2009 Bookshelf Favorites

Looking for the perfect book to kick off 2010? Check out Wayne Pacelle’s most loved books of 2009 (plus a few from 2010) and have a happy Meatless Monday! Knowledge is power!

I’ve always thought that to be a well-rounded animal advocate it’s important to spend time reading books. Because human-animal questions touch on so many different disciplines—politics, law, culture, history, sociology, and so many different fields of science—it is important not to limit study to just the identified literature within our field. But it has been exciting for me to see an upwelling of substantive writing and publishing in our field.

One of my favorite reads of 2009 was Dayton Duncan’s “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” a companion volume to the inspiring PBS series by filmmaker Ken Burns. I’ve been talking a lot about this book and another 2009 title I have just begun, Douglas Brinkley’s “The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.” Both are tied to a big question for me. How do we make sense of Theodore Roosevelt as someone whose historical contributions to public lands and wildlife protection were unmatched and visionary, but who had an unquenchable personal lust for killing wildlife? Understanding Roosevelt’s contradictions is no easy task, perhaps as difficult as our struggles to understand how the nation’s constitutional framers advanced such an extraordinary call to human liberty at the same time that they were personally involved in chattel slavery.

I am sure my friend Meg Daley Olmert has thoughts on Roosevelt’s schizophrenic impulses with animals, and her book, “Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond,” was for me the most stimulating book of the year. She argues that there is a chemical explanation for the human-animal bond, and it’s largely driven by oxytocin. This hormone provides part of the neurobiological explanation for the intensity of the bond between mother and child and other person-to-person relations. But Olmert argues that humans and animals release this chemical in abundance when they interact, and that this is a primary driver of the human-animal bond. Olmert’s work associates her with the path-breaking thinking of E.O. Wilson, who some years ago advanced his biophilia hypothesis to explain our intimate connection to nature.

Charles Siebert is one of the finest writers who devotes his attention to animal issues, and his book, “The Wauchula Woods Accord,” provided a compelling case example of how the human-animal bond works in the real world. Siebert’s entire book, built around a transformative overnight encounter with a captive chimp, leads to a powerful formulation of inter-species solidarity and understanding. Here’s the accord itself: “The degree to which we humans will finally stop abusing other creatures, and, for that matter, one another, will ultimately be measured by the degree to which we come to understand how integral a part of us all other creatures actually are.”

Several books I reviewed on the blog in 2009 focused on farm animal welfare, and Jeffrey Masson’s “The Face on Your Plate,” Amy Hatkoff’s “The Inner World of Farm Animals,” and Nicolette Hahn Niman’s “Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms” all found receptive audiences. Tal Ronnen’s “The Conscious Cook” is a beautiful and hearty cookbook on vegan eating, and after his appearance on “Oprah,” it appeared on the New York Times’ bestseller list. In “The Quantum Wellness Cleanse,” Kathy Freston gives readers a 21-day how-to on eating and living better, and it’s readable and accessible and not the least bit doctrinaire. But it was Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals” that was the biggest critical success in the genre of diet and agriculture. Foer wrestled with ethical questions related to his own eating habits and factory farming throughout his life, but it was the birth of his new son that prompted his own life-changing examination of the problems and his commitment to a vegetarian lifestyle. He takes apart factory farming in his account, and his book has provoked an intense and serious public discussion of the many problems associated with industrial animal agriculture.

One terrific wildlife book I blogged about is “Animal Investigators,” by Laurel Neme. Neme’s book offers a great look at the value of forensics to the investigation of wildlife crimes, and has an array of prescriptions for improving wildlife protection and enforcement work in the United States and abroad.

One of my college majors was history and it remains a great passion, so it’s good when I can read animal-focused historical works. I particularly liked Kathryn Shevelow’s “For the Love of Animals,” a history of the English animal protection movement. Her book helps to explain the social and cultural values that made the animal protection movement possible, and underscores the point that the idea of kindness to animals was in great currency before there was a formal movement. Two historical titles I wish I could have read in 2009, and sure to be on my 2010 reading list, are Ann Norton Greene’s “Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America,” and Shelly Fisher Fishkin’s “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals.” Both have received great reviews and have come highly recommended to me. Greene examines the horse as a factor in the history of American technology and a central element in the 19th-century economy. Fishkin brings together some of the animal-focused writing of Mark Twain, one of the most prominent animal advocates of his era.

I’m also eager to read “Inside of a Dog” by Alexandra Horowitz. A psychologist with a Ph.D. in cognitive science, Horowitz explores the natural history of dogs and their evolutionary descent, leading you through a day in the life from a dog’s point of view.

One member of The HSUS family, board member Patrick McDonnell, had a banner 2009 with respect to his creative works. This year Patrick wrote “The Gift of Nothing” and “Wag!,” building on life experiences of his MUTTS’ characters, and with Eckhart Tolle, produced the remarkable “Guardians of Being.”

