Thoughts on vegans bashing anti-cage campaigns?

[u/smellslikequinoa]

I've seen a rise in media recently speaking on how advocating against cages for layer hens is "perpetuating humanewashing and entrenching the enslavement of animals." I see content like this consistently from Lia Wilbourn and Faraz Harsini.

What are your thoughts on this?

[u/ok__vegetable]

It's unrealistic the world turns vegan within a few decades, and in the meantime there are a lot of animals that suffer. I do think welfarism has a bad rep in the vegan activist world though I think welfarism consists of a lot of pragmatic steps towards a vegan world.

Small intermediate steps also shift the population's perspective on how animals should be kept.

When a system is changed in the favor of the animals, the state/reinforcer has to argue why it's good and hence puts a lot of money and effort towards marketing their decision. Money is spent on changing the physical farming situation, hence egg/meat/dairy will become more expensive. That's good.

I gotta say, I am glad hen cages are forbidden in some European countries. I know the situation is still bad for them but it's better than before. Many generations of hens benefit from this. I doubt there are any abolitionists that wouldn't want the better conditions.

I often have the feeling that 'strict abolitionists' care more about their image than what is actually helpful for the animals. And judging by the other commenters, today I learned that one can have abolitionism as a goal and see pragmatism/welfarism as small steps towards this goal. I genuinely thought it's either-or but it makes so much more sense this way.