BOOKS: Good Dog. Stay.

November 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

Good Dog. Stay.
by Anna Quindlen
Random House (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2007. 82
pages, hardcover, illustrated. $14.85.

Probably every reader who has ever had and lost a beloved dog
will love Good Dog. Stay. The book is an expansion of one of Anna
Quindlen’s most popular Newsweek columns, memorializing her Labrador
retriever Beau, who grew up with her children and lived to the age
of 15.
Most readers will be people who have loved dogs, and by way
of intensifying reader identification with Quindlen’s thoughts, the
book designers have extensively illustrated the book with photographs
of dogs of many different breeds. Whatever kind of dog a reader has
had is likely to be represented.

BOOKS: How To Raise Chickens

October 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

How To Raise Chickens
by Christine Heinrichs

How To Raise Cattle
by Philip Hasheider

How To Raise Horses
by Daniel & Samantha Johnson

Voyageur Press (Galtier Plaza, Suite 200, 380 Jackson St., St.
Paul, MN 55101), 2007. 192 pages each, paperback, illustrated.
$19.95 each.

The utilitarian titles and the Future Farmers of America logo
on the covers of How To Raise Chickens, How To Raise Cattle, and
How To Raise Horses conceal and camouflage a wealth of indications
inside about how profoundly animal advocacy is beginning to influence
animal agriculture.
Much of the standard advice about animal care, housing, and
equipment is little different from the advice offered by similar
volumes for generations. Yet almost every page of How To Raise
Chickens and How To Raise Cattle adds concessions, qualifications,
and arguments in response to the challenges presented by animal
advocates.

BOOKS: Thought to Exist In The Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos

October 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

Thought to Exist In The Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos
by Derrick Jensen, with photos by Karen Tweedy-Holmes
No Voice Unheard (P.O. Box 4171, Santa Cruz, CA 95063), 2007. 143 pages, paperback. $19.95.

Hallmarks of hate literature are that it draws a distinction between us and them, asserts that all of them are like the worst of them, and concludes that none of them should be tolerated.
Many an insightful critique of zoos has appeared in recent decades, but Thought to Exist In The Wild is not among them. Thought to Exist In The Wild is essentially hate literature. Author Derrick Jensen hates zoos, all zoos. Acknowledging little significant difference among zoos, Jensen traces the origins of modern zoos to Roman spectacles, likens zoos to pornography, and argues that zoos exist chiefly to celebrate the human conquest of nature.
Roman spectacles certainly had parallels, on a much smaller scale, in the baiting and other animal torture that made the Tower Menagerie notorious for many of the 600 years that it existed in London as the most prominent proto-zoo in Europe. In 1832 the Tower Menagerie animal collection was transferred to the newly opened London Zoo. The London Zoo, populated by rare species from British colonies, was more-or-less ancestral to most major zoos today.

September 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

Get Political for Animals and win the laws they need
by Julie E. Lewin
National Institute for Animal Advocacy
(6 Long Hill Farm, Guilford, CT 06437), 2007.
276 pages, paperback. $29.00.

“Becoming a power player in the lawmaking
arena requires learning to think and function as
a lawmaker does–politically and
strategically–with the arithmetic of elections
foremost,” Julie Lewin emphasizes in Get
Political for Animals. “Ignorance of political
dynamics leads to repeated, avoidable failures
–and to thinking small.
“When voting on legislation,” Lewin
elaborates, “a lawmaker cares only about his
constituents who vote. He doesn’t care about his
constituents who don’t vote or what the broader
public thinks. Hearing from advocates who live
outside his district wastes his time, which he
doesn’t appreciate. It also shows him we’re
politically naïve.

BOOKS: Chosen By A Horse: How a broken horse fixed a broken heart

July 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

Chosen By A Horse:
How a broken horse fixed a broken heart
by Susan Richards
Harvest Books
(c/o Harcourt Inc., 15 E. 26th St., New York, NY 10010), 2007.
248 pages, paperback. $13.00.

