BOOKS: Chasing Doctor Doolittle: Learning the Language of Animals

January 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

Chasing Doctor Doolittle: Learning the Language of Animals by Con Slobodchikoff. Ph.D. St. Martin’s Press (c/o MacMillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010), 2012. 308 pages, hardcover, $25.99.

“My parents left Russia around the time of the Communist Revolution, and made the trek across Siberia to live in exile in China,” opens Con Slobodchikoff. “I was born in Shanghai…Then my family moved to the U.S. and I was enrolled in school in San Francisco.”

Slobodchikoff at age five slowly learned his third of three languages that have not even an alphabet in common, while his teachers presumed that he was stupid, disobedient, or afflicted with a speech impediment. Read more

Reviews

BOOKS: Snow Leopard: Stories from the Roof of the World

January 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

Snow Leopard: Stories from the Roof of the World Edited by Don Hunter Univ. Press of Colorado (5589 Arapahoe Ave., Suite 206-C, Boulder, CO 80303), 2012. 216 pages. Hardcover $26.95, e-book $21.95.

Don Hunter, who assembled Snow Leopard: Stories from the Roof of the World, acknowledges inspiration and help in arranging publication from wildlife ethologist Marc Bekoff, co-editor of the 2008 anthology Listening to Cougar. Like Listening to Cougar, Hunter’s anthology collects first-person recollections of encounters with a seldom-seen big cat–but, while thousands of people per year catch at least fleeting glimpses of a puma, mere dozens see snow leopards. Read more

BOOKS: All My Patients Kick & Bite

January 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

All My Patients Kick & Bite: Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice by Jeff Wells, DVM St. Martin’s Griffin (175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010), 2012. 246 pages, paperback. $14.99.

Rural Colorado veterinarian Jeff Wells in All My Patients Kick & Bite follows up his 2009 hit All My Patients Have Tales, which was also subtitled “Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice.” Chiefly treating livestock, especially sheep and horses, Wells is among many vets aspiring to reprise the success of British veterinarian James Alfred Wright (1916-1995), who began his practice in 1940, and published the first of his 14 books written as “James Herriot” in 1970. Read more

BOOKS | The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives by Jessica Pierce Univ. of Chicago Press (1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637), 2012. 263 pages, hardcover. $26.00.

Colorado bioethicist Jessica Pierce in The Last Walk alternates between detailing the last year in the life of her dog Odysseus, Ody for short, and examining the larger moral, philosophical, and practical issues raised by the aging and death of pets–for society and culture, for herself, and for her family, especially her early-teen daughter Sage. Read more

BOOKS | Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity by Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Institute (1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 403, Washington, DC 20036), 2012. 141 pages, paperback. $15.00.

Publicity materials for Full Planet, Empty Plates credit Lester R. Brown with producing more than 50 books, including the annual Worldwatch reports he edited for 30 years as founder of the Worldwatch Institute. Leaving in 2001, Brown formed the Earth Policy Institute to continue amassing and evaluating economic data that helps to predict environmental trends. Read more

BOOKS: Food Security & Farm Animal Welfare

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

Food Security & Farm Animal Welfare by Sofia Parente [WSPA] and Heleen van de Weerd [CIWF] • Free 20-page download from wspa-international.org/farming or ciwf.org/foodsecurity • Based on The Impact of Industrial Grain Fed Livestock Production on Food Security: an extended literature review .. by Karl-Heinz Erb, Andreas Mayer, Thomas Kastner, Kristine-Elena Sallet, and Helmut Haberl, Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna

Free 90-page download from: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/1818.htm

BOOKS | The Peaceable Forest: India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

The Peaceable Forest: India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals by Kosa Ely, illustrated by Anna Johansson Insight Editions (POB 3088, San Rafael, CA 94912), 2012. [Order c/o <http://peaceableforest.com/>.] 32 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $16.99.

Kosa Ely has in The Peaceable Forest: India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals recast into a story for very young children the parable of how the wandering sage Narada transformed the sadistic hunter Mrigari into an animal-loving vegetarian. Significant in Hare Krishna teachings as a demonstration that sinners can achieve personal redemption, this simplified version of the parable might help vegetarian parents to explain why their families do not eat meat. Read more

BOOKS: World Without Cats

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

World Without Cats by Bonham Richards iUniverse (order c/o www.worldwithoutcats.com), 2012. 315 pages, paperback. $19.95.

According to World Without Cats publicity materials, author Bonham Richards “has a doctorate in medical microbiology from UCLA and did postdoctoral research at the University of Washington.” He taught biology for 24 years at California State University, San Bernardino and the Univeristy of Southern California, and “now resides in Camarillo.” Read more

BOOKS: Can Animals Be Moral?

November 1, 2012 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

Can Animals Be Moral? by Mark Rowlands Oxford Univ. Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2012. 288 pages, hardcover. $29.95.

Responding to recent works by ethologists Marc Bekoff and Franz de Waal, who work from direct observation of animals, and have been accused of anthropomorphism for arguing that there are not distinctions but continuums between animal and human behavior, University of Miami philosophy professor Mark Rowlands ends his own discussion of real-life animals in his preface. Rowlands in gist seems to agree with Bekoff and de Waal, while finding fault with their approach. Read more

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