All for Animals: Tips and Inspiration for Living a More Compassionate Life

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Summary: Fun read, Excellent reference, Insightful and Motivating
Review: All For Animals is an excellent resource for responsible animal lovers. Karen Stevens' enthusiasum and writing style make this book particularly fun to read. It is very well organized and contains appendicies listing cruelty free products and companies, contact information, and other cruelty free resources. This book is on the cutting edge of the animal rights movement. Excellent publication quality.

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Summary: A must-read guide and reference for every animal lover
Review: All For Animals: Tips And Inspiration For Living A More Compassionate Life by Karen Lee Stevens (founder of All For Animals, a pro-animal organization based in Santa Barbara, California) is a straightforward, detailed, "pet owner friendly" guide to living a life kind to animals. Stevens' informed advice ranges from purchasing household products and cosmetics that have not been animal tested, to spaying and neutering to curb pet overpopulation, to making healthier food choices. All For Animals is a must-read guide and reference for every animal lover, and a very useful consumer information resource for the shopper who wants to know which brand-name companies have a cruelty-free track record.

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Summary: Great resourses & tips from an animal champion and lover.
Review: I am delighted to have Karen's book in my possession and would recommend this book to anyone who loves animals, owners or not. Karen writes that the purpose of this book is to allow "you to explore [the] many ways in which you can show even more love and appreciation for your companion animals and gives you the opportunity for learning how to peacefully coexist with all the animals who share our earth." You don't have to be an animal owner or an activist to play a crucial role in their well-being. In fact, most change for the better will take place through the everyday choices ordinary individuals like you and I make. Things like, picking up fallen fruit to discourage wild animals from coming onto your property, or feeding feral cats, adopting older pets, or not placing "free to a good home" ads. This book is written by someone who truly loves animals and cares about their well-being. Rather than make us feel guilty, this book equips us with a myriad of options. You don't have to be a vegan or have a houseful of rescued animals to be playing an important role in their lives. Start where you are and do what you can - at the end of the day everyone's actions, small and large, are what counts. That's the message I take from this book. There is something here for everyone - from animal-friendly products to purchase; to organizations to join, places to volunteer and where to send letters of concern; right down to things we can all do right near home to make the lives of animals a little better. Karen has done animal lovers and advocates everywhere a great service in writing All For Animals. I suggest you keep this book close at hand as a reference, and buy one for a friend.

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Summary: Equal Doses of Compassion and Good Advice!
Review: There are a multitude of pet books published every year; clearly some are better than others. ALL FOR ANIMALS is a welcome addition to the field because author Karen Stevens mixes equal doses of compassion, sound advice, and important research in putting this handy little guide together.

This is the perfect book for someone who is at the beginning of a journey. Perhaps you have a special cat or dog already in your life and that special bond has gotten you thinking about how to live your life in a way that treats all animals with respect and dignity. This isn't one of those animal rights rants. Instead, Stevens covers a wide range of topics from pets wills to product testing. She provides timely resources and excellent information to point the reader in the right direction through the animal world.

If you really love animals and want to do the right thing, I urge you to read ALL FOR ANIMALS and learn some practical advice on changing your lifestyle to embrace our animal friends.

David Congalton Author, "Three Cats, Two Dogs"

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Summary: Ms. Stevens is a teacher in the best sense of the word
Review: This book truly has a "sleeper" effect. It comes off as unassuming and just generally pleasant, and when I finished reading it I sort of shrugged and thought, "Well, what a nice little book."

Ha! The truth is, this book is quietly but steadily reshaping my life. I guard against being strident towards others and generally despise "confrontation," but All for Animals has helped me learn that in the past I've been completely silent where this wasn't necessary. This book has suggested to me a peaceable yet strong way to express myself to others in the context of hurt toward animals. I suspect this is because it has given me a whole new way to talk to myself on the subject.

For instance: this week at work I found myself getting up and walking around my cubicle and engaging myself in a conversation with a fellow who was talking about killing chickens for research and tossing off casual remarks like "Well, if you have to kill an animal, why not a chicken?"

We had a spirited yet amicable discussion. In the end, the fact that I've been a mostly a vegetarian since I was a teenager wasn't sufficient ammunition against the fact I was wearing leather shoes. But because the discussion was kept at a friendly level, what I took away from it wasn't animosity against this other person, but self-examination about those leather shoes. Had I not read this "nice little book," I know I would have overheard my coworker and thought, momentarily, "Gosh, that's not right," but brushed it off and not got up and talked with him. And was I beating myself over the head about wearing leather? No, not at all: I was just calmly (but steadily) wondering about it.

Karen Lee Stevens has something special to offer in a world that stampedes to become polarized and politicized around animals as an "issue." The deep beauty of this book is its ability to reach out to the human species with warmth and subtle depth and say: I understand that you can't do everything all at once, just try this one little thing and see if you like it. I am eager to see Ms. Stevens continue and expand upon the gifts she has to offer, and I challenge savvy booksellers to place this title not just among the animal-related offerings but in the (human)self-improvement category as well.