Nowadays, I do a lot of my reading on the road, in planes, in airports and train stations, and in the homes of friends or the hotels where I stay—whenever and wherever I get a chance. Naturally, I get sent a lot of notices from people about books on animals I should read. Do you have a favorite I haven’t mentioned here? I’m making up a list for 2010, and I’m looking forward to your suggestions.

Many Faces of E. Coli Infection

Recently, The New York Times ran a detailed front-page investigative story from reporter Michael Moss about pathogens in ground beef and the consequences for public health. The piece led with the tragic details of Stephanie Smith, a former dance instructor from Minnesota who ate a hamburger at age 20 and is now paralyzed. It is a chilling report that shatters the assumption that government is carefully monitoring the integrity of the food supply, especially in a global economy where a single hamburger may be pieced together from parts of different cows from throughout the world.

I asked The Humane Society of the United States’ director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture, Dr. Michael Greger, for his thoughts…

E. coli O157:H7, the strain that nearly took Stephanie Smith’s life, is a relatively new pathogen. First discovered in 1982, its emergence and spread has been blamed on three factors: the beef industry’s transition to factory farms, the routine mass feeding of antibiotics to cattle, and the stress associated with trucking these animals as many as a thousand miles to slaughter.

E. coli O157:H7 remains the leading cause of acute kidney failure in U.S. children. Tens of thousands of Americans are sickened every year from this bacteria. And dozens die. But shockingly, the devastation caused by this pathogen is far from the worst of what emerges from today’s factory farms and food processing system.

By comparison, millions of people contract “extraintestinal” E. coli infections—urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can invade the bloodstream and cause an estimated 36,000 deaths annually in the United States. That’s more than 500 times as many deaths as E. coli O157:H7. We know where E. coli O157:H7 comes from—fecal matter from the meat, dairy, and egg industries—but where do these other E. coli come from?

When medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69 percent of the pork and beef and 92 percent of the poultry samples. Half of the poultry samples were contaminated with the UTI-associated extraintestinal E. coli bacteria.

Scientists now suspect that by eating chicken, women infect their lower intestinal tract with these meat-borne bacteria, which can then creep up into their bladder. In addition to the traditional hygiene measures aimed at preventing urinary tract infections, now women can add avoiding poultry as a way to help fend off UTIs.

In chickens, these bacteria cause a disease called colibacillosis, now one of the most significant and widespread infectious diseases in the poultry industry due to the way we treat these animals. Studies have shown infection risk to be directly linked to overcrowding in chicken factory farms. In caged egg-laying hens, the most significant risk factor for flock infection is hen density per cage.

Researchers have calculated that affording just a single quart of additional living space (about equivalent to a 4-inch cube) to each hen would be associated with a corresponding 33 percent drop in the risk of colibacillosis outbreak. This is one of the reasons our efforts to improve the lives of farm animals are critical not only for animal welfare, but for the health of humans and animals alike.

Meatless Mondays: Cutting Back Means Cutting Animal Consumption

It’s week two of Crazy Sexy Life’s Meatless Monday campaign and we hope you’ll join us again for the ride! In today’s blog, Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the US sheds more light on the profound effect we can all have on the planet and the wellness of our fellow beings just by modifying our choices as a consumer.

At The HSUS, we are engaging in a range of cost-cutting management actions to cope with the downturn in the economy, but we are doing our best not to cut any essential animal protection programs. Especially in tough economic times, the determined actions of The HSUS and other animal protection groups are needed more than ever for animals in crisis.

Consumers are having to make tough cost-saving decisions, too. And as they strike some non-essential items from their shopping lists, they are shrinking demand for certain products that cause harm to animals. For example, the fur industry, which produces a luxury product, is experiencing waning sales. The Federal Trade Commission reported in 2005 that an estimated 3.5 million animal fur garments and accessories were for sale annually in the United States, and in 2009, that number has dropped to just more than 1 million—an astonishing decline of more than 70 percent. In fact, prices for seal pelts from Canada have declined by a record amount, though part of that steep decline is due to our closing markets for the pelts through policy changes in Europe and elsewhere.

Gourmet magazine is reporting that people are reducing to some degree their consumption of meat products. Given the inordinately high per capita consumption of animal products in America, this is good news for animals, the environment, and public health. The HSUS is a big tent organization, and we support people who want to switch to more humanely raised animal products, reduce the amount of meat in their diets, or try a vegetarian lifestyle—but the reduction of meat consumption is one of the best things we can do for the planet given how unsustainable the current levels of factory farming are.

