A Request: "Pretend to Be More Optimistic"
Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Karen Davis, PhD, UPC United Poultry Concerns
January 2022

Comment by Dr. Stevan Harnad: "This was the reason I suggested feigning optimism even if we don’t feel it: Not to pretend the horrors are not horrors — monstrous, impardonable horrors — but to keep alive the only hope there is for the victims: that humanity can change for the better, as it has done in the past with slavery, racism, sexism and a lot of other wrongs we’ve done and have since rejected, despite the fact that they too were driven by three of the four Fs - Flavour, Fashion, Finance and Fun."

My mother and I watch a pig escape the slaughterhouse... “Pig Escapes Slaughter” - artwork by Sue Coe.

A Request: “Pretend to Be More Optimistic”
From UPC United Poultry Concerns
January 23, 2022

On January 11, I (Karen Davis) posted a comment to the Jan. 10 New York Times article In a First, Man Receives a Heart From a Genetically Altered Pig. The comment sparked a critique by cognitive science professor, Dr. Stevan Harnad, which is posted on his website Skywritings.

Here is my comment, followed by Dr. Harnad’s critique, for which I thank him very much.

“Every single objection to the experimental use of animals – vivisection, genetic engineering, etc. –has been ignored and overridden by the scientific industry, and this is not going to change no matter how morally obnoxious, heartless and cruel to the members of other species. The majority of human beings are completely speciesist and regard (other) animals as inferior to ourselves and fit to be exploited for human ‘benefit’ including mere curiosity. Among the latest animal-abuse crazes is the factory-farming of octopuses. Of course! We just HAVE TO BE ABLE TO EAT THESE ANIMALS! The human nightmare is too overwhelming and it cannot be stopped although those of us who care about animals and object to how viciously we treat them must continue to raise our voices.”
– Karen Davis

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See Dr. Harnad's critique, Veda Stram's response to that, and his response to Veda HERE (PDF). 

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