I grew up in a hunting and fishing family. I always had pets growing up and I love a delicious steak. My parents raised their own beef cow for a few years and we always named the cow the same thing “Kenmore” or sometimes just “Freezer.” I used to own and plan to again own chickens for eggs and meat. I currently own a dog I would run into a burning building to save and who I buy a Christmas stocking for every year. I spend more a year on my dog’s medicine than I do my own. So Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight about Animals, by Hal Herzog was a great read for me. If you are going into this book looking for a way to combine and justify your love of “Fido” or “Fluffy” and your love of the Big Mac, this book is not for you. It does not have the answers, but in spite of that this was an excellent read. It was well researched, containing 4 pages of suggested additional reading and 67 pages of notes, so the author did his research.

This is not an anti or pro meat book, it just talks about how strange people, all peoples relationships with animals are. Anyone who has ever taken any prescription medication or had a medical procedure has been a willing participant in medical animal testing. Over 90% of all vegetarians have admitted to eating some kind of meat in the last week.

This is a book that made me think about my own attitudes about animals, but did not try and change any of my behaviors. An interesting and thought provoking book.

3.5 of 5 stars.

I guess I was looking for something beyond Psych 101...

I was expecting a book on ethics, something that argued for a certain point of view. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a book on psychology, about how people in general view or moralise their own ethical stance on animals. The book didn't come to many answers, which may frustrate people, but a lot of the science so far doesn't have clear answers, and I enjoyed the inclusion of the author's own stance on certain issues, even though he admits some of them are just as illogical as the ones he examines.