Dear Diary: My Obsession with Animal Cruelty
At this time in my life, August 6, 2012, I see the need to write an unambiguous self-explanation to my future acquaintances.
If you read stories on this LiveJournal and on my other self-publication profiles, you will notice strong pervasive themes of suffering, exploitation, and neglect of, and occasionally of deliberate cruelty to, animals, often in story contexts in which these themes are not overtly suggested by the premise. They haunt me. I am obsessed.
I am not a cat-murdering psychopath. This is not a fetish.
I write about animal cruelty because I was mildly traumatized by animal husbandry practices I observed and engaged in as a child and teenager, some of which I now believe were ethical and others of which I now regret, would not repeat, and would advise other people not to perform. I am obsessed by guilt and this guilt finds its outlet in fiction.
In reality, one of my primary life goals is to use understanding and education to improve the quality of life and prevent the suffering of all animals for which I am responsible, through my own practices and by providing feasible, empathetic, good-faith advice to clients and associates
I've seen a good deal of people take down their online profiles because of conflict between their creative works and their real-world co-workers, superiors, clients, press, etc. I stand by my creative works, with the caveat that in the future I may learn very different attitudes and values as I mature.