Living in our society as a vegan and animal rights advocate presents countless challenges. One of the biggest is that to combat the horrifying and seemingly endless animal exploitation around us, we have to know about it. That means educating ourselves about things we would rather never see, hear, or learn. Another is potentially navigating difficult social situations that involve food we won’t eat, people who don’t understand us or are openly hostile to us, or actual animal abuse right in front of us. In her column, Piper Hoffman writes about these and other day-to-day problems we face, and also delves into the details of some of the unthinkable cruelty that industries, governments, and individuals perpetrate upon non-human animals.