Animals' best friends : putting compassion to work for animals in captivity and in the wild / Barbara J. King.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Description: 274 pages ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780226601489
- 022660148X
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 590 K52 | Available | 33111009803764 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 590 K52 | Available | 33111010502629 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"King's Animals' Best Friends is the most comprehensive exploration I've read of the complex relationship between the human and nonhuman, full of great insights and practical information."--Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review , "By the Book"
Finalist for the 2021 Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature
As people come to understand more about animals' inner lives--the intricacies of their thoughts and the emotions that are expressed every day by whales and cows, octopus and mice, even bees--we feel a growing compassion, a desire to better their lives. But how do we translate this compassion into helping other creatures, both those that are and are not our pets? Bringing together the latest science with heartfelt storytelling, Animals' Best Friends reveals the opportunities we have in everyday life to help animals in our homes, in the wild, in zoos, and in science labs, as well as those considered to be food.
Barbara J. King, an expert on animal cognition and emotion, guides us on a journey both animal and deeply human. We meet cows living relaxed lives in an animal sanctuary--and cows with plastic portals in their sides at a university research station. We observe bison free-roaming at Yellowstone National Park and chimpanzees confined to zoos. We learn with King how to negotiate vegetarian preferences in omnivore restaurants. We experience the touch of a giant Pacific octopus tasting King's skin with one of his long, neuron-rich arms. We reflect on animal testing as King shares her own experience as the survivor of a particularly nasty cancer. And in a moment all too familiar to many of us, we recover from a close encounter with two spiders in the home.
This is a book not of shaming and limitation, but of uplift and expansion. Throughout this journey, King makes no claims of personal perfection. Though an animal expert, she is just like the rest of us: on a journey still, learning each day how to be better, and do better, for animals. But as Animals' Best Friends makes clear, challenging choices can bring deep rewards. By turning compassion into action on behalf of animals, we not only improve animals' lives--we also immeasurably enrich our own.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Cultivating Compassionate Action -- Animals at Home -- Animals in the Wild -- Animals in the Zoo -- Animals on Our Plates -- Animals in Research Labs
"How do people who love animals translate that devotion into helping creatures who are not our pets? How do we express our care for animals when that means different things to omnivores and vegetarians-or, say, to hunters and non-hunters? Barbara J. King, a widely read expert on animal cognition and emotion, here guides readers through the difficult choices and deep rewards of turning empathy into action on behalf of animals. King discusses our relationship to animals in five different contexts: our homes, the wild, zoos, our food system, and research facilities such as biomedical laboratories. She offers a host of ways in which each of us can be better, and do better, for animals. Acting to improve animals' lives can, she shows, immeasurably enrich our own. True, there is also heartache and the risk of burnout from endlessness of animal rescue the dilemmas that attend it. But King's focus is on the joys. She describes the "happiness lift" that she herself has experienced joining with other activists on behalf of animals destined for slaughter or confined in sub-standard zoos-and in rescuing dozens of cats, some of whom we meet in this book. This is a book for anyone who cares for animals and wishes to do more for them, whether it's learning to live peaceably with spiders in the home or join with others to rescue our more dramatically endangered animal friends"-- Provided by publisher.