I should've eaten my ham sandwich before picking up Karen Dawn's "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals." After reading her description of how the deli meat got to my Tupperware container, I put off lunch until late in the afternoon. But I was so hungry I had to eat the sandwich at some point. With each bite into the ham, I heard the shrieking of pigs in my head.

When will the pigs stop screaming, Karen Dawn? When?

When the world converts to vegetarianism, she writes in the book. This will happen eventually, she says. She's not militant about this point. She's logical. She's levelheaded. She's funny. That's why her message is so ... darn ... persuasive.

"Thanking the Monkey" is a glossy, nearly 400-page, eminently readable book that's not just about forgoing meat; it's about fur and animal testing and the merits of hunting and fishing and the badness of pet stores, circuses and the Navy sonar systems that make the ears of gray whales bleed.

It celebrates the progress of the animal rights movement. It provides sensible rationales for treating animals with near-absolute equality. It criticizes the National Wildlife Federation (for protecting hunting interests), the organic food fad ("organic" doesn't necessarily mean animals have been treated well) and Jack Hanna (for supporting dove hunting and glossing over problems in horse racing).

Jack Hanna, for crying out loud. The woman's got some nerve.

A native of Australia, Dawn is the founder of DawnWatch, an e-newsletter that calls attention to animal rights coverage in the media. She works from home in Los Angeles and started work on "Thanking the Monkey" (Harper Paperbacks) two years ago.

We got her on the phone last week to talk about the book.

Q. This book is heavy. What is it, like, three pounds?

A. 2.2. The reason it's so big is because it's got so many pictures. Being so heavy makes it scary, but when you open it up and have one fun photo — celebrity or cartoon — on every page, it doesn't look so heavy.

Q. You pursued a science degree in Australia that involved experimenting on rats — something you're obviously against now.

A. I didn't feel good about doing it but didn't let myself think about it. I sort of closed my heart. It never occurred to me how much more badly those rats needed their lives than I needed a degree. It's not a matter of rats versus people. It was a matter of a degree I didn't really need. I really think that it's helped me as an activist. You're not a bad person if you're not thinking about the animals. I don't believe in bad or good people. I think people make choices, and you can always choose again.

Q. You think humanity is evolving toward vegetarianism.

A. We're going to have a choice. As there are more and more and more of us, it takes an awful lot more land and resources to feed people with meat than it does (with) grain. The Earth could feed about 2.5 billion people if everyone ate the standard American diet, or it could feed 10 billion vegetarians. The fact that China is starting to eat our diet — the more meat people eat, the more impossible it will be to eat at all.

Q. The book makes the subtle point that the mistreatment of animals leads to all kinds of mainstream problems, such as pollution and cancer.

A. It almost makes you believe in karma. We're raping the Earth and the animals, and we're paying the price. I'm not a purist. The only answer is to leave all animals alone? No. Even though I am a capitalist, eventually we'll get to a place just as we did with human beings: that you don't deal monetarily in owning and selling them.

Q. What's your least favorite animal?

A. Personally, I don't relate well to the carnivores. Not fond of our local hawks because they kill my squirrels. I would never want to see them killed, but my eyes don't light up at the sight of a hawk. The poor bastards: They have to live, they have to eat, but I don't have much affection for them.

Q. So let's say I'm an omnivore who simply cannot go without eating meat or eggs now and then. Is there anything I can do to still be as animal-conscious as possible, even though I'm eating them?

A. Every single time you sit down at a restaurant, you make a choice. If there's a veggie burger on the menu, don't order the turkey burger. My vegetarianism didn't happen overnight. ... I'm still a cheating vegan: If I'm dying for Doritos — and I know they have a bit of whey in them — I still eat them. But I think if I wasn't a cheating vegan, I might not even be engaging in this lifestyle at all. It's not an all-or-nothing thing.

Q. Why do you think animal rights activists developed a reputation for being crazy people? Was it a matter of not communicating the message effectively, or other people just not understanding what the big deal was?

A. It's like the beginning of any movement. Activists throughout history are seen as crazy because they're trying to bring ideas outside of normal thought into the mainstream. There was a time when feminists were seen as a bit loony.