Ludar Animal Behavior

Occupational Requirements

LAB originally began as a collective of Animal Care professionals seeking to disrupt the status quo of, dismantle the harmful systems of, and ultimately decolonize the Animal Care sector through volunteer efforts. However, it is not a requirement that community members be animal care professionals. It is not a requirement that you work a “job” at all.

The only occupational requirements are these: no cops, no landlords, and no ABA professionals.

Anti-Hierarchy

Members recognize or are earnestly developing recognition that:

• All hierarchical power structures should be abolished, such as racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ageism, ableism, fatphobia, speciesism, religious discrimination, the state, capitalism, and all other forms of abuse through hierarchical domination.
• All systems of domination and oppression must be opposed.
• We must amplify the voices of the marginalized.
• All people should have an equal voice in determining our common future.
  

Anti-Capitalism

Members recognize or are earnestly developing recognition that:

• Economic democracy is essential for the preservation of our ecosystems and the self-determination of our communities.
• We cannot tolerate the capitalist economic model and we must seek its abolition.
• We must strive for leadership and governance which places economic decision-making in the hands of communities and workers through communal, cooperative economics, and an ethic of mutual aid.
  

Social Ecology

Members recognize or are earnestly developing recognition that:

• The fate of humanity is intertwined with all other life on Earth.
• We braid together the holistic and reconstructive threads of indigenous knowledge and ecological science.
• Capitalism is killing life on our planet, and we are fighting to sustain life by reharmonizing human societies with the rest of the natural world.
  

Dual Power Prefiguration

Members seek to transform the current oppressive society through the creation of horizontal alternatives. Members must share a commitment to help prefigure the creation of horizontal power structures controlled by the community which countervail and eventually abolish the current social structure, creating a new form of social organization based on solidarity, autonomy, and mutual aid.

Intersectional Unity

Members must recognize the unique forms of oppression that can be found at the intersections of gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, sexuality, class orientation, disabilities, and other aspects of identity. Under no circumstances should members tolerate or enable discrimination, bigotry, or the reduction of forms of oppression. Members must strive for the liberation of all who face the many intersecting forms of oppression and must work towards unifying the struggle for the freedom of all.

Decolonization

This land of Turtle Island was stolen and enclosed, and LAB Collective’s aim must be to return it to the commons, beyond private property. Members of LAB Collective must center and empower the voices of the Indigenous and dispossessed. Tribal autonomy must be protected and expanded.

Accountability

Members must be committed to respond to violence, harm, and abuse in a way that does not perpetuate oppressive norms, and actively cultivates accountability and safety for all involved. Members share a commitment to personal and organizational accountability, and will be held responsible for any actions considered harmful to other members or neighbors.