"Compassion isn't species specific"

ATHENS, GA—This isn’t an issue about liberals or conservatives. It is an issue about compassion, according to Karen Dawn, who spoke Tuesday night at the University of Georgia’s Miller Learning Center promoting her book, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, and animal rights and welfare in general.

Dawn, who has been involved in the animal rights movement for about 10 years, said that animal rights issues go “beyond the common categories of liberal and conservative with a message of compassion that speaks to everyone.” She noted that there tends to be a belief that animal rights and welfare issues are generally a liberal cause and that she eventually hopes it will be “not just a left wing issue.” Dawn added that the San Diego Union-Tribune, normally a “conservative” newspaper, recently endorsed California’s Proposition 2, which would ban gestation and veal crates and battery cages for hens.

Proposition 2 would be “groundbreaking” if passed in next week’s election, according to Dawn. California has one of the largest economies in the world and is also the largest agricultural state in the U.S. The veal, pig, and egg industries have spent millions of dollars fighting this proposition. However, according to a recent Zogby poll, 70 percent of Californians are in favor of the bill. Florida recently passed similar legislation.

Dawn did not grow up an animal rights activist. In fact, she grew up in a “typical family” where not eating meat was thought to not be proper nutrition. One of her step-fathers, who suffered from heart problems, followed a doctor’s advice to limit his meat intake. After her mother modified the family’s diets, Dawn claimed to be a “veggie-ish type of person,” preferring vegetarian dishes to ones containing meat.

It was not until the end of 1997, well after Dawn had graduated from college, that a brochure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) came to her mailbox in New York City. The brochure contained the first chapter of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation. Dawn read the first chapter and proceeded to order and read the book in one week. The book was eye opening to the “institutionalized cruelty” animals endure, according to Dawn. She said, “rather than wallow in my depression…that week, I gave the animals my word.”

And she has done just that.

For the past 10 years, Dawn has made it her calling to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. She founded DawnWatch, a web site that follows animal rights and welfare coverage in the media. She has appeared on MTV, ABC, and NBC as a spokesperson for the rights and welfare of animals. She has also published opinion pieces in publications like the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, New York’s Newsday, and the UK Guardian. She published her book, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals in the spring of 2008.

Dawn hopes that the book will move the topics of animal rights and welfare and vegetarianism and veganism into general conversations. She aimed the book towards people who are curious and not necessarily for those who are already committed to the cause. Dawn read several excerpts from her book, urging the audience to “raise [their] voices and say that what is happening to animals matters.”

Rae Sikora, founder of Plant Peace Daily, a national organization that promotes ethical consumerism, was a member of the audience Tuesday night. Even though Sikora is an active and prominent figure in the animal rights community and has been vegan for over 30 years, she had never heard Dawn speak. Sikora said, “She was very real and down to earth. I expected more Hollywood glitz.” She also added that she rarely bought someone’s book after a speech, but said she was going to buy Dawn’s.

Dawn urged everyone in the audience to act because she believes that once one person acts, others will follow. She encouraged those who are part of or are planning to become a part of the animal rights movement to “speak with laughter and love so others will listen.”