Local author, Victoria Thompson, is so passionate about protecting animals that she spent eight years researching and writing the book Animals Are Us – a guide to a kinder world.
An animal advocate for many years, Thompson’s book describes our appalling failures in regard to animal welfare, and praises those (including Mahatma Gandhi, Peter Singer, the Dalai Lama, St. Francis, Brigitte Bardot, and the Buddha), who promote the enlightened awareness and humane treatment of animals.
Resources to exploit
Thompson believes that we must not continue to think of animals merely as resources to exploit, for animals, too, have a right to live naturally. In the book, she gives us solutions for a kinder world.
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, of French, Italian, Spanish and English parentage, she grew up speaking five languages. In Australia, she trained as an actress and worked in film, television and theatre. She left acting to study psychology and became a psychotherapist, eventually giving it up to return to her love of books, writing and animals. ‘I grew up in Egypt. There was so much cruelty. I was always rescuing animals’, she says.
The theme of Thompson’s book is clear in the prologue: ‘For too long, our civilisation has lived on the immense suffering and slaughter of animals’, she writes. ‘This in turn has led to a world where we see endless violence perpetrated against humans and the environment because all things are bound together’.
Thompson provides a frightful overview of the contemporary global situation, but also says that in fighting for animal rights, we are becoming more and more-and more-powerful.
For more info about Victoria and her book, visit: www.victoriathompson.com.au.
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