FOREWORD

If you are wondering whether to read this book, it must mean you are curious about animal liberation: You aren’t exactly sure what it means, perhaps, or you are moved by the plight of animals and wish to explore further. I’m certain you will find a lot in here that will impact and motivate you, such as the reasons why those of us who advocate for animals’ rights see the link to other movements as absolute and undeniable. For anyone who is already an activist or who has decided to become one, you are sure to find inspiration, thoughts that might not have occurred to you before, ideas that you can adopt or adapt, and words to cherish.

Brittany Michelson has collected a splendid set of narratives from people who, for myriad reasons, found themselves, often unexpectedly, embracing the idea of animal liberation. It dawned on each of them at some point in their lives that the concept of injustice couldn’t rightly, logically, or reasonably be limited to the human animal. They realized that injustice occurs when we fail to connect the dots between ourselves and those who were not born in exactly the same physical form as ours.

The writers’ ethical evolutions often began with a question. Alexandra Paul found herself wondering at the “absurdity” of ranking kittens over hamsters, and hamsters over frogs, and asked herself why this was any different from assigning degrees of value to human beings who are often considered “lower on the societal rung.” Brittany Peet loved “Smokey,” a bear she often visited at a roadside zoo as a child. Later, she pondered how, back then, she could have been so oblivious to his loneliness and the desolation of his confinement to a barren cage. Jasmine Afshar questioned how people could empathize with the torment she experienced when she was sexually violated, yet dismiss the torment inherent in the routine assault of female animals whose bodies are exploited for meat and milk. Dani Rukin “came out” for animals, casting aside her leather jacket, long after coming out as a lesbian because, after initially mocking vegans, she began to wonder how diversity could rightly be limited to a single species.

Sometimes the animals themselves asked the questions, simply by being present or with an expression. Karen Davis’s beloved parrot, Jasmin Singer’s waifish cat, the monkey spotted by Jo-Anne McArthur chained to a windowsill high in the Andes—all seemed to nudge them in the direction of animal liberation. Was it recognizing the universal look of despair or hope or sadness in the face of a desperately thirsty pig, seen through the metal slats of a truck in the blistering heat, that changed Anita Krajnc’s life? Or was that suffering pig, one among many, who was about to pass through the slaughterhouse gates, someone—and I mean someone—she already understood? After all, she was trying to live, and teach her students to live, as Tolstoy advised: “When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to he who suffers, and try to help him.” Anita was charged with criminal mischief for rushing to that pig and offering water, but from her compassionate action, many others came to see that animal liberation is something to work for.

Some writers, like Kathy Stevens and Gene Baur, started sanctuaries, taking in animals with nowhere else to find safety and comfort. Wayne Hsiung left his legal career to start a group that challenges the lack of legal protections for other-than-human beings. Shaun Monson became a filmmaker, whose epic film Earthlings has opened more eyes and minds and hearts to the reality of animal exploitation than perhaps any other.

At the end of this book, the individual writers’ experiences seem to be summed up in a verse from Sean Hill’s poem:

As alone as you may feel sometimes

you are never alone

we are all in this together

the vision to transform the world,

elevate everyone’s innate potential

by teaching sacred respect for all life forms

Please read this book. Pass it on to others. And take its lessons to heart, because the Golden Rule requires each of us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. And that is the message of animal liberation.

Ingrid Newkirk

founder and president of PETA