BEG

The well-turned ground of humans behaving inhumanely toward animals is turned again, without any significant updates.

Co-author of the best-selling Skinny Bitch series, Freedman draws readers’ attention to the many iniquities animals suffer at the hands of humans. They are legion, and many people have altered their lives to distance themselves—or actively fight against—the many abuses: factory farms, poorly run circuses and zoos, rodeos, dog racing, bull fighting, slaughterhouses, stock pens and the behind-the-scenes cruelty visited upon animals used for print advertising, TV commercials and shows, and movies. The author makes many solid, if shopworn, arguments, but in the less blatantly cruel areas, her thought can be muddied or mixed: “I think there is something arrogant about spaying and neutering animals...until we have a better solution to the horrific problem we created, I will spay and neuter my companion animals and encourage others to do the same.” We are also informed that, “P.S. Unfixed animals spray stinky piss all over the place.” Freedman provides some interesting and depressing statistics (more than 100 million animals worldwide “are subjected to nightmarish experiments every year” and 27 animals died during the filming and production of The Hobbit), as well as a helpful list of nonprofit organizations that help animals (not just PETA, but the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Farm Sanctuary and the Stray Cat Alliance), but she paints with a broad brush—e.g., condemning all zoos when there are plenty of humane versions around the world.

A big-hearted and well-meaning rehash of vital but hoary arguments urging decency toward animals.