DawnWatch Year End Round Up - The Top 23 of 2023

At the end of DawnWatch’s first year, which was the first of this millennium, I might have been able to scrape together a top ten list of great animal media stories. This year, having sent out thousands of articles, I wasn’t even able to categorize them into ten groups, so below you have the DawnWatch Top 23 of 2023.

Once categorized, how to rank them? I copped out, or went classical, alphabetical. Mostly. As you will see, I made a couple of exceptions.

It's been a fabulous year for serious coverage of animal issues in major mainstream media, so pour a glass of something fabulous, sit back and enjoy!

1)     CATS

I almost called them felines, just so I wouldn’t have to start with our movement’s third rail. Broach it at one’s own risk! But cats really are the right starting point because the January 1st, 2024, edition of the New Yorker includes an essay by National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen titled, “The Cats of L.A.” with the subheading, “The ‘No Kill’ movement helps keep cats outdoors. The consequences belie the name.”

Since it is by Franzen, it is thoughtfully written, with lines such as the following, in response to a suggestion put forward by Best Friends, that if we establish a value, with dogs and cats, of solving problems without killing animals, it will be extrapolated more broadly:

"I said that, being pessimistic about human nature, I fear that we’ve merely made dogs and cats into honorary humans and added them to our families, and that a family is defined by what it excludes—in this case, wildlife."

My friends who support TNR will not like this article, and my endorsement of it has reservations. I don't like the suggestion that all cats should be kept indoors all the time, as that’s not how I would want to live. I am big fan of cat fencing, which allows cats to be outside sometimes but contained. I would like to see TNR replaced by something I would call TNC, Trap Neuter and Contain. You can weigh in on the article, if you dare, with a letter to themail@thenewyorker.com

The great news is that the Wall Street Journal, one of the world's most influential newspapers, brought us a front page story this year, about Australia’s efforts, despite the country's history of mass cat extermination, to persuade people to keep their cats indoors, at least during the hours they are mostly likely to do the most harm. We also saw a New York Times article on the issue, “Menu a la Cat," which included a heartening quote, "It’s not a divide between people who love birds versus people who love cats...There are so many people who love both.”

2)      CEDAR THE GOAT

This year a young girl fell in love with Cedar, the goat she raised for 4H. Her mother tried to save the goat, first by attempting to withdraw him from the fair, then by contacting the senator who had bought him, for a church BBQ, and getting his permission to renege on the deal. But the Shasta fair refused to spare Cedar.

Seeing her daughter cuddled up with the goat in tears at the end of the fair, the mother took the goat to a farm for safekeeping, willing to deal with the consequences. The fair threatened her with a charge of grand theft. Then they got the police involved, with officers dispatched to grab Cedar, who was taken and killed. The mother is suing the state for violating her daughter's rights, because a nine-year-old girl has a right to change her mind, and a breach of contract is not a felony offense - arguably not an offense at all when those who would suffer from the breach have released the contract. California's Attorney General, in his wisdom, is counter-suing the girl's mother.

The good news here is that this made front pages across California, from Sacramento to Los Angeles, with Carla Hall writing in the Los Angeles Times, "On the 4-H website, the organization promises that its projects will help kids 'to grow confidence, independence, resilience, and compassion.' I’d say this young girl demonstrated all those when she decided to pull her goat from the fair."

And it made world syndicated news via the syndicated New York Times column of Nicholas Kristof who told us:

"I am astonished that the best use of Shasta County taxpayers’ money was to dispatch two deputies on a full day’s journey not to fight crime or addiction (fentanyl overdose deaths quintupled in Shasta County in 2021, the last year for which there is data) but to ensure the slaughter of a girl’s pet goat."

He noted:
"Cedar is also a reminder that the bright line we draw between farm animals and our pet dogs and cats is an arbitrary one....Future generations may look back at our age and wonder in astonishment at how we pamper our dogs yet brutalize farm animals."

3)      ENTERTAINMENT

The abuse of animals for entertainment was highlighted often and well in major media this year. Travel writer Andrea Sachs covered the downside of animal rides beautifully, in a lengthy article for the Washington Post, which was widely syndicated including in papers throughout Canada.

The Associated Press's coverage of Ringling Bros reborn without animals made world news. HSUS's Kitty Block had an op-ed celebrating that in the Los Angeles Times, which I used as a jump-off point for a letter that the paper headlined, "No such thing as a humane zoo." I noted:

"While an accreditation, ascertaining adequate food, shelter and living space, signifies a vast improvement on facilities without that guarantee, it does not make it OK to lock up members of other species so that we can gawk at them.

"In the early 20th century, Ota Benga, a human pygmy, was displayed at the Bronx Zoo because patrons enjoyed staring at him. A century later most of us are ashamed of that history, because, thankfully, society has evolved.

"As that evolution continues, we are coming to accept that magnificent wild animals do not belong in the entertainment industry, including zoos, no matter their accreditation."

Canada’s Globe and Mail ran a stunning opinion section devoted to animals which included a piece from Jessica Scott-Reid warning people about the "conservation-washing" engaged in by zoos.

The Scottish Daily Mail ran a double-page spread of an essay by Dame Joanna Lumley, with the attention-grabbing headline, "Announcing at dinner that you’ve ridden an elephant on holiday should be greeted with the same horror as admitting you’ve eaten dog meat."