Never before interested in adopting sick or injured animals,
Susan surprised herself by responding to an appeal for help from her
local SPCA.
Having lost her mother at a very early age, moving from one
unhappy relative to yet another one during her childhood, and having
then endured an abusive marriage, Susan was too concerned with her
own problems to take care of sick or abused animals.
The SPCA had confiscated 40 horses, all starving and in poor
health. Among them was Lay Me Down, an ex-racing mare who, after a
few defeats, had been used for breeding. Susan chose to adopt her,
along with her frisky foal, for no better reason than that she was
the only horse willing to walk up the ramp and go into the trailer
for Susan, with her foal at her side.

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BOOKS: Animal Laws of India

July 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

Animal Laws of India
edited by Maneka Gandhi, Ozair Husain, & Raj Panjwani
Third Edition
Universal Law Publishing Co. (c/o <sales@unilawbooks.com> or
<www.unilawbooks.com>), 2006.
1,236 pages, hardcover. 995 rupees (about $22.00) plus shipping.

Indian animal advocates often claim that India has the laws
most favorable to animals of any nation, and the most favorable
courts at the upper appellate levels.
Thus Indian animal advocacy tends to emphasize improving
enforcement and trying to move as expeditiously as possible through
often incompetent and corrupt local courts to reach the upper levels.
This distinctly contrasts with the emphasis of activism in the U.S.,
where seeking passage of new laws generates many times as many
appeals and e-mails as seeking enforcement–although activity on
behalf of stronger humane law enforcement has increased exponentially
since the advent of Alison Gianotto’s enforcement-oriented web site
<www.Pet-Abuse.com>.

BOOKS: Animal Welfare In Islam

July 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

Animal Welfare In Islam
by Al-Hafiz Basheer Ahmad Masri
The Islamic Foundation & Compassion In World Farming, 2007.
(The Islamic Foundation: Markfield Conf. Centre,
Ratby Lane, Markfield, Leiscestershire, LE67
9SY, U.K.; <www.islamic-foundation.org.uk>;
CIWF: 5-A Charles St., Petersfield, Hampshire
GU32 3EH, U.K.; <www.ciwf.org.uk/>.)
164 pages, paperback £9.95, hardback £15.95.

Animal Welfare In Islam is an updated and
corrected edition of Islamic Concern for Animals,
originally issued in 1987 by the Athene Trust,
the original name of Compassion In World Farming.
Considered the definitive work so far on the
obligations that religious Muslims should observe
toward animals, the first edition included both
English and Arabic texts. The new edition is
only in English.

BOOKS: Schaller & Bekoff

July 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

A Naturalist & Other Beasts: Tales From A Life In The Field
by George B. Schaller
Sierra Club Books (85 2nd St., San Francisco, CA 94105), 2007.
272 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

The Emotional Lives of Animals
by Marc Bekoff
New World Library (14 Pamaron Way, Novato, CA 94949), 2007.
214 pages, hardcover. $23.95.

“I was fortunate to have been part of the golden age of
wildlife studies, from the 1950s to the end of the 20th century,
when many large mammals–even such familiar and spectacular ones as
the elephant and jaguar–for the first time became the focus of
intensive research,” writes George Schaller.
Schaller also had the good fortune to be hired in 1956 as a
field biologist for the New York Zoological Society, and to work his
way up as it grew into the Wildlife Conservation Society, for which
he is now vice president and director of field operations.

BOOKS: Where The Blind Horse Sings

June 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

Where The Blind Horse Sings by Kathy Stevens
Skyhorse Publishing (555 Eighth Ave., Suite 903,
New York, NY 10018), 2007.208 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

What, if anything, do most of us know about the
personalities of the animals raised for slaughter?
Pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens are not colorless,
characterless creatures, emphasizes Catskill Animal Sanctuary
founder Kathy Stevens. Rambo, for example, is a sheep whose
intelligence and communication skills are an inspiration to all who
work with him.

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