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Activism
for Animals
continued
from previous page
Avoiding
Burnout
Stephen R. Kaufman, MD, essay
— July 2003
I suggest, first, that we commit
ourselves to activism, even if the chance of substantially
reducing animal abuse in our lifetimes seems remote. ...
Working
in Defense of Animals
Matt Ball, Vegan Outreach, essay — January 2003
Although
every animal in a lab, pound, or fur farm deserves
our consideration, more than 99 percent of all
the animals killed in the United States are killed
to be eaten...
Our
Own Form of Solidarity
Adam Weissman, Global Hunger Alliance
Rally, speech — September 2002
When I talk about globalizing our struggle,
I don’t just mean in the sense
of taking it worldwide. I also mean global in the other sense of the word: broad,
universal. As rainforest activist Patrick Reinsborough stated recently, “The
age of single issue politics is over!”...
Toward
Total Animal Liberation
Pattrice Le-Muire Jones, Animal
Rights Conference, speech — 2002
In
my view, what the animal liberation movement needs
most urgently to do is to become ore diverse in its
internal constitution and in its coalitions with
other movements...
Heroes
In Our Midst
Linda Hicks, Bay St. George SCAPA,
commentary — 2002
My
personal definition of a hero is someone who is a
voice for the voiceless, or one who comes to the
aid of the helpless...
Feeling
Overwhelmed?
Shell Sullivan,
essay — 2002
If
you were to do nothing but dwell on suffering, you would become immobilized.
So what can you do to help billions of animals when you are just
one person?...
Give
Voice to the Voiceless... Till the World Shall Set Things
Right
Katie Legel, age 12,
essay — 2002
It
is not hard to help and the animals may be
helpless, but with your help, they won’t
be defenseless...
Avoiding
Burnout
Karen Davis, commentary— August 2001
While we do not have full control over whether
we'll succeed in the fight for animal rights, we do
have full control over whether we are, and will remain,
faithful. If we are not faithful we will not succeed.
Faithfulness is not about having faith but about keeping
it...
White
Men Can't Win
Paul Watson, commentary— 2001
Haptas
is saying that there are not many white men in the
Animal Rights movement and at the same time we are
hearing from other Animal Rights activists that white
males dominate the Animal Rights movement. It
is my belief that both these theories are wrong. There
are many white men in the Animal Rights movement and it
is not a white male dominated movement...
Love
Animals? Hate Politics?
Dr. Rich McLellan, essay — 2000
The
nuts and bolts that hold together the machinery that
perpetuates animal domination are the very laws written
by the politicians we elect to public office...
Activist's
Diary: Tales from the Trenches
Brenda
Shoss, essay
Why would a housewife and office manager
for a health facility risk arrest and jail time to
expose animal abuse in circuses? Animal rights activists
cut across all demographics. They are grandparents,
students, and spouses...
Animals
in 2050
Malini
Patel, poetry
There
once was a place called Salem / Where girls lived deep
in fear / Of being accused of witches brews / Then
knowing death was near...
A
Call of the Wild
Animal Liberation Front Cell Member, commentary — 1991
It's
a different generation that's shopping now from the
last time that fur was really big... Most of the people
who are buying fur are under 40. It's a different customer
that has been coming of age since the last time there
was major opposition to (fur)...
Animal
Liberation Is An Environmental Ethic
Dale Jamieson, Carleton College, commentary — November
1997
Animal
liberationists typically accept the projects of traditional
western ethics, then go on to argue that in their applications
they have arbitrarily and inconsistently excluded nonhuman
animals...
Direct
Action: Taking It To the Streets
Jack Carone & Mary Mcdonald-Lewis,
The Animals Voice Magazine, essay — 1990
Our
challenge is to leverage off the growing legitimacy
of the strategy [civil disobedience], while devising
new ways to keep civil disobedience original and
powerful. All movements that succeed always move
from the radical fringe to the majority middle ground...
The
Torch of Reason, The Sword of Justice
Tom Regan, World Day for Lab Animals,
speech — April 1988
Our
shared goal is not to reform this great evil but to
abolish it completely! It is not bigger cages we want,
but empty cages!...
The
Four Phases of Activism
Douglas Fakkema, Nebraska Animal Rescue, feature
Those
of us who work on behalf of and who dedicate our lives
to animals go through four phases in our career evolution.
As we are unique, so are our individual stories, but
we all go through a similar process, and if we survive
that process go on to understand that we have achieved
what we wanted in the first place...
How
to Win an Argument with a Meat Eater
John Robbins, feature — 1987
Ethics,
World Hunger, Human Survival, Pesticides, Human
Health, Natural Resources, Environment — statistics
for all these issues...
The
Starfish Story
as told by Loren Eiseley
“It
makes a difference to this one”...
Sense
of Goose
Author Unknown, essay
When
a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels
the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone— and
quickly gets back into formation to take advantage
of the lifting power of the bird in front...
I
Am An Activist
Anonymous, essay
I
am an activist. Am I an animal defense activist?
Yes. Am I an environmental activist? Definitely.
Am I a human rights activist? Most assuredly.
Am I a peace activist? Indeed. I am in complete
opposition to all social injustice; I abhor all
suffering...
The
Voice for Animals
Gary Yourofsky, poem
The
videos I've seen / Heinous and malicious / Images of
carnage / Evil and wicked / Abattoirs of horror...
