Compassion Fueled Advocacy

IN MARY'S OWN WORDS ...

In addition to my work with Forgotten Cats, I was an elementary teacher for 30 years, and as a teacher, I sponsored animal-related clubs and activities for students, involving animal care, humane education, animal use awareness, taking action for animals, and environmental education, such as tree planting, gardening for wildlife, and watershed monitoring. Seeing children’s natural affinity and compassion for animals has continued to give me hope for the future.  

I grew up on a beautiful farm where I developed a love for all animals, and yet I experienced the profound contradictions of our relationship with animals used for food and sport. This awareness became a central focus in my life.  I became a vegetarian as a philosophy major in college and soon became a vegan. I enjoy plant-based cooking and sharing beautiful vegan fare with others. I also volunteer for adult basic literacy and teaching reading to and English to ESL students.

In a post animal use world, we would realize our true kinship and unity with animals and the natural world.  This would usher in a new era of justice, with peace among humanity and between humans and animals.  Our dominance over animals and violence toward nature has had a deep effect on the human psyche, causing alienation and an array of social, physical, and mental health maladies. 

Violence toward animals in all its forms must be ended -- our reliance on animals for food, clothing, entertainment, pseudo-scientific research, commercial exploitation, pet breeding for profit, among others.  We clearly have the resources, knowledge, and technology to eliminate our reliance on animals for food, products, and nonhuman models for research. The ethical imperative of nonviolence toward sentient beings, life that wills to live, has become even poignant as we learn more about the cognitive abilities of animals and their genetic and neural similarity to humans.

In a post animal use world, we would co-exist peacefully with animals, but we would also understand how much we have to learn from animals, not just from a scientific or ethological standpoint, but from an understanding of animal wisdom. Indigenous cultures have always respected animal teachers and regarded animal brothers, recognizing our inherent connection and spiritual bond with them.  We would help animals to survive on an earth which has seen ecological devastation, until we can heal the earth and develop a sustainable ecoculture.  This profound transformation of humanity would be at once ethical, aesthetic, and epistemological.