What We Do to Animals

In order to access my computer to write this review I have had to remove a seven-month-old mini fox terrier cross from my lap. This action was not received well. There was a whimper, a sigh, a sort of “hurt feelings” huff and a flouncing off. Am I anthropomorphising? Quite possibly. Nonetheless I believe animals feel, emote, communicate and bond in a myriad of ways that we may never wholly fathom.

It is animals’ capacity to feel and connect that drives Victoria Thompson to advocate for change to make the world a kinder place, a task she approaches with unflinching, but at times undisciplined, zeal. 

Animals Are Us: A Guide to a Kinder World begins with an exhaustive catalogue of sins perpetrated against animals by human beings in the service of food, science, comfort, fashion and entertainment. The detrimental effects of animal exploitation on our health and environment are also expounded. None of it makes comfortable reading. (I genuinely wish I could unread the chapters on bullfighting and animal experiments.) The descriptions of cruelty are so graphic, even the most hardened readers will need to take a break. Whilst the information provided is encyclopaedic and truly horrifying, the accompanying commentary is at times sloppy, with unqualified doomsday predictions, sweeping generalisations, and pronouncements without any follow-up: “Domestication of the horse led to the common cold virus that still plagues mankind”; “Soon there will be no fish left in the ocean”; “Israel is perhaps the only country in the Middle East where people respect animals”. And the descriptions of our sins against our fellow creatures are at times gratuitously explicit, as, for example, when Thompson tells us in harrowing detail how dogs are used in place of prostitutes in Turkey.

With the notable exception of farming practices, for which regulations are generally consistent (even if deficient), descriptions of some horrors are presented as generalisations, when they are likely to be only practised by a tiny minority of lunatics. I lived in Turkey, Hong Kong and South Korea for many years and take issue with whole countries being tainted for the sins of a few.

Being confronted with these horror stories will provoke different responses, depending on the constitution of the reader. Sensitive souls—many of whom will have some familiarity with the plight of animals already—will simply refuse to read on. (I have a friend who gets tearful when she sees roadkill; I doubt she could get through more than a couple of pages here.) The more curious, less-educated-about-animals, may persevere, and this may effect the change Thompson seeks. But more analytical readers will regard declarations such as “no infant died” in Asia from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome due to the sleeping position in which they were placed (thus rendering the cruel experiments on animals to cure SIDS unwarranted) with scepticism. (In fact, the more popular theory for lower rates of SIDS in Asian countries than the West is that Western babies are more likely to be left alone when sleeping.)

At the same time, it is unlikely that any reader of this book will not at some point in their lives have benefited from the exploitation of animals—whether being vaccinated against disease, being cured by antibiotics that have been tested on animals, using products that, somewhere in their production, have some sort of animal content or, of course, in eating meat and other animal products. Many readers (including me) will also have pets to whom we feed meat—where should that meat come from? The scattergun catalogue of sins and paths to redemption doesn’t sit neatly on the spectrum of animal welfare perspectives: from exploiting animals is OK, if done so humanely—as with free range eggs, for example—to the more militant, where any exploitation, including pet ownership, is inhumane. I am still not sure where exactly on this spectrum Thompson sits, although likely towards the more militant end.

More cogent approaches to considering what moral trade-offs should be considered in our treatment of animals have been forthcoming for decades. The most famous, perhaps, is Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation (first published in 1975), which used utilitarian philosophy to mount a compelling argument (to my mind) to eliminate, or substantially reduce, animal suffering. James Serpell took a more human-oriented view in In the Company of Animals (1986) which examined the paradox of humans’ loving relationships with their pets while being perfectly comfortable with the violent exploitation of other animals. More recently, Henry Mance has written something similar: How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World (2021), apparently provoked by the endless fluffy-kitten videos to be found online while billions of animals suffer. 

In reviewing journalist Jonathan Safran Foer’s superbly-researched book Eating Animals (2010), the Nobel Prize for Literature winner J.M. Coetzee wrote:

The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer’s book, continues to consume the industry’s products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both.

While it is clear Thompson’s heart is in the right place, it is difficult to pinpoint how Animals Are Us adds to the canon, aside from being a timely (although at times cavalier) update on the current state of play in various jurisdictions, and some practical tips on how to help. To inspire change in the not-yet-converted requires obsessive attention to detail and a greater understanding of the motivations of the recalcitrant, which other writers have better attempted. Her concluding guide on how we can all help, “We Can Be Heroes—A Guide”, ranges from general behavioural approaches—“being friendly and supportive can go a long way to changing the world”—to tips on how to lobby (write to embassies and companies, sign petitions) and a useful list of like-minded organisations.

For younger readers with little familiarity with the topic (and strong stomachs) the book will be a helpful up-to-date introduction and, with any luck, will ultimately translate into the reduction of suffering for our fellow sentient beings.

Animals Are Us: A Guide to a Kinder World
by Victoria Thompson
Arcadia, 2022, 297 pages, $29.95

Amanda Wilson spent many years working in management consulting, financial services and sustainable investment research in Sydney, New York, Seoul, Istanbul, Baku and Kosovo. She has rescued animals in each of these locations.