Home
Is A Wounded Heart
Laura Moretti, essay
The
world is ailing. Every morning when we awaken, there
is a whale thrashing, a monkey screaming, a lone wolf
howling, in the back of our minds. There is no escape
from enlightenment, from truth, no escape from what
lies beyond the morning sparrow’s song — not
for us, those of us who work for the lives of others...
Hoof-Free
Marshmallows; Life Imitates Art
Laura Moretti, essay
“Genuine
synthetic leather.” Honest, that’s what
it said, engraved neatly on the inside of a plastic
fashion belt. Times are a-changing....Recently, however,
while at an animal rights conference, I happened
to glance across to the neighboring table and spied – you
guessed it – bags of marshmallows for sale!...
Hopeless
Romantics
Laura Moretti, essay
I
called him “Dusty” because he was found
among the debris in a slaughterhouse yard, so weak
from starvation and disease, he could barely stand
without locking his hindlegs together for balance...
The
Change
Laura Moretti, essay
She
nodded suredly. “All animals dream,” she
said. “And they are afraid of nightmares, too.” And
those were the facts as she saw them. Five years old
and she believed animals dream, that they have feelings,
much like the feelings she herself has...
The
Confessions of an Animal Rights Activist
Laura Moretti, essay
I
heard it again last night, on the television news.
A report on federal legislation to ban canned hunting
stirred up the old defensive rhetoric. “If you
ban this sport, then where does it end? Do you want
hunting to be outlawed?”... Um. Okay, I confess;
yes...
My
Soul and Inspiration
Laura Moretti, essay
The
police advised us to leave the city of Los Angeles
and go home the day after the riots had erupted, and
we heeded it. The surface streets were relatively deserted,
but the freeways were nearly a parking lot — in
both directions...
The
Escape
Laura Moretti, essay
Humans
are fascinated by animals. Carousels and posters and
images on tee-shirts, stuffed animals and statuettes,
feeding pigeons and sea lions, buying books and toys,
puzzles and games, all filled with animals, real and
imagined...
Reflections
on the Normal Majority
Laura Moretti, essay
I’m
at the brunt of activists’ wrath sometimes myself. “Is
that leather?” someone will ask, fondling my
shoe. And even I get righteously indignant. “Leather?
Do you have to ask?” They do. They’re relentless — excuse
me, rabid...
Regarding
Animals
Laura Moretti, essay
Animals
have voices: they speak. Some sing, others whinny; whales produce
sounds so inaudible to the human ear that only other whales — sometimes
500 miles away — can hear them. Animals talk...
Small
Town Talk
Laura Moretti, essay
I
was asked three times today why I live in this little town.
I’m always complaining about the restaurants, the rednecks,
and the rain, and I’m sure that leaves my big-city
friends and colleagues questioning my sanity. In all honesty,
I often question it myself...
Taking
Inventory
Laura Moretti, essay
A
vacation in Washington, D.C. is paradise for me. I
know, there are other, more romantic, places in the
world to go: Venice, Bali, the Bahamas. But I’m
a D.C. fan. Having lived in other countries as a child...
I'm
A Believer
Laura Moretti, essay
I
saw God today. And not being a believer in any traditional
God, that says a lot. But I did see God today...
I had joined the director of the Wild Horse Sanctuary
this past weekend on long, seemingly endless and
barren desert highways in Arizona...
Another
Death in the Family
Laura Moretti, essay
It’s
an unending, relentless grief. And its triggers
come in very obvious, sometimes subtle, sometimes
out-of-the-blue ways. Literally. They leave me
with a bottomless depth of crippling sadness.
You know the one I mean...
Fearing
For Our Sanity
Laura Moretti, essay
Animal
rights is the single greatest calling facing the
human race. Our movement tackles nearly every aspect
of so-called civilized society — and consists
of human beings, not animals. And there are billions
of them, weaved so firmly into our daily fabric we
ourselves who care about them don’t often see
them...
Hit
By a Truck
Laura Moretti, essay
I
admit it. I enjoy the Backstreet Boys’ megahit
song, “I Want It That Way.” There’s
something about its harmony, its rhythm, that enables
me, despite its literal translation, to escape the
grim reality of our work long enough to actually
feel good about being alive...
For
They Know Not
Laura Moretti, essay
The
steel bin was loaded with meat hooks — giant,
heavyweight, shiny, perfectly curved hooks. There
must have been six dozen of them. They were clean,
bloodless, and soaking in sterilized water in the
outside hallway of the meat processing building...
Another
Liberated Moment
Laura Moretti, essay
It
comes and it goes: violence, peace, hatred, love.
I can and I can’t live without it, the television
news, I mean. I shut it off and I feel alienated from
the outside world, from all those things I can do something
about to make this place better than the way I’ve
found it...
In
The Saying Goodbye
Laura Moretti, essay
Most
of my work has been about images. Pictures with words.
That’s where I seem to do my best, for some reason
(I guess because I figure a picture says so much).
Images. A man wielding a club over the head of an infant
seal — that’s a powerful image. It needs
no words...
Just
Doing My Job
Laura Moretti, essay
“You
know what they say about chicken,” I added, holding
everyone’s attention. “They’ve got
more room in this icebox than they had when they were
alive”... Now I’m not saying a shrimp is
any less deserving of a chicken, but I did note more
of them, and fewer bird parts, were eaten that night...
Me? I was just doing my job...
Conversations
with No One
Laura Moretti, essay
She
could have been my mother; she looked rather like
her. A few years over 60, nicely dressed, sitting
a table or two away from where I was dining. And
when our gaze met, it was as if my mother had just
laid eyes on me...
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