Contents

Preface

Introduction: Sanctuary

Part I: A Special Bond

One: The Ties that Bond

The Biochemistry of the Bond

Pet Keeping Through the Ages

Domesticated Animals: “Bonded to the House”

Animal Sacrifice: “The Perfect Gift”

Animal Welfare and the “Great Republic of the Future”

Self-Evident Truths

Two: The Mismeasure of Animals

Thinking and Feeling: Shared Capacities

Denying Animal Intelligence

Signs of Change

Lifesaving Dolphins and Dogs, Altruistic Elephants, and Other Remarkable Animals

The Emotional Lives of Animals

Part II: The Betrayal of the Bond

Three: A Message from Hallmark: Exposing Factory Farming

The Slaughterhouse Next Door: Inside a California Meat Plant

The Hypocrisy of “Happy Cows”

Endless Denials: The Challenge of Reform

“The New Agriculture”: The Ways of Industrial Farming

“Meat Science”: Turkeys Who Can’t Walk, Pigs Who Can’t Move, and Other Victims of Agribusiness

Stirring the Silent Majority

Four: A Culture of Cruelty: Animal Fighting in America

Bad Newz on Moonlight Road: Dogfighting Comes Out of the Shadows

Michael Vick and the Contradiction of Cruelty

Blood Sport Through the Ages

“The Feathered Warrior”

“I Won’t Disappoint You”

Five: For the Love of Pets

Katrina and the Human-Animal Bond

The Animals in Our Lives

In the Name of Mercy: Animal Shelters and the Problem of Euthanasia

Factory Farms for Dogs: The Tragedy of Puppy Mills

The AKC and “the Maintenance of Purity”

Nothing Fancy: The Costs of Reckless Breeding

Six: The Cull of the Wild

Unfaithful Stewards: Betraying Yellowstone’s Bison

Killing and Longing: The Lessons of TR

The Era of Rational Slaughter

“Let’s Kill Them All”: The Attack on Alaska’s Wolves

“Garbaging for Bears”: Commercial Hunting and Contemptible Conduct

The Face of Innocence and the Shame of Canada

Part III: Building a Humane World

Seven: Cruelty and Its Defenders

The Moral Scale and Humane Living

Rhetorical Camouflage: Debating Opponents of Animal Protection

Collateral Damage and the NRA

“The Agro-Industrial Complex”: Harvesting Subsidies

“The Rising Plague” and the Veterinary Oath

Eight: The Humane Economy

“Creative Destruction” and Living Capital

Wild Neighbors

Chemistry and Compassion

Twenty-First-Century Science

Innovation and the Spark of Life

Appendix: Fifty Ways to Help Animals

Notes

Searchable Terms

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Credits

About the Publisher