Defending animals Finding hope on the front lines of animal protection

This collection covers a range of topics related to animal protection, from individual to organizational levels. Primarily focused on the US and Canada, the volume brings together analyses of organizations and philosophical reflections about experiences of both human and nonhuman animals. Individual animals and species preservation as well as social systems (e,g,, livestock production) are examined. The analysis overlaps with timely discussions of overpolicing of BIPOC and poor people, accommodations and support for disabled and mentally ill people, and environmental and food concerns. Another strong dimension is the emphasis on shades of gray in human-animal relationships and the complexities in decision making and action concerning the protection of animals, especially intersecting with the aforementioned human social dynamics. Because of its loose organization, the collection would be a good source for case studies in courses covering animal ethics, environmental topics, institutional studies that focus on animal issues, and multispecies anthropology. The style of analysis is more practical than theoretical, making the book approachable for a wide range of readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; students in two-year technical programs; general readers. --Sabrina M. Weiss, independent scholar

Coulter (Animals, Work, and the Promise of Interspecies Solidarity), a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, delivers an uneven examination of efforts to protect animals from such dangers as abuse or unsafe living conditions. Surveying the horrors of animal maltreatment, Coulter discusses a hoarding case in which 70 dogs rendered a house so "filthy and dangerous" the human resident had to move out, and tells how one Oregon horse suffered permanent frostbite from being left outside all winter without food or shelter. Protecting animals, Coulter explains, falls to a patchwork of underfunded government and private entities, such as animal control services and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whose employees and volunteers are often undertrained and harassed in the line of work. Still, Coulter finds reason for optimism in the dedication of animal protection specialists, including an Ontario nonprofit that repairs the shells of turtles hit by cars. Coulter provides a competent overview of the current state of animal protection, but her suggestions on how to improve it are too general to be useful ("We can't change the past, but we must learn from it as we shape the future"). It's a harrowing look at animal cruelty and a hazy roadmap for the work still to be done. (Sept.)