The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings

by Linda Kalof (Editor), Amy J. Fitzgerald (Editor)

The study of animals - and the relationship between humans and other animals - is now one of the most fiercely debated topics in contemporary science and culture. Animals have a long history in human society, providing food, labour, sport and companionship as well as becoming objects for exhibit. More contemporary uses extend to animals as therapy and in scientific testing. As natural habitats continue to be destroyed, the rights of animals to co-exist on the planet - and their symbolic power as a connection between humans and the natural world - are ever more hotly contested. The Animals Reader brings together the key classic and contemporary writings from Philosophy, Ethics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Environmental Studies, History, Law and Science. As the first book of its kind, The Animals Reader provides a framework for understanding the current state of the multidisciplinary field of animal studies. This anthology will be invaluable for students across the Humanities and Social Sciences as well as for general readers.

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[amyleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The excerpts chosen here felt quite dated, even though some were classic and canonical Animal Studies texts, which I guess makes sense since it was published in 2007. I also found the excerpts chosen weren't really even reflective of the theorists' larger works, in some cases (Donna Haraway's excerpt was so tangential to the vital and engaging parts of her thinking). My frustrations with this largely came with feeling unmoored in extracts...

[Rev. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right off the bat, I only read about 30% of the essays in this book. I didn't buy it for a class, which I feel is probably where most people would come into contact with this. I got this for some on-going research that I am doing concerning the treatment of animals and the the proclivity of humans towards violence against their own species. I didn't find very much to aid me in this pursuit. Most of the essays in this are of the stomach-turningly academic type, and Mark Bekoff particularly gives me the heebie-jeebies. I believe quite firmly in animals' rights to comfort and safety. I am a vegetarian and regularly support animal charities, fostering and adopting animals that would either languish in shelters or be put down. However, claiming that you try to be a "dogcentrist" or "dogcentric" when you examine dogs, is academic nonsense. We, as human beings, divided by millions of years of evolution, cannot know what a dog is feeling with any kind of certainty. We project and, I would say, are often mistaken in our thoughts on the subject. Again, there isn't any good way to know. Rather than engage in pointless discussions about philosophical differences, why not try to save more animals from something we can safely say that they understand: suffering.

[Ike Sharpless · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm using this as a 'secondary' reader for the animal studies class I teach...I like it less than the Animal Ethics Reader because it's considerably less balanced, but it has a lot of key works that are geared more towards the critical animal studies end of the spectrum which are useful to provide, even if I personally think they need a good deal of parsing.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good essays. Thought provoking