Reductions in meat consumption means less support for factory farms—many of which confine animals in small cages or crates, and subject them to other procedures and handling practices that compromise their welfare. In fact, Smithfield Foods, which has pledged but not yet completed the shift toward eliminating gestation crates for sows, reported major financial losses during the last quarter, and it says it needs to shrink its pig population to account for decreasing demand. The dairy industry is also in the throes of reducing its size because of oversupply.

Gourmet notes “the USDA estimates that the production of meat from every major category of farm animal will drop for the first time since 1973.” This is also good news for the environment, since the massive numbers of animals on Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, produce enormous volumes of waste, and pollute watersheds and streams. It also means less in the way of greenhouse gas emissions, since the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that the animal agriculture sector worldwide accounts for 18 percent of all emissions—more than the entire transportation sector.

Unfortunately, some members of Congress don’t want the farm animal industries to do their fair share to combat the problem. Lawmakers aligned with the Farm Bureau and other ambassadors of agribusiness are actively working to exclude agriculture from the impact of any remedial actions to reduce climate change. As a result, you may hear from The HSUS soon to contact your lawmaker to turn this situation around.

As Gourmet’s editor Ruth Reichl noted in a powerful editorial about the detriment of raising so many animals for food on factory farms, “Now it is becoming increasingly clear that we ought to change our ways.”

Turning the Page for Farm Animals

Since its beginnings in the 1950s, The Humane Society of the United States has always taken aim at farm animal abuses. The only difference now is our greater sense of urgency, since confinement, transport, and slaughter systems have become needlessly harsh and because the number of animals raised for food is so staggeringly large.

If the howls from leaders within the big agribusiness sector are solid indicators, we are making some meaningful progress. And never more so than in 2008, when we broke our Hallmark/Westland slaughter plant investigation and also led the charge to pass Proposition 2 in California.

In late May, Wendy’s agreed to start purchasing a modest but meaningful portion of eggs from cage-free producers. And two weeks ago, one of our staff members spoke at a McDonald’s shareholder meeting urging the company to align itself with other fast-food giants and begin to phase in the use of cage-free eggs at its American outlets, or even to mirror its action in Europe, where McDonald’s has already agreed to switch to 100 percent cage-free whole eggs by next year.

We also had major votes on farm animal welfare issues in California—and with great results, thanks in part to the political aftershocks generated by the landslide passage of Prop 2. The California Senate, by a vote of 27-12, approved a bill to ban the painful mutilation procedure of tail docking of dairy cattle—and that’s especially significant because California is the largest dairy state in the nation, with 1.8 million of the nation’s 9 million dairy cows. And the California Assembly passed A.B. 1437, a bill to ban the sale of eggs from battery cage operations, for both humane and health reasons.

Both bills have a ways to go, needing approval by the other legislative chamber and then the governor, but these are exciting advances.

There’s also an uptick in publishing on food and farm animal issues, and I’ve just read two books on the subject. The first, “The Face on Your Plate,” is by Jeffrey Masson, author of a number of books on the emotional lives of animals. Masson lays out the case against industrial animal agriculture methodically, focusing chapters on the global environmental costs of meat consumption; the emotional capacities of animals raised for food and the cruelty imposed upon them throughout their lives; the disturbing business of fish farming as a source of cruelty and environmental despoliation; the psychological mechanisms by which we shield ourselves from the reality of animal suffering; and his personal experience with what he calls a “veganish” diet.

I found Masson’s chapter on denial most provocative, drawing as it does on his training as a psychoanalyst. Having created a stir in the psychoanalytic community some years ago with his criticisms of Sigmund and Anna Freud, he is no stranger to provocation. When it comes to farm animals, he believes, the range of empathy on the part of the general public is still quite narrow, and he is blunt about the self-deluding practices that many consumers engage in when it comes to thinking about animal welfare and diet. Masson argues his case with passion and intelligence, and “The Face on Your Plate” is an important contribution to a growing body of work on farm animals.

The second work, Amy Hatkoff’s “The Inner World of Farm Animals,” focuses on the social, emotional, and intellectual capacities of farm animals, and I provided an afterword for it. I read this fine work in draft form while in the midst of the Prop 2 campaign in California, and I was glad to have before me such a compelling case for improved treatment of farm animals during that crucial time.

Hatkoff’s book is aimed at young audiences, and, drawing on the latest scientific evidence available, it really fills a niche. In chapters devoted to chickens; geese, ducks and turkeys; cows; and pigs, sheep and goats, the author intersperses general accounts with charming vignettes of individual animals.

These books, and all of the other activity on farm animal issues, are markers of a national movement to re-examine where our food comes from, to assess the economic and non-economic costs of industrial animal agriculture, and imagine ways of doing better. As individuals, we must be conscious consumers, and we can do our part to educate ourselves, to influence corporate practices, and to influence policy. When millions of us take collective action like that, there can be no other outcome except forward movement for farm animals.