I recently visited San Francisco and Marin County in California for a couple of book signing events.  This area is well known for the hippies, artists and activists of the 1960s who famously challenged the status quo.  I was deeply affected by the idealism of that time, as well as the dream of creating a better world.  Many who attended the talks lived through the 1960s and carry the spirit of that era with them. We were also joined by young activists with renewed idealism and hopes.

There is a growing cultural and scientific awareness about the cognition and complexities of nonhuman animals, evidenced by a cover story called 'Inside Animal Minds' in the March, 2008 issue of National Geographic.  With increasing understanding comes greater responsibility, and compelling reasons to assess and change how we relate to other animals.  The author of the article writes, “…we should blush for ever having thought any animal a mere machine.” 

Sadly, farm animals are still treated like mere machines on industrial factory farms, rather than like living feeling animals.  They are crowded and confined, and then killed for profit or discarded when they are no longer economically efficient. But as citizens learn more about such inhumanity, change is in the air.

 
Gene