Buffalo Jake
by Joe Trojan

A scientist discovers a panda paw print language. He translates a story describing a species that almost drove all animals into extinction long ago. The animals lead a heroic crusade to restore the web of life before it's too late.

back to top ^

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.

back to top ^

Intimate Nature
The Bond Between Women and Animals

by Barbara Peterson (Author), Brenda Peterson (Author), Deena Metzger (Author)

From Library Journal
This book brings together stories, poems, essays, and meditations by the editors and more than 70 other prominent female nature writers and field scientists, including Gretel Ehrlich, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Terry Tempest Williams, to show how women are reestablishing their relationship with animals on a basis of respect and empathy. Wildlife researchers like Jane Goodall or Cynthia Moss integrate compassion and intuition with the data they report. Native American women explore the wisdom of tribal elders for lessons on sharing the earth with animals. Women who have nurtured or trained individual animals recount, sometimes humorously, how they learned to communicate across the species barrier. All the contributors celebrate animals as our peers on this planet; many also warn against the loneliness and silence of the wasteland we are creating as we push ever more species to the brink of extinction. This collection should appeal to young adults as well as general adult readers. Recommended for academic and public libraries.?Joan S. Elbers, formerly Montgomery Coll., Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
 

back to top ^

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)
 

back to top ^

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
 

back to top ^

Why Birds Sing
A Journey Through the Mystery of Bird Song
by David Rothenberg (Author)

From Booklist
The question of why birds sing has kept humans entranced for millennia. Most scientists would answer that birds sing to claim territories and to attract mates. But why is so much of birdsong beautiful? In a unique approach to the study of birdsong, jazz musician and philosopher Rothenberg attacks this question through the medium of music. When a musician friend invited him to come and play music with the birds at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Rothenberg's music attracted a white-crested laughing thrush. The bird began to sing along with the author's clarinet and to actually improvise as he improvised. This interaction led to a journey, both intellectual and physical, as Rothenberg investigated birdsong. Mixed throughout the narrative is the author's sheer joy at the musicality of birds' songs, illustrated with musical notations made by both the author and previous researchers. This lovely amalgam of science and music will appeal to both left- and right-brained readers. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
 

back to top ^