About Karen Dawn

Born in the US, Karen Dawn grew up and studied in Australia. She worked as a news researcher and writer for various Australian publications and on ABC's nightly news magazine, "The 7:30 Report."

Living in New York in the 1990s, Karen worked every Sunday for six years at the Saint Francis of Xavier soup kitchen. But after reading Animal Liberation in 1998, she was moved to devote herself to helping those most abused by society and least able to help themselves -- members of other species. Drawing on her knowledge of the media, she founded DawnWatch in November 1999. You'll find an interview with her in which she talks about the events that led up to its launch on the Animals Voice website at: http://www.animalaudio.net/audio/Karen_Dawn.html.

Karen served on the Genesis Awards voting committee from 2001-2004 and became involved again as the print consultant in 2006.

As a spokesperson for the animal protection movement, Karen Dawn has appeared on MTV, and she has lectured at national animal rights conferences since 2001. 

She has hosted animal issues talk shows on KPFT and KPFK, the Houston and Los Angeles Pacifica stations. Her 2004 season of Watchdog, on KPFK, which includes guests such as Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee, Wholefoods founder John Mackay, Musician Moby, Professor Peter Singer, and Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem, is available on line at www.WatchdogRadio.com.

Her opinion pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, New York's Newsday and the UK Guardian. And she was featured in a New York Times piece on the Hurricane Katrina Animal disaster. She is a contributor to 'Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals" a 2004 anthology edited by Steve Best and Anthony Nocella, and to "In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave," edited by Peter Singer. 

In early 2008 Harper Collins will publish Karen's first solo book, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals. Click on that link to see the fun celeb-studded promo and read the endorsements and advance reviews.

You can email Karen Dawn here.