In the spirit of addressing my own positionality I will admit that this sphere of exploration is something on the newer side for me. As I have gone through life I have not found myself particularly attuned with the hardships animals in our world face. Because of this, I was very curious of how I would feel about this reading.
After engaging with the introduction and the assigned chapter I can definitely say that it feels as if I have encountered an entirely new world as many of these situations and problems are things I had really never thought of before. I really do appreciate the way that Abrell addresses the fact that activists do not have a ‘homogeneous’ idea of what ‘proper and improper’ care looks like (88). As a person who is relatively new to these conversations, I am curious what the conversations look like between different activists who are both committed to the overall idea of animal welfare but have differing views on what this proper and improper care looks like. I also wonder how these activists find common ground and build momentum, despite potentially divergent end goals.