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SELECTED REVIEWS FOR Booklist This set is no limited regional offering but assumes a global perspective in surveying human connections with animals, with sections offering topics as diverse as analysis of animal assistance to humans to issues of ethics, animal treatment and welfare, and habitat challenges around the world. Both wild and domesticated animals are presented, with numerous sidebars of information, charts, and bibliographic references providing information key to any college-level collection strong in animal welfare, ecology and natural history, or veterinary management. The subject matter and scope are unparalleled. - California Bookwatch December 2000
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR New West Book Review The Durango Herald University Press of Colorado
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR Animal behaviorist and biologist Bekoff follows his most recent in-depth work, The Emotional Life of Animals, with another well-written, more generalist argument for responsible behavior toward animals of all kinds. A revised and updated edition of his 2000 Strolling with Our Kin, an introduction for young readers to ethical issues relating to the use of animals, the writing still feels aimed at younger readers, but the new elements include an excellent review of current debates regarding animal sentience, animal relocation efforts and medical school dissection and vivisection. He also offers the evidence that "zoos actually do little to increase biodiversity," failing both to advocate for conservation and in their attempts to reintroduce captive animals into the wild. This levelheaded brief for animal rights deserves to be read by people of all ages, from teens and 20-somethings turned on to animal activism by vegetarian pop stars like Moby, to parents, teachers and other adults with the hope that they will "make more responsible decisions after reading this book and discussing the issues with family and friends." Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR From Traditional Yoga Studies From Publishers Weekly Along the way, Bekoff forces the reader to re-examine the nature of human beings; our species could not have persevered through the past 100,000 years without the evolution of strong and cohesive social relationships cemented with emotions, a conclusion contrary to contemporary pop sociology notions that prioritize individualism and competition. He also explores, painfully but honestly, the abuse animals regularly withstand in factory farms, research centers and elsewhere, and calls on fellow scientists to practice their discipline with "heart." Demonstrating the far-reaching implications for readers' relationships with any number of living beings, Bekoff's book is profound, thought-provoking and even touching. From BBC Wildlife, April 2007: From Booklist, February 1: As a boy studying Buddhism in Tibet, I was taught the importance of a caring attitude toward others. Such a practice of nonviolence applies to all sentient beings - any living thing that has a mind. Where there is a mind, there are feelings such as pain, pleasure, and joy. No sentient beings want pain; instead all want happiness. Since we all share these feelings at some basic level, as rational human beings we have an obligation to contribute in whatever way we can to the happiness of other species and try our best to relieve their fears and sufferings. I firmly believe that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes, therefore I welcome Marc Bekoff s book The Emotional Lives of Animals. -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama Marc Bekoff is one of those rare scientists who can talk real sense about animals because he is aware of being an animal himself. Read this wonderful book.-- Mary Midgley, author of Animals and Why They Matter An extraordinary, intelligent, and valuable book about a subject one might be forgiven for thinking taboo since it is so absent from discussion: an exploration of the other animals' feelings, the emotional makeup we share with them yet often do not know exists, forget entirely, deliberately ignore or casually disregard. Here we see animals, whole and complete, thinking their not-so-private thoughts, grieving, loving, jumping for joy, and fleeing that which is painful or upsetting and it makes us think about who they are and what our impact is and can be on their lives. Marc Bekoff captures not only poignant incidents of the animals'emotions as evidenced by observations and pure commonsense, but brings to each discovery his own vital repertoire of human emotion and expression. A glorious, moving, important book to enjoy and share. -- Ingrid Newkirk, cofounder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Marc Bekoff ably presents the richness and variety of the emotions in nonhuman animals - and doesn't hesitate to draw the ethical conclusions implicit in his findings. I hope this book will be widely read by those who care about animals - and even more widely by those who don't. --Peter Singer A thought-provoking, compassionate and scholarly work from one of the world's most eminent behavioral scientists. -- Ian Dunbar, Founder of The Association of Pet Dog Trainers and author of Before & After Getting Your Puppy.
