Throughout the 30 plus years I’ve worked in the UK and US animal rights movements, I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the most inspirational people I’ve been lucky to meet. One of them is Ken Shapiro, who is my colleague and mentor at the Animals and Society Institute (ASI).
Our first opportunity to work closely together was in 1993 when I became the editor in chief of The Animals’ Agenda and Ken was the president of the board of its not-for-profit publisher, the Animal Rights Network.
To say that the magazine and the organization were seriously challenged back then is to significantly understate the situation. The previous regime had left Agenda financially and programmatically bankrupt. I inherited the Herculean task of publishing every two months a quality publication with minimal resources. Ken stood by me as I struggled to raise funds to keep the magazine in production and listened patiently as I moaned about these circumstances.
But even more importantly, he inspired me to aspire toward the highest journalistic standards we could attain. And, when I fell short, he gently and appropriately guided me to understand how the magazine could be even better.
I went to Agenda shortly after leaving People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals as their first executive director. I recall how some in the movement thought I would turn Agenda into a platform to showcase PETA and its programs. I’m pleased to say that we proved them wrong. Our focus was always on the issue of how animals are treated and what the reader could do about it. If we showcased anything it was the “Unsung Heroes” in the movement and the “Happy Endings,” the heart-warming stories of rescued animals. Inevitably, we were to upset someone. This goes with the turf of publishing a magazine. You simply cannot please all of the people all of the time. Ken always stood by us and helped us greatly during these (thankfully rare) trying periods.
More importantly, however, is Ken’s work with the emerging academic field of Human Animal Studies. As far as I’m concerned he leads the way in this pioneering and innovative academic endeavor. As editor of Society & Animals and the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Ken provides the platform for students, scholars and policy makers to explore how we figure in the lives of animals and they in ours. This summer, Ken is leading ASI’s first summer scholarship program at the North Carolina State University, which is home to the Tom Regan Animal Rights Archive. Thanks to Ken, we see increasing numbers of scholars in the social sciences and humanities speaking with authority about the moral and legal status of animals.
The Friday before we left to return to England, Ken and I and our partners got together in the vegetarian cafe, Liquid Earth, in Fells Point, Baltimore for a farewell lunch. There may be more miles between us now than ever before but I’m so very proud to say that Ken will be always a close friend and esteemed colleague.
