Book Description

Millions of people live with cats, dogs, and other pets, which they treat as members of their families. But through their daily behavior, people who love those pets, and greatly care about their welfare, help ensure short and painful lives for millions, even billions of animals that cannot easily be distinguished from dogs and cats. Today, the overwhelming percentage of animals with whom Westerners interact are raised for food. Countless animals endure lives of relentless misery and die often torturous deaths. The use of animals by human beings, often for important human purposes, has forced uncomfortable questions to center stage: Should people change their behavior? Should the law promote animal welfare? Should animals have legal rights? Should animals continue to be counted as 'property'? What reforms make sense? Cass Sunstein and Martha Nussbaum bring together an all-star cast of contributors to explore the legal and political issues that underlie the campaign for animal rights and the opposition to it. Addressing ethical questions about ownership, protection against unjustified suffering, and the ability of animals to make their own choices free from human control, the authors offer numerous different perspectives on animal rights and animal welfare. They show that whatever one's ultimate conclusions, the relationship between human beings and nonhuman animals is being fundamentally rethought. This book offers a state-of-the-art treatment of that rethinking. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The New Standard
Nussbaum and Sunstein have put together something very special. This book mixes the standard animal rights fare of Singer, Wise, and Francione with exciting new contributions by thinkers like Catharine MacKinnon, Richard Posner, as well as Sunstein and Nussbaum themselves. The book is well edited, with the various chapters flowing from issue to issue, and responding to each others arguments. The work explores not only what we own to animals, but also what practical approaches might deliver. The animal rights issue show not merely to be a "for or against" issue. Instead, we see a nuanced debate about the place of animals in theory and practice.

This book is essential to academic audiences, but should also prove accessible to general audiences. I suspect this will become a standard text for future animal rights courses. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Recommend reading for intelligent animal lovers
I picked this book up in the gift shop of the San Diego Zoo, one of the few of substance they had. Even for me, a casual, but intelligent zoo visitor, this was worth $30.00. There is much more to animal captivity than I realized. Every zoo has two sides: the happy, visitor side, and the business/breeding side. Everyone knows about the happy side of a zoo. This helps lift the curtain on the other side of animal management and makes me even more appreciative of the huge expense and efforts of countless thousands of dedicated people who toil in the background. Articles on anesthesia of large animals, ethics of zoos, breeding, all are informative, basic information that the informed animal lover should know about. Although this is written for other zoo professionals, I recommend it to the average Amazon browser who wants to dig a little deeper into life and its mysteries. Because these are articles from technical journals, they can be read in any order and used as a reference book. There is an excellent bibliography after each chapter, although for the layman it is doubtful if they would be read. At any rate, I'm glad I bought this book.

Updates Crandall's "Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity"
This long awaited volume updates Crandall's long standing and now out-of-print classic "Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity." Contains a total of 48 separate contributions from 76 different authors covering a huge variety of topics including: Basic Husbandry; Feeding and Nutrition of Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores; Exhibition Techniques; Behavior; Reproduction; and more. An essential reference for anyone maintaining mammals in captivity. Illustrated with some b/w photos & drawings, numerous graphs and tables, and five appendices. This book comes in a paperback as well as a hardcover edition. ... Read more

Book Description

Over half the households in America include an animal companion.Yet behind this immense love of animals lies an equally immense tragedy: each year, community animal shelters take in eight to twelve million lost and unwanted dogs and cats who face an uncertain fate.

One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter brings this issue vividly to life via a true account of 7 days in a typical U.S. animal shelter.With compelling photos and moving vignettes, this book chronicles the stories of 75 animals who passed through a Northern California animal shelter during one week.Their gripping stories include excerpts from actual shelter records; the words of shelter workers, volunteers, and visitors; and the final conclusion of each animal's journey through the animal shelter system.

Look into the eyes of these animals and let their stories give you a riveting and unforgettable glimpse into this nation's homeless animal tragedy.Whether it is the lost dog quickly reunited with his family because he was wearing an ID tag, the frightened cat given up by guardians who didn't understand the commitment of caring for her, the cat facing euthanasia or the dog joyfully adopted into a new home, each animal in One at a Time has an important lesson to teach and a powerful message to share.

One at a Time will help you to see the real faces behind the numbers, and to experience the miracles and heartbreak that play out every day in our nation's shelters... one animal at a time.

Even more importantly, One at a Time will give you hope, because this tragedy can be ended and each one of us can be part of the solution... offering us the chance to become better people, to reawaken our connection with other living beings, and to reaffirm the sanctity of life itself.The animals of One at a Time will show you how. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Empowering Animal Lovers
One at a Time sends a powerful message through the stories of individual animals who are homeless and in crisis. It is the finest example I have ever read on the topic of unwanted/homeless animals in our society and the shelters that accept all dogs and cats brought to their doors. Each animal's story and accompaning photograph provides a greater understanding of why millions of wonderful dogs and cats become homeless. In addition, One at a Time gives us hope by empowering individuals to facilitate change through simple acts of responsibity and kindness.

If every petlover (who in the past purchased a dog or cat) read One at a Time, their next opportunity to obtain a pet would result in a visit to their local shelter. Everyone who has an interest in animals, including breeders, no-kill advoctes, and public officials, will gain a greater understanding of the life saving services shelters provide.

What You Never Hear or See
This book has created a profoundly moving experience in my life. The authors are not shy nor do they gloss over the plight of shelter animals. "Pedigreed" pets may be nice for some, but many do not realise the needs of a shelter animal. Being a home-rescuer and foster-guardian myself, I was able to identify with the plight of the abundance of strays and how to help them. After reading the book, I also learned why animals do what they do in a shelter environment. An aside: I certainly was not prepared for the chapter on Euthanasia, but I am glad that it is there.

This book deserves to be in every vet's office across the country. I have started to purchase extras for my vets, and anyone who would listen. Please note also that the book provides ways you, too, can help raise awareness of this crucial need.

A Magnificent Gift From Our Animals
As I read Merilee Geyer and Diane Leigh's incredible book, "One At A Time", I re-visited my many years in animal shelters and realized that this book puts life back into all the animals I've known who've given their lives as a result of irresponsible guardianship. This is a book to share. This is a book to cherish. This is a book that pays hommage and tribute to the millions of animals that loved and lost. This is a book that celebrates those that found new love and companionship.

An emotionally moving and profound piece
The collaborative effort of former animal shelter workers and animal rights activists Diane Leigh and Marilee Geyer, One At A Time: A Week In An American Animal Shelter is a true account of seven days in an animal shelter, featuring profiles of the pets taken in during that span of time. Presenting the truth of life and death in an animal shelter in unvarnished, uncompromising terms, and featuring black-and-white photographs as well as the stories of the canines and felines taken in, One At A Time is an emotionally moving and profound piece recommended to the attention of anyone who has every been graced with the company of an animal companion -- or who would like to be.

