Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles

Believe

From Nathan Winograd
December 2022

Given the many comments I receive that reveal many of you likewise struggle because of your love for animals, I am sharing why I remain optimistic for the future.... It’s been 30 years since Jennifer and I first met and believed that no one cared as much as we did. How grateful we both are to have been proven wrong.

To love animals and be acquainted with the many ways in which they are killed or otherwise harmed in our culture is painful, leading to feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and anger at one’s fellow humans. I, too, struggled with these emotions for many years, often to the point of misanthropy. But my views have changed over time, and my despair at people replaced with faith in them.

Given the many comments I receive that reveal many of you likewise struggle because of your love for animals, I am sharing why I remain optimistic for the future. And, perhaps most importantly, why I believe such optimism is essential for our success. I hope this not only gives you comfort but inspires in you the same dedication and determination that it inspires in me.

For decades, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the ASPCA, PETA, and local shelters have schooled us in the belief that the American public is irresponsible and uncaring, both by allowing the birth of “unwanted” dogs and cats and by abandoning animals in shelters in epidemic numbers.

When many of us began questioning shelter killing at the dawn of the No Kill movement, we were given a narrative that placed the blame for it squarely on the shoulders of a callous American public. But was it true then? And is it true now? Although I no longer believe so, there was a time when I would not have hesitated to answer that question with an emphatic yes!

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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