Quite often the argument is made that as people in western society are far removed from certain aspects of society they are able to disassociate themselves, often unconsciously. This is visible in the lack of awareness of the working conditions of people who make many of the clothes those in the west wear — including the exploitation of children in sweatshops. Perhaps the most clear manifestation of this can be seen in the ability, for lack of a more appropriate term, of people to disassociate, for example, the chicken they purchase in the supermarket from the conditions in which the chicken w…

I have recently read Lee Hall’s (2006) Capers in the churchyard: animal rights advocacy in the age of terror and revisited the edited volume Terrorist’s or freedom fighters? Reflections on the liberation of animals (2004). I found Lee Hall’s book to be one published at a very necessary time and it was quite scathing of welfarist and ‘militant’ approaches (albeit not un‐problematically), the latter being promoted and supported in Terrorist’s or Freedom Fighters. I am working my way through producing a review of Capers in the churchyard, yet felt the need to comment following…