Karen Dawn | |
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| Occupation | Animal rights activist[1] |
Karen Dawn is an Americananimal rights andwelfare advocate and writer. She's known as the founder of DawnWatch, author of “Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the way we Treat Animals,” and for numerous newspaper and magazine pieces, as well as for her well-publicized turkey rescues.[2]
Karen Dawn was born in the United States and grew up and was schooled in Australia. She studied at theUniversity of New South Wales, earning a science degree with a major in psychology. Dawn had her first experience working with the media as a news researcher and writer for Australia's national nightly news magazine showThe 7.30 Report, on ABC.[3] Dawn moved to New York City and pursued her interest in music throughout the early 1990s as a singer-songwriter. In 1999 she moved to Los Angeles and founded DawnWatch – the Daily Animal World News Watch – which became a nonprofit organization in 2016. She spent two decades in Pacific Palisades where she became known as the Turkey Lady for her well-publicized Thanksgiving turkey rescues. She left for Santa Barbara in early 2020. She is now based largely in Austin Texas.[4]
Dawn is ananimal rights spokesperson who speaks at national animal rights conferences and the annual "Taking Action for Animals" conference in Washington DC. She has appeared on major TV networks[5][6] discussing animal issues and is a speaker at colleges.[7]
Dawn's career in animal rights began in 1999 when she started the DawnWatch.com list serve, which she created to encourage activists to stay in contact with the media.[8]
Dawn was invited to serve on the voting committee for theGenesis Awards a position which she held from 2001 to 2004. In 2006 she returned to the Genesis Awards voting committee as the print consultant.
Her piece "Best Friends Need Shelter, Too" was published inThe Washington Post and she was subsequently interviewed for aNew York Times article about the media coverage of displaced pets in the aftermath ofHurricane Katrina. A year later she participated in an on-air follow-up — a one-hour program onWashington Post Radio devoted to the Katrina Animal Disaster and what was learned from it with regard to the need for disaster preparedness and policy changes.[9]
Dawn was an official spokesperson forCalifornia's Proposition 2, a 2008 election ballot initiative that changed the standards for confining farm animals.
On May 17, 2008, Dawn was presented with theFarm Sanctuary's Outstanding Activist for Farm Animals Award.[10] The award was presented at the Farm Sanctuary 2008 Gala by Dawn's friends, actressEmily Deschanel andSkinny Bitch author Rory Freedman
In 2024 Dawn started appearing regularly[11] on the Mark Thompson Show podcast discussing animal issues in the news.
Dawn is an advocate forpit bulls and was featured in aLos Angeles Times front-page story as a "passionate defender" of the breed.[12] But she also fully supports the need for pit bull spay-neuter legislation, even testifying in favor of such legislation in a California Senate committee hearing in Sacramento.[citation needed] The bill, SB861, was signed into law in 2006. It allows for breed-specific spay-neuter local ordinances but "prohibits cities and counties from banning any specific breed of dog."[13]
Dawn may be most widely known for her annualThanksgiving turkey rescue. It garners much media attention and was picked up by theAssociated Press for Thanksgiving 2012.[14] In a radio blog that aired on Washington Post Radio on Thanksgiving Day 2006, Dawn explains that she met a turkey for the first time in 2000 at the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Washington DC. She says that she was surprised that the turkey, Olivia, was so friendly and gentle and that when she crawled into Dawn's lap and fell asleep, Dawn "fell in love."[15]
She first brought two live turkeys, who had been destined forslaughter, into her home for Thanksgiving 2009. They were later retired to the Animal Acres sanctuary inActon, California. TheLos Angeles Times did a spread on that effort, printed on the front page of the California section under the heading "Hold the turkey, please: A vegan Thanksgiving – where the birds are friends, not feast."[16] Dawn told ABCWorld News Now, during an interview (at the time of her third annual turkey rescue) that she had done the original rescue largely as apublicity stunt in order to garner thatLos Angeles Times story.[17] But the next year she missed having live turkeys, and she since has done an annual rescue because, as she told CNN's Headline News anchorJane Velez-Mitchell, she realized that having the turkeys in her home over Thanksgiving is "A fun way to present a serious message about health, about animal welfare, and about the environment."[18]
The media coverage for the turkey rescue has included serious messages: The ABC World News Now story from 2010 shows a slaughterhouse video of turkeys hanging upside down on a conveyor belt while Dawn comments, "Something I think very few people would be aware of is that turkeys are not covered under the federalhumane slaughter laws. The ironic thing about the slaughter laws in this country is that they actually exempt 95% of the animals who are slaughtered." (She is referring to all poultry, plus rabbits.) The Thanksgiving 2012 coverage from Dawn's local ABC station showed the reporter, Elex Michaelson, petting a turkey and talking about how much they enjoy the human touch. Dawn tells viewers that "Turkeys are a lot more adorable than they are delicious" and that "turkey day is a lot more fun when the turkeys are alive and well."[19]
Almost all of the media coverage includes video and photos of the turkeys getting a welcome bath and blowdry. Dawn posts an annual turkey rescue video with bath and blow-dry scenes on her YouTube channel.[20]
Dawn has hosted animal issues talk shows on Houston's Pacifica station,KPFT[21] and on the Los Angeles Pacifica station,KPFK,[22] interviewing renowned guests including feminists Gloria Steinem and Catherine MacKinnon, Nobel Prize Laureate JM Coetzee, philosopher Peter Singer, musician Moby, and Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey.
Dawn has written opinion pieces[23] published inThe Washington Post, theLos Angeles Times, New York'sNewsday and the UKGuardian. She contributed to "Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals", a 2004 anthology edited by Steve Best and Anthony Nocella, to "In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave" edited byPeter Singer, and to “JM Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature” edited by Anton Leist and Peter Singer.[24][25]
She wrote numerous blogs for the Huffington Post[26] and The Dodo.[27]
Dawn's first book,Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, was published in May 2008. She promotes animal rights with a fun and friendly image, stating, "There's no reason that animal rights can't be fun and inviting. For heaven's sake—gin's vegan!"[28]Thanking the Monkey was included on aWashington Post list that cited it as one of the best books of 2008.[29]
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