As Los Angeles weighed a rodeo ban, which passed this year, the Los Angeles Times' Susanne Rust made sure Angelenos understood the cruelty behind the "sport." Meanwhile Fox 32 Chicago aired disgusting rodeo video taken by SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), noting that Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow is prosecuting for animal cruelty.

And those who remember the carriage horse Ryder collapsing on a Manhattan street last year were happy to see photos in the New York Post of Ryder's owner finally in handcuffs. Some of us might have liked to see the man lying on the ground, collapsed from exhaustion, being whipped because he wouldn't get up.

4)      LOLITA/TOKITAE AND OTHER WHALES

Tokitae has jumped two alphabetical spots on this list because she is part of, so needs to follow, the abusive entertainment industry, though she made enough news to head her own category, in which I will include other whale tales.

I first learned of her story two decades ago, seeing my friend Tim Gorski's superb film, available on YouTube , "Lolita: Slave to Entertainment," which includes, in the first few minutes, heartbreaking video of her capture in Puget Sound in the 1970s. After fifty years in the country's smallest orca tank, Tokitae was finally set to be released this year, with that joyous announcement making front page news in Florida and much joyful news around the world. She died a few months after it was made.

The only light was the outpouring of media cursing her life in captivity. New York Times coverage included a quote from a representative of the Lummi Nation:

“It forces us as humans to look at ourselves and ask ourselves: What the hell have we become?...We capture, we kidnap and drive to extinction to make profits.”

Problematic in the New York Times coverage was its reference to Tokitae as an "it," breaking the paper's own grammatical rule, which is that at least animals who have been given names by humans should get he and she pronouns . In this time of intense focus on pronouns, I ask animal people, please, whenever you see an animal referred to with the pronoun "it," be sure to politely raise your objection in the comments section, or with a quick note to the media involved, reminding people that animals are not objects.

Numerous other papers ran articles and op-eds mourning Tokitae. In the Idaho Statesman, Bob Kustra reminded us, "Customers who bought tickets to see Tokitae perform are complicit in the captivity and death of Tokitae. And many other op-eds extended the conversation, for example the inimitable Jessica Scott-Reid asked in Canada's Globe and Mail, "What can be done about the captive animals at marineland."

Discussing the need for marine mammal sanctuaries, John Racanelli wrote an opinion piece for the Baltimore Sun titled, "How one whale’s tragic death could ignite a movement."

Towards the end of the year the Washington Post brought us a beautiful lengthy, deep read or deep listen, "The Call of Tokitae." Perhaps a New Years Eve treat? Here's that gift link .

Unsurprising given their history, this year orcas started attacking boats, the surprising thing being their apparent lack of interest in killing the people on them. Business Insider suggested,
"A female orca traumatized by a previous encounter with humans may be behind mounting killer whale attacks on boats, scientists say." Indeed, orcas have had way too many traumatizing experiences with humans.

So have other whales. The Guardian shared the painful news that after a brief moratorium, Iceland is to resume whaling.

The outcry around Tokitae's death has buoyed efforts on behalf of the orca named Corky in San Diego, and a beluga named Bella, who activists want released from a South Korean shopping mall, with that effort covered on CNN. Meanwhile a beluga named Ferdinand died this month at San Diego's SeaWorld and three belugas transferred from Canada to Mystic Connecticut have died this year, gaining much anti-captivity media.

The current edition of the Economist has a lengthy, depressing, but fascinating article on the history of whale hunting.

And we got some great animal media, right at the end of the year: the 60 Minutes Christmas episode, Sunday December 25, gave us three animal friendly segments under the heading "Animal Magnetism." The first, on efforts to create a whale sanctuary around Dominica, brings home our human impact, as Enric Sala, who is working on the whale sanctuary, says: "I walked away because my job was to study the impacts of humans in the ocean, the impacts of fishing and global warming. And one day I realized that all I was doing was writing the obituary of the ocean."

5)      FACTORY FARMING

A huge proportion of coverage about factory farming this year came from the Supreme Court's hearing and ruling on California's Prop 12, a ballot initiative that became law, which gave chickens, pigs and calves somewhat better living conditions. It was legally challenged by the pork industry, which objected to the insistence that female pigs, while still caged, were moved from their coffin sized gestation crates and given enough room to lie down with their limbs outstretched and to turn around.

Sadly, the Biden administration backed the pork industry. Happily. the Supreme Court upheld the California law. For those who know little about it I am pleased to share this gift link to the New York Times coverage, but, as has so often been the case this year, Vox gave us the most thorough and thoughtful coverage (more on Vox below) under the headline, "The Supreme Court’s ruling on Prop 12 is a win against factory farming. But the pigs’ lives will still suck."

The article shares information that has been widely unavailable:

"Still, it’s hard to look past the fact that pigs raised on Prop 12-compliant farms will continue to have terrible lives, even as California consumers are given the impression that pork sold in their state is now high-welfare. Few consumers even know that many pork products aren’t covered by the law. Only whole, uncooked pork cuts, like bacon or tenderloin, have to be Prop 12-compliant, while all other products, like ground pork, precooked pork, or deli meat, representing about 42 percent of pork consumption in the state, don’t. Animal protection groups and the pork industry have both downplayed this fact in their messaging about Prop 12, because both have had an interest in depicting it as stronger than it really is."

