Post by Mel Mel on May 12, 2006 16:54:30 GMT
This is my book review for "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals" by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.
From the back:
In this groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson reveals startling evidence that farm animals have feelings, even consciousness - and bears witness to the emotions and intelligence of these remarkable barnyard creatyres, each unique with distinct qualities. Curious, intelligent, self-reliant - many will find it hard to believe that these attributes describe a pig. They also dream and know their names when called. Mother cows mourn when their calves are taken away. Given the choice between food that is nutritious or lacking in minerals, sheep will select the former, balancing their diet and correcting the deficiency. Goats display quite a sense of humor, dignity, and fearlessness (Indian goats have been known to kill leopards). Chickens are naturally sociable - they will gather around a human companion and preen themselves beside someone they trust.
Weaving history, literature, anecdotes, scientific studies, and his own vivid experiences observing these gentle beasts, Jeffrey Masson shatters the abhorrent myth of the "dumb animal without feelings." The Pig Who Sang to the Moon is a revolutionary book that is sure to stir human emotions far and wide.
My Rating: 9/10
My Comments: Really amazing book. Really enjoyable, and very touching. This book is life-changing. Definately recommend to anyone.
Random Quotes from Book:
"Like people, pigs avoid extreme temperatures...Mud protects their sensitive skin from sunburn, dangerous to a pig, and also from flies and other parasites. It is not, then, that pigs are dirty; quite the contrary. Never will a pig defecate near its sleeping or eating quarters."
"Pigs...are extremely tactile and love to be touched more than anything else. The minute you touch them, they close their eyes and wait for a massage. It gives them enormous pleasure. It occured to me that if every person who ever ate bacon could experience the peacefulness and mutual trust of this encounter, if they could observe the majesty of these animals in their own environment, the pork industry might disappear."
"A chicken flew into my arms...She made soft, strange cooing sounds and nestled into my arms like a happy kitten. I was won over...This is how chickens and humans would relate to one another if one was not exploited and the other doing the exploiting. Very much like cats and dogs. They just wait for the chance."
"I defy anyone to enter a shed with up to half a million chickens in it, spend an hour in that stench, and tell me that the chickens are happy, or that we cannot know whether they are or not. It flies in the face of common sense."
"In the wild, both hen and cock elude their enemies, form intense friendships, protect their brood, and greet the golden dawn with a burst of song. This is how chickens and roosters were meant to live."
"Is there something about the innocence of sheep that stimulates men to ever-greater heights of cruelty?"
"There is a special relationship between lambs and children, expressed in the nursery rhyme about Mary having a little lamb. It is not suprising, therefore, that there has also been an awareness that not all is well with this relationship...Children who become close to lambs often reflect a feeling of sickness that this relationship is then destroyed by adults in a particularly treacherous way: by killing their companion."
"When a cow loses her calf or is separated from her calf, it is rarely due to any sort of natural calamity. Alas, it is almost always human-engineered. Farmers separate calves from their mothers at birth so that they will not drink the milk meant for them. We want that milk, and farmers do not want the calves to get even a drop."
"A dairy cow's male calf is taken from his mother and spends the remainder of his short life confined to a "veal crate" not much larger than himself. He never tastes his mother's milk and is deliberately made anemic by being fed a liquid diet with so little iron his meat will be white, a result much prized by consumers, often without any idea of how it is produced."
From the back:
In this groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson reveals startling evidence that farm animals have feelings, even consciousness - and bears witness to the emotions and intelligence of these remarkable barnyard creatyres, each unique with distinct qualities. Curious, intelligent, self-reliant - many will find it hard to believe that these attributes describe a pig. They also dream and know their names when called. Mother cows mourn when their calves are taken away. Given the choice between food that is nutritious or lacking in minerals, sheep will select the former, balancing their diet and correcting the deficiency. Goats display quite a sense of humor, dignity, and fearlessness (Indian goats have been known to kill leopards). Chickens are naturally sociable - they will gather around a human companion and preen themselves beside someone they trust.
Weaving history, literature, anecdotes, scientific studies, and his own vivid experiences observing these gentle beasts, Jeffrey Masson shatters the abhorrent myth of the "dumb animal without feelings." The Pig Who Sang to the Moon is a revolutionary book that is sure to stir human emotions far and wide.
My Rating: 9/10
My Comments: Really amazing book. Really enjoyable, and very touching. This book is life-changing. Definately recommend to anyone.
Random Quotes from Book:
"Like people, pigs avoid extreme temperatures...Mud protects their sensitive skin from sunburn, dangerous to a pig, and also from flies and other parasites. It is not, then, that pigs are dirty; quite the contrary. Never will a pig defecate near its sleeping or eating quarters."
"Pigs...are extremely tactile and love to be touched more than anything else. The minute you touch them, they close their eyes and wait for a massage. It gives them enormous pleasure. It occured to me that if every person who ever ate bacon could experience the peacefulness and mutual trust of this encounter, if they could observe the majesty of these animals in their own environment, the pork industry might disappear."
"A chicken flew into my arms...She made soft, strange cooing sounds and nestled into my arms like a happy kitten. I was won over...This is how chickens and humans would relate to one another if one was not exploited and the other doing the exploiting. Very much like cats and dogs. They just wait for the chance."
"I defy anyone to enter a shed with up to half a million chickens in it, spend an hour in that stench, and tell me that the chickens are happy, or that we cannot know whether they are or not. It flies in the face of common sense."
"In the wild, both hen and cock elude their enemies, form intense friendships, protect their brood, and greet the golden dawn with a burst of song. This is how chickens and roosters were meant to live."
"Is there something about the innocence of sheep that stimulates men to ever-greater heights of cruelty?"
"There is a special relationship between lambs and children, expressed in the nursery rhyme about Mary having a little lamb. It is not suprising, therefore, that there has also been an awareness that not all is well with this relationship...Children who become close to lambs often reflect a feeling of sickness that this relationship is then destroyed by adults in a particularly treacherous way: by killing their companion."
"When a cow loses her calf or is separated from her calf, it is rarely due to any sort of natural calamity. Alas, it is almost always human-engineered. Farmers separate calves from their mothers at birth so that they will not drink the milk meant for them. We want that milk, and farmers do not want the calves to get even a drop."
"A dairy cow's male calf is taken from his mother and spends the remainder of his short life confined to a "veal crate" not much larger than himself. He never tastes his mother's milk and is deliberately made anemic by being fed a liquid diet with so little iron his meat will be white, a result much prized by consumers, often without any idea of how it is produced."