The Pig Who Sang to the Moon : The Emotional World of Farm Animals

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: Jeffrey Masson has written a series of books about the emotional lives of animals. Each of these books has helped me to understand these creatures, and deepened the sense of compassion with which I live. Now he turns his perceptive eye and eloquent writing to those animals who become are meat, and from whom we derive our eggs and dairy products. Jeffrey Masson writes so well that the pages fly by, effortlessly, and then suddenly you realize how profoundly you've been changed and moved. If you want to forever enrich and deepen your relationship with the animals we farm for food, this is the book for you. The Pig Who Sang To The Moon is not just about pigs. It's about us. It's about who we are and who we are becoming. This is the kind of book that can change lives.

Rating:
Summary: With special thanks
Review: Jeffrey Masson wrote several wonderful books about the emotional lives of animals, their interaction with each other and us - humans.
I've read and loved all of them - admiring the Author's impeccable style, sense of humor, tremendous work that went into the research and collecting all the material.

"The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals" is however quite different.
It has touched my heart as no other book ever had.

I could feel the Author's grieve and compassion as he was pouring his heart and soul into the chapters of this book.

It took guts to visit the places where most of us wouldn't be willing to go, to see the things we'd rather not, and to put in writing the sad stories of the animals that we are taking for granted, never giving a thought to their horrible lives and deaths - thoughtlessly seeing nothing more than just the meat for our dinner table.

The Author's courage to stand up against the main stream of society's insensitivity and insensibility, and against the powerful meat industry deserves our highest respect, as this book will, no doubt, meet with a lot of opposition and unfavorable opinions.
No matter - I'm sure that it will change many people's ways of thinking and, more importantly, eating habits.
It is simply impossible that such a powerful and beautiful book can fail to make a difference in our perception of farm animals.

How closely the feelings of the animals resemble our own is showed in the passage that made a particularly strong impression on me:

"...A friend told her that she passed a slaughter-house every morning on her way to work (in Perth, Australia), and she noticed the cows lined up in the preslaugher pen from where they could see their companions being killed.
They were trembling - they could hardly stand up they were shaking so badly.
They were absolutely terrified."

"Only those who have lost their souls will fail to understand."

It's my fondest hope is that the Author's efforts in influencing the average person and the food industry won't stop here.

"The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" has filled the important gap - it was desperately needed!

A heartwrenching, great book that EVERYBODY should read.

I'd like to express my personal thanks to the Author for writing it.

T.A.

Rating:
Summary: Spreading our Empathy
Review: Masson is doing important work here. Those that accuse him of sentimentalism or anthropomorphism don't understand the project. All Masson is trying to do is generate a little consistancy between our feeling towards the animals in homes and the one on our plates. Perhaps some people will read this book and decide we should start eating dogs and cats. However, Masson rightly expects that most people would sooner pull all animals off the menu.

Rating:
Summary: Spreading our Empathy
Review: Masson is doing important work here. Those that accuse him of sentimentalism or anthropomorphism don't understand the project. All Masson is trying to do is generate a little consistancy between our feeling towards the animals in homes and the one on our plates. Perhaps some people will read this book and decide we should start eating dogs and cats. However, Masson rightly expects that most people would sooner pull all animals off the menu.

Rating:
Summary: When Pigs Weep
Review: Scholar and prolific author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson burst on the scene as one of the foremost contemporary writers about animals with the publication of "When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals" in 1995. "Elephants" was groundbreaking, showing that non-humans of all shapes and sizes lead complex emotional lives. The book became a New York Times bestseller.

Masson has since published three books about cats or dogs. All were fine works and fun reads, yet, as each focused solely on one species, none captured Masson's affinity to bring the reader onto the printed page as did his first animal book. While his dog and cat books touched your heart, "Elephants" seeped into your soul.

With the publication of "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional Lives of Farm Animals," Masson makes a grand return to his previous lofty accomplishment. Like "Elephants," "Pig" focuses on beings in addition to the chosen one who gets a mention in the title. Sharing with the reader the emotional complexities of many animals is one of Masson's greatest strengths; certainly no writer today is his superior. When he writes, "Farm animals-perhaps because of the fate that invariably awaits them-seem able to feel something I cannot," it makes you wonder if he's being too modest, while questioning whether you, the reader, can feel what he, the author, does.

