BOOKS: The Master’s Cat & The Ugly Dachshund

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1998:

The Master’s Cat:
The Story of Charles Dickens
as told by his Cat
by Eleanor Poe Barlow
132 pages. $24.00 hardcover.

The Ugly Dachshund
by G.B. Stern
Illustrated by K.F. Barker
192 pages. $15.00, paperback.
Both from J.N. Townsend Publishing
(12 Greenleaf Drive, Exeter, NH 03833), 1998.

Charles Dickens spent the last 14 years of his life
with a small white cat as his constant companion. The cat
was reputedly deaf. At least in Eleanor Poe Barlow view of
Dickens’ later years, as allegedly written from the cat’s perspective,
this did not preclude her from hearing human
speech. Purported dialogue appears on almost every page,
including improbably long soliloquies.

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BOOKS: Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare
Edited by Marc Bekoff with Carron A. Meaney
Greenwood Publishing Group (POB 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007), 1998.
472 pages, hardcover, $59.95.

Extensive but incomplete, and
inherently unreliable due to partisan composition
and editing, the Encyclopedia of Animal
Rights and Animal Welfare purports be a single-source
backgrounder on major animal
protection issues. Compilers Marc Bekoff
and Carron A. Meaney erred, however, in
entrusting authorship of key entries to
employees of major advocacy organizations.
Their work was apparently not subjected to
well-informed nonpartisan scrutiny. Second
opinions are offered on only a handful of the
most obviously controversial topics, e.g. zoos
and biomedical research. The result is much
uncontested repetition of inaccurate dogma.

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BOOKS: Ethics Into Action

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

Ethics Into Action:
Henry Spira and the
Animal Rights Movement
by Peter Singer
Bowman & Littlefield, Publishers
(4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706), 1998. 192 pages, hardcover,
$22.95.

We hope Ethics Into Action, Peter
Singer’s revealing and inspiring biography of
Animal Rights International founder Henry
Spira, shall become as influential over the next
25 years as Singer’s 1973 opus Animal
Liberation has over the past 25: as a blueprint
for action on behalf of animals, this time exemplified
as well as theorized.

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BOOKS: The Human Use of Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

The Human Use of Animals:
Case Studies in Ethical Choice
by F. Barbara Orlans, Tom L. Beauchamp, Rebecca
Dresser, David B. Morton, and John P. Gluck
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016), 1998. Paperback, 330 pages, $26.50.

“The following,” Orlans et al pronounce
on page 5 of The Human Use of
Animals, “are universal precepts, stated in
the form of obligations, that all morally
serious persons in all moral traditions
accept: tell the truth, respect the privacy of
others, protect confidential information,
obtain consent before invading another person’s
body, do not kill, do not cause pain,
do not incapacitate, do not deprive of goods,
protect and defend the rights of others, and
prevent harm from occurring to others.”

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BOOKS: Project Puffin

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

Project Puffin:
How We Brought Puffins
Back to Egg Rock
by Stephen W. Kress
as told to Pete Salmansohn
40 pages, hardcover, $16.95.

Giving Back To The Earth:
A Teacher’s Guide for Project Puffin
and Other Seabird Studies
by Pete Salmansohn and Stephen W. Kress
70 pages, paperback, $7.95.
Both from Tilbury House
(132 Water St., Gardiner, ME 04345), 1997.

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BOOKS: Red Tails In Love

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Red Tails In Love:
A Wildlife Drama
in Central Park
by Marie Winn
Pantheon Books, 1998
305 pages. $24.00, hardcover.

Covering a span of about five
years, Red Tails In Love explores the lives
of two communities within Central Park.
The hawks as part of the greater wildlife
community are avidly monitored by another
community, the birdwatching Regulars.
Written as a play, in acts and scenes, the
book weaves their stories.

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BOOKS: Horse, Follow Closely

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Horse, Follow Closely: Native American Horsemanship
by GaWaNi Pony Boy, with photographs by Gabrielle Boiselle
Bowtie Press (c/o Fancy Publications, 3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618), 1998. Hardcover, 144 pages. $39.95.

Horse, Follow Closely: Native
American Horsemanship is sure to become a
best-seller among horse owners––novice horse
owners, that is. It is primarily a photographic
showcase for the author, GaWaNi Pony Boy,
with his horses replete in Native American
dress and paint. Seasoned equestrians, critical
readers and maybe even a few historians will
be concerned by the lack of sound content.

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BOOKS: For Children

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Crossing Paths:
Uncommon Encounters with
Animals in the Wild
by Craig Childs
Sasquatch Books (615 2nd Ave.,
Suite 260, Seattle, WA 98104), 1997.
Paperback, 256 pages. $14.95.

According to the publisher, Craig
Childs “camps in the back country at least
nine months of the year, usually living in
the back of his truck, out of a river vessel of
some sort, or from his backpack. He hasn’t
had a phone in seven years.”

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REVIEWS: Thunder of the Mustangs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Thunder of the
Mustangs:
Legend and Lore
of the Wild Horses
Edited by Mark Sprag
Sierra Club Books
(85 2nd St., San Francisco, CA 94105),
1997. 120 pages, 75 color photos.
$30.00 hardbound.
Wild horse enthusiasts will be drawn
to this book by breathtaking color photographs
taken by some of the most prominent wildlife
photographers alive. The very essence of wild
horses––their autonomy, self-containment,
and fear––is made manifest by the talent of
John Running, Charles and Rita Summers,
Phil Schofield and others.

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