A teacher of English at the University of Maryland, Davis taught an innovative course on "The role of animals in the Western philosophic and literary tradition" during the 1980s.
Following the adoption of a crippled hen as a pet, she founded the United Poultry Concerns in 1990 to promote public awareness of the conditions in which commercially farmed poultry (in particular chickens and turkeyss) live.
She has since published a number of books on the subject:
Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry (Book Publishing Co., 1997)
More than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality, (Lantern Books, 2001)
Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey, a vegan cookbook.