Thank you for telling the truth about Animal Shelters.
Excellent book! As the volunteer "Pet of the Week" photographer for the Inyo County (California) Animal Shelter for the past 7 years, I know firsthand the heartbreak of the animals that are abandoned. Diane Leigh and Marilee Geyer have done an outstanding job of opening a window for all to see the reality of life at a Shelter and, at the same time, done it with incredible sensitivity. I pray this book will change the disposable mentality too many people have about our precious, sentient companion animals. Until there are none, adopt one! ... Read more

Book Description

More than twenty years after its original publication, The Case for Animal Rights is an acknowledged classic of moral philosophy, and its author is recognized as the intellectual leader of the animal rights movement. In a new and fully considered preface, Regan responds to his critics and defends the book's revolutionary position. Illustrations: 1 b/w illustration ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Beats the heck out of Peter Singer
As I suggested long ago in my review of Peter Singer's _Animal Liberation_, while I applaud Singer for pointing out numerous ways in which our treatment of animals could be improved, I don't find his "utilitarian" ethical arguments very persuasive.

But Tom Regan's now-classic book -- this one -- is a different story. This is a tour-de-force of ethical argumentation that makes the titular case about as well as it's ever going to be made. Regan doesn't simplify any issues and he's very much alive to fine ethical nuances. And he sets out his case with both rigor and vigor.

Probably most of us won't have any problem agreeing that at least some nonhuman animals are conscious, but there _have_ been people who have denied it (most famously, Rene Descartes). So for completeness, Regan begins with a careful discussion of the question. Avoiding simplistic answers and over-eager claims about research on e.g. animal language, he mounts a solid case that at least some nonhumans do possess consciousness.

(Some of his arguments are a bit weaker than he thinks they are, although I still agree with his conclusions. For example, he argues that possession of language skills can't be an indicator of consciousness because human infants are presumably conscious before they acquire a language; how else, indeed, would they acquire it? But this shows only that _present_ possession of linguistic ability isn't a necessary condition of consciousness; it doesn't show that the _ability_ to learn a language isn't such a condition. As I said, though, I agree with his conclusion; I'm merely criticizing the way he gets to it.)

The remainder of the book is a wide-ranging discussion, not just of animal rights, but of ethics generally. Even aside from Regan's nominal topic, the volume could serve as a fine introduction to ethical thought in general. (Among its many highlights: a short refutation of Jan Narveson's "rational egoism" that could double as a refutation of Ayn Rand's even sillier version.)

In the end, what this gets us is a careful case for regarding mammalian animals which are at least a year old as possessors of "rights." (Regan also argues that for other reasons, we could and should want to extend "rights" to other animals; he has limited his discussion to mammals in order to keep to what he takes to be a fairly clear-cut case.) These "rights" do not, he holds, trump every other ethical consideration under the sun; in particular, in emergency situations in which either (say) a human being or a dog (or a million dogs) must be killed, we should kill the dog (or dogs) every time. These "rights" are _prima facie_ moral claims -- strong, but not indefeasible.

What I think Regan has successfully shown is that living beings don't have to be moral _agents_ in order to count in our moral deliberations. And with most of what he says on this subject, I heartily agree; in particular I think he has made just the right distinction between moral agents and moral patients, and correctly argued that moral patients have _some_ sort of "right" to consideration.

I cannot, however, follow him _quite_ all the way to his conclusions -- for example, that we are morally obliged to be vegetarian and to refrain from using animals in all scientific research. Mind you, I've been a vegetarian myself and I think there _are_ good reasons for avoiding meat; I just don't think they're morally conclusive. I agree completely that many current practices are inhumane, and I also agree with a point Regan argues repeatedly: that moral limitations on what we can do with animals do _not_, as such, interfere with the operation of the free market. But I'm still not altogether sold.

(The problem -- to put it briefly and inadequately -- is that I think Regan assigns too much to moral _patients_ in the way of "rights." I'm not persuaded that in order to have a "right," it's enough that someone else could make a moral claim on your behalf. In other words, I disagree with Regan's contention that moral agents and moral patients are entitled to exactly the _same_ sorts of moral consideration.)

I don't, however, mind admitting that Regan has changed my mind on some points and may yet change my mind on others. If I ever _do_ change my mind on this last point, he will be in part responsible.

And at any rate I highly recommend this volume to any readers interested in the topic of animal rights. Moral reasoning doesn't get any better than this.

A Classic!!!
Warning: this book is not for people new to ethical philosophy or philosophy in general. Try Singer's book for an introduction to some of the themes discussed in this book. Essential reading for those tired of hearing the same old recycled arguments used to justify the torture and murder of sentient living creatures. As such, it appeals to two groups of people: 1) those who are already living or considering adopting an ethical lifestyle and 2) those interested in philosophy, especially ethical philosophy. Do your intellect a favor and READ THIS BOOK!

The best discussion of animal rights.
This book accomplishes two goals: First, it is the best available discussion of the many aspects of animal welfare. Second, it is an excellent example of a fine philosophical mind grappling with a difficult issue. I have often recommended the book to those who just wish to follow the workings of rigorous thought. But reader beware--do not look for simple answers or slogans here. This is difficult reading indeed, but Regan has, better than anyone else (and this is characteristic of all his writing)carefully worked through the many arguments, objections, counter-examples, etc., with thoroughness and clarity unapproached by similar books. If you recognize that the question "Do non-human animals have rights?" is extraordinarily complex and thereby can produce only complex answers, then this is THE book for you.

A philosophical defense of the animal rights cause
Tom Regan's book is a classic in the animal rights literature. It is the most philosophical work to date and consequently not really accessible to the widest of audiences. However, Regan explains his own and others' thoughs in an extremely clear way. This book will be very welcome to anyone who wants a more "scientific" (as opposed to emotional) defense of animal rights. It is compulsive reading for anyone trying to get a grip on the debate today. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The first anthology of writings on the history, ethics, politics and tactics of the Animal Liberation Front, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? features both academic and activist perspectives and offers powerful insights into this international organization and its position within the animal rights movement.

Calling on sources as venerable as Thomas Aquinas and as current as the Patriot Act—and, in some cases, personal experience—the contributors explore the history of civil disobedience and sabotage, and examine the philosophical and cultural meanings of words like "terrorism," "democracy" and "freedom," in a book that ultimately challenges the values and assumptions that pervade our culture. Contributors include Robin Webb, Rod Coronado, Ingrid Newkirk, Paul Watson, Karen Davis, Bruce Friedrich and others. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Vegan Warriors....
the essays in this book are an excellent read. Gary Yourofsky's essay is strong and powerful, if any of you are able to catch one of his veganism presentations at a local college campus or university, it is a definite must. I am not just saying this because he is a close friend, I am saying this because he is one of the key speakers and believers in the animal rights movement today. Forget Rod Coronado, Gary is the real deal...

Not Until
Throughout history, "acceptable," "traditional," and "customary" practices have allowed the enslavement of humans, the negation of women's rights, the denial of a people's civil rights, and countless other atrocities. The human animal has given of its blood, sacrificed its freedom, and wreaked destruction against members of its own family in the battle against ignorance, prejudice, and inequality. However, not until The Animal Liberation Front took charge did those who suffer needlessly have someone who would pay the ultimate price in their name. Not until the Animal Liberation Front becomes an accepted voice for the voiceless will the "acceptable," "traditional," and "customary" ever change.

Terrorist or Freedom Fighters? provides a comprehensive, intellectual study of the philosophy and tactics guiding the Animal Liberation Front. Steve Best and Anthony Nocella II provide an in-depth analysis of how direct action is not only essential to the animal rights movement, but also relevant to the history of all social justice movements. The book includes fascinating sections on topics such as history, tactics, media, and terrorism and includes voices from within the movement that are both supportive and critical of the ALF. Terrorist or Freedom Fighters? is a compilation of diverse animal rights voices, an unprecedented collection of ideas whose time has come. It is a book of serious scholarship. This book is sure to change the debate surrounding the ALF, within the animal rights movement and society as a whole, for much of the debate is conducted in ignorance of ALF history and philosophy. This is a must read for ALF fans and critics alike.

