The Animal Manifesto: Ten Reasons for Expanding Our Compassion Footprint

(Paperback)

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For biologist Dr. Marc Bekoff, improving our relationship with animals is not an all or nothing proposition. For too long, the attitude that you either become hard and fast vegan and swear off all animal products or you remain a full-blown meat-eating carnivore has kept people away from examining the impact they have on the animals they consume as well as the environment. In "The Animal Manifesto", Bekoff shows that improving our treatment of animals is a practice of examining sometimes seemingly inconsequential daily decisions and that there are many increasingly compelling reasons for us to do so, both moral and pragmatic. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and the most up-to-date science, "The Animal Manifesto" will provide one place for animal lovers to turn for the most compelling reasons to increase our awareness and treat animals better.

Reviews

"The Animal Manifesto is Marc Bekoff's gentle challenge that we all go a little further in extending the boundaries of our compassion toward nonhuman animals. I found it hard to resist the call of a work so brimming with awe, insight, and optimism concerning the creatures who share our world. You will too."
-- Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States

"We need books like this. We need writers like Marc Bekoff to remind us of the emotional lives of animals and of our mismanagement of the wild. We need to be reminded that we share this world with other animals, that we do not own it, that we do not even run it. We ignore all of this not only at our peril, but to our great loss."
-- Martha Grimes, bestselling author of Dakota and The Blue Last

"Marc Bekoff's brilliant and beautiful The Animal Manifesto is as important a book on our commonalities with other species as Darwin's book on emotional expression. It will lead you in a moving fashion to reconsider your own origins and will guide you toward uplifting actions that will make for a healthier fate of our human earth. It is essential reading.
-- Dacher Keltner, author of Born To Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley

"For more than thirty years, Marc Bekoff has occupied a unique niche in the social movement to advance moral concern for animals, functioning as a fearless scientist relentlessly pressing the scientific community to recognize the reality of animal thought, feeling, and emotion; as a philosopher articulating the grounds for an expanded moral vision of animals; and as a tireless advocate for justice for all creatures. In The Animal Manifesto, he has distilled his knowledge and efforts into a document that should inspire all of us to 'expand our compassion footprint' in thought and action. Bekoff is incapable of writing a boring paragraph, and his text is peppered with unforgettable anecdotes as well as fascinating scientific data. I strongly recommend this book."
-- Bernard E. Rollin, bioethicist and professor of philosophy, animal sciences, and biomedical sciences at Colorado State University

"Proof that animals are wistful, altruistic, tender, jealous, and conversational. But are these interesting facts to use to enliven a cocktail party, or do human obligations ensue when we realize that the intelligent life forms we seek in space are all around us here on earth Marc Bekoff's challenge to humanity to relate to those on the plate -- and in other places no sentient being deserves to be -- is riveting reading that may occupy your thoughts long after the last page is turned and the lights are out."
-- Ingrid E. Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

"Marc Bekoff at his best! He enhances our respect and understanding of animals using the science of ethology and philosophical inquiry to explain their behavior, and in the process awakens our compassionate concern for all creatures great and small."
-- Dr. Michael W. Fox, veterinarian, syndicated columnist, and author of Dog Body, Dog Mind and Cat Body, Cat Mind

"As a humane educator, I am always searching for books about pressing global issues that teach through critical thinking and inspire us to deeply embody our values. Marc Bekoff has written a superb book, with a gentle voice, one that will make each reader a better person and will go far to creating a more compassionate world for animals. He offers us crucial knowledge about animals, ignites our curiosity, and fosters our reverence, respect, and responsibility. I've never read a more convincing and powerful call for compassion. You will be changed by this book. It will be required reading for my students."
-- Zoe Weil, president of the Institute for Humane Education and author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

Author Bio

One of the world's leading experts on animal emotions, Dr. Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and a former Guggenheim Fellow