In Defense of Animals [Hardcover]

Peter Singer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1405119403 | ISBN-13: 978-1405119405 | Edition: 2nd

Bringing together new essays by philosophers and activists, In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave highlights the new challenges facing the animal rights movement.

Exciting new collection edited by controversial philosopher Peter Singer, who made animal rights into an international concern when he first published In Defence of Animals and Animal Liberation over thirty years ago

Essays explore new ways of measuring animal suffering, reassess the question of personhood, and draw highlight tales of effective advocacy

Lays out “Ten Tips for Activists”, taking the reader beyond ethical theory and into the day-to-day campaigns for animal rights

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Paul McCartney once said that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. This book continues Peter Singer's important, urgent project of turning these walls, one by one, to glass. The essays alert us to the holocaust that continues in farms and laboratories; a holocaust that most people ignore - not because they are bad people, but, perhaps, because the horror of what we do to animals is too big to contemplate. … The wonderful essays in this book remind us that any form of humanism must respect all sentient beings, and that a culture that can create workers who can bear listening to the screams of the "animals" they kill … and that can also create people who are prepared to look the other way and enjoy the spoils of the whole endeavour - is a culture that is not only cruel and deluded, but well primed for the next human holocaust.” The Independent on Sunday

"Peter Singer’s writing changed my life. I have waited for this book for a long time, a quarter of a century in fact. What an exquisite collection of fine writers with compelling philosophies, philosophies that translate into positive ways to change society and one’s own daily life for the better.” Ingrid Newkirk, President, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

“A survey of the new wave of philosophy, science, and action in the cause of animals. The theoretical essays give a masterly overview of the field, while the essays on animal-rights activism 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 sit down in a comfortable chair and read this book instead. Essential reading for anyone who cares deeply about the lives of animals.” Jeffrey Masson, author of The Pig Who Sang to the Moon

"I welcome the era when overwhelming, unconscionable cruelty is not longer the outstanding feature of people's interactions with animals. The books under review facilitate that era's arrival." Peter S. Wenz, Social Theory and Practice

Book Description

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition (September 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405119403
• ISBN-13: 978-1405119405
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,296,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contents:, March 19, 2004

By 

Judy Smith "judylynnsbooks" (jamestown, ky United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Defense of Animals (Paperback)

Articles and essays from different people like philosophers, biologists, activists and lobbyists. Here you learn first hand accounts of the stories that have made headlines around the world...the plight of the Silver Spring laboratory monkeys, the freeing of the Island of the Dragon dolphins, the successful campaigns against the Draize and LD50 tests, extinctions of species, and confinement of animals in farm factories and zoos.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind opener, June 18, 2010

By 

Zeta Tsatsani "Zeta T" (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave (Wiley Desktop Editions) (Paperback)

The most brilliant book I have ever read. If you love animals and want to develop arguments for animal rights, this is a must have book. It does not deal with all the issues, but it does give explicit info on lab testing, farming, some activist wins, but overall it sets the mindframe of what human animals can do to live a more ethical life vis a vis their non-human counterparts. Mr. Singer is a gifted author and illuminated thinker. I strongly recommend it

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Animal Awareness & Compassion, November 22, 2010

By 

Susan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave (Wiley Desktop Editions) (Paperback)

I have hesitated purchasing this book for years - I knew it was going to be pretty awful to read. It is! The horrifying truth behind organized animal farming is much worse than I feared. The correlation between concentration camps and present-day animal farming is absolutely correct. The level of compassion for animals in the world is almost zero, and it is heartbreaking - that needs to be changed, along with more stringent laws. READ THIS BOOK if you wish to live in a decent society. Raise your children as Vegans. This should be mandatory reading in Grade School - teach children early on to respect our animal companions on earth and a whole new culture will be cultivated - a culture which I would embrace.