Just what is needed
Terrorists or Freedom Fighters is a unique look into the underground Animal Liberation movement. Until now, there has been no resource as vast, in-depth, and insightful as this book.

Terrorists or Freedom Fighters successfully aims to give a legitimate analysis of the Animal Liberation Front. Regardless of whether or not one agrees with the actions of the ALF, it is hard to argue against the need for comprehensive analysis and intellectual dialogue.

Thanks to Dr. Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella II, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters has helped advance the study of the strategies, tactics, and goals of the Animal Liberation movement. It is a must-read for anyone who wishes to learn about and understand this complex and important movement.

-Erin Ryan Fitzgerald
Syracuse Animal Rights Organization
www.SyracuseAnimalRights.com

an excellent collection on a most important issue
Animals are used in a a wide variety of harmful ways in the US and around the world. Consider some examples of what happens to animals in research laboratories:

* Cats, dogs, non-human primates and other animals are drowned, suffocated, and starved to death.
* They are burned, subjected to radiation, and used as "guinea pigs" in military research.
* Their eyes are surgically removed and their hearing is destroyed.
* They have their limbs severed and organs crushed.
* Invasive means are used to give them heart attacks, ulcers and seizures.
* They are deprived of sleep, subjected to electric shock, and exposed to extremes of heat and cold.

Everyone of these procedures and outcomes complies with the Animal Welfare Act. Each conforms with what government officials count as "humane care and treatment." Consider some of what happens to animals in farms and slaughterhouses, again all of which is perfectly legal and deemed "humane":

*Veal" calves spend their entire life individually confined to narrow stalls too narrow for them to turn around in.
* Laying hens live a year or more in cages the size of a filing drawer, seven or more per cage, after which they routinely are starved for two weeks to encourage another laying cycle.
* Female hogs are housed for four or five years in individual barred enclosures ("gestation stalls") barely wider than their bodies, where they are forced to birth litter after litter.
* Until the recent "Mad Cow" scare, beef and dairy cattle too weak to stand ("downers") were dragged or pushed to their slaughter.
* Geese and ducks are force-fed the human equivalent of 30 pounds of food per day to enlarge their liver, the better to meet the demand for foie gras.

On fur farms, animals are electrocuted or their necks are snapped, or they are trapped and stomped to death.

These concrete examples show that animals endure terror at the hands of humans on a daily basis. This terror is given the full support of the goverment, and the majority of the public is uniformed of it. The Animal Liberation Front are at the front of providing the public the information about those who terrorize animals. This book provides an excellent explanation of why they do what they do, and defends their tactics from possible objections. All should read it and do what they can to support these heroes for what they do.

Lucid analysis of direct action on behalf of animals
This scholarly work thoroughly explains the philosophy behind the Animal Liberation Front and its parallel to direct action activists of other social movements. After reading this book only those with a vested interest in perpetuating the forms of animals abuse that are commonplace in today's society will fail to see that the same issues that emancipated human slaves and paved the way for women's rights are being addressed by animal activists who risk their freedom and liberty to bring justice to those who suffer only because they were born to a mother of another species.

Those with open minds will have a greater understanding of the Animal Liberation activists who act out of a sense of altruism, and of the forces at work to deny both animals and humans their very basic rights. ... Read more

Book Description

Straw Dogs is an exciting, radical work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche, the Western tradition has been based on the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. Taking inspiration from art, poetry, the frontiers of science, and philosophy itself, John Gray argues that the belief in human difference is an illusion and offers instead a post humanist view of the world. Straw Dogs is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing, book that explores how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A POISON PILL FOR THE INTELLECTUALLY CHALLENGED
STRAW DOGS - Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. By John Gray. 246 pages. London: Granta Books, 2002. ISBN 1-86207-512-3 (Hbk).

Are you feeling bad? in despair? thoroughly fed up with the world and its prevailing madness? Have you come to think of civilization as one big fat fraud and your fellow human beings as utterly worthless? Are you beginning to feel that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if we were all blown away in some global holocaust because we're only the accidental product of some evolutionary quirk and are doomed to extinction sooner or later anyway?

Have you been too tired to read Nietzsche, Freud, Reich, Marcuse, Boas, Benedict, Mead, Trilling, Levi-Strauss, Fromm, Gould, Roszak, Adorno, Foucault, Derrida, and the innumerable others in that vast army of scribblers who have been working mightily to undermine civilization for over a century?

Yes? Well, don't worry. John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics has written just the book to bring you up to speed and make you feel even worse than you do now. It's a short book in large type and has been made even easier to read because Professor Gray doesn't burden the reader with such silly things as arguments or anything like that to support his views. No. His book is just a series of jottings really.

These jottings have the aim of convincing the unwary reader that Western Civilization has been always been wrong about pretty near everything. Yes folks, that's right. Gray would have us believe that that stupendous product of the finest minds of over 2000 years, minds which have given us all real progress along with all of the freedoms we have enjoyed, has just been one big fat mistake.

But not to worry. Professor Gray and his friends have cooked up a splendid alternative to civilization which I believe is called the NWO, and if you don't know anything about that you soon will. A hint as to what the NWO is really going to be about is provided by the epigraph to his book: "Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs" (Lao Tzu V.i).

Maybe. But with all due respect I would like to conclude by directing Professor Gray to another and even more powerfully relevant passage in the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu (29.i) that reads as follows:

Those who would take over the Earth and manage it
I see they cannot grasp it;
for the earth is a spiritual vessel
and cannot be forced.
Whoever forces it spoils it.
Whoever grasps it loses it.

Straw Dummies
This is a critique of liberal humanism, defined as the faith in inevitable progress to a utopian world, courtesy of science, reason, technology and morality. I am not aware of any reasonable person in recent decades who has gone on record to espouse that faith and Gray does not actually quote anyone who does. That alone makes the book a sustained non sequitor, an attack on straw dummies.

Perhaps the naive belief that things can only ever get better is worthy of five minutes demolition work. However to target science, reason, technology and morality as unmitigated agents of destruction is altogether over the top, apart from being rather old hat. It is entirely appropriate to be skeptical about the human institutions of science and technology, they are of course human and fallible, as indeed we all are.

Similarly beware of moralists. But beware of people who criticise science and technology with nothing better to offer than the Gaia principle and eastern mysticism. And beware of people who suggests that morality does not matter.

To be fair to Gray, there are nuggets of sense on the book. "Today the good life means making use of science and technology - without succumbing to the illusion that they can make us free, reasonable or even sane. It means seeking peace - without hoping for a world without war. It means cherishing freedom - in the knowledge that it is an interval between anarchy and tyranny."

This is an echo of Bertrand Russell "In praise of idleness" where he wrote about the importance of knowledge that consists not only in its direct practical utility but also in the fact that it promotes a widely contemplative habit of mind. "On this ground, utility is to be found in much of the knowledge that is nowadays labelled useless."

The problem in Gray's book is to sift the nuggets of sense from the mysticism and anti-rationalism that constitute most of the contents. In some ways it reads like a personal retraction of a faith that he once held, as he grapples with the realisation of his own mortality, like an ageing hippie, or a somewhat chastened relict of the madness of the 1960s.

