I had no idea that the Swedish furniture company IKEA serves meatballs and sausages in its big box stores. But it does. IKEA announced this week that it would recall meatballs and sausages from its stores across Europe amid concerns that they might contain horsemeat. In doing so, IKEA became...

I never would have guessed that the fate of two old oxen on a Vermont college campus would inspire tens of thousands of people around the world to raise their voices. But it did. Bill and Lou, scheduled for slaughter after a lifetime of service to the college,...

So on Monday, October 1, is World Vegetarian Day--the kickoff for Vegetarian Awareness Month than runs throughout October. If you've been toying with the idea of going vegetarian, then let me be your cheerleader, and let the following lists inform and inspire! Good luck...and please share your journey!

A Reason...

Last week, an international group of brain researchers released the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. The document declared the group's data-driven consensus that most animals are conscious and aware in the same way that humans are, and confirmed that virtually all animals have at least some degree of sentience...

Last Sunday was fun. I was one of three judges at Go Dog Go, a fundraiser held by Pause Dog Boutique to support dog rescue efforts.

It was fun because I was in the company of Bruce Littlefield, "arbiter of fun" and author of the...

As many as 300,000 horses each year were once slaughtered in the United States, a practice that ended in 2007 when Congress repealed USDA funding for horse meat inspections and the last of America's slaughterhouses closed. But let's be clear about this: the practice of killing America's horses...

The day before Thanksgiving, 2010. A woman named Anna pulls down the CAS driveway and up to the main barn. Animal Care Director Abbie Rogers and I go out to meet her; we've been expecting her and her passenger.

In a crate in the back of her hatchback, a...

Last weekend, Catskill Animal Sanctuary visitors walked out with me to meet the horses we'd rescued just two days earlier. In the ten years since CAS was founded, this case was one of the worst I'd seen: twenty-four horses on a property with no food and a stagnant pond. Only...

People ask me all the time what they can do to help animals. "Consider veganism," I say to those who've not yet extended their compassion to animals grown for food. Yet whether we choose to eat some animals and revere others, or choose instead the path of least harm, plenty...

Note: Many readers will find this essay absurdly anthropomorphic. I hope you will look for my upcoming blog post on that topic.

In 2004, Aries arrived at CAS with 40 other animals from a failed sanctuary. He was a small, beautiful sheep, with loose, curly wool, enormous, penetrating...

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm excited about the attention that Oprah's Tuesday show is bringing to veganism, a lifestyle to which I'm passionately committed. And I'm equally excited to do my part to support anyone eager to consider making this life-affirming, health-affirming, planet-saving change! So here, in no...

It's 6:30 a.m. when I enter the barn to set up feed. An additional six inches of snow has fallen overnight; the white stuff is well above my knees. A dangerous layer of ice glazes the ground below it. Willow branches coated with ice glisten in the sun. It is...

When I turned on the car radio , WAMC was airing a listener essay on random acts of kindness. It was a feel-good piece about an experience the listener had at Starbucks. As he pulled up to the window, the cashier smiled and said, "The car...

It's the holiday season, folks. And while for some reason I feel like I should be embarrassed by this fact (as in "real people don't do Christmas"), I love the holidays. Like many, I find the commercialism distasteful, but I also find it easy to resist, which frees me to...

I'm sitting in our main barn aisle enveloped by the free-rangers affectionately known as The Underfoot Family. I trust the term is self-explanatory. After all, as I wrote in Animal Camp, you try moving the tractor forward when two young pigs are playing chase in the...

Last Tuesday, I hopped three planes, picked up a rental car and drove several hours to meet a woman whose farm in a remote part of the Midwest is in trouble. While I'm not at liberty to disclose the specific details, I...