://it.vegephobia.info/

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    In Italian, the definition of these places as shelters rather than sanctuaries is prevailing.

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    See also the recent documentary by Davide Majocchi entitled No Pet. Liberi e randagi (No Pets: Free and Stray, 2018).

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    Originally published in English as a journal article, in Italy Simonsen’s text was published as a book.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

   Giorgio Losi

2. Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy

   Niccolò Bertuzzi

Editors and Affiliations

1. University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

   Felice Cimatti

2. Messerli Research Institute, Vienna, Austria

   Carlo Salzani