And then the article broaches a question endemic in our movement:

"These weaknesses have brought to the fore one of the longest-running debates at the core of animal law and animal rights. Will giving animals bigger cages chip away at the meat industry and diminish consumer interest in animal products over time? Or, as the legal philosopher Gary Francione has argued for decades, will reformism just make people more comfortable consuming the products of animal exploitation? Do laws like Prop 12, particularly when followed by high-profile legal battles, act as a release valve that alleviates some of the mounting social pressure and consumer guilt over factory farming? Or might this victory portend a range of even more far-reaching protections for animals across an ever-greater number of states?

"These are empirical questions that we don’t yet know the answer to. Only time and research can tell whether incremental law reform projects will increase public concern about the consumption of pig meat or prematurely end the debate. But what’s beyond question is that the Prop 12 case represents a watershed moment for the growing political power and potential of animal protection activism."

Nicolas Kristof, the New York Times columnist who has been a leading voice against factory farming for years, was up to his usual good trouble this year with, "Spy Cams Reveal Pork Industry Secrets" a piece that closes with, ".... look at the video — or imagine hogs confined to crates for most of their lives — and you understand the true cost of pork." And he also gave us a piece titled, "The Truth About Your Bacon," which includes:

"As for the hogs themselves, although they are fed and watered, can they truly live? Locked up, unable to move around, they chew the metal bars in apparent frustration and bite one another’s tails — something even the grouchiest of our pigs never did. So factory farms often preemptively remove pigs’ tails, usually without anesthetic."

Finally, and importantly, the Guardian, like no other paper, has continued to commit itself to covering factory farming:

6)      THE GUARDIAN

The Guardian has published so many serious animal friendly articles this year, surely at least one a day, that I could hardly point to them all. Instead, I will point you to their website section titled, "Animals Farmed." It is part of Guardian.org, whose mission statement is, "To advance and inform public discourse and citizen participation around the most pressing issues of our time through the support of independent journalism and journalistic projects at the Guardian."

DawnWatch's aim is to encourage the media to do a better job of covering animal issues, so that people can make informed choices in line with their own values. To see an area of the Guardian dedicated to animal issues, particularly farmed animal issues, is beyond heartening.

7)      GUARD DOG - FROM MUTTS

Year after year the cartoon strip Mutts, syndicated in hundreds of papers and therefore read by millions of people, brings us media well worth celebrating. Patrick McDonnell intersperses the cute little strips with profound messages from the characters. Mutts gives us a week of "Shelter Stories" at least once a year and has even tackled factory farming.

This year, the creator gently revisited the cruelty of keeping fish in a bowl and portrayed the plight of sharks.

Then Guard Dog stormed the internet, which caught the attention of the Associated Press. The AP story covered Patrick O'Donnell's choice to free Guard Dog, who has spent the last thirty years on a chain, dreaming of freedom.

Guard Dog's release was beautifully drawn out, gaining the strip countless followers during the saga, and sharing meaningful messages around the world, including one from the November 4 strip featuring a quote from the Dalai Lama: "Perhaps one day we will all kneel down and ask the animals for forgiveness."

8)      HORSE RACING DEATHS

The carnage around this year's Kentucky Derby made news all over the world. By the time the race started, CNN reported there had been seven deaths and The Guardian gave us a piece, by Elizabeth Banicki, titled, "What do horses feel at the Kentucky Derby? Mostly fear and pain."

Joe Drape of the New York Times bemoaned the Derby deaths, writing, "Either nature or neglect or abuse sent these athletes collapsing on the racetrack, soon to be hustled into equine vans to meet their grim fates."

CNN did an investigative piece titled, "'Horses continue to die': Inside the debate around thoroughbred horse racing" and the network also covered UK arrests of activists who were planning to protest horse racing.

The Associated Press covered the horse deaths around the Belmont Park race.

As the Calgary Stampede killed horses in Canada, the CBC took note and the Daily Hive ran an opinion piece by Chantelle Archambault of the Vancouver Humane Society, titled, "100 years of cruelty at the Calgary Stampede is nothing to celebrate."

CBS's 60 Minutes covered the doping scandal at US racetracks.

Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times put horse racing deaths on the front page, with the latter then running three letters under the letters page headline, "A Sport that kills its participants."

9)      LOS ANGELES TIMES

That brings us to a paper that needs a category of its own, given all of the superb coverage, and often front-page placement of that coverage.

Not only does the Los Angeles Times have some of the largest readership numbers in the USA, it has an incalculable influence on the zeitgeist, being the paper read by the world’s entertainment industry.

We are blessed to have folks at the paper who give a serious darn about animal issues, and to have Los Angeles activists who write in regularly, letting the paper know how much readers care about animals. They give the editors plenty of material to publish on the letters page. I believe that part of the society’s changing attitude to animals has its root at what comes out of the Los Angeles Times, and I wholeheartedly thank all of you who have contributed to that – starting with DawnWatch advisor Elaine-Livesay Fassel, who monitors the paper for us daily, and writes hundreds of letters per year.

