Compassion for Animals – North American Vegetarian Society

Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:04 +0000

Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs looks at a world in which avian influenza, food poisoning, global warming, genetic engineering, and the expansion of poultry production and consumption are careening to an unsustainable point. Read the compelling argument for adopting a compassionate, plant-based cuisine as an alternative to the warfare waged on defenseless chickens.

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Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:03 +0000

This ground-breaking work, voted one of the top ten books of 2010 by VegNews Magazine, offers an absorbing look at why and how humans can so wholeheartedly devote ourselves to certain animals and then allow others to suffer needlessly, especially those slaughtered for our consumption.

Social psychologist Melanie Joy explores the many ways we numb ourselves and disconnect from our natural empathy for farmed animals. She coins the term “carnism” to describe the belief system that has conditioned us to eat certain animals and not others.
In Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows Joy investigates factory farming, exposing how cruelly the animals are treated, the hazards that meatpacking workers face, and the environmental impact of raising 10 billion animals for food each year. Controversial and challenging, this book will change the way you think about food forever.

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The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:03 +0000

Jenny Brown was ten years old when she lost a leg to bone cancer. Throughout the ordeal, her constant companion was a cat named Boogie. Years later, she would make the connection between her feline friend and the farm animals she ate, acknowledging that most of Americaâs domesticated animals live on industrialized farms, and are viewed as mere production units. Raised in a conservative Southern Baptist family in Kentucky, Brown had been taught to avoid asking questions. But she found her passion and the courage to speak out.

The Lucky Ones introduces readers to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary which Brown established with her husband in 2004. With a cast of unforgettable survivors, including a fugitive slaughterhouse cow named Kayli; Albie, the three-legged goat; and Quincy, an Easter duckling found abandoned in New York City, The Lucky Ones reveals shocking statistics about the prevalence of animal abuse throughout Americaâs agribusinesses.Â Blending wry humor with unflinching honesty, Brown brings a compelling new voice to the healthy-living movementâand to the vulnerable, voiceless creatures among us.

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The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:03 +0000

Nature documentaries often depict animal life as a grim struggle for survival. This book opens our eyes to a different way of looking at the animal kingdom. Including more than one hundred thirty images, it celebrates the full range of animal experience with dramatic portraits of animal pleasure. Hardcover

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Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:03 +0000

A compelling and straightforward case for embracing an abolitionist animal rights philosophy that hinges on only non-violent behavior and makes vegan advocacy an imperative. A fresh and thought-provoking work.

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Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, Hardcover

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:02 +0000

Do baboons have a sense of right and wrong? Do cats and dogs have their feelings hurt? Animal behavior expert Jonathan Balcombe makes the case that animals, once viewed only as mindless automatons, actually have rich sensory experiences and emotional complexity. Drawing on new research, observational studies, and personal anecdotes to reveal the full spectrum of animal experience, Balcombe paints a new picture of the inner lives of animals that diverges from the “fight or die” image often presented in the popular media. He challenges traditional views of animals and makes the case for why the human-animal relationship needs a complete overhaul.
Did you know that dogs recognize unfairness and that rats practice random acts of kindness? Did you know that chimpanzees can trounce humans in short-term memory games? Or that fishes distinguish good guys from cheaters, and that birds are susceptible to mood swings such as depression and optimism? With vivid stories and entertaining anecdotes, Balcombe gives the human pedestal a strong shake while opening the door into the inner lives of the animals themselves.

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Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:02 +0000

Pleasurable Kingdom presents new evidence that animals–like humans–enjoy themselves. From birds to baboons, insects to iguanas, animals feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics, and more. Combining rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdotes, leading animal behavior researcher Jonathan Balcombe shows that the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ethical ramifications for both science and society.

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Eat Like You Care: An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:01 +0000

This book puts the issue of eating animals squarely on the table. We all claim to care about animals and to regard them as having at least some moral value. We all claim to agree that it’s wrong to inflict “unnecessary” suffering and death on animals andâwhatever disagreement we may have about when animal use is necessaryâwe all agree that the suffering and death of animals cannot be justified by human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. We condemn Michael Vick for dogfighting precisely because we feel strongly that any pleasure that Vick got from this activity could not possibly justify what he did. So how can we justify the fact that we kill many billions of land animals and fish every year for food? However “humanely” we treat and kill these animals, the amount of animal suffering we cause is staggering. Yet no one maintains that animal foods are necessary for optimal health. Indeed, mounting empirical evidence points to animal foods being detrimental for human health. But however you evaluate that evidence, there can be no serious doubt that we can have excellent health with a vegan diet. There is also broad consensus that animal agriculture is an ecological disaster. Animal agriculture is responsible for water pollution, air pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, inefficient use of plant protein and water, and all sorts of other environmental harms. The best justification we have for the unimaginable amount of suffering and death that we impose on animals is that they taste good. We enjoy the taste of animal foods. But how is this any different from Michal Vick claiming that his dogfighting operation was justifiable because he enjoyed watching dogs fight? Vick liked sitting around a pit watching animals fight. We enjoy sitting around a summer barbecue pit roasting the corpses of animals who had lives and deaths that were as bad as, if not worse than, Vick’s dogs. What is the difference between Michael Vick and those of us who eat animal foods? This book shows there is no difference, or at least not any difference that matters morally. Prof. Gary L. Francione and Prof. Anna Charlton argue that if you think animals matter morallyâif you reject the idea that animals are just thingsâyour own beliefs require that you stop eating animal products. There is nothing “extreme” about a vegan diet; what is extreme is the inconsistency between what we say we believe and how we act where animals are concerned. Many of us are uneasy thinking about the animals who end up on our plates. We may have thought about stopping our consumption of animal products, but there are many excuses that have kept us from doing so. The authors explore the 30+ excuses they have heard as long-time vegans and address each one, showing why these excuses don’t work. Packed with clear, commonsense thinking on animal ethics, without jargon or complicated theory, this book will change the way you think about what you eat.

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Animal Camp: Reflections on a Decade of Love, Hope and Veganism at Catskill Animal Sanctuary

NAVS — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:42:01 +0000

Kathy Stevens has an abounding love of animals that is the foundation of compassion upon which the Catskill Animal Sanctuary is built. Her tales of the rescued animals who inhabit her haven are moving, provocative, and by turns hilarious and devastating.

Meet Barbie, the broiler hen found in Brooklyn hiding under a blue Honda, who falls for Rambo, a ram with an uncanny sense of what others need. Hereâs Norma Jean, the turkey rescued from a âturkey bowlâ just before Thanksgiving. Say hello to Noah, a twenty-one-year-old stallion, starved and locked in a dark stall for his entire life until he came to the safety and plenty of Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

More than 2,000 animals have lived and loved at Catskill Animal Sanctuary since its founding in 2003. And while the love Kathy Stevens and her devoted staff have for them is stunning, more remarkable is who the animals become at this place where kindness rules.

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