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Summary: We all have contempt for whatever there's too much of
Review: Bravo Jeffrey Masson! Masson takes on the courageous task of asking us all to consider how we treat our farm animals. He asks us to think. Something that most of us resist doing, particularly when thinking might make us see ourselves (or animals) in a different light. Masson treads along the well-worn path of our human arrogance and provides us with compelling evidence that we are not the only beings in this world that possess rich emotional lives. He opens our minds and our hearts to the thoughtless exploitation and the tragic suffering of the animals that we farm. Masson's compassionate journey into the emotional lives of farm animals will forever change the way we think, feel and behave towards all the animals that we share our world with.Masson is a master writer. He weaves a wonderful tapestry of obscure and fascinating facts, compelling tales, little known historical details, expert opinions and personal musings. His writing never fails enlighten us or to touch us to the very depths of our souls. This book is a tremendously important work and should serve to shake up our narrow view of the farm animals we exploit.
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Summary: A Life-Changing Book
Review: I have been a vegetarian for 11 years, unwilling to eat anything that required "killing" an animal. After reading "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon", I cannot with a good conscience continue to eat the foods produced by animals/birds. The suffering they endure for my benefit cannot be justified. I am now beginning my path toward veganism and the small, but necessary, contribution I can make to alleviate the suffering of animals for the selfishness of man.
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Summary: A Life-Changing Book
Review: I have been a vegetarian for 11 years, unwilling to eat anything that required "killing" an animal. After reading "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon", I cannot with a good conscience continue to eat the foods produced by animals/birds. The suffering they endure for my benefit cannot be justified. I am now beginning my path toward veganism and the small, but necessary, contribution I can make to alleviate the suffering of animals for the selfishness of man.
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Summary: Are we deities Mr Masson?
Review: I read this book from cover to cover and by about chapter 3 was beginning to ask myself what exactly is it that Mr Masson thinks we are? or should be? Apart from vegans like himself of course. Throughout the book he refers to the 'natural' life that these animals should be living, completely disregarding that the natural life he refers to does not exist. He refers constantly to the 'shortened' lifespan of many, completely ignoring the natural high mortality rate of non-domesticated animals. I get the distinct impression that Mr Masson believes that all animals should live in cossetted little retirement villas as our friends and domestic pets with whom we should spend our days contemplating the universe. I do believe that animals should be given respect and food animals should live good and pleasant lives, which give them the opportunity to act in natural ways until they are slaughtered. But the premise that animals in their natural habitat live happy and pleasant lives until they quietly pass away from old age is laughable. Life is tough, dangerous and frequently frightening for an animal in its natural habitat - if old or sick or debilitated they are dispatched by predators in a way which is not necessarily quick or painless - Mr Masson needs to grow up and visit some of his animal friends in their natural state.
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Summary: Read at your Own Risk...
Review: If you read this absolutely superb book, please be aware that you will never be able to look at any animal, either those normally labelled as "farm" animals such as chickens, pigs or cows, or those considered to be domesticated,such as dogs or cats,quite the same way ever again. This is, in effect, at least for me, a life-altering book. I made a commitment to vegetarianism after reading just a few chapters of this powerful, persuasive book. Yes, much of it is anecdotal but I defy anyone with any knowledge of animal behavior to deny Masson's central premise - that all animals are capable of thought, feeling and emotion and should be treated with as much respect and dignity that we accord (or at least should accord) to our fellow human beings. Even if this book does not persuade everyone toward a vegetarian lifestyle, I hope that anyone who reads this important book comes away with a better understanding of how the food we mindlessly eat actually reaches our tables. Not everyone will be persuaded by Masson's evidence but there is no denying the absolute misery endured by so many of God's creatures. A powerful, important book. Highly recommended
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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.
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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.
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Summary: No substitue for science
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.
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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.
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Summary: The Pig Who Sang to the Moon
Review: The premise of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson's book, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, is so simple. That the farm animals-- the pigs, chickens, cows and other animals-- which most of us regularly dine on are not merely inanimate, insensible, "meat-on-the hoof" existing in some sort of mindless homeostasis until they are eaten. Rather, they-- like we-- lead rich emotional lives, lives which are in fact most usually horribly stunted by our farming practices which involve, among other cruelties, intensive confinement systems which thwart even the most basic of emotional and biological expressions. Simple though the premise may be, if humans had feathers lots of them would undoubtedly be ruffled by this book. It's simply hard for most of us to accept-- emotionally-- that those whom we have so thoroughly removed from the realm of our moral concern could be suffering so from our actions.
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