wassecretlyfilminghisactions,Ugartewouldhavecontinued
effectively maximizing the profits of his employer.
The widespread revulsion evoked by this and other
undercover videos of animal abuse suggests that it is
ignorance, rather than indifference to animals, that keeps
massive,institutionalcrueltytoanimalsinplaceintheU.S.
Nowthatthemediaaretakinganimalissuesmoreseriously,
this ignoranceisstartingto breakdown.Butithasbeena
longstruggletogettothis point.Sincethisbook wasfirst
published, in 1975, the hard work of countless animal
activistshaspaidoff,notonlyingreaterpublicawarenessof
animalabuse,butalsoinconcretebenefitsforanimals.Inthe
1980s,underpressurefromtheanimalmovement,cosmetics
corporationsbeganputtingmoneyintofindingalternativesto
testing on animals. The development of product testing
methodsnotinvolvinganimalsnowhasamomentumofits
owninthescientificcommunityandispartlyresponsiblefor
holdingdownthenumberof animalsused. Despite“fur is
back”claimsbytheindustry,fursaleshavestillnotrecovered
to the level they were at in the 1980s, when the animal
movementbegantotargetit.Companionanimalownershave
become better educated and more responsible, and the
numberofunwantedandstrayanimalskilledinsheltersand
pounds, though still far too high, is down dramatically.
Thevastmajorityofanimalsabusedbyhumans,however,are
farm animals. Whereas the number of animals used in
researchintheUnitedStatesis,atabouttwenty-fivemillion,
roughlyequaltothepopulationofTexas,thenumberofbirds
andmammalskilledforfoodeachyear—again,intheU.S.
alone—is around ten billion, or one and a half times the
populationoftheworld.(Thatnumberdoesnotincludefish