Karen Davis | |
|---|---|
 Davis in 2018 | |
| Born | (1944-02-04)February 4, 1944 Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | November 4, 2023(2023-11-04) (aged 79) Machipongo, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | PhD in English,University of Maryland, College Park |
| Alma mater | University of Maryland, College Park |
| Occupation(s) | Writer,animal rights advocate |
| Years active | 1983–2023 |
| Spouse | George Allan Cate (deceased) |
| Parent(s) | Amos and Mary Elizabeth Davis |
| Relatives | Brothers: Tim Davis, Amos Davis, Andrew Davis |
| Website | United Poultry Concerns |
Karen Davis (February 4, 1944 – November 4, 2023) was an Americananimal rights advocate, and president ofUnited Poultry Concerns, a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to address the treatment of domestic fowl—including chickens, turkeys, and ducks—infactory farming. Davis also maintained a sanctuary.[1]
Davis was the author of several books onveganism and animal rights, includingPrisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry (1997) andThe Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities (2005). Karen Davis also wrote the foreword to Michael Lanfield's book,The Interconnectedness of Life, which was released December 6, 2014.[2]
Karen Davis was born inAltoona, Pennsylvania; her parents were Mary Elizabeth Davis, a French tutor, and Amos Davis, an attorney and hunter.[3][4] Amos was theBlair County District attorney from 1966 to 1975.
Davis graduated fromHollidaysburg Area High School in 1962. She studied for her undergraduate degree atWestminster College inNew Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
While in college, she became extremely unsettled by stories of concentration camps and eventually dropped out, according her obituary in the Wall Street Journal.[4]
Davis obtained her PhD in English from theUniversity of Maryland, College Park.[5] She also taught English at the University of Maryland while she started United Poultry Concerns.[1]
"Just as I became obsessed with concentration camps in the early 1960s, so in the early 1970s I began to agonize over the suffering and abuse of nonhuman animals," Davis wrote, per the Wall Street Journal.[4]
At the time, she was more or less alone in advocating the rights of poultry. Despite this, Davis “never missed an opportunity to show people that these were intelligent, loving, beautiful animals," Ingrid Newkirk, the founder ofPETA, told the Journal. "She was one of the original pioneers who changed the conversation around chickens.”[4]
She regularly addressed the annual National Animal Rights conferences, and was inducted in July 2002 into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame "for outstanding contributions to animal liberation."[6] Since 1999, she and United Poultry Concerns hosted 19 conferences on farmed animal-vegan advocacy issues.
Davis launched a campaign against National Public Radio'sThis American Life for its annual "Poultry Slam" show, arguing that hostIra Glass was contributing to the poor treatment and slaughter of chickens and turkeys. Eventually, Glass visited Davis's sanctuary and announced on theLate Show with David Letterman in 2008 that he had become a vegetarian thanks to Davis.[7]
Davis was one of several people who provided information used in the writing of the bookStriking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism (2008) byMark Hawthorne.
Davis paid for an advertisement inThe New York Times in protest at the practice of killing chickens in the streets of New York during theYom Kippur ritual ofkapparot.[8]
Davis married George Allan Cate. She had three brothers: Tim Davis ofPalo Alto, California, Amos Davis ofBaton Rouge, Louisiana, and Andrew Davis ofShippensburg, Pennsylvania.
Davis was sick for two years after a fall in 2021, during which she kept her illness private.[4][9] She died at the UPC sanctuary on November 4, 2023, at the age of 79.[10]
It was a day when Altoona native Karen Davis was just a child, walking to a friend's house near 58th street in the Eldorado neighborhood.
Media from Commons
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