Scan barcode
A review by 11corvus11
Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce
2.0
I quit. I really tried with this book and I usually finish books even if I am not into them. I assumed I was the audience as an ethical vegan with a background in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The first third of the book (introduction and chapter 1 and 2) are repetitively on the defensive about the discussion of nonhuman animal morality having a right to exist. The same things are said over and over and very little progress is made because the majority of it is trying to seem objective and scientific but just coming off as too afraid to make the valid point that other animals have emotional and moral lives. Without said repetition I assume this book could succeed as a 30 page paper instead.
Even with all that I stuck with it. But, a person like me can only read so many cruel captive animal studies without wanting to throw the book against a wall. I read half of this book and counted one tiny paragraph that even slightly acknowledged that- if we acknowledge that other animals are more than just machines- that the research is completely unethical. There were far more paragraphs validating cruel captive animal research because we've learned something about captive animal behavior. Science that validates cruelty for the sake of learning is dangerous and terrible as history and present will show.
I quit when I got to the study about mice injected with acid to see if they would show empathy while watching another mouse injected with acid before they themselves were also injected. Why don't we talk about the moral lives of human animals in this book? A scientist that spends their days injecting mice with acid is not someone I will ever look to as an authority on empathy or morality. Shame on this book for not calling these researchers out.
Maybe if I stuck with it the last half of the book would be just that. But, I spent my time pushing myself through it and waiting for what I expected- a detailing of moral animal behavior examples and a discussion thereof which included observations and ethics. I will stand corrected if the book completely changed direction after I quit. But, I doubt it.
2 stars instead of 1 for the discussion of anthropomorphism and because reading the reviews makes me think maybe it might build a bridge for some intellectuals- who don't believe humans and other animals share many things- to wake up.
Even with all that I stuck with it. But, a person like me can only read so many cruel captive animal studies without wanting to throw the book against a wall. I read half of this book and counted one tiny paragraph that even slightly acknowledged that- if we acknowledge that other animals are more than just machines- that the research is completely unethical. There were far more paragraphs validating cruel captive animal research because we've learned something about captive animal behavior. Science that validates cruelty for the sake of learning is dangerous and terrible as history and present will show.
I quit when I got to the study about mice injected with acid to see if they would show empathy while watching another mouse injected with acid before they themselves were also injected. Why don't we talk about the moral lives of human animals in this book? A scientist that spends their days injecting mice with acid is not someone I will ever look to as an authority on empathy or morality. Shame on this book for not calling these researchers out.
Maybe if I stuck with it the last half of the book would be just that. But, I spent my time pushing myself through it and waiting for what I expected- a detailing of moral animal behavior examples and a discussion thereof which included observations and ethics. I will stand corrected if the book completely changed direction after I quit. But, I doubt it.
2 stars instead of 1 for the discussion of anthropomorphism and because reading the reviews makes me think maybe it might build a bridge for some intellectuals- who don't believe humans and other animals share many things- to wake up.