IN A REAL sense, this book is a product of more than 35 years of thinking, writing, teaching, lecturing and acting in the area of animal ethics. To acknowledge everyone to whom I owe significant gratitude for dialogue and criticism over the years would itself require a book. Nonetheless, there are certain people to whom I owe a recent debt. These people include my wife, Linda; David Rosenbaum, Director of the University of Missouri Press, who has been a dear friend and brilliant critic who helped me in innumerable ways for over 20 years; the readers and editors for the University of Missouri Press, Gloria Thomas and Sara Davis; and my friend and colleague and co-teacher Terry Engle. And I must also thank my students at Colorado State University and lecture audiences all over the world, who help assure that I know what I am talking about.