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Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs

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Ninety-Five
Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs

An anthology of photos and stories by No Voice Unheard
Editors: Marilee Geyer, Diane Leigh and Windi Wojdak
[...]

Review by Karen Davis, PhD

Ninety-five is the figure that is often cited as the number of animals who are saved each year by one person's vegan diet. A droplet from the vast sea of creatures subjected to every conceivable cruelty and degradation in order to satisfy the human desire for their eggs, flesh, and nursing mother's milk. For most people these animals are as invisible as microbes in a pond. Yet each animal buried alive in the sewage systems of animal agriculture is an individual with emotions, a personality and a will to live that is as passionate as our own. If only people could meet these animals, surely they will stop eating them.

One way for this to happen is by visiting a farmed animal sanctuary. Another is for America's sanctuary animals to be brought to you through stories and photographs filled with the passion, beauty, love and tears of those who know them best. Ninety-Five provides a lyrical look at a group of individual chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, rabbits, goats, ducks and other farmed animals - including a live-market crab named Jean - who escaped being dead on a plate. It's an honor for United Poultry Concerns to be one of the sanctuaries chosen for this rich, expressive and compelling book through the magnificent photography of Davida Breier. Through the lens of empathic, talented and insightful writers, sanctuary caregivers, and photographers, Ninety-Five lets the animals be their own best witnesses to the truth of their lives.

I sat down outside with our sanctuary chickens, our turkey Amelia, our two male ducks, and Frankincense the peacock, one Saturday afternoon in April, to read Ninety-Five. The stories and photos seduced me into the lives presented in the book, just as our sanctuary birds seduce me every time I join them in the yard and experience the pull of their personalities and vital energies. Each animal portrait in Ninety-Five needs to be dwelt upon as a whole, making it hard to extract passages to convey something of the book's evocative texture, diversity and sensibility. So while every portrait is a treasure in its own right, for the sake of this review, I draw attention to one of the several powerful stories by Joanna Lucas of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary in Colorado. In "Libby & Louie - A Love Story," Joanna creates a virtual symphonic tone poem about a rooster named Louie and the hen he loves and who loves him back named Libby. Here is an excerpt from their story:

"In the blush of her first weeks at the sanctuary, when everything astonished her - the open sky, the endless fields, the scent of rain, the feel of straw underfoot - we thought we heard her voice a few times: small, joyful cries coming out of nowhere, seemingly formed out of thin air, the musical friction of invisible particles, not the product of straining, vibrating, trembling vocal cords, but a sound of pure joy coming from the heart of life itself. But, after she paired up with Louie and became his sole partner, Libby turned so completely quiet, that we began to wonder if the voice we had heard in the beginning was truly hers. . . ."

This book is all about these vibrant, singing and silent souls falsely imprined in the dispiriting and despairing notion of "food" animals. I recommend Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs to everyone who cares about animals, everyone who advocates for animals and wants to get to know them better and speak more eloquently on their behalf. "From Justice the steer who broke out of a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse and who is now the self-appointed `greeter' at his sanctuary, to Gilly, a small white hen rescued from a factory egg farm who found quiet happiness in a loving home, each animal has a compelling story that will captivate." This I can promise you'll discover for yourself in reading this wonderful book. And please share it with your friends and family and donate a copy to your local library.

Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
[...]

I received my copy and have been mesmerized by these beautiful souls and their heart-tugging stories. I am deeply touched. Their stories have not failed to make me cry, laugh, smile and break my heart, but, mostly it has fueled further my desire to help these souls at every turn I can. The photographs of the animals are stunning. This book is not meant to sit on a bookshelf when you are finished reading it. This is a book that needs, that must be shared. Purchase extras for gifts. I did.

This delightful book offers a window into the magical world of farm animal rescue. Vivid photographs and charming stories give voice to a number of lucky pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, and cows that have been rescued from the agricultural food chain. I was utterly charmed by images of still-sassy debeaked chickens like Francine and Goldie; blissful smiles on the faces of pigs like Rosie and Ronnie ("they didn't turn us into bacon!"); and the baleful eyes of dozens of rescued goats and cows lucky enough to live out their lives (often made painful and short by feeding and breeding techniques)in grassy fields and sunny barnyards.

The authors and photographers who created this gem of a book seemed to know that they didn't need to lecture or preach. Because nothing could be more persuasive than the faces of these fortunate animals.

Everyday we're impacted by them, but think nothing of them. "Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs" tells the story of the livestock, as many farmers and writers put their pen down to tell the story of many animals whose stories people often think nothing of. With full color photography, No Voice Unheard puts together a fascinating read and beautiful to look at volume that should be a top pick for fans of animal collections focusing on farm animals and livestock.

Ninety-Five, which is named for a frequently cited estimate that one person's vegan lifestyle saves 95 animals per year, is one of the best, most beautiful books I have read for a long time. It tells the story, in a very personal way, of rescued farmed animals. The photography is amazing. The combination of those two factors makes the book a powerful tool for animal advocacy. Anyone wishing to make informed choices should be aware of the horrific treatment of farmed animals. This book provides a glimpse into those issues, without being so overwhelming that it is painful, like so much of the information about animal mistreatment often is. It touches the heart from both directions--the tragedy going on every day in our world and the incredible beauty and individuality of farmed animals. I will treasure this book and will look for opportunities to give it as gifts.

Such a wonderful way to show the individual personalities in the usually-anonymous animals people thoughtlessly eat everyday. God bless Justice, Olivia, Benjamin and all the other ambassadors in this book, and all the caring people at the sanctuaries where they live.

Beautifully and compassionately written, this is a book for family education regarding the food we eat, where it comes from and what it takes to get to your table. The book does not preach...it educates. It gives you the knowledge to make your own choices.

This is a collection of beautiful color photographs and anecdotes featuring farm sanctuary animals. What a wonderful coffee table item! This book is about 12" long with about a 6" spine. It was written by vegans, animal rescuers and sanctuary workers who are telling us about their own remarkable experiences with these animals. The point of view is unashamedly anthropomorphic and animal advocating. Most scientific books about animals leave out the anecdotes and focus on laboratory and field observations, but that leaves out way too much evidence about the way these animals think and feel. Another great coffee table book like this one is Amy Hatkoff's The Inner Lives of Farm Animals. Hatkoff's book is in hardback, also beautiful, but includes scientific information about intelligence testing on these animals.

Also of interest:

The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff
Wild Justice by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce
Second Nature by John Balcombe

harder:

Cognition, Evolution and Behavior by Sara Shettleworth
Animal Learning & Cognition by John Pearce
Animal Intelligence by Zhanna Reznikova (includes data on bugs)

I recommend the following Christian publications (easy reading):

Creatures Of The Same God by Andrew Linzey (or any number of books by this author)
The Dominion Of Love by Norm Phelps
God's Covenant With Animals by J.R. Hyland
Good News For All Creation by Kaufman & Braun

harder:

Animal Theology by Andrew Linzey

This book showcases many different stories of rescued farmed animals at different sanctuaries.
One of my new favorite books, ever.
It contains wonderful pictures and stories. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

heartfelt stories that span pigs, cows, geese, sheep...you name it. wonderful gift for any animal lover or someone who is thinking about going vegetarian. i bought it for myself and have it on display in my living room. comes with beautiful pictures of the animals. highly recommend!