Category: Reviews

Three by Joseph Cornell

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Sharing Nature With Children (1979) 138 pages, $7.95 paperback.
Listening To Nature (1987) 95 pages, $12.95 paperback.
Sharing the Joy of Nature (1989) 166 pages, $9.95 paperback.
All from Dawn Publications
(14618 Tyler Foote Road, Nevada City, CA 95959.)
As revered scoutmaster to the
New Age, Joseph Cornell has sold more
than 300,000 copies of Sharing Nature With
Children over the past 15 years, plus more
than 60,000 copies of the companion vol-
ume for adults, Listening to Nature, since
1987. Any notion that Cornell’s third
touchy-feely nature how-to may be titled to
remind customers of The Joy of Sex is offset
by his ever-so-sincere account of taking a
young lady camping, who forgot her sleep-
ing bag. Cornell gallantly lent her his own
sleeping bag, and slept in two plastic
garbage sacks instead: one over his feet and
legs, the other over his torso, presumably
with a hole for his head. The sacks came 10
inches short of actually meeting, but
Cornell doesn’t mention what was exposed
or if it got cold.

Read more

Book Reviews

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

CANINE CLASSICS
War Against The Wolf : America’s
Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf, edited by
Rick McIntyre. Voyageur Press
(POB 338, 123 N. 2nd St., Stillwater,
MN 55082), 1995. 495 pages; $24.95
cloth.
Between the grim subject and the
brick-like heft of War Against The Wolf,
we weren’t looking forward to the
read––but it was in the office less than an
hour when we first used it as a reference.
A compendium of news coverage and relat-
ed historical documents, it doesn’t exactly
include all the best writing about wolves or
all the most important details of recent pro-
wolf campaigns. Omitted, for instance,
are any mention of either Jack London,
Farley Mowat, or Friends of Animals,
respectively wolves’ leading image-makers
past and present and the leading organiza-
tion in the defense of Alaskan wolves.
Enough important stuff is included, how-
ever, to make War Against The Wolf a
worthy addition to wildlifelibraries.

Read more

BOOKS: When Elephants Weep

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

When
Elephants
Weep:
The Emotional
Lives of Animals
by Jeffrey M. Masson
and Susan McCarthy.
Delacorte Press
(1540 Broadway, New
York, NY 10036), 1995;
291 pages, cloth, $23.95.
If only animals d i d n ’ t have emo-
tions! It would be a great relief to many ani-
mal lovers to imagine that nonhumans lack
the capacity to experience fear, sorrow, and
grief, even at the expense of the more com-
fortable emotional states. It might be like liv-
ing among the Vulcans: no matter what we
might do to hurt them, we would receive only
an impassive and curious stare, if they
regarded us at all. But difficult as it may be to
empathize with suffering animals, it is even
harder to understand how some people could
deny that animals do suffer.

Read more

BOOKS: First Friends

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

First Friends
by Katherine M. Rogers
St. Martin’s Press
(175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
N.Y. 10010), 2005.
263 pages, paperback. $24.95.
The title is carefully chosen
for this history of the interaction of dogs
and humans. Note that it is “First
Friends‚” and not “Best Friends.”
Katherine M. Rogers, in this
erudite and sometimes repetitively thor-
ough treatise on the use and treatment of
dogs in English and classical literature,
deals in depth with the two extremes:
dog lovers and dog detesters.

Read more

BOOKS: Wild Dogs: past & present

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

Wild Dogs: past & present
by Kelly Milner Halls
Darby Creek Publishing
(7858 Industrial Parkway, Plain City, OH 43064),
2005. 64 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $18.95.
ddressing children, Kelly Milner Halls in W i l d
Dogs pleads for appreciation and tolerance of coyotes, dingoes,
dholes, foxes, wolves, and other wild canines. Often persecut-
ed as alleged predators of livestock, each in truth preys much
more heavily on rodents and other so-called nuisance wildlife.
Wild Dogs is overall a unique and fascinating look at
dogs and dog relatives who predate humanity. Tracing the evo-
lution of dogs, Milner Halls points out that each variety of liv-
ing wild dog is a remnant of the evolution of current domestic
pet dogs, and observes that contrary to stereotype, not all
primitive dogs are ferocious carnivores. Many routinely con-
sume some plant food. The mild-mannered maned wolf of
southern South America is especially fond of fruit.

Read more

BOOKS: Animals: Why They Must Not Be Brutalized

Leave a comment
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:
Animals:
Why They Must
Not Be Brutalized
by J.B. Suconik
Nuark Publishing (30 Amberwood
Parkway, Ashland, OH 44805),
2002. 160 pages, hard cover. $28.00
Suconik’s book is basically a
moral treatise against the arguments com-
monly used to support vivisection. Give us
the whole balance sheet, he implores vivi-
section apologists, not just an item from the
profit and loss account. Then we can accu-
rately determine the legitimacy of the whole
enterprise.

Read more

BOOKS: Meat Market: Animals, Ethics & Money

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

Meat Market:
Animals, Ethics & Money
by Erik Marcus
Brio Press (244 Blakeslee, Hill Road,
Suite 5, Newfield, NY 14867), 2005.
273 pages, hardcover. $21.95.
Erik Marcus writes crisply in this
book about the evils of factory farming. He
disposes of common misconceptions and
exaggerated arguments, frequently
employed both by industry apologists and
Animal Rights activists. His logic is clearly
expressed and his prose flows tightly. In
fact the book is so easy to read that it would
make an excellent text book for humane
education and animal law courses.
Marcus examines the transforma-
tion of animal agriculture since 1950 and
analyses the growth of factory farming at
the expense of small family-owned farms.
Aiming squarely at urban activists
who have no clear understanding of farming
methods, he introduces us to the life of a
layer hen, describing in harrowing detail
her tortured life. Then he does the same for
broiler chickens, pigs, dairy cows, and
beef cattle.

Read more

BOOKS: One Small Step: America’s First Primates in Space

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

One Small Step:
America’s First
Primates in Space
by David Cassidy
& Patrick Hughes
Penguin Group (375 Hudson Street,
New York, NY 10014), 2005.
135 pages, paperback
plus DVD documentary. $19.95.
One Small Step presents the history of the
early U.S. space program, focusing on the “chimpo-
nauts,” who preceded humans into orbit.
Then-U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower
had one question, according to David Cassidy and
Patrick Hughes: “If I put humans in space, are they
going to die? Will their hearts stop beating? Will
their blood stop flowing? Or will they be so sick that
they just can’t do anything?”
Video documentarian Cassidy’s investiga-
tion, turned into a book by Hughes, reveals not only
how many animals were sacrificed in the cause of
space exploration, but also how carefully their suffer-
ing was concealed from the public. Chimpanzees gri-
macing in agony were depicted by the Air Force-com-
pliant media as “smiling with enjoyment.”

Read more

1 … 82 83 84 85 86 … 95