Just some of the stories the Los Angeles Times has put on its front page this year, besides horse racing deaths:

The front page featured rodeo cruelty, no doubt helping to usher in the Los Angeles Ban. It featured the closing of the Farm John pig slaughterhouse, with coverage including the reactions of activists. It made sure people knew about methane and other pollution caused by the dairy industry. It covered deep sea mining, which endangers countless sea creatures. And though the Catalina Conservancy tried to quietly wipe all of the deer off Catalina Island, the Los Angeles Times front page coverage is making sure that the public will have a chance to weigh in.

The paper has brought us editorials calling for a moratorium on bear hunts, numerous animal-themed op-eds, and hundreds of animal friendly articles (at least one per day) including, "Humans exploit like no other species”.

It may have outdone itself when on the day after Thanksgiving, the lead, front-page, above-the-fold, photos were shots of joyous turkey cuddles at the Gentle Barn. Check them out!

10)      MUSTANG AND BURRO ROUND-UPS

The mustang roundups continue, as a gruesome subsidy to the cattle ranching lobby, which doesn't like competition for grass on the public lands where ranchers make their living. At least the roundups are finally making national news in a negative light. ABC.News.go.com was one of the first outlets to publicize the massacre of mustangs this year.

The Hill told us:
"Wild Horse Education this week filed a lawsuit against the BLM in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, calling for judges to address what the group characterizes as abuse issues, policy violations and failures to take action that would reduce suffering.
'''The BLM’s helicopters chased stallions, mares and foals, causing such panic that many animals were injured or broke their legs and had to be euthanized,' the lawsuit states."

NBC later brought us a profoundly disappointing follow-up story titled, "Capture of wild mustangs in Nevada will continue, despite deaths of 31 wild horses, judge rules."

We saw strong local coverage, which includes awful video, from 8 News Now.

Canada’s Globe and Mail published a stunning, dedicated to animals, with one article questioning whether we have a right to own horses at all, and another calling for the end of mustang round-ups in Canada.

Burros suffer in those round-ups too, and the Los Angeles Times brought us a story (front-page) about a "big ass problem" in Big Bear, where conservationists want burros rounded up because they trample the area, even though "homeowners and vacation rental managers have come to adore the furry equines as living symbols of Big Bear Valley’s rustic mountain heritage — as well as an attraction for eco-tourists who reward their heehaws with carrots."

From the Guardian we learned of the Australian government's plans to shoot feral horses, from the air, in Kosciuszko National Park.

And a related story, not about mustangs but about subsidies and special benefits to the wealthy ranching lobby, which gives millions to legislators every year, we learned from the Colorado sun that "Colorado ranchers can kill wolves that are attacking livestock, federal wildlife officials say."

11)      MOVIES

It was a great year for animal rights at the movies! The New York Times and numerous outlets ran stunning reviews of EO.

The main theme of "Guardians of the Galaxy III" was the rescue of Rocket Raccoon from the animal experimenters who had tortured him as a baby and then kidnapped him again as an adult, inspiring a USA Today story titled "Animal scenes in ‘Guardians’ take aim at a larger purpose." Vox, of course, (more on that below) gave the film great coverage.

Chicken Run is back after two decades, with part II, "The Dawn of the Nugget," in which the adorable claymation characters strive to rescue friends from a slaughter plant. CBS Sunday Morning ran a segment on it! The film is on Netflix!

All That Breathes, a documentary with a 99 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and which was nominated for an Oscar, is now on HBO.

And a fish-friendly film called Blueback got a stunning review. I'll be watching it on Amazon Prime this week.

I must also mention that The Fall of the House of Usher, one of Netflix's biggest hits of there, looks, in Episode 3, at the horrifying world of primate experimentation. It includes a speech well worth hearing.

12)      OBITUARIES

The DawnWatch In Memoria section looks at people, beloved in the animal rights world, whose passing brought animals even more media.

BOB BARKER spent his whole television career advocating for animals, signing off "The Price is Right" every night by reminding people to spay and neuter their pets. Later in life he supported numerous animal rights organizations financially, and he gave million-dollar Animal Rights Law endowments to Harvard and seven other top law schools. Nobody could have missed Barker's death in the media, and every story seemed to link him with animals in some way.

In celebrating the work of KAREN DAVIS, of United Poultry Concerns, it is pertinent to note that our movement is in the grip of Effective Altruism, which guides funders to give to those organizations that impact the greatest number of animals. That means that organizations pushing for bigger cages for the billions of chickens suffering under the horrors of factory farming get the bulk of big funding. Yet those animals are, bizarrely, exempt from the United States Federal Humane Slaughter Act, an exemption that bigger cages does nothing about. And chickens deserve more than bigger cages in life. Karen Davis was their tireless spokesperson, an extraordinarily articulate and passionate voice for them. I feel her loss whenever I see something in the media on chickens that needs a response, as I could always rely on her to get right on it. It kills me that she didn't get to see her gorgeous obituaries honoring her life and work in the Wall Street Journal , the Washington Post , and the New York Times .

ESTHER THE WONDER PIG was undoubtedly one of our movements biggest (so to speak) social media stars, beloved to millions. Her massive appeal went way beyond the animal rights world and had a profound effect on the public conversations around pigs. The CBC did a nice job of covering her death, as, unsurprisingly did, Vox .