Rating:
Summary: Ms. Stevens is a teacher in the best sense of the word
Review: This book truly has a "sleeper" effect. It comes off as unassuming and just generally pleasant, and when I finished reading it I sort of shrugged and thought, "Well, what a nice little book."

Ha! The truth is, this book is quietly but steadily reshaping my life. I guard against being strident towards others and generally despise "confrontation," but All for Animals has helped me learn that in the past I've been completely silent where this wasn't necessary. This book has suggested to me a peaceable yet strong way to express myself to others in the context of hurt toward animals. I suspect this is because it has given me a whole new way to talk to myself on the subject.

For instance: this week at work I found myself getting up and walking around my cubicle and engaging myself in a conversation with a fellow who was talking about killing chickens for research and tossing off casual remarks like "Well, if you have to kill an animal, why not a chicken?"

We had a spirited yet amicable discussion. In the end, the fact that I've been a mostly a vegetarian since I was a teenager wasn't sufficient ammunition against the fact I was wearing leather shoes. But because the discussion was kept at a friendly level, what I took away from it wasn't animosity against this other person, but self-examination about those leather shoes. Had I not read this "nice little book," I know I would have overheard my coworker and thought, momentarily, "Gosh, that's not right," but brushed it off and not got up and talked with him. And was I beating myself over the head about wearing leather? No, not at all: I was just calmly (but steadily) wondering about it.

Karen Lee Stevens has something special to offer in a world that stampedes to become polarized and politicized around animals as an "issue." The deep beauty of this book is its ability to reach out to the human species with warmth and subtle depth and say: I understand that you can't do everything all at once, just try this one little thing and see if you like it. I am eager to see Ms. Stevens continue and expand upon the gifts she has to offer, and I challenge savvy booksellers to place this title not just among the animal-related offerings but in the (human)self-improvement category as well.

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Summary: Unconditional Love
Review: We love our animals and they love us-unconditionally. This book by Karen Lee Stevens is about those very special companions.

Do you have a special animal companion in your life? When you look into his or her eyes, what do you see? Do you consider this animal an integral part of your life--a member of the family? Most of us give our companion animals a great deal of affection and would never allow them to be hurt, abandoned, or abused. In return, they give us unconditional love and devotion.

This book allows you to explore many ways in which you can show even more love and appreciation for your own companion animals and gives you the opportunity for learning how to co-exist with all the animals who share our earth.

All for Animals doesn't describe painful animal experiments or show graphic pictures of animal suffering. Instead, the book offers quick and easy ways you can be kinder to animals and treat them with more respect. Even if you choose to do only a few things suggested in this book, you'll feel good about yourself for helping the animals.

Each chapter in All for Animals contains an uplifting, inspiring story about animals by such well-known authors as Gina Spadafori (author of Dogs for Dummies, Cats for Dummies, and Birds for Dummies) and Greg Louganis, Olympic gold-medal diving champion (For the Life of Your Dog), coauthored with Betsy Sikora Siino.

Additionally, story contributions have been made by Pets: Part of the Family, pets.com, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the National Humane Education Society, and many others.

Karen Lee Stevens is the founder of ALL FOR ANIMALS, a Santa Barbara, California-based pro-animal organization. Karen's love of animals began in early childhood where she spent countless hours as a volunteer at the Santa Barbara Humane Society. Through her Web site, online newsletter, and numerous magazine and newspaper articles, Karen seeks to educate consumers about cruelty-free living and respect for all animals. A graduate of San Diego State University's Business Administration and Marketing program, Karen now makes her home in Santa Barbara, California.

I enjoyed reading about Karen and Cassidy and I learned a lot about animals. As a publisher, author of 27 Books, 109 revised editions, six translations and over 500 magazine articles, I, too, love to write with a furry friend on my desk. My late cat Cricket helped me for more than 20 years. His passing resulted in a book about aging, declining, grieving and memorializing cats: The Older Cat: Recognizing Decline & Extending Life.

I recommend Karen's book to everyone who likes to read about animals. You will discover the responsibilities of animal guardians and what you can do to help our companions...


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Summary: Be a friend to the animals!
Review: Wondering how you can help animals? The new book "All for Animals: Tips and Inspiration for Living a More Compassionate Life" by Karen Lee Stevens helps answer that question. This book is full of simple, easy ways to adopt a cruelty-free lifestyle. For example, buy household and personal care products that haven't been tested on animals, have a meat-free meal, attend an animal-free circus, voice your opinions against dissection of animals in the classroom and show your support for animal protection legislation."All for Animals" includes interesting animal rescue stories written by people who share what they learned from these encounters and the profound emotional rewards they received. In all these instances, the animals were saved from lonely, painful lives and introduced into environments where they were loved and well cared for. "All for Animals" also includes a reading list for those interested in learning more about animal issues, a list of on-line resources, and a list of companies that don't test their products on animals. "All for Animals" isn't preachy, overly sentimental, or graphic to shock you to into living a more humane, compassionate life. It simply offers information on how to be more animal-friendly in ways that makes sense. You'll learn to love and appreciate your companion animals more deeply as well as respect the rights of all animals to a peaceful existence.