User:Compassionatecooks

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (born March 8, 1970 in Westfield, New Jersey) is a writer, columnist, activist, public speaker and cooking class instructor. She is also the Founder of Compassionate Cooks and has starred in an award winning cooking DVD.

A long-time vegan and animal activist, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau focuses her energies primarily on animals raised for food, though she came to be a voice for animals first through working on behalf of animals in shelters and laboratories.

Having been raised on a typical American diet of meat, dairy, and eggs, it was when she read John Robbins Diet for a New America that she could no longer justify eating mammals. Eventually she included fish in her circle of compassion, and after reading Slaughterhouse, it became clear to her that no animal raised for human consumption - whether for their flesh, milk, or eggs - escapes the horrors and cruelties of slaughter.

Having earned a master's degree in English Literature, Patrick-Goudreau uses her writing and communication skills to raise awareness of the animal issues about which so many people are ignorant - both as the result of brilliant and careful marketing by the meat/dairy/egg industries and because of people's desire to avoid the pain of knowing the truth. She founded Compassionate Cooks to focus on the bottom line for most people: eating. She founded Compassionate Cooks because over 45 billion land and sea animals are killed in the U.S. every year for human consumption. Her work is dedicated to them.