Esther wasn’t the only nonhuman obituary we saw in major media this year. The New York Times carried a lovely obituary under the headline, "Marathoners Mourn Spencer, a Race Fan Who Inspired Boston." Hopefully we will see more nonhuman obituaries in coming years. The paper also printed my letter reminding folks that equally wonderful dogs were in danger of dying at shelters, and that readers could honor Spencer by adopting one.

13)      OCTOPUS FARMING

The Guardian & Observer ran an article titled, "A symbol of what humans shouldn’t be doing’: the new world of octopus farming." It included, "We have put very intelligent animals in intensive farms that are now suffering. Let’s not do it again.”

The Guardian also ran "‘Not so alien’: biologist busts myths and explores enigma of the octopus."

And the Los Angeles Times ran an article discussing that an octopus farm planned in Hawaii may be in violation of local laws.

Our holiday present from the Washington Post was a December 25 front-page story titled, "If an octopus is so smart, should you eat it?" That article got wide play, including all throughout Canada.

Also, the Los Angeles Times brought us a front-page story that is advertised with a photo of an octopus, which warns of the dangers of the deep sea mining that is being considered, "industrial-scale mining for precious metals used in electric car batteries and other green technology," which "could have catastrophic consequences for a vast number of critical ecosystems we know very little about."

14)      RATS

Rats may have a category here partly because I have such a soft spot for them, and they have such a hard time in human society. It was great to see them get some good press this year. The New York Times gave us a lead story, front page of the Science section, titled "The War on Rats: Is It Ethical?" which was sympathetic to their suffering telling us:

"Glue traps will leave rats starving, for days, before dying. Poison leads to a slow, painful death and can endanger other wildlife. Standard wooden snap traps often catch limbs or tails, forcing rats to gnaw them off in desperation. Live-catch traps are difficult to implement, and when many rats are stuck in the same place together without food, they sometimes eat one another."

It also noted that they "live in colonies and establish networks of tunnels in which they play, groom one another and touch noses in acts of recognition. They also have a large collection of facial expressions and can sense the emotions of others in their colony. Perhaps in part because of this, brown rats have been found to consistently prefer rewards that benefit others, as opposed to just themselves. "

Business Insider's article about New York's rat crisis tells us, "people are the problem — more than rats, which are just seeking food out of survival," and notes:

"'For rats to go away, everyone in the city — plus our restaurants, schools, grocers — must be willing to address the fundamental issue of food waste,' ....'New Yorkers waste roughly 6.5 million pounds every day, which amounts to as much as a pound per person. '"

The Washington Post ran a story on folks who get together while their dogs hunt rats, replete with horrifying photos. But it wasn't entirely unsympathetic to rats, including the lines, "

"Do you feel bad for the rats?

"Maybe we should, because it’s our fault there are so many of them. Rats proliferate in areas where there is poor trash management. Open dumpsters are a buffet. Unkempt properties are welcoming nests. If humans cleaned up after themselves better, then there wouldn’t be as many rats for these dogs to kill."

I am pleased the paper published my letter in response which noted:

"Rats are highly intelligent animals, just as sentient and sensitive as the dogs and cats so many of us love. What a shame for them that, after the pandemic eased, the restaurants reopened as careless as ever with the tons of callously wasted food. What a shame for all species on this planet, and the planet itself, that humans are the worst stewards imaginable. Surely, we can do better."

Fellow rat lovers are going to love the Chicken Run movie that I discuss above, as it has a couple of adorable Claymation rat stars!

15)      REPTILE FOOD

News broke first in San Diego of 200 small animals from the city's humane society, who were transported to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and then transferred again to reptile dealers to become food.

CBS 8 in San Diego covered the case as did the New York Times. And it went wild on the Internet.

This year I started doing regular segments, on Mondays, on the Mark Thompson Show , a podcast started by the popular KFI and KGO radio host about a year ago, which is growing fast. Mark is personally a passionate animal person but that’s not something he talks about a lot -- that's what he has me on for. And I am thrilled.

Our discussion of the reptile food shelter mess may be particularly interesting, as we butt heads a little, with my suggesting that anybody upset by the incident should think about the whole idea of keeping reptiles as pets. I share the link (against my own vanity as I look in desperate need of sleep in this one) for those interested. And do check out Mark's show, especially on Mondays!

16)      PETER SINGER

I hope you don't think I filed Peter Singer under his last name just so that he would follow rats and reptiles. Actually, I have already said I love rats, and some of you will be surprised to learn that I don’t hate Peter Singer.

Those of you have been following DawnWatch know I did write an essay bemoaning his new disappointingly tepid stance on animal rights, and discussing the legal claim I filed against him for sexual harassment. Having stood for myself and for the female experience in this movement, I feel relieved of much of the rage I had harbored for years. Today I posted an epilogue, which you will find at the end of that Peter Singer essay, which explains why I chose not to move forward with an appeal on the ruling against my sexual harassment claim, and which shares my hope that the whole sorry saga can be put to bed.

There was a massive amount of media coverage this year around the release of an updated version of Singer's 1975 book, Animal Liberation, problematically titled, "Animal Liberation Now." Some of it was awful for animals. An editorial in The Australian announced with glee, "Even the moral philosopher Peter Singer - Lehmann describes him as the founding father of the animal rights movement - stops short of cutting out all consumption of animal products."

