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Save the Animals: 101 Easy Things You Can Do
Documents the inhumane treatment of animals in our society, advises consumers on how to buy products that weren't produced at the cost of animal suffering, and includes suggestions on community action
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Ingrid Newkirk
43 books57 followersIngrid E. Newkirk is a British animal rights activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. She is the author of several books, including Making Kind Choices (2005) and The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble (2009). Newkirk has worked for the animal-protection movement since 1972. Under her leadership in the 1970s as the District of Columbia's first female poundmaster, legislation was passed to create the first spay/neuter clinic in Washington, D.C., as well as an adoption program and the public funding of veterinary services, leading her to be among those chosen in 1980 as Washingtonians of the Year.
Newkirk founded PETA in March 1980 with fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco. They came to public attention in 1981, during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Pacheco photographed 17 macaque monkeys being experimented on inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case led to the first police raid in the United States on an animal research laboratory and to an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act. Since then, Newkirk has led campaigns to stop the use of animals in crash tests, convinced companies to stop testing cosmetics on animals, pressed for higher welfare standards from the meat industry, and organized undercover investigations that have led to government sanctions against companies, universities, and entertainers who use animals. She is known, in particular, for the media stunts that she organizes to draw attention to animal-protection issues. In her will, for example, she has asked that her skin be turned into wallets, her feet into umbrella stands, and her flesh into "Newkirk Nuggets", then grilled on a barbecue. "We are complete press sluts", she told The New Yorker in 2003: "It is our obligation. We would be worthless if we were just polite and didn't make any waves."
Although PETA takes a gradualist approach to improving animal welfare, Newkirk remains committed to ending animal use and the idea that, as PETA's slogan says, "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment". Some animal rights abolitionists, most notably Gary Francione, have criticized PETA, calling it and other groups "the new welfarists". Some members of the animal advocacy movement have responded that Francione's position is unnecessarily divisive. Newkirk has also been criticized for her support of actions carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front. Newkirk's position is that the animal rights movement is a revolutionary one and that "[t]hinkers may prepare revolutions, but bandits must carry them out". PETA itself, however, "maintains a creed of nonviolence and does not advocate actions in which anyone, human or nonhuman, is injured". Newkirk and PETA have also been criticized for euthanizing many of the animals taken into PETA's shelters, including healthy pets, and opposition to the whole notion of pets, and her position that "There's no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy," as well as seemingly seeing eradication as a goal. PETA has responded to this line of criticism.
Newkirk founded PETA in March 1980 with fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco. They came to public attention in 1981, during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Pacheco photographed 17 macaque monkeys being experimented on inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case led to the first police raid in the United States on an animal research laboratory and to an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act. Since then, Newkirk has led campaigns to stop the use of animals in crash tests, convinced companies to stop testing cosmetics on animals, pressed for higher welfare standards from the meat industry, and organized undercover investigations that have led to government sanctions against companies, universities, and entertainers who use animals. She is known, in particular, for the media stunts that she organizes to draw attention to animal-protection issues. In her will, for example, she has asked that her skin be turned into wallets, her feet into umbrella stands, and her flesh into "Newkirk Nuggets", then grilled on a barbecue. "We are complete press sluts", she told The New Yorker in 2003: "It is our obligation. We would be worthless if we were just polite and didn't make any waves."
Although PETA takes a gradualist approach to improving animal welfare, Newkirk remains committed to ending animal use and the idea that, as PETA's slogan says, "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment". Some animal rights abolitionists, most notably Gary Francione, have criticized PETA, calling it and other groups "the new welfarists". Some members of the animal advocacy movement have responded that Francione's position is unnecessarily divisive. Newkirk has also been criticized for her support of actions carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front. Newkirk's position is that the animal rights movement is a revolutionary one and that "[t]hinkers may prepare revolutions, but bandits must carry them out". PETA itself, however, "maintains a creed of nonviolence and does not advocate actions in which anyone, human or nonhuman, is injured". Newkirk and PETA have also been criticized for euthanizing many of the animals taken into PETA's shelters, including healthy pets, and opposition to the whole notion of pets, and her position that "There's no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy," as well as seemingly seeing eradication as a goal. PETA has responded to this line of criticism.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2012
Be kind to animals, for it's not their intelligence that merits your honor, but their undeniable right to live a life without suffering. This book has so many brilliant ideas on how to be cognizant about other beings here on earth. Set aside the author's politics and you'll find your mind enlightened. For instance, I never thought of cruel phrases we commonly use involving animals ('2 birds...' for example). This is a great book for kids as well.
November 12, 2010
This book, along with Animal Liberation, changed my life when I read it back in 7th grade. Although I was already a vegetarian (having already figured out the equation animal + dead = meat), I was clueless about factory farms and most other animal issues. (Keep in mind, young activists, this was the pre-Internet era.)
It’s not that the book is so great on its own; it suffers from simplistic writing and the occasional mistake—while dead trees may be indeed be fine habitats for woodpeckers, I seriously doubt that readers should expect to see the ivory-billed variety in their yards unless they own a time machine. Nor would it be terribly helpful if read today—as with any of-the-moment activism materials, most of the information on companies is out-of-date. (Brands that once tested on animals may quit; there are mergers and changes in contact information, etc.) However, it made an impression on me way back when; hopefully the animal advocacy books of today are doing the same with today’s 7th graders.
It’s not that the book is so great on its own; it suffers from simplistic writing and the occasional mistake—while dead trees may be indeed be fine habitats for woodpeckers, I seriously doubt that readers should expect to see the ivory-billed variety in their yards unless they own a time machine. Nor would it be terribly helpful if read today—as with any of-the-moment activism materials, most of the information on companies is out-of-date. (Brands that once tested on animals may quit; there are mergers and changes in contact information, etc.) However, it made an impression on me way back when; hopefully the animal advocacy books of today are doing the same with today’s 7th graders.
January 19, 2009
This is the book that changed my life 18 years ago and started me on the path toward becoming a vegan. Each eye-opening chapter details what animals go through from birth to slaughter in the factory farming system we currently employ in the United States.
Ingrid Newkirk doesn't leave it there. She outlines simple (and not so simple) things every person can do to create positive change in the lives of animals and in your own life.
Ingrid Newkirk doesn't leave it there. She outlines simple (and not so simple) things every person can do to create positive change in the lives of animals and in your own life.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews