I’ve written and published four books with the same theme, the same message. Each time I hoped that readers would come away caring more about how we treat animals and having some concern about the system that normalizes the many bad things we do to them. I’ve hoped that my words would change their behavior at least a little. I’ve written hundreds of essays about these things. I’ve lectured and participated in televised and numerous public debates. I’ve twice traveled coast-to-coast, protesting and leafleting, trying to call attention to the animals’ plight. I’ve worked for animal rights organizations, built websites for them, have edited other’s books for them. I’ve had numerous op/eds in the local newspapers about the treatment of animals. I’ve been arrested for protesting a few times – twice in one day. Nothing that I have done has had much, if any, positive effect.
Almost nothing. I was involved in the successful (hopefully) permanent cancelation of a nearby town’s annual pig wrestling contest. A smallish thing, the pigs were still killed, but at least, so far, they aren’t as frightened and beat-up before being slaughtered.
The book I wish I had written would have been widely read. Its message would have been talked about and widely repeated. It would have motivated a mass movement for the animals. But I didn’t write that book. No one else has either.
Would
Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s influence been less if it had been one among hundreds of anti-slavery books? Maybe, but philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) “the question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” and Peter Singer’s book
Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975), though well known among animal advocates, don’t seem to have had much of an impact. Amazon reports over 30,000 results for "animal rights" in its book list.
None of them have had a measurable impact. A 2023 Gallop poll reported that in the U.S., 4% identify as vegetarian and 1% as vegan, ±4%. Yet, the American Veterinary Medical Association reports that in 2024, 45.5% of American households had dogs as pets, and 32.1% had cats. In 2023, the Pew Research Center reported that: “And nearly all U.S. pet owners (97%) say their pets are part of their family.”
I wish I had written a book or done something that moved the needle just a little toward kindness to the other animals. I haven’t. No one has. Amazon reports that it has over 30,000 books related to “animal rights”. None of them have had much of an impact. I suspect none will, but I still hope. It’s a sad and bloody state of affairs.
I have friends who care deeply about animals; a couple of them have told be that it is because of my work. A couple. A hand-full at the very most. I haven’t written the book that will change the world. No one has.
There is a nearly instantaneous negative reaction when someone urging people to be kind to animals mentions the hideous things done to Jews or Blacks. How dare you equate Jews or Blacks to animals they say. But in fact, you and me, my wife, my friends, and my dogs, are animals. We should all be treated with kindness and respect.
The reason for not doing so is plain old bigotry, plain old prejudice, plain old bad habit, plain old lust in some cases.
Rights are slippery. Even when interacting with other humans, it isn’t always clear where we should draw the line between the things we do that are right and the things we do that are wrong. Should we let someone cut in line?
Are rights won or are they inherent? It seems that there might be both kinds. A driver’s license sort of gives us a right to drive. Life itself seems to give me the right to live. If life itself gives me the right to live why wouldn’t an elephant’s life give them the same right? Why doesn’t a cow’s life give them the right to life? I think it does, but the right to life isn’t universal. I think it applies only to those who are conscious and have emotions.
We should assume that animals have emotions until proven otherwise. Plants don’t. Raising and eating them harms no one.
We should assume that animals have emotions until proven otherwise because they act so often in ways that we understand and can relate to. Dogs jump for joy, get angry, worry, are sometimes leery of strangers, get frightened, have long memories, are curious, have friends, are glad to see their peeps if they’ve been away, have expectations, snuggle, and on and on. Moreover, the degree to which they have these characteristics vary by the dog. They truly are individuals. Just as many animals are.
In spite of us having so much in common with them, they have no legal rights. Many are kept in deplorable conditions, are hurt and consumed in laboratories, are worked to death, are treated terribly, and are forced to perform and behave in ways that place them at high risk. They are raised and sold as simple commodities.
If we can’t or won’t protect dogs, the other the animals don’t have a chance. A few are protected because they are the last of their kind, not because we are being kind. They are the last of their kink because we killed the rest of them.
None of what I’ve written above is likely to turn you into an ethical vegan. I differentiate ethical vegans from dietary vegans, though, as far as animals are concerned, they’re equally desirable.
Nothing I’ve written here would be in the book I wish I’d written. I don’t know what would be in it, but its clear from all I’ve written, from all I’ve said and done, from all I’ve read that others have written, that they have said and done, that no one has found the right words, the right observations, the right time, or the right steps to take. It’s a crushing realization.
