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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
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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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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.
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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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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.
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Earth
Ethics Institute •
An Earth Literacy Resource Center Serving MDC Administrators, Faculty,
Staff, and Students, as well as the South Florida Community
Miami Dade College
• 300 N.E. 2nd Avenue, Room 1201,
Miami, FL 33132-2204
• t: 305-237-3796
• f: 305-237-7724 |