Rory Freedman's promise of "a radical new way of regarding animals" will not be news for readers familiar with Peter Singer or Jonathon Safran Foer, but she hopes to influence the meat-eating, leather-wearing, zoo-going, puppy-buying majority to start making informed decisions that will lead to a compassionate, cruelty-free world.
Freedman (co-author of Skinny Bitch) first appeals to the broadest audience by describing her love for dogs. She provides heartwrenching statistics--three to four million animals are euthanized in shelters every year while four million new dogs are brought into the world by both reputable and backyard breeders--that underline her impassioned case for choosing a dog from a shelter or rescue organization. She then covers animal testing, the entertainment and fashion industries, blood sports, zoos, circuses, rodeos and hunting.
Freedman's writing is funny, irreverent and smart, and her message is clear, buttressed by a concrete "to do" list as well as a plethora of additional resources and suggestions on how to make a difference. She knows giving up meat and dairy is a tough sell, and resurrects 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham's plea: "The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" She hopes these questions will compel readers to act with compassion because, in the words of Maya Angelou, once we know better, we will do better. --Kristen Galles, blogger at Book Club Classics