The cover of New Scientist shared, "Is Meat Always Murder: Peter Singer on animal rights in the age of climate change." Inside, the articles subheading read, "Controversial bioethicist Peter Singer has a new perspective on killing humanely raised animals for food. But climate ethics keeps them off the menu, he tells Madeleine Cuff."

Indeed, Singer says, "I've become a little more open to the idea that if we rear animals in ways that give them good lives and take care to make sure that they do not suffer when they are killed, then that's a defensible ethical position." I do hope reading that will give pause to some who still fawn over him as the "Father of the modern animal rights movement."

I was pleased the New Scientist published my letter in response under the headline, "Changing stance is heartbreaking to see."

I wrote:

"Though it is great to see animal issues covered in New Scientist, it is heartbreaking to see Peter Singer, who was once a great voice for animals, even contemplating the idea that their farming and humane slaughter might be considered ethical (3 June, p 43). Can you imagine Gloria Steinem discussing types of sexism that she now thinks might be ethical?"

And in response to a piece by Singer in the Los Angeles Times, calling for better treatment of the animals we eat, the paper published my letter as a lead, under the headline, "More than nicer cages for animals." It included:

"There is a growing understanding that other species are not here for our use. They have worth and wonder of their own, which is becoming more frequently acknowledged in human society.

"That acknowledgment will bring change we will not see if our main focus is on causing animals less suffering in their servitude."

I felt only distress around the book tour, with its movement killing messages, until just this week when I listened to Singer's interview with Sam Harris.

Having learned from Gloria Steinem to think of, and talk about, a circle of life as opposed to a hierarchy of life, I was interested to hear Harris talk about an obvious hierarchy, with humans at the top, the proof he offered being his gut feeling on the matter. Compared to that, Singer's views were enlightened, though miles from the view of animals the world was given last year by Ed Yong's glorious book "An Immense World," which should be read by anybody who assumes that humans are the quintessential species.

It was Harris and Singer's discussion of animal testing, however, that significantly softened my feelings towards Singer's book tour. It became clear that Harris, who had previously known nothing about the field, had read Singer's book in preparation for the interview, and was appropriately sickened and appalled by the animal testing chapter. I felt my general rise in blood pressure around everything to do with the book tour drop, as I thought of the influence Harris has, and the obvious effect that chapter had on him. I hope there are many similar situations of which I am not aware, and that those who know little about our cause might be drawn towards it by some of the publicity around Singer's work.

17)      SCIENCE MAGAZINE

The cover of the December 8 edition of Science Magazine gave us a sweet cow face and the headline, "Curious Minds: The cognitive powers of farm animals." The article, written by the magazine's online News Editor of Science, discusses experiments that show intelligence and empathy in animals who are generally relegated to farms to be raised for human food. The cover, even more than the article, surely had the most power, seen by millions on newsstands across the world. It is well worth celebrating.

18)      SHELTER CRISIS

2023 has not been a good year for animal shelters, but at least it has been a good year for coverage of the crisis. The crisis was covered on the front page of the Houston Chronicle, when Texas shelters got overrun, and in New York papers, including an article in the New York Times titled "New York City Shelters Are Overwhelmed By Flood of Animals." (The paper printed my response titled, "Adopt, don't Shop.")

The Los Angeles Times did its own investigation into the failing shelter system, which it ran on the front page, and the story was also covered by Los Angeles TV stations including KTLA.

The Guardian ran an unusual and thoughtful piece about the suffering caused by the pet industry titled, "Want to truly have empathy for animals? Stop owning pets."

We've also seen a boon in interest in this topic in huge magazines such as People and Newsweek, which now both run regular rescue stories online. And rescue stories are also showing up on America Strong, the segment at the end of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir.

As we close the year the Washington Post has put out a piece titled, "As the pandemic adoption boom cools, pet shelters overflow: A tough economic climate last year put a chill on animal adoptions. But though shelters are packed, the outlook is brightening." And the Associated Press has one, appearing in numerous papers, titled, "America’s animal shelters are overcrowded with pets from families facing economic and housing woes."

19)      SLAUGHTER-FREE MEAT

Some of the most extraordinary news ever for animals broke in 2023, as two American companies got approval to start selling meat that they call cell-cultivated, and the media usually calls lab-grown, while I prefer the term slaughter-free. Here’s AP coverage of that announcement.

The BBC did a segment with Uma Valeti of Upside Foods, a cardiologist with a passion for saving both humans and animals, about the company’s cell-cultured chicken. Valeti was also on a CBS Sunday Morning lead segment on cultivated meat, and an NPR Morning Edition segment in which he discusses his horror upon visiting a slaughterhouse, and his desire to make meaningful change in the world, and on another National Public Radio segment on "All Things Considered."

The Washington Post put “lab-grown chicken” on the front page of its food section, and Germany's DW news ran a piece "Debunking myths about lab-grown meat." Time Magazine gave us an article on
Sandhya Sriram, a lifelong vegetarian and founder of Shiok Meats, a Singapore company producing cell cultivated shrimp.

The Associated Press included “Meat Without the Animals” as an article in its extraordinary series “The Protein Problem: Can we feed this growing world without starving the planet?”