In "Pig," Masson covers all of the modern-day farmed animals, devoting chapters to pigs, chickens, sheep and goats, cows, and ducks and geese. His research is superb; whether you are a long-time ethical vegan or a committed carnivore you will discover something you did not know about each of these beings. Are you aware that a pig is easier to house train than a dog? Or that chickens always know exactly what time it is? That goats are funny, inventive, and love unconditionally? Masson uncovers these and many more gems, including the elderly New Zealand couple whose two ponds fill up with wild ducks "every year, the night before duck season starts."

Masson also expertly discusses his supposition of farmed animal emotions, foreshadowing the naysayers certain to question his premise. He writes that "not so very long ago, ... people intimately connected to the lives of animals did not care whether animals had feelings or not." He then quotes Frans de Wall, Ph.D., Professor of Primate Behavior from the Yerkes Primate Research Center, who wrote in a 1999 New York Times editorial, "I still remember some surrealistic debates among scientists in the 1970s that dismisses animal suffering as a bleeding-heart issue. Amid stern warnings against anthropomorphism, the then-prevailing view was that animals were robots, devoid of feeling, thoughts, or emotions." Masson concludes: "in the absence of communal signs, such as physical gestures or sounds, humans are simply not equipped to understand animal emotions. This does not mean they are not there."

"Pig" is a book that pulls no punches, yet is "mainstream" enough to reach a wide audience. Masson doesn't shy away from the real issues, stating, in the first chapter, "The position I take in this book is a radical one," and "I think it is wrong to raise animals for food." Later he states "All you need do to make [animal slaughter] unnecessary is to say once and mean it: these deaths are not necessary. I do not have to eat meat."

In his concluding chapter, "On Not Eating Friends," Masson proclaims, "I have to be honest: My research leaves me in no doubt whatsoever, that to prevent animals from suffering unbearable agony, we must become not only vegetarian, but vegan." These are powerful and refreshing words coming from an author whose book is certain to get wide coverage and exposure.

If you wish to give farmed animals the best Holiday season ever, purchase two copies of "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon"-the first for yourself; the other as a gift for one of the future vegetarians on your shopping list.

~ Joseph Connelly ([e-mail]) is founding editor of VegNews (vegnews.com)

Rating:
Summary: When Pigs Weep
Review: Scholar and prolific author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson burst on the scene as one of the foremost contemporary writers about animals with the publication of "When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals" in 1995. "Elephants" was groundbreaking, showing that non-humans of all shapes and sizes lead complex emotional lives. The book became a New York Times bestseller.

Masson has since published three books about cats or dogs. All were fine works and fun reads, yet, as each focused solely on one species, none captured Masson's affinity to bring the reader onto the printed page as did his first animal book. While his dog and cat books touched your heart, "Elephants" seeped into your soul.

With the publication of "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional Lives of Farm Animals," Masson makes a grand return to his previous lofty accomplishment. Like "Elephants," "Pig" focuses on beings in addition to the chosen one who gets a mention in the title. Sharing with the reader the emotional complexities of many animals is one of Masson's greatest strengths; certainly no writer today is his superior. When he writes, "Farm animals-perhaps because of the fate that invariably awaits them-seem able to feel something I cannot," it makes you wonder if he's being too modest, while questioning whether you, the reader, can feel what he, the author, does.

In "Pig," Masson covers all of the modern-day farmed animals, devoting chapters to pigs, chickens, sheep and goats, cows, and ducks and geese. His research is superb; whether you are a long-time ethical vegan or a committed carnivore you will discover something you did not know about each of these beings. Are you aware that a pig is easier to house train than a dog? Or that chickens always know exactly what time it is? That goats are funny, inventive, and love unconditionally? Masson uncovers these and many more gems, including the elderly New Zealand couple whose two ponds fill up with wild ducks "every year, the night before duck season starts."

