“I was so glad I looked into the slaughterhouse,” she said, “because it became my life mission to stop it. My work destroys the meat industry, in my small way.”

50 years later, Sue has continued talking her way into slaughterhouses, armed with paper and pencil – but no camera – to bear witness to the plight of farmed animals. Along with slaughterhouses, her work also explores subjects including apartheid, sweat shops, prisons, AIDS, and war, and her illustrations have been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Newsweek and more.

At a presentation of hers I saw, during which she showed her illustrations while describing what each particular slaughterhouse setting or moment was like, at times it felt like getting punched in the stomach. My eyes watered, chills of shame came in waves. And I kept thinking – how can I tell people about this in the normal day-to-day social context of my life? There's no way the people I love would want to be part of this. And yet we don't want to know, so we keep participating and transferring the guilt.

“I’m asking you to look through my eyes,” she told us. “Not to look at my eyes but through my eyes.” Here are some of the moments that especially stuck with me.

It's a Picnic