Gray has over a dozen books under his belt, some of them very good ones, from the days when he used to take Popper and Hayek seriously and appeared to understand what they were talking about. Now he has lapsed into errors that would fail him in Philosophy I.

"According to the most influential twentieth-century philosopher of science, Karl Popper, a theory...should be given up as soon as it has been falsified".
Well, actually, no. For Popper a theory that appears to be falsified is rendered problematic, there is no reason to 'give it up' because it may still be the best one we have.

"Philosophers have always tried to show that we are not like other animals, sniffing their way uncertainly through the world. Yet after all the work of Plato and Spinoza, Descartes and Bertrand Russell we have no more reason than other animals do for believing that the sun will rise tomorrow".
Well what about the work by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton...?

What are the positives in this collage of half-baked anthropology, animal studies, mysticicism, plus philosophical and sociological babble? The Gaia principle? The supposedly profound bottom line is to give up on thinking and purposeful activity. "Other animals do not need a purpose in life. A contradiction to itself, the human animal cannot do without one. Can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?"

On behalf of the much maligned liberal humanists I would like to suggest that we can generate any number of useful aims in life beyond merely "seeing", whatever that means. We can adopt the reasonable and non-utopian aim of making the world a little better every day, starting with our own relations with our immediate associates. We can support learning and scholarship, and engage in the exchange of helpful commentary and criticism of ideas that we believe to be defective. We can promote critical rationalism, free trade, free speech, tolerance and political reforms, especially in the direction of the minimum state, to protect freedoms and promote peace and prosperity.

primal scream philosophy
I hope Professor Gray feels better.
I have to tell you I enjoyed many aspects of this book, Straw Dogs. Nihilist philosophies of the West can be very entertaining. Except in this modern age, they begin to attack Buddhism, being multicultural at last.
The problem is he didn't represent Buddha's teachings as he taught it. His attack is about as modern as post-modern relativism. There were two aspects of philosophies that Buddhism rejects. Eternalism - there is a God, he controls phenomenon, my soul is eternal. And nihilism, everything is illusion, everything ends at death, there is no effect and causation. The two views he put forth, first, of the Taoist mold, that of fatalism and natural determination, was taught by Purana Kassapa, Buddha refuted this as nihilism. Ajita Kesakambali taught the other view he put forth, mainly, that we consist of elements, and there is no life after death. This also is a form of nihilism of course. Buddha did not teach that everything is illusion, that is a Hindu and Mahayana teaching. Both are really very similar. He taught there is nonself, that the self is impermanent and subject to dhukkha, suffering. If Buddha taught illusion, why did he state the four noble truths? Because we really do suffer.
Now that Western philosophers have humbled themselves to include Eastern philosophies in their ideas of the world, lets hope they can figure them out. They are very old and very durable.

the folly of the human animal
John Gray was once upon a time an optimistic liberal. He fell under the spell of the Gospel of the Free Market in the Thatcherite 1980s, and thus made a transition to conservatism. When he discovered that Thatcherism/Reaganism wasn't really conservative at all, but rather a dogmatic radicalism, he became an old-school conservative. He proceeded to reject the Enlightenment tout court, and embraced post-modernist relativism. Now, he has taken a further step into simple misanthropy. Gray has written a jeremiad against Christianity, the Enlightenment, science, and any hope of bettering people or the planet we live on. This is a performative contradiction, of course, because if there is no cause for hope, why write a book? What's the point? Fame and money are the only reasons left, one must suppose, and that supposition is perfectly consistent with Gray's line of argument -- all lofty ideals and dreams are illusions.

Despite all that, I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It's a quick, easy read, quite entertaining, and I'm sure you can find it in the libraray. There are many useful citations in the back to more substantial books you might want to read to pursue Gray's points, many made in the form of sound-bite one-liners. Depending on what you bring to it, you may or may not find it shocking -- "Straw Dogs" is mainly based on the growing knowledge from the field variously known as sociobiology or evolutionary psychology or biological anthropology. Humans are animals, not demigods. Gray's second main point I think is less appreciated and more important, and that is the evidence that the human species is embarked on a neomalthusian experiment -- overshoot the ecosystem and see what happens.

That's good cause for a jeremiad, and if Gray's disjointed ramblings focus more people's attention on this ("death focuses the mind") then it is worth something. Gray is having none of any sort of schemes for improvement, though, let alone salvation. His presentation is totally negative (we are nothing but "exceptionally rapacious primates"), which of course is a good strategy for provoking discussion, hostility and sales. I detect, though, a positive agenda, which Gray only intimates between the lines, and that is the most conservative belief system of all, animism. If humans dropped their pretense at superiority and stopped all their doomed scheming, accepting their equal status with their fellow animals, and acted with humility and reverence toward their fellow beings, then all might be well. This seems to be Gray's covert plan for salvation, and it is in fact one I can wholeheartedly endorse.

Gray goes too far in throwing out the Enlightenment. Rationality does clearly seem to be lacking in most human behavior, but what of it does exist is important to foster, encourage and spread. (See Daniel Dennett's latest, "Freedom Evolves," which makes the same assumptions as Gray, but reaches a very different conclusion.) Sure it seems like an uphill struggle that we're likely to lose, but I could see that years ago (33 years ago to be precise), and I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found reasons to try. Being an intellectual bomb-thrower is fine for someone still young and full of indignation, but there is a planet of sentient beings who expect more of someone like John Gray -- carpe diem!

in other words...
row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
life is but a dream ... Read more

Reviews (21)

Eternal Treblinka has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Robert Cohen writes, "One year ago I read an author's manuscript. Today, that book is in print, and you should
add this one to your summer reading list: ETERNAL TREBLINKA by Charles Patterson. I have just been informed by Mr. Patterson that his Eternal Treblinka has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. After reading Eternal Treblinka, I wrote this:

The flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Portland Oregon lasted six hours. On the plane, I read the rough draft version of "Eternal Treblinka," an extraordinary book written by Charles Patterson that equates the real life and death experiences of ten billion farm animals raised each year for human consumption to the same Nazi atrocities suffered by six million Jews who became Hitler's "Final Solution."

This is one of the best written, best researched animal rights books that I've ever had the pleasure to preview. Fresh from the memory of having read about Jews stuffed into cattle cars as they were being transported to the slaughterhouses of Aushwitz and Dachau, I myself became witness to the twenty-first century's foremost example of man's inhumanity to other living creatures. Our tortured kin. The animal holocaust.

Last Thursday morning, I drove from Portland to Mount St. Helens in Washington State. I had been attending the Raw Foods Festival in Portland, and found a few hours in between my talks to visit the scene of America's greatest natural volcanic disaster. On this hot summer day, I drove across a bridge spanning the cascading Columbia River, separating Portland from Vancouver. There next to my car was a 40-foot long silver van with holes large enough to see through.

Inside of the truck were dairy cows. They were packed tightly together-with no room to lie down. The cows had served man's purpose. Each individual lived her short lifetime of stress, first birthing a child who would be immediately taken from
her, then injected with hormones that would painfully stretch her udder, depleting calcium from her own bones so that she would generate enough milk to fill 100 half-pint containers for school children to drink each day. Her ancestors naturally produced enough milk to have filled just four of those same containers.

