Animalkind

October 7, 2019
This earnest volume from Newkirk, cofounder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Stone (Eat for the Planet, coauthor) is a fascinating look at animal behavior, as well as a treatise against cruelty toward animals. Divided into two halves, it begins by focusing on “who animals are—their many talents, languages, and complex cultures.” Ants, for example, have strong collective instincts; each has “a specific role within a group, and each group has a distinct purpose.” The coauthors also discuss how birds navigate and hone a sense of direction that would “put even the most deft human explorers to shame.” The second half focuses on how humans can improve animals’ lives—not least by abstaining from cruelty. Descriptions of the experiments done on animals including mice, rabbits, monkeys, and dogs in order “to study toxic chemicals, drugs, or diseases” get graphic quickly. As do discussions about animals “routinely killed and skinned for their fur” or crocodiles and alligators “slaughtered for leather.” Newkirk and Stone’s informative survey effectively nudges readers to think twice about their own use of products sourced, perhaps less than ethically, from the animal kingdom.

October 15, 2019
The founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals emphasizes the importance of having "love, understanding, and respect for all animals." Newkirk (One Can Make a Difference, 2008, etc.) and Stone (The Trump Survival Guide, 2017, etc.) aim to celebrate nonhuman species and to argue against using them for scientific and medical research, clothing, entertainment, and food. Among animals' "many talents, languages, and complex cultures," the authors reveal astonishing facts about sea and air migration; communication among frogs, primates, and birds; cognitive abilities; courtship and fidelity; grief and mourning; animal empathy; and various forms of play. They highlight the variety and sophistication of animal intelligence, such as the Brazilian torrent frog's intricate forms of tactile, vocal, and visual communications. The authors underscore animals' capacity for emotion: Prairie vole parents, for example, stay together for life; animals who live in closely knit groups--such as gorillas and elephants--exhibit ritualistic behavior when a family member dies. "Animals love," write the authors. "They grieve. They feel emotional pain. They worry. And they can anticipate pain." After a wide-ranging and enlightening overview of animal wonders, the authors devote several chapters to campaigning against cruelty and exploitation. They point out that animal testing is an "extremely wasteful" method of finding treatments for human diseases, and they cite several noninvasive methods--e.g., experiments on stem cells, 3D-printed organoids, computer simulations, and bioinformatics--that are effective research methods. Not surprisingly, the authors argue against wearing clothing with fur or leather, claiming that much leather imported from China comes from "the hides of domestic dogs." They also describe in horrifying detail the injuries to sheep in the shearing process, advocating for a number of plant-based and synthetic alternatives to wool. Similarly, they advocate "a whole-food, low-oil vegan diet" of plant-based substitutes for meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. As for entertainment, the authors suggest, not convincingly, that virtual reality and "lifelike animatronics" can substitute for seeing a real animal. An impassioned plea for preserving animals' lives.

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December 1, 2019
Newkirk, founder of PETA, teams up with writer Stone to present exciting new findings about the lives of the animals with whom we share our planet. As they state, the goal is not merely to question a hierarchy of animal superiority but to show that, though animals often do things differently from humans, we can and should honor those differences. Newkirk and Stone examine four aspects of behavior?navigation, communication, love, and play?and offer tales about navigating by the stars or Earth's magnetic field, songbirds waiting to take turns to sing, dairy cattle hiding their calves to keep them from being taken away, and crows using plastic lids to snowboard on roofs. They also delve into how humans exploit animals for scientific research, clothing, entertainment, and food and how to avoid this exploitation so that we can advance our interests without abusing animals. Each chapter ends with a "What You Can Do" section full of practical actions and advice, with an emphasis on the vegan ethos. Every reader will find a lot to learn here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2019

Founder and PETA president Newkirk and best-selling author Stone join forces to reveal remarkable insights into the emotions and abilities of animals, from mice that sing underwater to elephants that mourn loved ones. They also highlight the ways humans are learning to avoid using and abusing animals. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.