3 May 2022

Alicia Silverstone is raising her son Bear to love animals.

Alicia Silverstone on rising her on to care for animals

The 45-year-old actress – who is mother to 10-year-old Bear with ex-husband Christopher Jarecki – claimed that parenthood is one of the most “rewarding things” in her life and so she regularly takes her son to visit rescued animals at charitable organisation Farm Sanctuary so he can think about the animals who are “robbed of the opportunity” to become mothers due to factory farming.

In an open letter obtained by PEOPLE, she writes: “One of the greatest and most rewarding things in my life has been being a mom to Bear. Many of you have seen him grow up over the last decade because one of our very favorite things to do together is visit the rescued animals at Farm Sanctuary! For animal lovers, Mother’s Day can be bittersweet when we think of the other species who just want to love their babies and are robbed of the opportunity to exercise their maternal instinct because of human greed and exploitation in factory farming.”

The ‘Clueless’ star – who has followed a vegan diet for over two decades- went on to explain that she is raising her son to have a sense of “compassion” for the animal kingdom ahead of the annual celebration of mothers in the US on 8th May.

She added: “That’s why raising Bear with an awareness of animal sentience and compassion — not just for the animals we share our home with, but for the entire animal kingdom — has been my bedrock of being a Kind Mama. Farm Sanctuary is a place where survivors of animal agriculture come to rest, to heal, discover friendships, and live as nature intended.”