The cow whose eyes I look into for just one moment would be made to suffer through hours or days of driving hundreds or thousands of miles to what was to become a dairyman's final solution.

Yesterday she died a violent death shared by 10,000 of her sisters.

Today she will share that same fate with 10,000 other Guernsey and Holstein cows on Route 80 or Route 66 or I-95, in Kansas, New Jersey, or Florida, on highways and neighborhoods where your children and mine sleep comfortably unaware of the predestined doom for living beings who have done nothing to merit such treatment.

Tomorrow the same, and the day after that. Eternal death. Eternal slaughter. Eternal Treblinka.

A holocaust occurs while meat eaters turn the other way, denying that such horrors could possibly exist. Were the German and Polish people who knew the fate of those trucked to Buchenwald and Treblinka any less moral or guilty than those who comprehend the truth about what really happens to farm animals?

I followed the truck for a bit until it veered off to the left, and I continued my drive in another direction. I took the high road, and she took the low road, and her look will forever haunt me. Her body will produce 2,000 quarter-pounders for one of many fast food franchises.

Her anus and cheeks, arms and legs, back and udder will be served so that others can have it their way. Today's slaughter will feed 20,000,000 people, and the year's tally of Elsie and her sisters will add up to seven billion kids meals served.

I feel the slaughterhouse. I hear the screams and know their fear. I smell the sweat and blood and suffer their pain. I internalize the agony and distress of transported animals. I envision the once green fields in which these animals grazed and the cold metallic ramp and smell of warm sticky blood that flows on the slaughterhouse floor and stains the psyche of us all.

I imagine the stun gun bolt to the head. The upside-down hoisting and the sliced neck artery. The animal who chokes on her blood, and the man who slices off her legs as she kicks in fear from the ensuing pain of butchery. The last fifteen seconds of a death that no creature deserves. The arrogance of a man who eats the flesh and dares not consider the origin of each bite.

Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer once wrote about a man's love for his departed pet mouse:

"What do they know-all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world - about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka."

I ceased eating meat four years ago. I now look at my pet dog, whom my daughters rescued from a shelter one day before she was due to be injected with man's final solution. I have come to love her.

Her name is Tykee, the goddess of fortune. Is she unlike the baby lamb or calf who is separated from her mother and shipped to the exterminator? I reflect on the Amazon parrot who recognizes me and sings "hello" when I visit my parents. Does the bird with green feathers differ significantly from the chicken with white plumage?

Do they not feel pain and deserve the right to live? I cannot eat them. I can no longer be then cause for their pain, although I once was a part of their genocide. I once denied responsibility for the acts of terror that occurred outside of my vision...outside of my consciousness. Their bodies were cut into smaller pieces and were broiled, baked, and fried.

Oh, that same crime of arrogance to which I now plead guilty! My penitence? Community service. I explain the act to meat eaters, and some turn their backs on me. Close their eyes. Shut their
ears. Who wishes to deal with the truth and reality of death?

Arriving at Mount St. Helens, I carefully read one plaque after another, taking note of performances both heroic and ironic. I consider the day that once silenced the birds and boiled to death fish in the streams. A blink in the eye of geological
time that stripped the landscape of the color green, divested pine trees of their needles and scattered whole trees like matchsticks across barren mountain tops.

I examined the original seismographs and warnings from hundreds of scientists to the residents to evacuate their homes and come to terms with an absolute truth. I became dumfounded by the arrogance of one man, Harry R. Truman, who lived alone in a cabin aside the lake below a mountain that would soon explode with the magnitude and power equivalent to 27,000
Hiroshima-type blasts.

A man who declined to leave that mountain. A man who denied a truth shared by others. An arrogant man who looked death in the face and refused to respect man's destiny. I try to imagine his final moment of sensibility. At the same time, in my own mind's eye I call upon the face of a cow in a truck on a bridge."

Learn more about history than you did in school!
I'm trying to convince my World Studies and U.S. History teachers to use this book as a part of the curriculum. Eternal Treblinka compares the disgustingly similar Holocausts of the Jewish during World War II and of the animals throughout history. The book also gives very important background information on the history of animal abuse and who was responsible for the genocide of the Jewish. It's surprisingly easy to read and it's amazing where he gets all this information. The book is divided into three parts: A Fundamental Debacle (I), Master Species, Master Race (II), and Holocaust Echoes (III). Each part is introduced by a quote(s) relating to the topics of the chapters.

"A Fundamental Debacle" talks about when animal abuse began and discusses the controversial subject of whether or not animals were put on earth for humans' needs. "Master Species, Master Race" describes what caused the Holocaust and every person responsible for carrying out the Final Solution (the scientists, slaughterhouse employees, Henry Ford, and Hitler himself) and the story of how slaughterhouses were established. Chapter three, "The Industrialization of Slaughter" includes quotes and paragraphs about the classic novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. And finally, "Holocaust Echoes" is comprised of the stories of animal rights activists who have been affected by the Holocaust, including Peter Singer and the Nobel Prize winner and Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Also, this book isn't only about the Holocaust of the Jewish; it also talks about the mass murders of the Chinese during World War II, the infamous genocide of the Native Americans, the conquest of Africa and the Philippines, the dehumanization of the Vietnamese and what happened to the Japanese during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This is a wonderful book and anybody who's interested in history should own a copy. I learned more history from reading this book than in my history classes. I knew more about the Holocaust than my teachers did, which was handy when I argue with them. --Reviewed by Angie Lau

Raises difficult questions and uncomfortable realities
I read a lot of criticism about Charles Patterson's book, "Eternal Treblinka" before I actually read the book, so I was expecting something thought-provoking and controversial, to be sure. I was not disappointed. I know there have been many who have been offended by the comparison of mankind's treatment of animals to the Nazi's treatment of the Jews, and I can understand why. But on the other hand, the parallels that Mr. Patterson draw in this book are compelling, and seen from an objective, not emotional, point of view do make sense.

I've also heard of the protests where meat-eaters object to being likened to Nazis, and I'd like to point out right now that no such correlation is made in this book. It seems that many of the critics of "Eternal Treblinka" have not bothered to read the book.

There are many other sociological parallels that can be drawn in regard to our treatment of animals and their systematic slaughter from mere existence, but given Mr. Patterson's background, this is the one that makes sense to write about. What emerges from the pages of horrifying stories (both of animal abuse and human abuse) is a compelling argument for an open and critical discussion of our role, as humans, in the world and how far our dominion over other creatures really stretches.

I was surprised to learn that so many animal rights activists are either survivors of the Holocaust, or family members of survivors (or, in many cases, German citizens who were on the "safe" side during the war). These personal stories are moving, and the fact that these people can extend their sanctity for life beyond humans is truly inspiring.

This is a wonderful book. Hard to read in the way it's hard to face any tragedy and stare it down. Well worth it though. You will not be disappointed.

Interesting and thought provoking
The book is interesting. Not much in it was new as far as factory farms etc. I was I admit a bit put off with the suggestion that all killing of animals for food is wrong, since my family has hunted for centuries in the United States and as a hunter I know what a clean kill is.

Personally I would like to see the mass market feed lots and slaughter houses done away with. Even the kosher ones. Since I detest waste and believe that if someone is going to eat meat they better raise and cull it themselves and use every part of the animal from hide, to bone.

Completely ignored were issues like native Americans in Artic areas where eating animals has often been the only means of survival. Or even my own Passamaquoody family from eastern Maine in times past.

