Why ‘MAD for Animals’?

The name ‘MAD for Animals’ has three layers of meaning. Firstly, there is the phrase ‘mad for’ as in ‘keen on’ – that is, being ‘wild about’ non-human animals. I have always cared deeply for all beings, and this layer would include anyone who would be described as an ‘animal-lover’. The second meaning of ‘mad for’ kicks in when an ‘animal-lover’ starts scratching beyond the surface in their consideration of our interaction with other animals. This involves becoming aware of the many ways in which they are mistreated in our society. In general, when informed about non-human animal suffering – whether the individual aspect of specific cruelty cases, or the mass scale of torment endured in factory farms and vivisection laboratories – the ‘animal-lover’ usually becomes ‘mad for animals’ in the sense of being angry on their behalf.   

My hope is that these people then harness that anger into a passionate and productive attempt to improve the situation for all animals. This, the third and final layer of meaning I feel the phrase ‘MAD for Animals’ covers, is to take action, and 

‘Make A Difference for Animals’.

Please note that I believe language is very important, and I consider humans to be part of the animal kingdom. I came up with the name “MAD for Animals” so long ago (actually last millennium!!) – usually now I would use the phrase ‘non-human animals’, but sometimes in titles, songs, and poetry I do take the poetic license for the meter or scan of a line to just use ‘animals’. I also think that it is important to not use ‘it’ to refer to individual beings, because this is a very dismissive and diminishing reference. Again, sometimes in my writings I do use ‘it’ in this way – especially if I am deliberating voicing an oppressor’s words.