Drawing on a range of perspectives -philosophy, literary criticism, art history and cultural studies-the essays collected here explore unconventional ways of knowing animals, offering new insights into apparently familiar relationships between humans and other living beings.
A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." —Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition—in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos—to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal—and human—intelligence.
Did you know that a quarter of all the meat consumed in the United States is eaten by our pets? That's the equivalent to the amount devoured by 26 million Americans, and it makes U.S. cats and dogs equal to the fifth largest country in terms of animal protein consumption. Yet the impact pet food has on the environment and climate change, how healthy or necessary it is for our animal companions, or how it impacts the welfare of the farmed animals who become that food are barely known or ignored--even by animal lovers! The Clean Pet Food Revolution lifts the lid on the current pet food industry: its claims of what constitutes a "natural" diet for pets, its shocking record on animal welfare, and its devastating effect on the environment and climate change. The book explodes myths about "grain-free" diets, protein intake, and what our pets "want." Finally, it details the many exciting scientific developments in alternative proteins--whether from plants, fungi, insects, or cell-based meat products--that promise not only to completely change what we feed our cats and dogs but to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, end farmed-animal slaughter, and make our pets healthier. Written by specialists in veterinary science, biotech, and animal welfare, The Clean Pet Food Revolution is a thoroughly researched and compellingly written excoriation of an unsustainable present and a fascinating glimpse of future possibilities.
Explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising examination into the hearts and minds of wild and domesticated animals.
In Emily Skov-Nielsen's thrumming debut, our consciousness is interconnected with the surrounding trees, bugs, rivers, atmospheres, and cosmos. Here, flowers escape Victorian domestication and ally with girls' green powers of attraction. Here, the social politeness of motherhood and the raw dangers of adolescent sexual awakening are shot through with blood pulsing under the skin, with oxygen exchanged in gasps of breath. Here, everything tender and petalling is also raw and mothervisceral. Book jacket.
This textbook provides a full overview of human-animal studies. It focuses on the conceptual construction of animals in American culture and the way in which it reinforces and perpetuates hierarchical human relationships rooted in racism, sexism, and class privilege.