My challenge to anyone who believes that eating animals is always wrong is stop using any and all products, including life saving medicines derived from animals of any kind. Be consistent and risk dying for your beliefs.

And how ironic that on pages 160-161 we have Professor Peter Singer who is an animals rights person, as well as a 'human' who believes disabled or sick babies up to 30 days old should be killed or allowed to die. Seems odd that he would be in a book about Nazis who did that to Jews and other humans.

Why 5 stars? Because overall the book has some valuable information and I tend to take what I want from good books and ignore the rest.

'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone'
Reading Charles Patterson's THE ETERNAL TREBLINKA: OUR TREATMENT OF ANILMALS AND THE HOLOCAUST is a shattering experience. If Patterson's postulates are true, and he has carefully researched and documented with copious footnotes the facts he so bravely reveals here, then we as a global society need to take responsibility for the horrors against fellow man we so willingly assign to 'others', never ourselves. The parallel of man's treatment of animals from Genesis to the present and the recurring genocides of humans is stated early on in this wise book: "Not only did the domestication of animals provide the model and inspiration for human slavery and tyrannical government, but it laid the groundwork for western hierarchical thinking and European and American radical theories that called for the conquest and exploitation of 'lower races,' while at the same time vilifying them as animals so as to encourage and justify their subjugation." And later, "Throughout the history of our ascent to dominance as the master species, our victimization of animals has served as the model and foundation for our victimization of each other. The study of human history reveals the pattern: first, humans exploit and slaughter animals; then, they treat other people like animals and so the same to them."
Patterson traces our carnivorous society to the Ice Age when plants were no longer available for food and animals became the source of staving off hunger. From this beginning he traces the gradual herding, forced breeding, selective trashing of the weak and infirm, sterilization techniques, American Indian genocide and slavery practices throughout the world as well as in America, slaughterhouse productions lines (suggesting that Henry Ford who made assembly line production popular and who was one of Hitler's few heroes forged the way for models for the extermination camps of the Nazis) - all steps from the abuse of animals to the extermination of peoples in such a way that we as readers are forced to reflect on what we have always considered as atrocities that shamed other countries and societies are actually rooted in our own history.
Good books make us think. Patterson writes so well that despite his historical didactic approach to this uncomfortable subject, it is difficult to put this book down. Many may not wish to finish reading his tome, but everyone should be made aware of its postulates. In the midst of his documentation of his theory he places an utterly poetic tribute of a chapter to Isaac Bashivus Singer, the Nobel Prize laureate for literature in 1978. Singer was a vegetarian and a poet of kindness and Patterson seeks to imbue hope in his readers by emulating Singer's visions.
THE ETERNAL TREBLINKA is an important book and if we are to learn from history to prevent repetition of past sins then this surely stands as one source of instruction. Would that schools could include this as recommended reading for all students - form Junior High to high school to college. ... Read more

Reviews (57)

This book may help to change the future!
Unless you've read this book, believe me, you have NO idea how bad it is. I doubt the most cynical paranoid conspiracy theorist could dream up stuff HALF this bad. Thank you Mr. Scully for being a concern-a-tive and using all your mind and soul (and guts) to show us what unimaginable things we are doing to our fellow Earth dwellers.

My favorite words about this book are in a "blurb" on the back cover: "Matthew Scully has set forth a case...that will resonate with any reader who values logical reasoning and ethical conduct." That should include most everybody, I'd like to think...at least all those bothering to read these reviews.... In other words: BUY THIS BOOK NOW : )

What I especially value are Scully's lengthy dissections of mind boggling statements (devoid of any logical reasoning) from industry heads, whaling commissions, hunters, philosophers, and most shocking, our current or past elected officials.

In deconstructing their arguments on paper, I can use Mr. Scullys facts, logic and moral reasoning as a resource I can go back to time and time again until I learn how to communicate better to help people see the light when they say "I can't give up meat." Or, "I learned to hunt when I was a boy, it's the American way" or, "We Japanese eat whale, you eat burgers, what's the difference?" (Believe me; this book has the answers from many perspectives)

Another review here chided Mr. Scully for giving such a Christian slant to his book. I don't have statistics, but MANY Americans probably consider themselves Christians, and although they may only have vague ideas about what Christianity is, they value what they think is the general idea. Most who got thru 8th grade probably remember that Christian values played a part in the mythology of what made our country. In other words, even in our confused USA of 2003, Christianity is a "touchstone" for many. The author demands the reader to ask himself "who am I to support this cruel treatment of animals for my own benefit when I don't really need to" and the words from the Bible will certainly help LOTS of readers ponder this soul searching question.

As far a Mr. Scully being part of a conservative majority government that is five tantrums away from killing 1000's or 100,000's, maybe that will be another book for him once we are all full of mercy and compassion for lower species.

Indeed, he speaks of the origin of conservative thinking (which isn't what I hear our conservative pundits or politicians expressing) and I believe him. To quote him: "I, myself, as an occasional Republican speechwriter, have toiled many hours to convey this credo of human aspiration and creativity unhindered by the presumptuous and meddlesome state. The problem to guard against is that this very same outlook can at times cut against the conservative's own belief in man as a fundamentally moral and not merely economic actor, a creature accountable to reason and conscience and not driven by whim or appetite" and later on the same page "...conservatives above all should see in modern dominion the eternal question of earthly power and its abuses, the corruption to which any power in the hands of is prone." and later on the next page " Conservatives are wary of environmentalism and its more radical strains of nature-worship. They would do well, however, to examine their own beautiful abstractions, their laissez-faire outlook toward animals and where it sometimes leads." (pages 100-102). It should be noted that Mr. Scully will deconstruct his conservative friend's logic as quick and devastatingly as anyone else's.

Except for the I-Ching telling me to move south when I was 19 years old, I don't think any books have really changed me too much. However, after reading and having sleepless nights over the modern horrors I learned about from this book, I found myself searching New York City for days looking for leather-free high waterproof shoes for the nasty slushy winter sidewalks here...

Starts with a Bang, Ends with a Whimper
As "Dominion" is the first animal welfare/animal rights book written by a Republican, I was driven to read it out of curiosity. In it, Scully lays out a compelling argument against animal exploitation; yet, he seems to backtrack in his final chapters, diluting his thesis and offering excuses for those who would rather make superficial changes.

Rather than just hurling statistics at the reader (as some animal rights books seem to do), Scully attempts to illustrate several instances of animal exploitation with personal narratives. In order to explain the absurdity of hunting - particularly big game hunting - Scully attends the 1999 convention of the Safari Club International; he details the folly of the world's wildlife management philosophy from his seat at the 2000 meeting of the International Whaling Commission; and he offers a firsthand look at the horrors of modern factory farms, along with the callousness and disregard of those who are responsible. While Scully does manage to interweave his accounts with facts, figures, and philosophy, the book is far from dry. Instead, "Dominion" reads more like a novel, and a terrifying one at that: much of what Scully asserts will sicken you.

