Vegan Education Made Easy—Part 3: An Abolitionist Pamphlet
Dear Colleagues: During the past year, I have received more than a hundred requests to produce a pamphlet that presents the abolitionist approach in an accessible way. So, with production help from Barna Mink and Randy W. Sandberg, Anna Charlton and I created a Tri-Fold pamphlet that we offer to you to facilitate your efforts […]
A Comment on the Austrian Situation
This morning, I received a copy of a press release concerning the arrest and detention of Martin Balluch and other animal advocates in Austria. These advocates are apparently being held without any formal charges being filed against them. I have also read the Amnesty International statement that is translated on the website of Balluch’s organization. […]
PETA and KFC: “no differences of opinion about how animals should be treated”
Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has invoked Mead’s quotation to pat itself and its supporters on their welfarist backs for the agreement by the […]
Vegan Education Made Easy—Part 2
A friend of mine recently asked the following question: “What do you say to people who are vegans and who educate others about veganism but who are also concerned about circuses, hunting, and other particular forms of animal exploitation. Do you advise that they not address those issues at all and just focus on veganism?” […]
A “Very New Approach” or Just More New Welfarism?
Martin Balluch, an Austrian animal advocate and president of the Association Against Animal Factories in Austria, is circulating an essay that he wrote and that he characterized to me as opening a “very new approach” to the rights/welfare debate. Balluch’s essay is long and, at places, convoluted, but the basic thesis is really quite simple. […]
Vegan Education Made Easy—Part I
One of the things that I hear frequently is that educating people, particularly strangers, about veganism, is difficult. On the contrary, our everyday interactions with people provide us with many opportunities to discuss veganism. This essay will discuss a couple of examples. I will discuss more examples in future essays.
The European Commission and the “Ban” on Battery Cages
On January 8, 2008, the European Commission rejected calls that it postpone its Directive calling for a “ban” on the conventional battery-cage, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2012 (after being first announced in 1999). According to the Directive, producers will have the choice to go “free-range,” “barn” (known as “cage-free” in the […]
Silly Questions and a Lack of Balance
Among the many notices that I receive about various events and conferences focused on animal issues was an announcement about a conference sponsored by the welfarist group, United Poultry Concerns. The title of the conference is: “Cage Free, Animal Friendly, Go Vegan -What’s the Problem?” According to the announcement, the conference will ask: Should activists […]
A Simple Resolution for the New Year
It is a new year. It is a time to resolve to do better. A simple suggestion: If you are not a vegan yet, get off the fence and stop exploiting nonhumans. If you are vegan, then educate yourself about the relevant moral arguments, as well as the environmental and health benefits, and try to […]
Postmodern Feminism and Animal Welfare: Perfect Together
Recently, there was a debate on the excellent and always lively Vegan Freak Forums between what may generally characterized as “postmodern feminists” and “radical feminists.” Postmodern feminists acknowledge that a woman’s choice to commodify herself sexually may represent an act of empowerment and cannot be assessed in any definitively negative way. These feminists are often […]
A “Bright Spot”?
A Media Release (October 25, 2007) from Animal Rights International (ARI) President Peter Singer announced that ARI has placed billboard-style ads on New York buses for a month. These ads apparently show how battery eggs are produced. In the Release, Singer explains how terrible battery cages are. Singer states: “‘Battery cages are being phased out […]
A Classic of “Moral Schizophrenia”
A central theme of my work for the past decade or so has been the exploration of our cognitive confusion—our “moral schizophrenia”—when it comes to nonhuman animals. Recently, I commented on how entertainer Ellen Degeneres sobbed on her television show about a dog that she adopted and gave away while, at the same time, promoted […]
Adventures in (Ir)Rationality
We humans claim to have some sort of “special” characteristic that justifies our exploitation of nonhumans. One such supposed characteristic is that we are supposedly rational and they supposedly are not. When we consider that it is humans who build nuclear weapons and who destroy the very environment necessary to sustain life, including our lives—just […]
Ellen Degeneres and Iggy the “It”
On October 16, popular U.S. entertainer Ellen DeGeneres told her talk-show audience–and the world–that she adopted a dog, Iggy, in September. She claimed that Iggy did not get along with her cats, so she gave him to her hairdresser, who has two daughters who wanted him. This apparently violated the adoption contract used by the […]
Equality and Similarity to Humans
Paola Cavalieri, co-editor with Peter Singer of The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity, wrote an essay about the recent shooting of a chimpanzee, Johnny, a chimpanzee in his 40s, at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, north of London. According to Cavalieri, Johnny was shot because he was described by zookeepers as “‘a bit of a […]
Some Thoughts on Vegan Education
I am going to try to tackle in a preliminary way a subject that generates a fair amount of controversy and about which I get quite a bit of email. The subject, broadly speaking, is how vegans should relate to omnivores given that ethical vegans regard the use of animals as involving serious violations of […]
Still Doubting the Connections?
For many years, I have been making the point that we cannot morally distinguish speciesism from other forms of discrimination, such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism. I am always on the lookout for explicit connections and one came across my desk this week. According to an article called Playing Chicken, Jason Atkins, a former Marine […]
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
These words, written by philosopher George Santayana, seem to resonate with particular relevance these days, as we see a world engulfed in violence. But Santayana also has something important to say to the animal movement. Most of the large new welfarist animal organizations, both in the United States and Great Britain, claim to endorse veganism […]
Some Further Thoughts on Michael Vick
On August 2, I posted a blog essay entitled, A Note About Michael Vick. Vick’s behavior was obviously reprehensible. I wrote the blog because I was tired of hearing Vick criticized by self-righteous people who eat meat, attend rodeos, hunt, or participate in the many forms of animal exploitation that, unlike dog fighting, are accepted […]
Pharmaceutical Products and Animal Ingredients
Although we should all avoid using pharmaceutical products in favor of more natural approaches to health, it may, on occasion, be advisable or even necessary to take a pharmaceutical product. Putting aside other problems with these products, they often are not vegan in that they contain various animal products as “inactive” ingredients. For example, many […]