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR In a Q&A with Marc Bekoff, the animal behaviorist, conservation biologist, and animal advocate describes "What it means to be a fox," and why we must be very careful when we "redecorate nature" - major themes in his new book ANIMAL PASSIONS AND BEASTLY VIRTUES. From Best Friends Magazine... From Publishers Weekly
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Winner of the Best
Reference Source Award Library Journal,
March 15, 2005 Not since Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Ethology (1977), which is still in print, has such an authoritative and comprehensive encyclopedia on the subject been attempted. The 290 contributors include some of the best-known and respected animal behavior experts. Accompanied by over 300 photos, charts, and diagrams, the entries range in length from 300 to 7000 words and cover diverse topics such as animal navigation, play, tool use, and infanticide. Besides more than 40 sidebars throughout the set that explain the more abstract concepts, many entries are subdivided into summaries of specific animal observations and experiments that help illustrate the main entry. Cross references and an animal group index (e.g., dolphins, birds, insects) are helpful for beginning research. College libraries will also find the section on careers in animal behavior research useful. Bottom Line Despite a noticeable disparity in the level of technical writing among the entries (some are summaries of experiments or observations accessible to general readers; others include more technical terms and mathematical formulas), this work will no doubt become the standard reference book on the subject. Strongly recommended for all academic collections and larger public libraries.-Alvin Hutchinson, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Boulder
Daily Camera - January 30, 2005 When world-famous primatologist Jane Goodall was a child, her family forbade the reading of books at the dinner table, with one exception: "(T)he exception was if someone wanted to look something up in one of those wonderful (encyclopedia) volumes," she writes in her foreword to the exhaustive, fascinating new "Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior," edited by Boulder biologist Marc Bekoff. "Encyclopedias have always been very special to me. You look something up, then your eye is captured by an entry before or following the one you were after. You learn more than you intended. All that information, all that inspiration, all there for you to find!" Goodall's enthusiasm certainly applies to this groundbreaking, three-volume encyclopedia examining virtually every imaginable facet of animal behavior. While families with members interested in this increasingly important field might be willing to spend the $350 for the books, the more likely buyers will be institutions: libraries, zoos, wildlife nonprofits and the like. "The genesis of this book came from the fact that there is unprecedented interest in animals these days," says Bekoff, who previously edited the "Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare" for Greenwood Press and has written numerous volumes himself, including "The Ten Trusts," co-authored with his friend Goodall. "I base that observation on my travels, requests for interviews, book sales, the popularity of courses at universities, and my own personal life," he says. Greenwood Press asked him to tackle the project about 21/2 years ago, and since then, he says, "it has consumed me." Bekoff notes that conservation behavior is becoming "one of the hottest fields" in conservation biology, and for sound reasons: "Without knowing the behavior of animals, you can't do much in terms of conserving and preserving them, that's becoming very clear," he says. In addition, understanding animal behavior can help humans enrich the lives of captive animals and succeed with reintroduction programs. "Animals are not objects," Bekoff says. "Some people don't want to admit the fact that animals suffer and we need to take into account their well-being. But with big-time reintroduction projects, like wolves in Yellowstone, they have succeeded because of the understanding of territorial behavior, predatory behavior, breeding behavior." Like any encyclopedia, this one is organized alphabetically. Bekoff says he issued a call for papers to everything from the Animal Behavior Society to the American Academy of Religion, on a list of subjects. That original list was expanded by 25 percent at the suggestion of contributors, and some 290 experts in the field eventually contributed essays on everything from Aggressive Behavior to Play, from Siblicide to Zoos. There also are sidebars with titles like "Amusing Tales of Animal Mind," lots of black-and-white photos and illustrations, and a few color photographs in each volume. And the entire thing is pleasantly accessible, readable and informative. The "Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior" will utterly engross anyone who is interested in animals and wants to know how they are like and unlike humans. It's certainly the kind of book that every reasonable library should have available for student research, and it's nice to see the field getting this kind of serious attention.
