About Karen

In my baby book at 6 months, it says, "Loves animals." When I was a child, my family and I shared our home with an assortment of animals, many of whom were rescued from dire circumstances. As a preteen, I stopped eating meat as soon as I realized where it actually came from.  I'll credit two Indian vegetarian families that I was acquainted with through my dad, as well as several childhood books (The Forgotten Door, Charlotte's Web, and Black Beauty), with planting the seeds of vegetarianism and animal rights in my mind.

However, I didn't really meet any other vegetarians, much less vegans, until I was in graduate school. That's also when I adopted my first dog, Koro, a tiny lost bundle of beige fur on a university street corner. My college and graduate school years were devoted to foreign languages, teaching, and travel, but once I got all that out of my system, I settled down at PETA in 1986 and have been editing and running PETA's library ever since!

Along the way, I've always shared my home with rescued dogs. I was also fortunate enough to discover holistic medicine early on. Holistic veterinary medicine attempts to treat the whole animal, rather than focusing on just one part of the body or one symptom. With regard to dog training, I don't follow any particular school of thought, but I look for humaneness and effectiveness in any given method.

There is a lot of cruelty to companion animals in the world, but dogs can also suffer even when they live with the most well-meaning people. The problem is that compassionate people don't necessarily have the knowledge required to fulfill their dogs' needs.

My opinions stem mostly from my own experiences with dogs, so please take everything you read with a grain of salt. I've also done a fair amount of reading on these subjects and hope to help dog guardians learn about important aspects of dog care that they may not be familiar with.

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