If you weren’t into animal rights and happened to walk into the exhibition hall at this year’s AR2006 conference, you’d probably come to the conclusion that when animal rights activists weren't taking on the powers that be, they were eating dessert. A lot of it. Everywhere you looked people were eating ice cream, cookies, cake, sweeties and gooey things of all kind. The lines for such items were long and enthusiastic, even to the extent that the crowd broke into applause when one vendor revealed her admittedly beautifully prepared wares.

The modern animal liberation movement is said to have begun when Peter Singer published Animal Liberation in 1975. The books became brochures, the brochures pamphlets, the pamphlets slogans, the slogans T-shirts, and the T-shirts have been reduced to one word: “Yum.”

Now, like Marie Antoinette, I’m all in favor of people eating cake. But, in my darkest moments, when I look at the lines at the cake tables and look at the absence of them at our book table, I can only reflect, "Is that what it’s come down to?" Grrr. I need some cake.