Sometimes a book can take an interesting topic and make it kind of boring. Our Kindred Creatures by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy is one such book. The rise of the animal rights movement in the United States seems intriguing, but the somewhat dry, detached writing style and a mid narrator for the audiobook made this a slog.
Also, let me offer you a warning: this book talks a lot about vivisection, so if you’d rather not hear details of cruel experiments performed on dogs, maybe don’t listen to the audiobook. I’ve got to stop doing this sort of thing to myself.
I learned some interesting things in this book, like how a lot of people involved in the animal rights/anti-cruelty movement had previously been involved in abolition. I could only imagine them dusting their hands off when slavery was outlawed and saying “Well, that’s settled” and looking for a new cause to champion. And while that was all to the good for the nation’s animals, it does make you wonder if there would have been less issues with segregation and other racist policies if the abolitionists had decided to fight for civil rights rather than stopping at slavery. Who knows!
Another interesting thing was how for, a time, some of the organizations dedicated to stopping animal cruelty also had in interest in stopping child abuse. Rather than being focused on the well-being of animals, or the well-being of children, there were people who saw cruelty in general as an issue and wanted to fight it in all forms.
This is a really long book and it touches on a lot of subjects. It talks about the plight of working horses in the city; the early industrialization of the meat industry; the establishment of humane societies and the attempt to find the most humane way to euthanize unwanted strays; the eradication of the buffalo as a method of exerting more control over Indigenous people; how we drove various American birds to extinction; and how rich people spoiled their dogs pretty similarly to how we do now.
The authors have identified a thirty-year period as key to the rise of animal rights and anti-cruelty work in the US, and that’s primarily where the book is focused, although it dips into the past to explore the history of some of the key figures, and looks ahead to talk a bit about the passing of those figures and their legacy. The epilogue then turns its attention on our modern day, and that’s where the book really fell apart to me because they tried to fit about three different messages into a 30-minute segment, and while all of them were worth considering, going over them in such a short period of time meant the arguments felt shallow and shoehorned in.
If you are specifically interested in animal rights and anti-cruelty movements, this book is probably worth checking out (although again, I’d avoid the audiobook unless that’s the only way you like to read!). But if you’re just vaguely curious and all animal-related topics like I am, you’ll probably find yourself slogging through it just like I did.
TWs and CWs: So much animal cruelty and vivisection, including detailed descriptions of slaughterhouse and meat packing industries. Also mentions of child abuse, slavery, racism, sexism, colonialism… basically the Victorian era’s greatest hits.
Format and Source: I read this as an audiobook borrowed from Sno-Isle Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): All About Animals. I listen to a lot of audiobooks about animals, but they’re usually about a specific species or group of animals, such as Florida panthers or caracaras. I felt like a book that was more general was a good choice for this prompt. Choices were made.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 13 out of 25 prompts complete. 1 bingo.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 10 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.