Rating: 
Summary: A Compassionate Journey
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.
Rating:
Summary: Opening our eyes and our hearts
Review: Congratulations and thanks to Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson for another insightful and inspiring book. "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" lives up to the legacy of "When Elephants Weep" and his other books, as it opens our eyes to the reality of the animals' world so that our hearts embrace the depth and complexity of their emotional lives. The book is filled with surprising, heartwarming and even humorous stories that illustrate the emotionality of the animals typically relegated to the role of "livestock" in our culture. It also reveals hard facts about how these sensitive creatures are handled between the barnyard and the dinner plate. But mercifully, Mr. Masson succeeds at telling the often troubling truth about what animals experience at the hands of humans, without making the book too gruesome for sensitive readers to endure. The more gory details are tucked away in the endnotes at the back of the book for those who need the information and can bear to read it. The rest of us can move safely through the text, reminded of the reasons to make conscious choices about the food we eat and the clothes we wear, but also entertained by the remarkable stories and uplifted by the recognition of how much we share with our four-legged or feathered brethren. "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" is an enormously valuable collection of information and anecdotes that will help us all move a little closer to shedding the veil of denial about who animals are. We'll be the richer for it, as we dissolve the boundaries between "us" and "them" and renew our connection with all the creatures who share our planet.
Rating:
Summary: Opening our eyes and our hearts
Review: Congratulations and thanks to Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson for another insightful and inspiring book. "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" lives up to the legacy of "When Elephants Weep" and his other books, as it opens our eyes to the reality of the animals' world so that our hearts embrace the depth and complexity of their emotional lives. The book is filled with surprising, heartwarming and even humorous stories that illustrate the emotionality of the animals typically relegated to the role of "livestock" in our culture. It also reveals hard facts about how these sensitive creatures are handled between the barnyard and the dinner plate. But mercifully, Mr. Masson succeeds at telling the often troubling truth about what animals experience at the hands of humans, without making the book too gruesome for sensitive readers to endure. The more gory details are tucked away in the endnotes at the back of the book for those who need the information and can bear to read it. The rest of us can move safely through the text, reminded of the reasons to make conscious choices about the food we eat and the clothes we wear, but also entertained by the remarkable stories and uplifted by the recognition of how much we share with our four-legged or feathered brethren. "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" is an enormously valuable collection of information and anecdotes that will help us all move a little closer to shedding the veil of denial about who animals are. We'll be the richer for it, as we dissolve the boundaries between "us" and "them" and renew our connection with all the creatures who share our planet.
Rating:
Summary: Know more about who else lives in your world.
Review: Excellent book. It's about farm animals, how they were domesticated, how they're raised now, their capacity for emotion and intelligence, and various other things about them. The concluding chapter tells us that the goal of the book was to convince us to all go vegan. It's not anywhere near as heavyhanded and fearsome as most pro-vegan animal books are, though, which is a relief.
The chapter on sheep didn't really tell me anything new at all, which is odd, since I know nothing about sheep.
On the other hand, the chapter about chickens was FANTASTIC. Aside from many anecdotes, it even told a few things I didn't know about natural chicken behavior and qualities. It verifies that chickens do indeed see into both the infrared and ultraviolet ends of the spectrum... which means their color vision is better than ours... I'd wondered about that! The anecdotes about chickens were really interesting... it told of how chickens tend to protect disabled chickens (such as a bonded pair of hens, one of whom was blind, and the other of whom acted as her guide), how they will bond with virtually any other social animal (including horses), and (of particular interest) the process by which factory-farm hens are rehabilitated. They go through a stage of severe agoraphobia and shock which may even kill them, but after about three days, you'll suddenly find them all roosting up in trees, and they've never even seen trees before (not to mention dirt, grass, sky, sunlight, etc) and after a couple years they'll be recovered and thriving, to such an extent that some individual hens may be very affectionate towards humans. That's great to hear, since I'd been told previously that factory-farmed chickens never survive rehabilitation, because the shock is too great.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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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