Why Animals Matter |
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August 16, 2007
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| ©Promethius Books |
| This new book makes a compelling case for animal protection. | |
As the authors of the new book Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection point out, our treatment of animals in the United States is full of contradictions. While we lavish our companion animals with love and spend tens of billions of dollars each year on their care, billions more animals suffer terrible abuses on factory farms and in countless other ways.
Authors Erin E. Williams (an HSUS staffer) and Margo DeMello examine the ways in which we abuse animals, whether it be for food, experimentation, entertainment, or clothing. Each chapter offers readers practical suggestions on how to help build a more humane society, as well as positive case studies of rescued animals and inspiring stories of individual successes.
As Foreword magazine put it, "Readers will learn from this book that animals do matter and that people who care can help create more success stories."
In addition to detailing the harm done to animals by abusing them, Why Animals Matter also explores the connections among animal protection, the environment and social justice issues.
A Tale of Two Piglets
The fortunate pigs Truffles and Rudy are just two of the individual animals you'll read about. Below is part of the story on this porcine pair from Why Animals Matter.
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| ©Farm Sanctuary |
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| Truffles and Rudy now enjoy life together. |
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Truffles and Rudy have been inseparable since they both arrived at Farm Sanctuary as young piglets in September 2005. Both piglets had fallen out of two different transport trucks in Indiana on their way to "finishing" farms, where they would be fattened for a few months and shipped to slaughter—likely destined to become holiday hams.
Truffles was a very young piglet when she fell off a truck on Indiana's Interstate 69, injuring herself as she hit the pavement. Fortunately, a brave and compassionate woman witnessed Truffles' fall, and she pulled over, ran across heavy traffic, and carried her back to the car. The exhausted, bloody piglet fell asleep as soon as she lay down on a blanket in the backseat....
Only a few days later, a kindhearted trucker found Rudy near an Insterstate 74 truck stop in Indiana and brought him to an animal shelter....
By the time the two piglets arrived at Farm Sanctuary, they were already bonded. Now the growing piglets rarely leave each other's side, and they enjoy days filled with playing in their mud bath, watching the other animals at the sanctuary, and reveling in attention. While most factory-farmed pigs live only six months before being sent to slaughter, Truffles and Rudy can look forward to spending the rest of their lives—perhaps more than ten years—happy, safe, and loved.
The book is available for sale online at Barnes & Noble. Order a copy today, and find out Why Animals Matter.
Praise for Why Animals Matter
This revealing new book not only persuades and informs—it has also won acclaim from a range of critics.
"A tough but fair-minded revelation of how mass production of animals for food and other purposes results in cruelty that usually remains hidden from sight."
—Publishers Weekly
"A well-organized presentation of the animal-welfare argument."
—Booklist
"This is a thought-provoking look at the way we distance ourselves from the creatures we routinely raise for food. It shows the insensitive attitudes that reduce thinking, feeling animals to nothing more then a product to be used and discarded in whatever way best suits the bottom line."
—Monsters & Critics
"Rationalization and arguments about history, necessity, and overpopulation don't stand up to the heavily footnoted studies and points made here."
—Bookpage
"Erin Williams and Margo DeMello have written a compact and compelling treatise on how animals suffer in institutional settings and why people of conscience should take note and take action. They have put together an overwhelming case for a new ethic in dealing with animals, and my greatest hope is that it will have a vast readership."
—Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO, The Humane Society of the United States
"… effectively touches the readers' hearts while educating their minds as to the need for reform in animal use."
—Bernard E. Rollin, author of Animal Rights and Human Morality and The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain and Science.