SELECTED REVIEW FOR
The Journal for General
Philosophy of Science, 2002, by Klaus
Petrus (excerpted and roughly translated from
German):
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Boulder News, October 20,
2002 "If there are Earth Saints among us -- surely Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff qualify in their enduring commitment toward the sacred nature of life. They are showing us through their examples how the health of a community must include the health and well-being of all species, not just our own. Their love, understanding, and ethical embrace of The Other stands as a beacon of behavior we can follow. The animals with whom we share this beautiful Earth deserve this kind of respect, consideration, and regard. The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care For the Animals We Love creates a powerful credo of compassion. May it stand alongside The Earth Charter as a revolutionary text for the 2lst Century."
"The Ten Trusts is a wonderful mix of science and ethics that deserves the widest possible audience. Goodall and Bekoff are a marvelous team. Not only those who love animals, but also those who abuse them, or who eat them, should read this book."
"Empowering, practical, and full of hope, The Ten Trusts is a 21st century voice for the "animal nations." Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff weave science, ethics, and vivid storytelling to inspire us as we celebrate and cherish our interspecies community. A beautiful and heart-stirring book."
"The saint of animal ecology teams up with a worthy colleague to deliver the ten commandments for the future of advanced life on our planet. As were the original Commandments these too deserve to be chiseled on tablets of stone."
"In this deeply felt call to action, Jane Goodall and her coauthor, the animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff (Minding Animals), use a series of maxims -- the Ten Trusts -- as a guide for relating to the natural world. Renowned for her groundbreaking chimpanzee studies, Goodall has shown, first with Reason for Hope and now with this book, a growing determination not only to understand the extraordinary creatures who share our planet but also to gain our help in saving them. The simple but eloquent precepts enunciated in this book -- from rejoicing in our own place in the animal kingdom to approaching nature with respect, humility, and wisdom -- are designed to help us think about how we conduct our lives on the planet. While issues such as animal experimentation and human overpopulation are noted, the authors maintain a tone of purposeful optimism and argue for persistence, courage, and hope. One of the great strengths of the book lies in its ability to make the authors' goals seem achievable on a human scale, with numerous stories of ordinary individuals who have contributed in some small way to relieving animal suffering. The authors emphasize how children, too, can play an active part, highlighting Goodall's own Roots and Shoots program. These encouraging examples will resonate with kids, parents, and teachers. While many of the ideas in this volume have been have been expressed elsewhere, they probably can't be repeated often enough, and the stature and generous vision of these authors makes their work especially poignant, accessible, and inspiring." SELECTED REVIEWS FOR Minding Animals
CiaoPet (Italian)
Best Friend's Magazine
(November/December 2002) Drawing on more than 30 years of professional experience in observing animals and their behavior, Bekoff makes a solid case for animals having rich and often complex emotional lives and intelligence. What takes Bekoff's ideas a step beyond those of most of his colleagues is his use of the word "minding." Bekoff is also someone who cares for, respects, and loves them - and wants everyone to do the same. Minding animals is a book with a wide potential readership. Like Jane Goodall, Bekoff is both a scientist and animal advocate. Although his book is carefully researched and referenced for an academic audience, it is also immensely readable, and should appeal to anyone interested in animals and their place in society. A scientist who stresses the need for loving concern for the earth and all its creatures, Bekoff takes some real risks in Minding animals but, like Goodall, he is able to stretch boundaries and create new, credible paradigms."
ASPCA, Animal Watch, "Pick of
the litter book": Maggie Gee lists Minding Animals as her Book of the Year in the 23 November 2002 edition of the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph newspaper. She wrote: "In Minding Animals" ... the American ethologist Marc Bekoff observes and describes animals as individuals at play, dreaming and grooming, in a book with both brains and a heart... Bekoff joins courageous figures such as the anthropologist Frans de Waal and the maverick biologist Rupert Sheldrake in their attempt to make humans recognise and respect non-human animals' complex sentient and emotional lives."
