Customer Reviews

For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a fascinating, disturbing, moving look into the history & rise of the animal protection movement in 18th century & early 19th century Britain. The author is

expert in saving this tale from what could be a very dry, tedious history--and infuses it with a lively cast of characters & their stories, from an outspoken, philosophizing Duchess, to a French lawyer who represented rats on trial, to a Lord's beloved pet leeches, and a poet's odes to his cat. She also includes poetry, law, social history, paintings and sermons to further give the reader a fully dimensional scope of this movement & the culture it emerged from.

Her careful research also keeps it from being overly mushy & preachy---you come away with a nuanced understanding of the shift in people's views & relationships with animals, the horrific condition of animals which spawned some of these shifts in thinking, and how these changes became translated into bills proposed in parliament & eventually, law.

That aside, it's just an incredibly moving story. It's a book that makes you think, both philosophically & practically, about animal protection & rights long after you've finished reading, how they relate to the same issues today, and you come out cheering on behalf of stormy Irish politicians & preachers who dared speak & write on behalf of "brute" animals to the ridicule of their peers. It also reveals the smaller, but no less courageous, acts of many and the animals who inspired them.

Book is well-written. Very interesting history about animal protection movement. Anyone who is has a serious interest in animal welfare will want to add it to their collection.

I was just too empathetic to finish. If you have the fortitude you will enjoy it.