What do you think?
Rate this book
You Can Save the Animals: 251 Simple Ways to Stop Thoughtless Cruelty
Every day, in labs, food factories, and industries around the world, animals by the millions are subjected to inhumane cruelty. The good news is that you can do something to help stop it. This inspiring book shows you how.
In You Can Save the Animals, Ingrid Newkirk, cofounder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), gives you hundreds of simple acts of kindness that can help stop animal abuse today. You will be amazed at how much of a difference you alone can make in the lives of the most innocent among us.
Inside, you'll learn how
·Buy from companies that don't test on animals or use animal ingredients
·Switch to clothing and cosmetics made without cruelty
·Change public opinion
·Eat healthfully and compassionately
·Put pressure on industry and government leaders
·Avoid films in which animals were harmed
·Adopt animals from a local pound or shelter instead of supporting pet stores
·Make safe travel arrangements
·And much, much more!
In You Can Save the Animals, Ingrid Newkirk, cofounder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), gives you hundreds of simple acts of kindness that can help stop animal abuse today. You will be amazed at how much of a difference you alone can make in the lives of the most innocent among us.
Inside, you'll learn how
·Buy from companies that don't test on animals or use animal ingredients
·Switch to clothing and cosmetics made without cruelty
·Change public opinion
·Eat healthfully and compassionately
·Put pressure on industry and government leaders
·Avoid films in which animals were harmed
·Adopt animals from a local pound or shelter instead of supporting pet stores
·Make safe travel arrangements
·And much, much more!
- GenresNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
Published January 27, 1999
63 people want to read
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 4, 2008
I suppose this was an interesting book, but the title was completely misleading. The 251 "simple" ways to save the animals included quitting your job, harassing known animal rights enemies at their homes, vandalizing property, and organizing demonstrations and protests.
It's very informative if you're looking into the types of animal cruelty happening today, but not if you're looking for practical ways to make your life more cruelty free. It's definitely geared more towards grassroots animals rights groups than to the average person just looking to make a few life changes to ease their guilt.
It's very informative if you're looking into the types of animal cruelty happening today, but not if you're looking for practical ways to make your life more cruelty free. It's definitely geared more towards grassroots animals rights groups than to the average person just looking to make a few life changes to ease their guilt.
June 5, 2010
I started out thinking" hmm, I can save the animals by donating to supporting organizations, adopting a pet and maybe volunteer and the local shelter". What I was thinking back then was how I could save the animals we treat as PETS. However, Ingrid Newkirk told me animals are much more than pets. Animals are the living creatures we eat, see in shows and circuses and in zoos. This book could totally change our eating habits and help us reflect on meat-eating.
Remember, you can save the animals, GO VEG!!
Remember, you can save the animals, GO VEG!!
November 17, 2010
This is the late-90s version of the animal welfare guides periodically published by the author. In the interest of getting the most up-to-date information, readers may want to pass by this dated volume in favor of 2009’s The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble.
October 19, 2009
A must read for all!
March 6, 2012
The earlier addition of this book is what insirpired me to be vegan in 1995.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews