Five Essays for Freedom: A political primer for animal advocates

by Kristy Alger

Essays / Social Sciences / Vegan

Animal liberationist and emerging avant-garde theorist, Kristy Alger, provides a scathing, provocative exposé of the animal industrial complex in Five Essays for Freedom. Contextualised in current-day Australia, this essay collection is a political primer for the animal advocate, both curious and experienced alike.

Alger writes that an understanding of the politics of animal exploitation is critical for the realisation of animal liberation. For if animal advocates do not understand the politics of animal exploitation they cannot hope to disrupt the webs of corporations and government that guarantee its continuation, to the detriment of other animals, humankind and the Earth.

Alger asserts that the animal rights movement must extend its scope beyond the promotion of apolitical vegan consumerism as a means to create that accessibility, for the realisation of justice. In doing so, animal advocates can begin pulling at the intersecting threads of the animal industrial complex, progressing towards a future where they themselves are freed from the web alongside the other animals they seek to advocate for.

This collection of essays is just the beginning in a new revolution that extends beyond veganism and challenges the very notion of what it means to be an animal advocate and a human being.