Reuters even gave us the good news that the product has been deemed kosher! The Washington Post, meanwhile, discussed the arrival of dairy “from labs, not cows.”

I have given you just a taste of all of the coverage.

I don’t want to forget Beau of the Fifth column, who weighed in lab grown meat and said, "When it comes to people who talk about veganism, animal rights, stuff like that, I don't have a counter argument." For those of you who don't know Beau, he is a popular YouTube personality with a redneck presentation but generally liberal views. And he has close to a million subscribers, so his animal friendly stances are a blessing!

Finally, Vox included "the ability to buy slaughter-free meat" among its list of the ten good things that happened in 2023.

My faith in humanity waned this year, as I saw humans willing to support horrors against members of our own species, even children, who were viewed as being on “the other side,” and so I lost faith that we could persuade all of them to stop eating meat to save members of other species. Thus my passion for slaughter-free real meat, which I shared in a 2019 article that I wrote for the Progressive Magazine, “Beyond the Slaughterhouse,” strengthened throughout 2023.

There are those in our movement who see slaughter-free meat as a pipe dream, the development of which is sucking up money that should be going to underfunded animal rights organizations. While acknowledging that, I suggest that rather than trashing the product, which has the potential to save billions of animals per year from lives worse than death and then deaths of horror, we do everything we can to encourage the government, which heavily subsidizes the slaughtered meat industry, to fund the research and development of this welcome alternative.

20)      SLAUGHTERHOUSE ESCAPES

Slaughterhouse escapes always get our movement great media! This year the best of it went to Skylands Animal Sanctuary. Skylands rescued an escaped sheep and gained great coverage from Tucker Carlson back when he was still on Fox News. Carlson was as snarky as ever, but his attitude to animals was, as usual, sympathetic. Activists who have been receiving alerts from DawnWatch (a totally nonpartisan animal advocacy organization) for some time know that Carlson has a long history of standing up for dogs; it was wonderful to see him make a welcome move towards other species.

The Guardian and numerous other outlets shared the story of cow who escaped a truck on the way to a New Jersey slaughterhouse – and ended up at Skylands. And, as a bull ran down Newark railway tracks, he made news all over the New York area. Now named Ricardo, he is fast becoming a Skylands Farm Sanctuary media star.

The Fox 5 coverage of Ricardo’s adventure epitomizes the joy of the media around these events as anchor Steve Lacy
says, "I'm always pulling for those ones that escape the slaughterhouse - can't lie to you."

Isn’t everybody? Let’s harness that energy, for animals, in 2024.

21)      VOX

I made references above to the extraordinary coverage that the online magazine VOX gives animals. One of the best ways to keep abreast of what is going on in the animal world is to keep an eye of Vox. Unlike from keeping an eye on one of the vegan publications, we see from Vox thoughtful coverage meant for a mainstream nonvegan audience. Vox having included three important advances for animals among its list of the ten good things that happened for animals in 2023 is telling.

Having already shared Vox's coverage of the SCOTUS decision on California's animal crate laws, and its thoughtful piece on the impact of Esther the Wonder Pig, and its informative look at Guardians of the Galaxy, and the go-ahead given to slaughter-free meat, I will share just a few of the other animal friendly pieces from the hundreds that Vox gave us this year:

From Bryan Walsh, an editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate, tech, and world teams, and the editor of Vox’s Future Perfect section, we got the piece "Human progress has come at the expense of animals. It doesn’t have to."

Vox ran "The Biggest Animal Welfare Crisis You've Never Heard of: Farm animals starve and drown while shipped overseas for slaughter. Europe is considering a ban on the trade," and a piece on "The greenwashing of wool, explained: Big Wool wants you to believe it’s nice to animals and the environment. It’s not."

We got stellar reporting on Wayne Hsuing's conviction titled, "You’re more likely to go to prison for exposing animal cruelty than for committing it” and a superb piece on how the company that runs the Whitehouse turkey pardons treats its birds.

Kenny Torrella, brought us many of the thoughtful animal articles from Vox this year including the piece "This land isn’t for you or me. It’s for the meat industry" and a provocative piece, “The case against pet ownership.”

Finally, Vox covered, many times, the horror of Ventilation Shutdown Plus. This is a method of killing animals on factory farms, sometimes birds who have been exposed to avian flu, and sometimes excess pigs, by baking them alive -- turning off the air and turning up the heat.

Marina Bolotnikova, penned at least two articles on it, one piece telling us, "The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop bird flu" and one on the disappointing need for ethical veterinarians to battle the American Veterinarian Medical Association, which has approved the method of "euthanasia." The efforts of Crystal Heath, who is leading the charge against the AVMA, were profiled in yet another Vox piece on the issue .

22)      ZOONOTIC PANDEMICS

The risk humans face due to our abysmal treatment of other species was covered by many of the world’s leading publications this year.

The New York Times ran an article titled "Risk Seen in U.S. Animal Industries” which noted “The nation uses an enormous number of animals for commercial purposes, and regulations do not adequately protect against outbreaks, experts concluded," which included the suggestion that “The risk is staggering, because our use of animals is staggering.”

