Response to: Why don't you spend your time on people instead of animals? or Why don't you care about humans?

Anyone who has ever acted or spoken on behalf of animals has learned that criticism will often follow. Sometimes, it's in the form of a provocation such as: "Why aren’t you helping people instead of wasting your time on animals?" Though it's formed as a question, the inquisitors are not really interested in the answer. I suppose they think they’re catching animal activists in some sort of trap that's supposed to prove that animal activists care more about nonhuman animals than their "fellow humans." The disgust with which they ask it makes it seem as though this may be the worst thing you could accuse someone of. Join me as I address this accusation and lament that some people think so little of their "fellow humans" as to presume our hearts aren't big enough to care about more than one thing at a time. I also read a brilliant and eloquent essay by Nobel prize winner J.M. Coetzee to illustrate why "the animal rights campaign remains a human project from beginning to end."