“I think the most important piece of advice I can give is to ‘remember your story.’ It’s only when we forget that we, too, were once unaware or …’trapped in speciesist thinking’ that we become arrogant and judgmental. If we stay humble and remember that we had our own journey, I think it is key [...]
“In attributing positive characteristics to non-human animals (affection, fear, maternal love, grief), animal advocates are accused of anthropomorphizing (a convenient way to undermine the importance of this work). Could it be that if we concede animals are like us, we would have to reconsider how we use, abuse, and exploit them? To my mind, anthropocentrism [...]
“At the heart of our ethical dilemma over eating animals isn’t HOW we treat those we breed and kill but THAT we breed and kill them in the first place–merely for our own convenience and gustatory pleasure. Factory farming is simply a perverse extension of our anthropocentric worldview.” -Colleen Patrick-Goudreau Did you like this? Share [...]
From the October 2006 issue of Satya Magazine. I’ve heard every excuse in the book for eating animals, but I’ve yet to hear a convincing reason. It’s a pretty simple equation: since humans don’t need to consume animals to survive, killing them simply to satisfy our taste buds amounts to senseless slaughter. But our eating [...]
Originally published in the September 2006 issue of Satya Magazine. I have yet to meet a non-vegetarian who didn’t care about the treatment of animals raised and killed for human consumption. Even people who eat meat, aware on some level that the experience is unpleasant for the animals, will tell you they object to unnecessary [...]
We cannot simply demonize those who do the killing. Consumers who create the demand for animal products are complicit in the suffering and death inflicted upon animals at the hands of farm workers. Did you like this? Share it:Tweet
The following was originally published on February 28, 2007 on CommonDreams.org I grew up eating standard American fare: turkey sandwiches, ice cream, and hamburgers. I didn’t necessarily choose these foods. They were chosen for me. Nobody told me what they were made from, and when I asked, my parents and the adults around me either [...]
The following is excerpted from an interview with Diane Beers conducted by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau for Satya Magazine. You use the phrase “historical amnesia” to refer to the fact that contemporary animal activists—and society as a whole—know nothing of the legacy of animal activism in the U.S. What are some of the effects of having “historical [...]
“As long as we see animals as ours to eat, ours to manipulate, ours to exploit, ours to confine, ours to kill, there’s no end to what we can do to them. It’s that mindset that simply lends itself to the kind of mechanized system we have today. The answer isn’t to change production methods. [...]
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau explains the inherent exploitation of the female reproductive system in the dairy and egg industries. Did you like this? Share it:Tweet