On the Disheartening Aspects of Animal Advocacy and Beginning Again

Published August 18, 2009 @ 01:19PM PT

In animal rights advocacy, moments or days of feeling encouraged and heartened are too often countered or overshadowed by experiences that frustrate, dishearten, and discourage. It can be a one-step-forward, two-steps-backward movement. Sometimes what you think is progress isn't. Sometimes what you think is change is more of the same. Sometimes what you put all your faith into disappoints. And especially if you devote much of yourself to this movement, if you're immersed in it every day, those steps backward, those disheartening moments, those discouraging not-changes or missed opportunities can wear you down and come awfully close to breaking your spirit. When you know that you're fighting for the most oppressed, most abused, greatest-suffering beings on this planet, and literally tens of millions of them are being brutally slaughtered every single day after a too-short life full of exploitation and suffering, and yet people still seem not to care and are content to push it all aside--simply because, for example, they like how those animals taste and consider change to be inconvenient--and the movement's efforts are still mocked and marginalized rather than supported, it can be absolutely crushing.

I have plans to see Dar Williams tonight with a friend, the first time I've spent the time and money to go listen to live music in a year (by comparison, a few years ago, this was something I did at least once a week). But I'm in one of those disheartened places today, where I'm so overwhelmed by it all that I'm not even looking forward to doing something I love and to seeing a musician I adore. But I'm going to go anyway. I'm going to have a beer or two. I'm going to cry with the songs that make me cry and laugh with the songs that make me laugh and try to enjoy the company of a friend. I'm going to work very hard to let it all go for a few hours--because that's what I have to do if I want to remain an effective advocate for animals, rather than disintegrate into an emotional mess.

In this moment, I am left thinking about something Joanna Lucas of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary wrote a couple years ago, in an essay I reposted on this blog on New Year's Day 2009:

When the darkness of the world seems overwhelming, unstoppable, crushing, when beings like Celeste, who love life and sing about love, are being turned into meat and handbags by the millions every day, when the pain of loving them seems unbearable, the answer is NOT to stop loving, NOT to stop caring, NOT to add to the darkness. The answer is to love more, deeper, wider. To love despite the darkness and the pain. Indeed, to love because of it. To love those who need it most desperately, not only those we happen to like, to love because your love is profoundly, vitally needed, not because it is self-gratifying. To love as though life depended on it. It does.

This is what being vegan means. Securing, one vegan meal at a time, a space in the world where innocents like Celeste can simply keep what is rightfully theirs - their life, their freedom, their meager, pathetic, or truly magnificent shot at happiness, refusing to take their lives simply because we have the power. It is the only thing worth starting a new year, a new day, for.

Have a lovely afternoon and evening, friends. Give a dog or a cat or a rat, or a chicken or a turkey, or a goat or a pig, or a cow or a sheep a big extra hug for me today. I hope to be lighter tomorrow.

---
Note: I can predict that at least a few of my fellow animal advocates will immediately want to comment here, imploring me to pick up a copy of pattrice jones's excellent book Aftershock. Worry not, friends--I have it.

Related posts (two of which will open better in Firefox than in Internet Explorer because of long comment threads, which IE seems to struggle with):

Animal Rights Is a Mainstream Movement

On Being More Than an (Animal Rights) Activist

Ready to Attack Animal Rights Activists? Consider This First

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Comments (8)

I had this problem a lot at the beginning of the summer, after the rats I attempted to save were killed because the researcher had a bone to pick, so to speak. I went through a period where thinking about any kind of activism was so painful I couldn't stand it. I'd start thinking about all the money we waste on food and clothes and rent and school that could be going to rescues and all the time I wasn't spending, and all the things I could have done - it's a bad downward spiral. I spent most of my summer playing with my horses and working on various projects online, until several weeks ago when I ended up volunteering for a 5k for our local farm animal sanctuary. It made me feel a lot better to be able to go visit them and see that's it's not all bad... I also treated myself to my first animal-rights centered tattoo. Sometimes you just need to step back and give yourself a break.

Posted by Jen Ruff on 08/18/2009 @ 01:35PM PT
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"The more that people live with animals, the more they know how precious they are and what they do to enhance our lives." ~ Doris Day, Actress, Animal Activist
"All that breathes is precious. Who is to say that the suffering of an animal is less worthy of solace than the pain of man? The spark of life is no dimmer simply because it is encased in fur or leather." ~ Anonymous

Posted by Jade Golden on 08/18/2009 @ 06:12PM PT
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Hmm... hope you cheer up soon. I always love reading anything by Joanna Lucas. There was a post on the L.O.V.E. blog a few months ago about dealing with the frustration, and my answer is I just try to find enjoy my interactions with non-vegans (or vegans). I actually love going out and pamphleting or tabling, love those brief, spontaneous interactions with strangers. It's somehow invigorating to feel connected to so many people in a light, undemanding way. That's what works for me.

I actually haven't felt really bogged down by it in a few months... I've been trying to immerse myself in my interactions with other humans, to learn to embrace them and turn those interactions into paths of spiritual growth... because if I don't, they frustrate me very deeply and inhibit my happiness.

But, of course, that doesn't always work! I want to repost Joanna's essay, too. :)

Posted by Luella - on 08/18/2009 @ 06:17PM PT
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Feel better Steph! We all love you and know how you feel...it's ok to be sad. Have a good cry, it's good to let out all the pent up frustration and pain. Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully a better one.

Posted by Kristen Magno on 08/19/2009 @ 05:34AM PT
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Remember to take care of yourself, Stephanie! Thanks for sharing your highs and lows. It's helping me feel less alone.

Posted by Shannon Davis on 08/19/2009 @ 06:21AM PT
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I'm so glad you can find solace in music. We all have lows, but remember the highs are right around the corner.

Posted by Lisa Smolen on 08/21/2009 @ 07:30AM PT
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I'm grateful that the love for animals that animates and activates you is oh-so-much stronger, bigger, truer than the occasional times you forget that fact, Stephanie!

We sometimes forget that our love for them is doing such great good for the entire world, not just for the animals.

I think our every deed of selfless love (a love so beautifully articulated by Joanna) nullifies the seeming, temporary power of love's opposites -- hate, fear, ignorance, indifference, etc. Proves them powerless, really.

Your love for good rocks even more than Dar Williams' music does, Stephanie! (Excuse my ignorance: I have no idea whether he's a "rock-'n'-roller" or not!)

Posted by Olivia White on 08/21/2009 @ 11:43AM PT
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Thank you for the work you do, I can't say it enough. Your writing is some of the best I've encountered and you are touching more hearts and changing more minds than you know. Stay strong, safe and happy.

Posted by The Voracious Vegan . on 08/22/2009 @ 12:06PM PT
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.