If you are an animal advocate or just someone who is concerned with animal issues, the first most important task we have is to find creative ways to get people to bear witness to the suffering of animals for food and other uses. You can’t have a meaningful conversation with someone who has not yet been exposed to the reality you too have witnessed. The act of witnessing forms the basis of a constructive dialogue about our impact on animals and what we can do about it.

Witnessing is so critical because it flexes the empathy muscle in those who may have never used this psychic muscle before. As author Melanie Joy points out in Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism, when we witness, we actually see ourselves as the victim and that is precisely why the act of witnessing can be so painful. According to several leading psychologists, empathy is not something that comes “naturally” to many of us. So it often has to be practiced, just like one would practice any other skill.

Apathy is the opposite of empathy, and for many it has become their emotional default. Apathy is a kind of coping mechanism for people confronted with the suffering of humans and non human animals. Apathy is often expressed in the form of joking or making light of the issue. Most of us don’t want to see others or ourselves suffer, but what we allow others to see of our emotions is often a sanitized version of what is truly in our hearts.

So, again, the best way to break through the apathy barrier is to bear witness to the truth. Asking someone in a deeply apathetic or denial state to bear witness is a sensitive issue. Tread carefully. If you raise their defenses, they will retreat more deeply into this state. On the other hand, if you take a more supportive and encouraging approach, you’ll probably find him or her more receptive. See yourself as “planting the seeds” of change or transformation in that person’s thinking. If you succeed in planting those seeds, consider you’re effort a success!

Now motivating others to bear witness to the truth is not the end, but the beginning of a process of evaluating our values and beliefs against new knowledge. Some of our biggest concerns are over health and nutrition. How will we fare on a plant based diet if we choose this path? Supporting people with sound nutritional information is another important part of the equation.

Free from Harm has compiled a collection of videos called Why Vegan? to aid in this process. Browse our video collection and recommend what you feel will work best. And feel free to make additional suggestions for more videos!