With love and grief I share Karen Davis’ response in the New York Times, which noted "This article is illuminating but one element of the crisis is missing: the degree to which animals suffer in these appalling situations." She was kind enough to share with her followers at United Poultry Concerns that DawnWatch had alerted her to the article.

Mother Jones ran a story titled, "Bad Neighbors: Tightly packed poultry and pig farms could be incubating the next daily flu. And USA put the topic on its front-page with a story informing people, "While Americans often think 'it couldn't happen here,' regulations are so loose and interactions so frequent, researchers found, that a virus or another contagious bug could easily jump from animals to people in the U.S., sparking a deadly outbreak." The article included not just information on meat, but also disgusting photos, by Jo-anne McArthur of We Animals Media, of US mink farms.

The way we treat other species was dealt with poetically in a touching New York Times essay, "What Do We Owe Turtles?" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which includes the lines:

"We have betrayed the millions of other species with whom we share this leafy paradise with an extractive culture that threatens their inherent right to be. Turtles among us carry a warning: We need to acknowledge our unpaid debt and create solutions that protect not only our species but our more-than-human relatives as well. They want to live, too…

"We need more than policy change; we need a change in worldview, from the fiction of human exceptionalism to the reality of our kinship and reciprocity with the living world. The Earth asks that we renounce a culture of endless taking so that the world can continue."

In one of my favorite appearances on the Mark Thompson show this year, we discussed that essay among other issues. You might like to check it out.

23)      ZESTY AND ZEALOUS LETTERS

Yes, I've cheated, because I had to end with a celebration of all the letters we've had published this year. I know many people use DawnWatch as an information service for keeping up to date on animals in the media, and I am happy it serves that purpose - especially for people who work in the animal advocacy movement and can use the information to further our cause. But DawnWatch was founded to encourage activists to engage with the media, befriend the media, giving feedback that encourages more and better coverage of animal issues. Letters to the editor are a particularly useful tool. Though online media has taken off, millions of people still read the hard copies (and online editions) every day of the world's leading newspapers, with the letters page being one of the most read pages of most papers. Legislators and other decision makers look to those pages as barometers of public opinion. So how can I not be excited by the following:

On January 1st of 2023 the Los Angeles Times printed a beautiful little letter thanking the paper for running reports on animal cruelty, that "serve to inform the public and hopefully inspire change." It was followed by a whole page of animal friendly letters on January 3. Today, on the last day of the year, the paper has run a letter, by me, bemoaning the hideous feedlot on California's I-5.

Talk about nice bookends for 2023!

Between those bookends we got numerous pages of letters in the Los Angeles Times, by which I mean that the lead headline and photo were devoted to our cause, with more of our letters under that lead.

We saw a full page of letters in response to Cedar the Goat,
a page of letters on Vegan Seafood, a page on the surfboard stealing otter 841, who I dubbed Laverna,
a page of letters about horseracing, which I mentioned above, under the headline, "A Sport that kills its participants," a page of letters against a planned cull of geese, a page against an impending Catalina deer slaughter, a page of anti-rodeo letters, a page of pre-thanksgiving letters titled, "Slaughtering 46 million turkeys is an odd way to give thanks" and two full pages of letters in response to the paper's shelter crisis investigation.
Additionally, there were too many wonderful individual letters printed to list here.

I mentioned above that the New York Times published Karen Davis' letter on the animal suffering behind pandemics and also mine titled "Mourning Spencer," encouraging people to adopt in his honor. It published another of mine under the title "Don't Shop, Adopt." The paper also published Ann Bradley's perfect little letter on the turtle essay I cited above, and two beautiful letters under the headline, "The cruelty behind pork."

We saw a page of letters in the Toronto Star under a beautiful photo of fallen activist Regan Russell , a page of letters in the Sacramento Bee about Cedar the Goat.

We have expanded our reach to Texas this year, with a page of letters in the Houston Chronicle on the animal shelter crisis, and with Jennifer Plombon and I both getting letters printed in the Dallas Morning News, in response the appointment of a woman to head up the zoo there, both expressing our hope that would a female lead would lead to a kinder future.

We also landed letters this year in the Chicago Tribune and two in the Boston Globe, one saying we should tax meat and the other from Ellen Taylor noting:

"We commodify sentient beings that experience fear and pain. In addition to gestational crates, female pigs are subjected to other cruel practices, such as keeping them continuously pregnant, making them among the most abused animals on the planet. Larger crates may make a small dent in their suffering, but their suffering will continue for the most part unabated."

It really has been an extraordinary year for (Zesty and Zealous) animal advocacy letters!

I hope the outline above has given you hope for the future. In some ways our treatment of animals has not changed nearly enough in the last few decades. But the awareness around, and the media coverage of, animal issues is astronomical compared to back when I started putting out DawnWatch news alerts in 2000. And, as my mentor Gretchen Wyler, founder of the Genesis Awards, used to say, "Cruelty Can't Stand the Spotlight." I have no doubt we are reaching a tipping point, and I hope the essay above has helped convince you of that, and given you some fuel for the road ahead.

With heartfelt thanks to all of this beloved community, which devotes itself to making the world kinder, I send out hope for a beautiful 2024.

I also send a gentle request that you don't forget to support DawnWatch, especially if you haven't donated yet in 2023. There's information for that below.

Yours and all animals',
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch
https://DawnWatch.com