Throughout the first 350 pages of "Dominion", Scully lays out a cogent argument for animal rights, without ever using the term "animal rights". Thus, the reader is left wondering whether Scully is an animal rights advocate or an animal welfarist (and yes, there's a world of difference between the two!). In this manner, he never fully articulates his beliefs. He also dismisses philosophical arguments for animal rights/welfare in favor of religion - at best, a silly idea. While I understand that the book is aimed largely at Christians, it's still pure folly to cast off all semblance of logic in the name of religion. The animal rights movement is incredibly diverse, and the different types arguments reflect this. Appealing to one's sense of mercy (hence the book's subtitle, "The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy") may convince certain segments of society to repent their animal-exploiting ways, but other people may require different routes of persuasion, logic included. Not to mention, the animal rights (and even welfare, to a lesser extent) movement is commonly accused of being devoid of logic and riddled with sentimentality - Scully's advice certainly wouldn't help correct this stereotype.

Despite these flaws, I was still impressed with "Dominion" - until I got to the final chapter. Though Scully seems unequivocal in his condemnation of meat-eating (as it's cruel, unnecessary, and harmful to the environment), in the end he merely calls for more humane standards. I'm sorry, but killing is in and of itself inhumane - when it comes to killing for food or fun, there's no such thing as a humane death. For humans, meat's pure lack of necessity negates humaneness. Though I am myself a vegan, I'm not even quibbling over the merits of vegetarianism vs. veganism here - Scully makes a great case for going veg, and then offers a "get out of jail free" card for those who would rather keep on eating meat - never mind the dairy. There's no such thing as "human decency" when needlessly killing (not to mention torturing) billions of animals a year because of preferences, convenience or tradition.

Some reviewers have expressed their satisfaction that "Dominion" isn't just another radical, zealous, foaming-at-the-mouth animal rights book. Well, it isn't - but that's because it isn't an animal rights book at all. For whatever reason, Scully chose the easy way out after setting forth an impassioned argument in favor of animal rights. He set the stage for a call to end all forms of animal exploitation - but in the end, he merely called for greater regulation. It was quite disappointing, since I was at first under the impression that we finally had an ally on the right.

Despite Scully's moral schizophrenia, I still enjoyed the bulk of the book, which is why I gave it more than the 1 star I would have otherwise. Nonetheless, "Dominion" started with an impressive bang, and ended with a self-serving, compliant little whimper.

The problem is domination
The sexist title of this book "The Power of Man..." should be reason alone to avoid this conservative book. Since Scully has labored as Bush's speech writer, he's far from an enlightened boat-rocker. The best advice is to stop eating animals, and to avoid wasting time bolstering Scully's view that animals are in need of management. Humans should manage their own numbers, for starters. -- Priscilla Feral, President, Friends of Animals, Inc.

a good start on an important topic
I can understand why the author is a "former" speechwriter for Bush because I bet he doesn't get invited to many right-wing cocktail parties after writing this. He spends much of the book critiquing fundamentalist religious positions, hunting clubs, factory farming, and intellectuals who are alarmingly callous in their views on the sanctity of life. This is a worthwhile book that is a useful addition to my growing collection on animal rights.

This Is A Wonderful Start!
I'm not a very good writer of reviews, but I did want to comment about this book - so I'll risk the public humiliation offer my thoughts.

Matthew Scully is clearly a deeply compassionate human being, and I'm so very happy that he had the guts to write this book. I'm sure he's probably had many opportunites to regret it (though I doubt he did even so).

I felt for him throughout the book because I know that a good percentage of people will refuse to even pick this book up (probably out of fear) - and of those that do, a good percentage won't be able to open their minds (hearts) to the message.

I've always been aware of the horrors of the factory farm and laboratory; however, I was not aware of the extent of cruelty and greed in the hunting industry - it made me indignant.

I think this book is an important start considering the climate we currently live in. I personally feel simply eliminating cruelty in factory farms is not enough; however, at least that is something that might be possible - to some degree anyway (whereas eliminating the slaughter of animals for food is probably never going to happen ever).

I hope this Matthew Scully will write more. People seem to warm to his writing style. I've given this book to many aquaintances to read, and they all came back with a new perspective on their reality - and they were happy for it.

I think it would be great for everyone to read this book - then each person could judge for themselves what they want to get from it. ... Read more

Reviews (68)

One of the most important philosophy books ever written
Want to upset all the pre-conceptions of your life, and look at the world around you in a radically new way? Then read Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation. Written by an Australian philosophy professor in the 1970s, and revised in the early 1990s, Animal Liberation is the founding book of the modern animal rights movement. As such, Animal Liberation be one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

When Singer's book first appeared, animal rights was on the fringe of the fringe. Animal rights advocates, to the extent that they could get any attention from the press at all, were treated as a bunch of nuts. CBS Evening News compared British animal rights advocates to Monty Python charachters.

But today, especially among young people, animal rights is a major part of political and social activism. So even if you think you're inflexibly opposed to animals having rights, Singer's book will help you understand the millions of people who disagree with you.

Folks who believe that animals have no rights will often assert that because animals are animals, they should have no rights. As Singer points out, the argument is simply a tautology. To say that animals should have no rights because they are animals is no more logical than to say that women should not have rights because they are women, or that Blacks should have no rights because they are Blacks. To say that status as a woman must, in itself, imply that women have no rights is sexism; to say the same about Blacks is racism. And, Singer demonstrates, to say the same about animals is "specisim."

Interestingly, when reformers in the late 18th century began arguing that Blacks should not be enslaved merely because of of their race, pro-slavery advocates had an immediate reply: Arguments which questioned the subordination of Blacks could also be used to question the subordination of women, and the subordination of animals. The defenders of slavery had a point, notes Singer. Once you knock out one kind of subordination, it's harder to defend the subordination that remains.

So if simplistic speciesism is an insufficient basis for denying animals rights, what logical justification is there for current treatment of animals?

It is true, of course, that animals can't do lots of things that humans can, such as write, build complex tools, or describe a religious belief system. But if you compare a profoundly retarded child with one of the higher primates, the primate may have much more advanced skills in the traits that we consider human (such as use of language or tools) than does the profoundly retarded child.

If we acknowledge that the retarded child has rights, then what philosophically plausible claim can be made that the primate does not?

The best test for rights, argues Singer, is a test first articulated by the 19th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham: "Can it suffer?" If you saw someone using an electric cattle prod to torture an adult human, you would say that the person's rights were being violated. If the severely retarded child were being tortured, you would likewise say that the child's rights were being violated. And because gorillas, dogs, and eagles also feel intense pain when being attacked with electric cattle prods, their rights are likewise violated when they are tortured. In contrast, trees and rocks do not feel pain, as far as we know, and therefore using a cattle prod on a rock is merely a waste of electricity, and not the violation of rights on the part of the rock.

"How can you tell that animals feel pain?" is one rejoinder to the argument above. The theory that animals are mere automotons, and have no more feeling than does a clock, was first articulated by the French philosopher Rene Descartes.

In reply, Singer points out that: First of all, animals react in a manner which we would expect from a being in pain -- they scream, and they try to avoid the source of the pain. Second, all of the evidence we have regarding the nervous system of animals shows that their pain-sensing capacity is structurally similar to the pain-sensing portion of the nervous system in humans.

Having set up a philosophical basis for animal rights, Singer then examines current treatment of animals by humans, to see if violations of rights are involved.

Singer's approach has no sentimentalism about animals in it. He describes his disgust as meeting a woman who gushed "Don't you just love animals!" -- and then offered him a ham sandwich.

