33. Some We Love, Some We Eat
October 27, 2020
The recent Netflix blockbuster My Octopus Teacher chronicles a mutual relationship between a man and one of the world’s most bizarre looking animals – an
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32. Electing for Animals
October 13, 2020
Every four years, presidential elections offer an unparalleled opportunity to introduce animal rights to our nation’s power brokers and the media. The process starts with
31. Bearing Witness
September 29, 2020
World Day for Farmed Animals, just around the corner, on October 2nd, offers an appropriate setting for revisiting what’s at the core of our animal
30. Memorializing Farmed Animals
September 15, 2020
World Day for Farmed Animals is coming up in two weeks, on October 2nd. The observance was conceived in 1983 and celebrated throughout the world
29. To the Animals, All People are Nazis
September 1, 2020
Today’s essay marks the beginning of the second year of The Vegan Blog. It reprises our very first essay recounting my journey from the Holocaust
28. Saving Animals & Toxic Communications
August 18, 2020
Two of our life’s most important functions – parenting and internet communications come without an instruction manual. The toxic communications that stem from this flaw
27. Relating to Other Movements
August 3, 2020
Joining forces with other movements increases our ability to effect change. Animal rights is fundamental to opposing all oppression, and veganism is the ultimate health
26. My Animal Rights Hall of Fame
July 21, 2020
Who launched, nurtured, and shaped the U.S. animal rights movement? What happened to them? Why hardly anyone knows their names? Here, at last, are some
25. The Do’s and Don’ts of Planning a Conference
July 7, 2020
Conferences are an effective vehicle for forming, shaping, and nurturing our movement. They offer documentation of animal abuses, activist training, and lots of inspiration and
24. Our Conferences Shape Our Movement
June 23, 2020
Conferences have proven to be the most effective vehicle for forming, shaping, and nurturing our movement. They offer documentation of animal abuses, activist training, and
23. What Brought Us Together
June 9, 2020
At what point does a vision induce people to act on it? At what point do individual actions become a movement? And, what is the
22. On Leading and Managing
May 26, 2020
Traditionally, leaders who launch organizations in our movement end up managing them. Yet, leaders and managers are very different people? What can be done to
21. Getting Things Done
May 12, 2020
How do we get started with saving animals? How do we free up more time and deal with multiple priorities, adversities, and burnout? And how
20. Growing Our Activism
April 28, 2020
Are we really in charge of our lives, or a mere product of circumstances? Why can’t we be like some of the outstanding activists in
19. The Enigma of Choice
April 14, 2020
Is our diet an option or a decision? Are our choices based on a rational process, social norms, or chance circumstances? Who makes our choices?
18. Grassroots Activism – Then and Now
March 31, 2020
Grassroots activism gave birth to the animal rights movement and fostered its growth for the next three decades. Then, its role has greatly diminished. Here,
17. The Power of Letters
March 17, 2020
Letters to the editor are widely read. They are an effective and trusted way of conveying our vegan message to the general public. The opinion
16. Power of Language & Rhetoric
March 3, 2020
Language and rhetoric are the fundamental tools of any advocacy. Language refers to our choice of words and expressions. Rhetoric is the art of shaping
15. Winning Hearts & Minds
February 18, 2020
We all seek to end the use of animals for food. That will come about largely through growing popularity of plant-based meat and milk products.
14. Vegan World & Social Change
February 4, 2020
Human behavior, including what we eat, is dictated by our community’s powerful social norms. These norms are shaped by our collective needs, desires, and morals,
13. Why We Oppress? Why Animals?
January 21, 2020
Just a few days from now, on January 27th, the world will observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date marks 75 years since liberation of
12. An AR Blueprint For the ’20s
January 7, 2020
Social movements, like all living and prospering entities, must evolve and grow, else they wither and die. In the next decade, our movement will face
11. Animal Rights in 2020 Hindsight
December 23, 2019
Approaching the year 2020 affords an opportune time to look back at the social changes we’ve wrought since the birth of our movement 40 years
10. Animal Rights or Animal Lives?
December 10, 2019
I have been championing animal rights since organizing the first national animal rights conference in 1981. But how do I explain this concept to my
09. Who’s a Vegan?
November 26, 2019
We seek a vegan world. That’s the one concept we all seem to agree on. But what does a vegan world look like? Will we
08. Don’t Eat the Turkey!
November 12, 2019
It was a beautiful day in Washington in early September of 1975. I was still flush with excitement from having attended my first World Vegetarian
07. Three Holocaust Survivors Launched a Movement
October 29, 2019
The concept that animals should be endowed with certain basic rights, as an extension of human rights, was first proposed by British social reformer Henry
06. Don’t Cut the Animals
October 15, 2019
Exploitation of animals in the name of science came much later in the history of human civilization than their exploitation for labor, religious sacrifices, and
05. Memorializing Farmed Animals
September 26, 2019
Back in the early 1980s, shortly after I committed my life to stopping the use of animals for food, I heard an apocryphal tale of
04. Don’t Eat the Animals
September 23, 2019
The role of animals in prehistoric diets is still the subject of lively debate. Even the Bible has it both ways. Animal sacrifices, associated with