Salem Vegan Society Interviews Lee Hall
This July marks the release of a thought-provoking new work by Lee Hall, legal director of Friends of Animals. Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror defines animal rights, discusses dominant definitions of terrorism, and provides on-point analysis of relevant laws and campaigns.
Hearing that the book takes a look at these timely issues through a decidedly vegan lens, the Salem Vegan Society invited Hall to speak about the book.
Here are a few quotes from the interview.
On free-range farming:
“It’s ethical game-playing. Trendy grocers want us to pay a premium to get those ‘less objectionable’ animal products. Even VegNews had a recent article calling eggs from hens in sheds (rather than conventional cages) ‘egg-cellent news’ for hens. What nonsense. This is all about humane advocates promoting very egg-spensive products.”
On non-violence:
“A truly vegan animal-rights movement would necessarily be non-violent, and it is no accident that Donald Watson, throughout a rich life that lasted most of a century, never wavered on this point. Watson was a conscientious objector to war. Notably, Watson never said that war could be made humane.”
Click HERE to read the full interview.
Capers in the Churchyard is the new book from Nectar Bat Press, with Foreword by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. Receive a complimentary Friends of Animals membership when you order directly at the FOA Web site. International orders are available at Amazon.com.
Post your comment
Comment Guidelines: We welcome your expressions of opinion on this subject. Please avoid false commentary about individuals or groups. Facts must be verified by the person posting. Off-topic comments, and comments inappropriate for a readership of all ages, may be deleted. E-mail addresses will never be published. Only comments with valid e-mail address will be published.
1 Comments
On July 11, 2006, Joan Cameron wrote:
After having read Lee Hall’s interview with the Salem Vegan Society [SVS], I am even more intrigued than before and definitely anticipate reading Capers in the Churchyard.
While every point taken in the interview is thought provoking and rationally appealing, the one that leapt out at me most stated that the “disposable planet idea… is the essence of terror.”
I have been actively addressing pet …homelessness
for over 20 years. Therefore, I consider myself an expert in the disposable mentality. Nowhere else does this concept hit home more easily or more tangibly than when one tours a pet shop and then an animal shelter.
Does pet …homelessness equate with our current, popular and more sensational definition of terrorism? Of course not! But the nonchalance, apathy, and clear unwillingness to share in the responsibility, to evaluate and to modify our own patterns of living, all the factors that existed under the radar long enough to create this pitiable tragedy are at the insidious foundation of terrorism. The reason is that all of these elements are among prerequisites for the creation and tolerance of disposable activity. It is in the pet shops and in the body bins of animal shelters that we most starkly see the awesome effects of a disposable philosophy. Viewing living beings as mere entities of convenience eventually morphs into viewing them as “collateral damage” in a more extreme scenario. It degrades our species’ abilities, and will eventually, if allowed to progress unchecked, bring the planet to disaster. Factory farms? This is what we have descended to, because this is what we have allowed.
[Lee] Hall never fails to provide us with material that is thought provoking and eminently worthy of serious address. If [the above-linked] interview with the SVS is the leader I’m sure it is, Capers in the Churchyard should entice us to radical reform and, hopefully, an increased personal commitment to turning animal rights theory into practice.
[Joan Cameron works in the New York City office of FoA.]