Empty Cages
Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights
by Tom Regan (Author), Jeffery Moussaieff Masson (Author)

From Publishers Weekly
According to this friendly but uncompromising manifesto, "being kind" and "avoiding cruelty" to animals is not enough. Regan proscribes instead a strict regime of "animal rights," forbidding any exploitation of animals whatsoever-for food, clothing, entertainment or even medical research of great benefit to humans. Regan, a leading philosopher in the animal rights movement, intends the book as a popular companion to his scholarly treatments of the subject. Animal rights activists are, he asserts, "Norman Rockwell Americans," not violent zealots, and while he describes a number of animal rights conversion experiences ("nothing else existed, just the elephant's gaze...looking through him"), his target audience is the unpersuaded "muddler" who needs step-by-step convincing to follow this path. He argues that all animals capable of caring about what happens to them-mammals, birds and (maybe) fish-are "subjects-of-a-life" and therefore on an equal moral footing with humans. The philosophical underpinnings of Regan's analysis are not overly rigorous, his treatment of counter arguments is sometimes impatient and exasperated, and his sentimentalization of animals ("our culture teaches us not to see hens like Penny and Sweet Pea as distinct individuals") can seem cloying. The real force of his appeal comes from his exposés of the heinous cruelty meted out to animals in factory farms, mink ranches, hunting preserves, dolphin shows (they're not having fun, they're desperate for fish) and research labs. Outrage sometimes gets the better of him ("is there no limit to the depths of betrayal to which we humans can sink?"), but many readers will experience equally visceral reactions.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
 

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One at a Time
A Week in an American Animal Shelter
by Diane Leigh, Marilee Geyer (Author)

Review
"Amazing, heartbreaking, tragic, loving, magical..." -- Sherman Alexie, director, poet, author of Ten Little Indians

One of the most beautiful books on animals ever produced... A magnificent work, and one that gets my highest recommendation. -- John Robbins, author of Diet for a New American and The Food Revolution

Presenting life and death in an animal shelter in unvarnished, uncompromising terms … an emotionally moving and profound piece. -- Midwest Book Review, December, 2003

Riveting, stilling, chilling and intensely motivating... shows clearly that each and every one of us can make a difference. -- Marc Bekoff, author of The Ten Trusts (with Jane Goodall)

This book has the potential to save millions of lives - if only we would open our hearts to its message. -- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats

You will be breathless from cover to cover. -- Jim Mason, author of Animal Factories (with Peter Singer)
 

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Thought to Exist in the Wild
Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos
by Derrick Jensen (Author), Karen Tweedy-Holmes (Photographer)

From Booklist
To counter most books being written about zoos that present zoos favorably, never questioning their very existence, activist Jenkins and photographer Karen Tweedy-Holmes produce their examination of what zoos are and what their effect is on their animal inmates and the human animals who observe them. Jensen writes in a deliberately polemical style, challenging the reader with language that is in turn sarcastic and poetic but always urgent and angry. A zoo is a nightmare taking shape in concrete and steel. Tweedy-Holmes' photos, in stark black and white, are views of animals in obvious incarceration--bars or mesh often obscure the view; cement-formed pools, rocks, ledges, or walls predominate; doors, walls, and buildings hint at unnatural enclosures; and the animals are all obviously captive. Captions give the species and where they are found in the wild, though not which zoo is illustrated (a photographer's note at the end lists them). A good choice for presenting the other side in the moral debate about zoos. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
 

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