In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave

In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave brings together the best current ethical thinking about animals. Edited by Peter Singer, who made speciesism an international issue in 1975 when he published Animal Liberation, this new book presents the state of the animal movement that his classic work helped to inspire.

Long hailed as a brilliant and controversial philosopher, Singer has assembled incisive new articles by philosophers and by activists. In Defense of Animals is sure to inform and inspire all who want to understand, or contribute to, the unfolding moral revolution in the way we treat animals.

Preface Peter Singer.

Part I: The Ideas.

1. Utilitarianism and Animals: Gaverick Matheny.

2. The Scientific Basis for Assessing Suffering in Animals:Marian Stamp Dawkins.

3. The Animal Debate: A Re–Examination: Paola Cavalieri.

4. On the Question of Personhood Beyond Homo sapiens: DavidDeGrazia.

5. Religion and Animals: Paul Waldau.

Part II: The Problems.

6. Speciesism in the Laboratory: Richard Ryder.

7. Brave New Farm?: Jim Mason and Mary Finelli.

8. Outlawed in Europe: Clare Druce and Philip Lymbery.

9. Against Zoos: Dale Jamieson.

10. To Eat the Laughing Animal: Dale Peterson.

Part III: Activists and Their Strategies.

11. How Austria Achieved a Historic Breakthrough for Animals:Martin Balluch.

12. Butcher Knives into Pruning Hooks: Doing Civil Disobediencefor Animals: Pelle Strindlund.

13. Opening Cages, Opening Eyes: An Investigation and OpenRescue at an Egg Factory Farm: Miyun Park.

14. Living and Working in Defense of Animals: Matt Ball.

15. Effective Advocacy: Stealing From the Corporate Playbook:Bruce Friedrich.

16. Moving the Media: From Foe, or Indifferent Stranger, toFriend: Karen Dawn.

17. The CEO as Animal Activist: John Mackey and Whole Foods:John Mackey, Karen Dawn and Lauren Ornelas.

18. Ten Points for Activists: Henry Spira and Peter Singer.

A Final Word: Peter Singer.

Further Reading, Useful Organizations.

Index

Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University. He is the author of Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, and is widely credited with triggering the modern animal rights movement. His Practical Ethics is one of the most widely used texts in applied ethics, and Rethinking Life and Death received the 1995 National Book Council′s Banjo Award for non–fiction. He is also editor of four other titles for Blackwell: A Companion to Ethics (1991), A Companion to Bioethics (with Helga Kuhse, 1999), The Moral of the Story: An Anthology of Ethics Through Literature (with Renata Singer, 2005), and Bioethics: An Anthology (with Helga Kuhse, 2nd edn., 2006).

Paul McCartney once said that if slaughterhouses had glasswalls, everyone would be a vegetarian. This book continues PeterSinger′s important, urgent project of turning these walls, one byone, to glass. The essays alert us to the holocaust that continuesin farms and laboratories; a holocaust that most people ignore –not because they are bad people, but, perhaps, because the horrorof what we do to animals is too big to contemplate. Thewonderful essays in this book remind us that any form of humanismmust respect all sentient beings, and that a culture that cancreate workers who can bear listening to the screams of the"animals" they kill and that can also create people who areprepared to look the other way and enjoy the spoils of the wholeendeavour – is a culture that is not only cruel and deluded, butwell primed for the next human holocaust. The Independenton Sunday

"Peter Singer s writing changed my life. I have waited forthis book for a long time, a quarter of a century in fact. What anexquisite collection of fine writers with compelling philosophies,philosophies that translate into positive ways to change societyand one s own daily life for the better. IngridNewkirk, President, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA)

A survey of the new wave of philosophy, science, andaction in the cause of animals. The theoretical essays give amasterly overview of the field, while the essays on animal–rightsactivism are engaging and full of good sense. J. M.Coetzee, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 2003

Take your fork out of that animal on your plate, and sitdown in a comfortable chair and read this book instead. Essentialreading for anyone who cares deeply about the lives ofanimals. Jeffrey Masson, author of The Pig Who Sang tothe Moon

"I welcome the era when overwhelming, unconscionable cruelty isnot longer the outstanding feature of people′s interactions withanimals. The books under review facilitate that era′s arrival."Peter S. Wenz, Social Theory and Practice