Waubonsee Community College

The bond, our kinship with animals, our call to defend them, Wayne Pacelle

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-407) and index

index present

non fiction

The bond

bibliography

641532423

Wayne Pacelle

our kinship with animals, our call to defend them

Product Description: A fascinating exploration of humanity's eternal bond with animals, and an urgent call to answer the needs of millions of at-risk creatures. A landmark work, The Bond is the passionate, insightful, and comprehensive examination of our special connection to all creatures, written by one of America's most important champions of animal welfare. Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society of the United States, unveils the deep links of the human-animal bond, as well as the conflicting impulses that have led us to betray this bond through widespread and systemic cruelty to animals. Pacelle begins by exploring the biological and historical underpinnings of the human-animal bond and reveals our newfound understanding of animals, including their remarkable emotional and cognitive capacities. In the book's second section, Pacelle shows how the bond has been disastrously broken. He takes readers to a slaughter plant shuttered for inhumane practices, as well as the enormous egg factory farms of California. We visit Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas to speak with NFL star Michael Vick, then serving his sentence for dogfighting. Pacelle paints a portrait of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and highlights the heroic actions of residents and volunteers to reunite pets with their owners. Pacelle's narrative also leads the reader to remote locations in which conflicts over the killing of wildlife continue to play out from the fields outside of Yellowstone National Park where bison are slaughtered with the encouragement of federal authorities, to the ice floes of Atlantic Canada where seal nurseries turn into killing fields. In its final section, The Bond takes on the arguments of opponents and critics of animal protection and spotlights the groups and industries standing in the way of progress from the National Rifle Association and agribusiness organizations like the American Farm Bureau, to surprising adversaries like the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Kennel Club. Ultimately, Pacelle points the way to a new, humane economy one not built on extraction, suffering, and killing, but on the celebration, stewardship, and care of animals. An eye-opening must-read, The Bond reminds us that animals are at the center of our lives, they are not just a backdrop. How we treat them is one of the great themes of the human story

Introduction: Sanctuary -- pt. I: A special bond. Ties that bond -- Biochemistry of the bond -- Pet keeping through the ages -- Domesticated animals: "bonded to the house" -- Animal sacrifice: "the perfect gift" -- Animal welfare and the "great republic of the future" -- Self-evident truths -- The mismeasure of animals -- Thinking and feeling: shared capacities -- Denying animal intelligence -- Signs of change -- Lifesaving dolphins and dogs, altruistic elephants, and other remarkable animals -- The emotional lives of animals -- pt. II: The betrayal of the bond. A message from Hallmark: exposing factory farming -- The slaughterhouse next door: inside a California meat plant -- Hypocrisy of "happy cows" -- Endless denials: the challenge of reform -- "The new agriculture": the ways of industrial farming -- "Meat science": turkeys who can't walk, pigs who can't move, and other victims of agribusiness -- Stirring the silent majority -- A culture of cruelty: animal fighting in America -- Bad newz on moonlight road: dogfighting comes out of the shadows -- Michael Vick and the contradiction of cruelty -- Blood sport through the ages -- "The feathered warrior" -- "I won't disappoint you" -- For the love of pets -- Katrina and the human-animal bond -- The animals in our lives -- In the name of mercy: animal shelters and the problem of euthanasia -- Factory farms for dogs: the tragedy of puppy mills -- AKC and "the maintenance of purity" -- Nothing fancy: the costs of reckless breeding -- The cull of the wild -- Unfaithful stewards: betraying Yellowstone's Bison -- Killing and longing: the lessons of TR -- Era of rational slaughter -- "Let's kill them all": the attack on Alaska's wolves -- "Garbaging for bears": commercial hunting and contemptible conduct -- Face of innocence and the shame of Canada -- pt. III: Building a humane world. Cruelty and its defenders -- The moral scale and humane living -- Rhetorical camouflage: debating opponents of animal protection -- Collateral damage and the NRA -- "The agro-industrial complex": harvesting subsidies -- "The rising plague" and the veterinary oath -- The humane economy -- "Creative destruction" and living capital -- Wild neighbors -- Chemistry and compassion -- Twenty-first-century science -- Innovation and the spark of life -- Appendix: Fifty ways to help animals

Our kinship with animals, our call to defend them