In a September 9 press release, the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights announced they that Paula Kislak, DVM, was elected as the next president of the animal rights group. He succeeds AVAR co-founder Nedim Buyukmihci.
According to the press release,
Dr. Kislak, a vegan, has been an AVAR board member since 1998 and was on its advisory board prior to that. She is considered by many as an “activist’s [sic] activist” because of her involvement with many animal rights issues. For example, Dr. Kislak has been an anti-greyhound racing activist since 1992, she was instrumental in passing California’s sweeping animal shelter reform law of 1998, and she continues to assist with efforts to help animals both locally and in Sacramento. She is a consultant and on boards of several groups, including Santa Barbara Animal Rescue, Animalkind and Neva Foundation.
In September 2000 Kislak wrote an op-ed for the Northern Virginia Journal complaining that animal issues were left out of the presidential election debates,
Nonhumans are, and always have been, systematically left out of election debates and platforms. We wonder how it is that life can only revolve around one species and the interests of the millions of other species aren’t even worthy of notice by a presidential candidate.
We call this “speciesism,” which is a prejudice against other species. This assumes that we humans are the pinnacle of the evolutionary scale. Nonhumans don’t vote, but our children don’t either. Yet, when it comes to all the rhetoric about protecting the downtrodden, the vulnerable and those whose interests are often overlooked, those that are the most vulnerable aren’t even in the discussion.
Sources:
Santa Barbara veterinarian to lead national veterinary group focusing on animal rights. Press Release, Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 9, 2003.
Animal protection should have higher campaign profile. Paula Kislak, Northern Virginia Journal, September 2000.