If Billy-Bob signs petitions for laws discouraging domestic abuse and donates a lot of money to and volunteers a lot of time at a women’s shelter, but beats his wife and pays teenaged female prostitutes to have sex with him [1], does it matter that ‘he cares’? Can Billy-Bob really make up for his behavior by signing petitions and giving his time and money to organizations trying to alleviate the problems to which he contributes?
[1] We’ll just assume here that Billy-Bob cares and has compassion, but has a temper he ‘can’t’ control and he ‘can’t’ control his sex-drive for teenagers, either.
There is no meaningful difference between Billy-Bob and people who contribute to animal exploitation in their food, clothing, and other choices (i.e. aren’t vegans) and then sign petitions and donate time and money to animal ‘protection’ organizations to ‘make up for’ or ‘offset’ their contribution to the problem.
First, go vegan. Second, get involved with encouraging others to go vegan. Third, don’t donate to welfarist organizations like PETA and HSUS: they are a big part of the problem, not part of the solution.