The book's discussion of factory farming of animals is particularly powerful. He describes how almost all of the chickens, pigs, and cattle that end up in a supermarket meat tray are subjected to squalid conditions of confinement that can be described as torture. Chickens are confined in cages too small even to lift a wing, and cages are stacked on top of each other so that the top chickens' feces fall on the ones below. To deal with the high death rates that result from these disgusting conditions, the animals are pumped full of high doses of antibiotics

A book that can change your life!
Animal Liberation is an extremely well written account regarding laboratory testing on animals and cruelty involved with factory farming. Singer writes about cruelty inflicted on animals in laboratory testing through the eyes of researchers and scientists who have been awoken morally to the reality of what they are doing to our fellow animals. He also writes a detailed account of the cruelty on modern factory farms and how the meat produced from these 'sanctuaries of pain' is becoming more rotten. A very strong case is made for becoming a vegetarian not only for moral reasons, but for environmental and health reasons as well. Animal Liberation is the most important work in the field of animal rights and moral equality for the other animals with which we share the earth. This book is a must read for anyone with a conscience (which for the world's sake should be every human). This is an inspirational work with the power to change your life and the way you perceive the world around us. I was a sceptic before reading thiis book, and almost put it down after the first 20 pages, but I am glad I did not.

The Reasons for Animal Liberation
I remember passing by a banner at my college that said "Why does your love for animals stop at dogs and cats?" a couple of months ago. Ever since I saw that banner, I've had a different way of looking at non-human animals. I decided to pick up this book a few days later and I can honestly say that my lifestyle and thinking has dramatically changed because of it.

Animal Liberation is a call to everyone to help stop, or at least drastically limit, the cruel mass-practices of animal testing and factory farming. Singer makes very persuasive arguements against both of the aforementioned practices and describes the punishment (many of it hard to even read about) animals have gone through simply to test our products (especially cosmetics) and fill our appetites.

The book is aptly titled Animal Liberation because animals need to be freed from man's dominance over them. I completely agree with Singer's path to "animal liberation" which consist of a change in mindset and a change in diet. One of the strongest arguements in the book is how Singer compares animals' condition to former practices of human bondage. We as humans seem to deem animals as inferior, means to our ends, and usable, just as masters viewed their captives. But animals cannot rise up and march peacefully in numbers, speak for their freedom, and take action. It is our ethical duty to grant them their rights as sentient (able to feel pain, fear, and other emotions) beings.

After reading Animal Liberation I was appalled. I really had no idea the situation was this bad. The book is an excellent read; it's arguements are clear, humane, and ultimately, right. I can gladly say that this book has changed my diet (vegetarian), lifestyle, and outlook on things nonhuman.

The bible of Animal Rights,and this from a former carnivore!
No matter what anyone thinks of Mr. Singers other philosophical opinions it is hard to refute the arguments in this book regarding the way in which we treat animals. Singer is so convincing that, although Utilitarian himself, he usually relies on more general well accepted ethical principles to justify his arguments.
To all the people who have read the book and disagree I ask this: Is there nothing wrong with me slowly toturing a cat if that is how I get my jollies? Of course the answer is Yes. It would take a cold heart indeed to say that torturing a cat is no worse than breaking a inanimate rock into two. So torturing a cat (or dog, or cow etc.) for fun is wrong, we can agree. Now, let us say that I don't like torturing the cat but I do like a certain noise the cat makes when I torture it. I can only make the cat make this noise when I torture it. And I'll even grant that I REALLY like this noise, it gives me a great deal of pleasure. Is it now OK for me to torture the cat to retrieve my desired noise. NO. Of course not. In fact most people would rightly say that this is just as bad as torturing the cat just to torture it. Next let's imagine that I can't bear to torture cats on my own but, I still want that noise! So, I pay a guy to torture the cat for me and then tape record the noise and deliver it to me. And since I get sick after one listening, I have him do this over and over again. Is this wrong? Of course. Common sense (and any reputable moral theory)says that it's just as bad as tortuing the cat in the first place. If you have agreed with the argument so far you wont be hard to persuade when you read Singer's great book for as he tells us, this process is exactly what we do to animals in order to eat them! We pay people to torture them (given the macroeconomic scale in which they must be produced, extremely torturous enviroments are inevitable) and then deliver the "food" to us. It's just wrong. And to those people who say that "since they can't be moral themselves why should we treat them morally?" I ask, "would it be alright to torture babies or severly mentally retarded people?" Both these groups can not engage morally but both would be wrong to make suffer.
---These are the kind of revelations that occur page by page in Animal Liberation. If you are a devout carnivore, as I was, I promise that after reading this book you will realize that there are still more important things in the world then the momentarlily satisfactions of the palate. Read it!

a most important read
This book changed my life ... Read more

Book Description

Wendy Cook's fascination with nutrition began during her war-time childhood. In the midst of deprivation and food-rationing, the rich abundance of her mother's organic garden made a profound impression. In her twenties, married to Peter Cook, she discovered the artistic and magical effects that food could have in creating a convivial atmosphere. During this period she cooked for many well-known names, including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Dudley Moore, Peter Ustinov and Allan Bennett. But it was only later, through her daughter falling ill, that she came to study and understand deeper aspects of nutrition, and in particular the effects of different foods on human health and consciousness.

In Foodwise Wendy Cook presents a remarkable cornucopia of challenging ideas, advice and commentary, informed by the seminal work of the scientist Rudolf Steiner. She begins the volume with biographical glimpses relating to her experience of food and how it has influenced her life. She then presents an extraordinary perspective on the journey of human evolution, relating it to changes in consciousness and the consumption of different foods. In the following section she considers the importance of agricultural methods, the nature of the human being, the significance of grasses and grains, the mystery of human digestion, and the question of vegetarianism. In the next section she analyses the 'building blocks' of nutrition, looking in some detail at the nutritional (or otherwise) qualities of many foodstuffs, including carbohydrates, minerals, fats and oils, milk and dairy products, herbs and spices, salt and sweeteners, stimulants, legumes, the nightshade family, bread, water, and dietary supplements. She ends with practical tips on cooking, planning menus, children's food, sharing meals, and some mouth-watering recipes.

Foodwise presents a treasure of wisdom and experience for anybody with a concern for the content of the food they eat or a desire to discover more about the physical, soul and spiritual aspects of nutrition. ... Read more

Book Description

The Animal Ethics Reader is the first comprehensive, state-of-the-art anthology of readings on this substantial area of study and interest. A subject that regularly captures the headlines, the book is designed to appeal to anyone interested tracing the history of the subject, as well as providing a powerful insight into the debate as it has developed. The recent wealth of material published in this area has not, until now, been collected in one volume. Readings are arranged thematically, carefully presenting a balanced representation of the subject as it stands. It will be essential reading for students taking a course in the subject as well as being of considerable interest to the general reader.

Articles are arranged under the following headings: Theories of Animal Ethics; Animal Capacities; Animals for Food; Animal Experimentation; Genetic Engineering of Animals; Ethics and Wildlife; Zoos, Aquaria, and Animals in Entertainment; Companion Animals; Legal Rights for Animals.

Readings from leading experts in the field including Peter Singer, Mary Midgely and Bernard Rollin are featured as well as selections from Donald Griffin, Mark Bekoff,Jane Goodall, Raymond Frey, Barbara Orlans, Tom Regan, and Baird Callicott. There is an emphasis on balancing classic and contemporary readings with a view to presenting debates as they stand at this point in time.

Each chapter is introduced by the editors and study questions feature at the end. The foreword has been written by Bernard Rollin. ... Read more