About KP

My late husky, Darby, used to come to work with me in PETA’s library.

In my baby book at 6 months, it says, "Loves animals." That has been the story of my life. When I was a child, my family and I shared our home with an assortment of animals, many of whom were rescued from dire circumstances. As a preteen, I stopped eating meat as soon as I realized where it actually came from, even though none of my friends or classmates shared my views. I'll credit two Indian vegetarian families that I was acquainted with through my dad, as well as several childhood books (The Forgotten Door, Charlotte's Web, and Black Beauty), with planting the seeds of vegetarianism and animal rights in my mind.

However, I didn't really meet any other vegetarians, much less vegans, until I was in graduate school. That's also when I adopted my first dog, Koro, a tiny lost bundle of beige fur on a university street corner, who grew up to be a beautiful German shepherd mix. My college and graduate school years were devoted to foreign languages, teaching, and travel, but once I got all that out of my system, I settled down at PETA in 1986 and have been editing and running PETA's library ever since!

Along the way, I've always shared my home with rescued dogs of all shapes and sizes, which has helped to educate me on many levels. I was also fortunate enough to discover holistic medicine early on, in 1987, with all the wonderful healing opportunities that it affords for humans, dogs, and other animals. Holistic medicine attempts to treat the whole animal, rather than focusing on just one part of the body or one symptom.

There is a lot of cruelty to companion animals in the world, and much of it is unimaginable to the average person. Working for PETA has forced me to come to grips with all the news stories about dogs who have been starved, set on fire, shot, beaten, and otherwise tortured in every conceivable way. This type of cruelty is obvious to all but the most callous of individuals. But dogs can also suffer even when they live with the most well-meaning, loving people. And the problem is that these compassionate people simply don't have the knowledge required to fulfill their dogs' needs. So, unwittingly, they torment their beloved dogs, both physically and psychologically, out of ignorance. The purpose of this blog is to attempt to educate dog guardians about important aspects of dog care that they may not be familiar with.

As for my qualifications to write about dog training and holistic medicine, I have absolutely none, so please take everything that you read here with a grain of salt. My opinions stem mostly from my own experiences with dogs, but I've also done a fair amount of reading on these subjects. I gravitate toward holistic treatments of all kinds whenever possible and only opt for conventional veterinary medicine when the holistic treatments don't seem effective enough or are extremely inconvenient. As far as dog training is concerned, I don't follow any particular school of thought, but I look for humaneness and effectiveness in any given method. So I'm drawn to techniques that will work but that also won't torment dogs.

I see this blog as a journey that I hope I will be taking along with many other people who believe in rights for dogs and all animals. I look forward to your feedback, suggestions, corrections, and other useful information as we travel along together, finding more and better ways to communicate with our dogs, keep them healthy, and enhance their lives.