Customer Reviews

The Ten Trusts : What We Must Do to Care for The Animals We Love

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Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Marc Bekoff have compiled ideas, stories, experience and much more about living a humane and ethical life into a book accessible to all. As the animal protection community has done for 50 years, this book shows that humans must respect the environment and all life if we, as a species, expect to survive. It is a very simple premise yet humanity has yet to catch on. The Ten Trusts not only gives us a path to follow, but it shows how others have acted before in trying to alter destructive patterns. Caring for others (animals, humans and nature) is not something radical, it is - humane! It is something everyone must do.

Goodall and Bekoff share their experiences from living a life of compassion and a boundless ethic. Few people are as well known and respected as Jane Goodall, but she has never rested on her fame. Instead, she stepped away from her field research and beloved friends in Gombe National Park, not to build monetary wealth, but to share her wealth of knowledge with young and old alike through lectures and programs such as Roots and Shoots. While Bekoff has spent years educating a more humane youth at the University of Colorado, all while helping us to better understand and appreciate animal behavior.

Over the last two years the Bush administration has systematically deconstructed even basic protections for the environment in order to please corporate greed. The Ten Trusts talks about many issues, one of which will certainly reappear following recent elections, is the drilling for oil in Alaska's ANWR. Even though the American public is opposed to destroying the last pristine environment, the Administration hopes to lull us into a belief that it is needed.

This does not have to be. Goodall, who revolutionized how humans think about other species through her work with chimpanzees and Bekoff, who is a leader in showing us that the minds of animals are as unique and complex as ours, have concisely gathered a wonderful set of ethics into an easily readable book. A book that everyone should read because it shows how we really can and MUST be compassionate.

This is a wonderful book, filled with information and perspectives from which everyone will benefit. I recommend this book to "the converted" as well as to those who are unsure what all the vegetarians and animal-rights people are going on about. It's not a preachy book and it's not purely for animal lovers or "tree-huggers" -- it's a book for any human who cares (even slightly) about how his or her life affects other lives--the life of the planet and the lives of the animals (including humans) who live on it. I cannot imagine anyone who could read this book and not be affected by it. It's also very encouraging to read about the success of Ms. Goodall's Roots & Shoots program -- hopefully, the generations touched by her knowledge will do a better job than we have.

Of the many books I have read dealing with environmental issues, this has had a major impact. The authors have tremendous credibility and scientific knowledge. If ever there was a canary in the mine, it is this book. We have plundered our planet, ignored the quality of life for other sentient beings, and have failed to see the need for a balance in nature and our own lives.
There are messages here that all should heed. But, most of all, there is hope if we pay attention.
Our current U.S. and world leadership has failed our planet. Hopefully, there are those who can steer the world back on course.
Thank you Jane and Marc.
Jay Pierson
Georgetown, Texas

This book lay for months on my bedside table before I found the strength to read it. I could not bear to touch it because I knew it would contain suffering. The book makes powerful painful reading. Once I started reading it I just could not put it down. In order to be able to make a difference I really needed to know what is going between humans and animals. How we abuse them. The book is not all gloom, it also tells about many persons who have come forward in their defence of animals. Sometimes even at great persnal loss.
The ten trusts are gives you a way to know!

It's nice to see and qualify the feelings many of us have had since childhood about loving animals. It seems to get faded as we grow older and integrate in a society that has put a lesser value on them for some reason. But here is a book that helps us accept those good emotions of the past and perpetuates the feeling that one day all life will be regarded having equal value. What Jane has done in the world is amazing and rocked the boat of science and for that reason alone one should experience her writing. Animals certainly can teach us a lot about ourselves..and this can only make our lives better. If you are ready, read this light hearted, easy to read book.

One additional trust are the author's themselves; who better to speak for the animals than Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff? The formatting of conversational style writing with each author's commentary separately noted, gives an insight and understanding of their personal experience, and individual dedication relating to their life passions. The stories, facts, and touching emotions that come through in the author's words, should make anyone stand up and want to do something, no matter how big or small, to make a difference in helping to save our natural environment. The world needs more great people like Goodall and Bekoff, to speak out for those that cannot, before it is too late.