Masson also expertly discusses his supposition of farmed animal emotions, foreshadowing the naysayers certain to question his premise. He writes that "not so very long ago, ... people intimately connected to the lives of animals did not care whether animals had feelings or not." He then quotes Frans de Wall, Ph.D., Professor of Primate Behavior from the Yerkes Primate Research Center, who wrote in a 1999 New York Times editorial, "I still remember some surrealistic debates among scientists in the 1970s that dismisses animal suffering as a bleeding-heart issue. Amid stern warnings against anthropomorphism, the then-prevailing view was that animals were robots, devoid of feeling, thoughts, or emotions." Masson concludes: "in the absence of communal signs, such as physical gestures or sounds, humans are simply not equipped to understand animal emotions. This does not mean they are not there."

"Pig" is a book that pulls no punches, yet is "mainstream" enough to reach a wide audience. Masson doesn't shy away from the real issues, stating, in the first chapter, "The position I take in this book is a radical one," and "I think it is wrong to raise animals for food." Later he states "All you need do to make [animal slaughter] unnecessary is to say once and mean it: these deaths are not necessary. I do not have to eat meat."

In his concluding chapter, "On Not Eating Friends," Masson proclaims, "I have to be honest: My research leaves me in no doubt whatsoever, that to prevent animals from suffering unbearable agony, we must become not only vegetarian, but vegan." These are powerful and refreshing words coming from an author whose book is certain to get wide coverage and exposure.

If you wish to give farmed animals the best Holiday season ever, purchase two copies of "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon"-the first for yourself; the other as a gift for one of the future vegetarians on your shopping list.

~ Joseph Connelly ([e-mail]) is founding editor of VegNews (vegnews.com)

Rating:
Summary: Promote World Peace- GO VEGETARIAN
Review: Thank you to another activist who is fighting for peace and love to all beings, whether human or animal. Being a vegetarian is easy if you take a moment to stop and think about the suffering that animals endure to become food. Even if you love meat, please listen to Masson and give it up. Even "Meatless Mondays" would save many animals, but "Meatless Meals" would be evern better. Then, the next step is to go vegan. This book is a good start for those who are still eating other breathing beings.
Love and Peace.

Rating:
Summary: We all have contempt for whatever there's too much of
Review: That's a line from a novel by the title of "The Thornbirds." It was the ironic comment by an Australian sheep rancher when some city folk visited and complained about the "brutal" way the sheep were treated. The rancher's point was that a lot of "animal rights" activists ignore the very real human misery that surrounds them. In the rancher's view, the "activists" would step over starving, sick, and cold humans on their way to a rally for the sake of animals. In contrast, the ranchers would never leave someone in distress in their part of the world unaided.

This is what I thought when I was in Borders the night that the author came in to plug his book. I didn't have any problem with that. All kinds of authors do. What made me want to gag was the way the store announced the author's appearance. In a weepy tone, the female store clerk told us how wonderful the book was and that even if we poor, benighted customers believed in "killing animals" we should come and listen to him tell stories about how "human" animals are.

I felt like throwing up. I am not indifferent to the fact that animals suffer from human cruelty. But I balk at the notion that killing them for food and other reasons is morally wrong. If it is, why do other animals in nature do it to each other all the time?

I also reject the argument advanced by the author and so many others that animals have a moral status and ergo, they have rights. My feeling is that animals have no rights, but humans have obligations to them.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read
Review: The horrors have been pointed out before-that factory farm chickens are genetically altered, debeaked without anesthesia, and crammed into overcrowded coops; that calves are separated from their mothers and kept in dark crates to become veal. Here Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson makes the case that the animals humans eat on a regular basis-pigs, chickens, sheep, cows and ducks-feel, think and suffer. Each animal gets a chapter, in which Masson interweaves folklore, science and literature with his observations of the animals' behaviors. He relates how a pot-bellied pig saved the life of her keeper and visits Dr. Marthe Kiley-Worthington, of Little Ash Eco-Farm in England, whose cow does agility tricks; he also interviews those who raise animals for profit. Arguing that all farming of animals for food is wrong (even eggs), Masson rebuts the fallacy that farm animals would die out without us, but doesn't say how we are to make the transition. For far too long farm animals have been denigrated and treated merely as creatures of instinct rather than as sentient beings. Shattering the myth of the "dumb animal without feelings," Masson has written a book that is sure to stir human emotions far and wide. However, as a vegan & animal rights activist, I honestly wasn't a big fan of this book. There were too many holes in his theories and not enough information to back things up.