Biology Digest, September
2002
The Daily
Camera - May 12, 2002
Booklist "A beautifully written and glorious celebration of the wonderful and diverse animal species who enrich our lives."
"For those of us who have immersed ourselves in the well being of life forms other than human, the fact that they communicate and have feelings is as natural and understandable as breathing. Through this lens we see clearly how their well being is intricately interconnected with our own. In Minding Animals Marc Bekoff has done a wonderful job of showing us how learning to understand and "mind" animals and their behavior leads us to recognize their feelings as well. Through their layers, we find even more richness and joy of life as we glimpse into ever deeper parts of ourselves. This book is fun, inspiring, thought-provoking and educational! What a great mix!"
"Except for relatively minor specializations that relate to whether we walk, run, fly or swim, all we vertebrate animals are physically stunningly similar. Most would also agree that the brain is an organ, as are stomachs, kidneys, and hearts, designed with functions and capacities useful for survival in often complex and indirect ways. There is no evidence, however, that what the brain does differs fundamentally across various species of vertebrates. Differences are in degree with respect to specific functions. In this readable, wide-ranging, and very stimulating book, Marc Bekoff takes this larger holistic view as a basis for a passionate exploration of how we should treat, and what we owe, our fellow-vertebrate creatures, who likely have many emotional and sensory survival mechanisms similar to our own."
"Just as the best doctors attain detailed and compassionate knowledge of the uniqueness of each patient, so too do the best behavioral biologists -- with Marc Bekoff prominently among them -- learn to recognize each animal as a distinct individual with its own internal life and experiences. By minding animals, we obtain our best scientific understanding of their evolution and behavior."
"With this abundant narrative of Marc Bekoff a new age of intimacy between humans and animals has begun. The companionship, the play, the healing, the guidance, the protection provided by the animals, all these will be needed in the future as never before. Everyone should read Minding Animals, an amazingly thorough, delightful, and most important book."
Science 202,
pp. 424.
BioScience 29, pp. 312.
Journal of Mammalogy, 60, pp. 658.
Embracing a new and urgent environmental ethic, Marc Bekoff has made a considerable contribution to the critical mass of thinking about ecology and animal rights for the 21st century. This book will change your life, and that of your children, and their children. And, as books go, it costs less than a day at Disneyland.
It's not everyday that a world-class scientist tries to explain his ideas to young people. It's rarer still when a scientist has such an important message. Marc Bekoff's 'Strolling with Our Kin' not only helps us to understand nature and animals, but also shows us how to love them.
Marc Bekoff is the wisest scientist I know for he is the only expert who truly loves animals in the way that children are able to love animals, with all his heart. Listen to him. Read this book, give it to friends, celebrate this wonderful event.
Marc Bekoff, a biologist and one of the foremost cognitive ethologists of our time, has succeeded in writing a book that will introduce children to the field of animal ethics in a most positive way. Although Bekoff tackles complicated issues, he does so in a manner that is easily within the grasp of any young reader. This book should be a starting point for helping children to formulate an ethical approach to our relationship with the nonhuman kin with whom we share our planet.
