Some Summer Reading

With the summer coming up and many of us getting our first opportunity in a long time to read something that isn't published by Thomson, Aspen, or West, I thought it might be a good time to list some recommendations to anyone interested in learning more about animal law, animal rights, or animals in general. Whether you are passionate about the cause, skeptical, or just curious, each of these works are excellent, highly acclaimed, and only a starting point into the topic. Enjoy, and if you happen to read any and have something you want to say, feel free to comment!

BOOKS:

Rattling the Cage (Towards Legal Rights for Animals) by Steven M. Wise

On the topic of animal law, this is about the finest (and arguably only) primer on the topic. Steven Wise is both a practicing lawyer and a Harvard professor who has spent much of his legal career defending the rights of everything from chimpanzees and dogs to goats and dolphins. Wise uses a variety of arguments to support his position that the legal rights of animals are not only worth protecting, but that it is an utter insult and contradiction to the modern values of society not to protect them. Wise strings the mistakes of the past to the stubborness of the present and shows how the same bigoted notions that rationalized slavery, segretation, and women's sufferage, are the same ones that have support the belief that non-human animals possess nothing more than an instrumental value in our modern society. Its a disturbing but eye-opening book. I read it before I went to law school and didn't understand a lot of the legal theory in it, but definitely intend to reread it this summer. Highly recommended.

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation" is considered by many to be the founding philosophical statement on the idea of animal rights. If you want to start anywhere on the topic, this is a good a place as any. Here is where terms like speciesism were born. Singer takes an utilitarian approach to rationalizing a more ethical treatment of animals, an approach very reminiscent to the first week of criminal law class. The great part about "Animal Liberation" is that it never becomes condescending. It is simply a strong argument that demands an equal rebuttal. If you are for or against animal rights, "Animal Liberation" is a must read before you take too far a stept in either direction.

Oh, and as a side note, if you would like to read an interesting (and I say no more than interesting) rebuttal to "Animal Liberation" you can read Judge Posner's debate against Singer in Star Magazine.

Redemption by Nathan Winograd

Though a much more narrow and biased topic than anything I would recommend at the outset of learning about animal rights, I think it is a relevant and wonderful argument for no-kill shelters in America. The author, Nathan Winograd, is a former lawyer who stopped practicing law to try and revamp the animal shelter system in America. He has had great success in several cities (particularly San Diego, which now has the most successful adoption rate and no-kill system in the country). While much of the material is controverted, I think what really shines through is Winograd's philosophy that the reason that so many animals die in shelters is because of the shelters themselves. We often want to blame people in general for not caring enough about animals, but it is the shelters that need to really change if people are going to come to understand and care more for the lives of abandoned animals in their neighborhoods. If nothing else, is a great story about what one person (a lawyer for that matter) was willing to do to save the lives of as many animals as he could.

Making a Killing by Bob Torres

Bob Torres is a notorious animal rights advocate, and an expert on the subject. He holds a PhD in Developmental Sociology from Cornell, is a professor of animal rights and anarchy at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, hosts the Vegan Freak radio show (free to listen, highly recommend it) with his equally brilliant wife Jenna, has cool tattoos, interviewed most of the people on this list so far, and is an all around pretty great guy. When he was younger, he worked in slaughter houses and saw first hand all the cruel practices that are business standards in the meat industry. This book is great because it takes a very different approach to exploring the need for animal rights. Using "social marxist anarchist" theory, Torres explores the various facets of animal exploitation in our society and pushes the argument through socioeconomic logic, even though Torres' real passion for defending animals is because he loves them. In the books five chapters, Torres stresses how ethical treatment of animals will make society function more economically and ultimately how the wrong we are doing to non-human animals is destroying both the world and ourselves. There is a particularly great chapter about the "so-called" animal right group PETA, aptly called "You Cannot Buy The Revolution," and the light Torres sheds on PETA (in my opinion one of the biggest scams in history) will have you cancelling your monthly donations and feeling like you've bought the biggest lie ever sold. Its an unsettling work, but not without optimism.

If you enjoy this book, I also recomment Bob and Jenna's primer on being vegan "Hello, My Name is Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World." Its short, cute, funny, and has great resources in it about exploring veganism. The two of them are sometimes a little too biased for me, but they are undeniably brilliant and know more about animal rights and veganism then just about anyone else out there making themselves heard.

As I said before, there is a universe of books, editorials, and essays on the topic of animal law and animal rights, but I think this is a good place to start. I'll try to update regularly when I think of something else. Until then. Start reading!