On Recognizing Interconnections
Published in Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth edited by Carol J. Adams and Lori Gruen (Bloomsbury, 2014)

Ecofeminism edited by Adams and GruenUp until the early 1990s I was an insufferable animal rights activist tanked up on self-righteous indignation about how animals were treated. If this meant being liberal with the truth, so be it. If it also meant naming and shaming those who exploit animals, so be it. If it meant trampling on the interests of others and behaving disrespectfully toward them, so be it. Animals were suffering now. Something had to be done. Someone had to do it. And if this meant me, so be it. And if this meant you were insulted and shocked, so what? I went to work for PETA in 1987 because I was greatly impressed with their two-part strategy of simultaneously presenting the problem and the solution. The problem of institutionalised animal exploitation was graphically displayed in their innovative undercover investigations. The solution was offered in their attractive vegan public education lifestyle campaigns.