From the
German daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "Do you really have to save all that is endangered? A little unusual for his profession, the American Zoologist Marc Bekoff cares more about the individual than the species. ... In a decided tone that, however, is not pushy, Bekoff discusses the unnecessary suffering of animals in medicine, cosmetics, and the food industry. ... Bekoff therefore does not simply drown you in gruesome facts; he particularly provokes thought by conveying the observation that many people who easily picture animals as having negative emotions, can much less easily imagine them having positive feelings of happiness and joy of living. Might it be that our reflex to have a bad conscience is more fully developed than our ability to enjoy our co-existence with other species?" German review on Web site Animal Rights: A Vegan Project. A mature primer on
animal-human relations from local scientist Regular readers of the Daily Camera are most likely familiar with Marc Bekoff. The University of Colorado professor of biology is almost certainly our most prominent and persistent local voice in support of animal welfare and rights. As have so many so-called "radical" social movements in their infancy — women's suffrage, Civil Rights, gay and lesbian rights — the "animal rights" movement has been unfairly tarred as "absurd" and "ridiculous" by those who prefer to turn a blind eye to their role in a tragic situation. But now, just as with its human-rights brethren over the years, the animal-rights movement is moving like a slow, but inexorable tide into the national mindset. Here's the most powerful evidence yet: In the past two weeks McDonald's, a company responsible for the cruel farming of literally millions of animals a year, directed its farms and packing houses to begin reducing the stress and suffering of livestock, from pigs to cows to chickens. A small step, perhaps, but when McDonald's begins changing, can the world be far behind? Bekoff, of course, has been on the offensive in this struggle for a long time. "Strolling With Our Kin," his new book — ostensibly for children — on animal-welfare issues is a welcome addition to a growing canon. As famed primate researcher Jane Goodall has written in the introduction, "There is a vast amount of information about issues of animal abuse and conservation in a vast number of books, magazines....Marc Bekoff has pulled the issues together and written about them with clarity and conviction." Bekoff's starting point is one refreshingly beyond those of most scientists: Rather than claim — a la Descartes — that animals are little more than machines with which we may do as we please, he urges not just kindness, but respect and recognition for nonhuman organisms. "We need to develop and to live an ethic of caring and sharing, so that all animals are respected for the individuals they are," he writes. He examines and criticizes such obvious inhumane treatment as product testing and medical testing on live animals and factory farming — few people realize that hogs, for instance, are primarily raised in sterile barns; they never see the sun, and females are kept almost immobile for their entire lives. Bekoff grudgingly acknowledges that zoos must exist, now that humans have created a population of nonwild animals that would die if released. He leads a cogent discussion of the "necessity" (or rather, lack thereof) of utilizing animals to provide food, clothing and medicine for humans. Bekoff also points out that the largest single issue threatening nonhuman animals — global habitat destruction — is sometimes forgotten in a "forest-for-the-trees" way by many people. "Strolling With Our Kin" is an excellent primer on animal rights and welfare issues, written without the stridency that sometimes accompanies Bekoff's columns for the Daily Camera, which should make his book more accessible to those unfamiliar with his arguments. Still, it's a bit odd that this is being marketed as a children's book. Not to denigrate kids' abilities to absorb complex concepts, but the book is text-heavy — no pictures here — and written in language most children won't have a clue how to interpret, i.e.: "deep ethology." But by all means, for the young, open-minded reader at about sixth-grade level and above, it should make for thoughtful reading. The trouble may be getting it into these kids' hands, since so many adults who grew up in different eras are likely to consider its arguments and presentation "beyond the pale" of what they consider politically important.
From
Booklist Entries were chosen "by going through numerous books and essays and listing the topics that were covered in these works." Examples include animal boredom, genetic engineering, Humane Slaughter Act, hunting, and rodeos. Some longer discussions, such as animal cognition, are divided into several subsections with different contributors. There are numerous short biographies of persons whose work influenced the animal rights movement, such as Charles Darwin and Leo Tolstoy; only deceased persons are covered. For the most part, the contributors have been careful to present differing viewpoints. Most entries have a short selective bibliography. There is a chronology at the beginning of the volume and a list of resources following the A-Z entries. These resources include an annotated directory of organizations involved in animal welfare and humane education, as well as print source material. The volume concludes with an index and a list of contributors. A number of these contributors are professors of philosophy, and many of the entries are steeped in philosophical argument and explanation that, while important to understanding one or more views of the animal rights movement, also put up barriers to popular consideration. In addition to discussions of animal shelters, mice as laboratory animals, vegetarianism, and zoos, there are entries for deep ethology, painism, sentientism, and virtue ethics. The language and the level of discussion make the book more appropriate for academic libraries than for school and public libraries.
Choice
R. McN.
Alexander,Science, August 14, 1998
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