VegHead Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034545281X/qid=1135693378/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5176012-5918311?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 The Pig Who Sang to the Moon : The Emotional World of Farm Animals Review from Amazon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial Reviews From Publishers WeeklyThe horrors have been pointed out before-that factory farm chickens are genetically altered, debeaked without anesthesia, and crammed into overcrowded coops; that calves are separated from their mothers and kept in dark crates to become veal. Here Masson (Dogs Never Lie About Love) makes the case that the animals humans eat on a regular basis-pigs, chickens, sheep, cows and ducks-feel, think and suffer. Each animal gets a chapter, in which Masson interweaves folklore, science and literature (he quotes Darwin, Gandhi and the Bible) with his observations of the animals' behaviors. He relates how a pot-bellied pig saved the life of her keeper and visits Dr. Marthe Kiley-Worthington, of Little Ash Eco-Farm in England, whose cow does agility tricks; he also interviews those who raise animals for profit. But there is no subtlety in his sometimes nauseatingly Edenic anecdotes: abused animals always come around and we live happily ever after. The text is pocked with far-fetched hypotheses (e.g., "A woman coming across a young lamb in ancient times might well have nursed the lamb" to explain the domestication of sheep). Arguing that all farming of animals for food is wrong (even eggs), Masson rebuts the fallacy that farm animals would die out without us, but doesn't say how we are to make the transition. His peripatetic style lacks transitions, for example going from cock fighting, which gets only one paragraph, to meditations on why roosters crow at dawn. Despite the holes in his preachy argument, his narrative contains some solid, fascinating information on the emotional life of farm animals. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrispyQ Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I will definitely look for this book at my library. If they don't have it, I will buy it. It sounds wonderful! Thanks for the recommendation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaSiren Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I have this book (for about 6 months) and still haven't found a moment to read it. But it looks incredibly good. *wishing there were more hours in the day* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrispyQ Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 I ordered this book & his other one, "When Elephants Weep." VegHed, have you read either of these books? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrispyQ Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 I bought this book & his previous book "When Elephants Weep" I started Elephants last night & I have to say I laughed so hard I cried when I read his account of encountering a wild elephant in Africa. He was so certain the elephant wanted to meet him too, that he approached him. The elephant snorted & scratched at the ground a few times in warning, but the author didn't heed the message & approached closer. The elephant snorted again & then charged him. It was a very serious situation -- he was damned near trampled! -- but it was still so funny. He was incredibly fortunate that he stumbled & fell in some very tall grass & the elephant couldn't see him. He made an excellent point of how we frequently attach human emotions & feelings to animals behavior that are completely wrong. Not saying that animals do not have emotions & feelings -- that is entirely the point of his book, that they DO -- but that we can't guess what those feelings are based on OUR context. I look forward to the rest of this book & The Pig Who Sang to the Moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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