From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

Animal Ethics
by Robert Garner
Polity Press (230 Main St., Malden, MA 02148), 2005. 189 pp.,
paperback. $24.95.

University of Leicester political scientist Robert Garner
brings clarity of thought and a political perspective to bear upon
the complexities of moral arguments about animal rights.
Comparing and contrasting the views of moral philosophers,
including Peter Singer and Tom Regan, Garner tries like any good
politician to find a feasible compromise. His conclusions are
entirely predictable: we should prohibit the cruel excesses of
factory farming, but tolerate traditional farming and meat eating as
legitimate. We should subject animal experimentation to much closer
scrutiny of costs and benefits, but not ban it completely. We
should try to make hunting, circuses, and zoos less cruel, without
banning them.

Read more

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

Volunteer Management for Animal Care Organizations by Betsy McFarland
Humane Society Press (c/o Humane Society of the U.S., 2100 L Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20037), 2005. 120 pages, paperback. $15.95.

Volunteer Management for Animal Care Organizations opens with
the results of a Humane Society of the U.S. survey of humane
organization volunteer managers which found in late 2002 that
volunteers are considered twice as helpful, on average, as boards
of directors.
Author Betsy McFarland does not state the findings quite so
bluntly. She adds a disclaimer that the survey was not “a
representative sample.” With 289 respondents, proportional
weighting could have made the sample as representative as any–and
perhaps it already is.
Worth a mention might have been that boards almost always serve on a
voluntary basis. In effect, they are volunteers who supervise the
paid staff, opposite to the role of paid staff in supervising
volunteers.

Read more

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

The Master’s Cat: The Story of Charles Dickens as told by his Cat
by Eleanor Poe Barlow
Dickens Publishing (Dickens House, 48 Doughty Street, London, WC1N
2FL), 1998.
132 pages. $16.95/paperback, $24.00 hardcover.

Charles Dickens’ fictionalized exposes of social ills in 19th
century England led to a raft of social, legal, and educational
reforms, and inspired the rise of liberal thinking.
Dickens was very fond of his cat and several dogs, with whom
he used to take long walks in the countryside almost every day.
Dickens was also instrumental in enabling Mary Tealby to make a
success of Dogs Home Battersea. But before society could evolve
toward more caring treatment of animals, it had to create a culture
of caring for humans. It had to abolish slavery, emancipate women,
and invent a social safety net to help the unfortunate. No one did
more than Dickens to achieve those goals.

Read more