Rating:
Summary: Please muster the courage to read & adopt this book's ideas
Review: The Pig Who Sang to the Moon reveals the possibility, if not indeed the strong likelihood, that farmed animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep and ducks are highly sentient creatures whose range and depth of emotions and feelings compare to those of human beings. Assuming that this is the case, the author Jeffrey Moussaieff makes it clear that the notion of mistreating such animals in the process of preparing them for slaughter, and the subsequent eating of these animals, is repugnant and immoral.

Moussaieff provides a wealth of personal anecdotal evidence to support his claims, and also cites the findings of numerous other animal behavior experts. The author travels to farms and farm sanctuaries in England, the USA, New Zealand and elsewhere, and thereby geographically diversifies his research locations. Regardless, globally, the farms that feed the millions of us seldom consider the happiness and well being of the animals that we one day eat. Not that Moussaieff would even relent if animals were permitted to live their "natural lives" before being killed for our consumption; he indicates that the eating of all animals, from cows to chickens to fish, be stopped. In other words, he urges humankind to become vegans, not merely vegetarians.

I share the sentiments of the author toward farmed animals. I recall once, as a child, being invited to the cattle farm of a family friend, for the purpose of picking a Black Angus cow, a side of whom would be put in our freezer once she was killed. I remember that neither I nor my parents had the courage to look any of these beautiful, peaceable creatures in the eye. We said to our farmer friend, "we'll get our side of beef from whichever one you want."

Reading this book has prompted me to stop drinking cow's milk. I now drink soy milk. I have also stopped eating dairy products, such as cottage cheese and sour cream. Why have I stopped eating the products of live animals, not just slaughtered ones? Moussaieff describes, in chilling detail, the miserable plight of dairy cattle in most large-scale dairy farms. These cows are milked far more often, and for greater lengths of time, than they would experience if merely providing for their own offspring. Further, the cows are robbed of their calves (for veal sandwiches) and are housed in cramped, inhospitable conditions.

Moussaieff proposes that farmed animals be allowed to live the rest of their lives in a setting that, as much as possible, approximates their natural circumstances. These animals need to be with one another, and have the chance to wander and to play. While I would love to see this outcome occur, it is not realistic; from an economic standpoint, big farms are not going to voluntarily wind down their operations. Governments would be hard pressed to pull the plug on livestock agriculture, given its perceived importance to the food supply, its contribution to GNP, and its role as an employer. The likes of Tyson Foods is an economic powerhouse, and is daily trying to get even bigger and stronger.

My criticism of this book is that it does not offer much in the way of direction to get from our current uncaring, carnivorous state to a vegan population that is benevolent to every living pig and duck. In fairness, Moussaieff provides a list of seventeen things that persons can do to improve the lot of farmed animals. For example, we are to steer clear of products made of wool(!) and goose or duck down. I was saddened to learn of the barbaric ways that these animal products are extracted from their rightful owners. For the most part, the author's list is directed at individuals. Theoretically, if enough of us abided by these animal-free consumption practices, the market for everything from pork chops to down comforters to pate to chocolate candy would shrink, and the number of businesses, and corresponding upstream animal fodder, would also decline, thereby sparing more and more animals pain, sadness and death.

The more I think about the message of this book, the more shameful our treatment of farmed animals is revealed to be. Moussaieff has taught me just how pervasive and unthinking our consumption of animal products has become. Industry feeds our unconscious complicity by calling pig meat "pork", and cow flesh "hamburger"... doing whatever it takes to divorce what we are eating from the living, feeling animal that is sacrificed.

I am glad to have read the book, I recommend it highly, and wish every non-vegan would read it. Many of the anecdotes are heart-rending, and can easily bring the reader to tears (if not, then I feel sorry for the person who lacks the compassion to do so). I am tempted to encourage my family and friends to cut back on, if not eliminate, their consumption of animal-sourced products. I certainly plan to practise what Moussaieff preaches; if I can't get a veggie dog at the ballgame, I'll just go hungry. I encourage everyone to do the same.