{"id":764313,"date":"2021-07-22T08:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T12:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764313"},"modified":"2021-07-22T08:29:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T12:29:32","slug":"the-road-less-traveled-whats-your-real-footprint-on-the-animal-world-asks-writer-henry-mance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764313","title":{"rendered":"THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: \u2018What\u2019s your real footprint on the animal world?\u2019, asks writer Henry Mance"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Much of the book illustrates a very troubled, unloving relationship between humans and animals, not only in the livestock and fishing sectors, but in our treatment of captive animals in laboratories and zoos and our encroachment on the natural world.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

ELIZABETH CLAIRE ALBERTS:<\/strong> Many of us love animals. At least, we think we do. We may serve our cats gourmet food and let them sleep in our beds. We may buy our dogs expensive squeaky toys and take them on vacations with us. But the love we have for our pets doesn\u2019t always translate to the pigs, chickens and fish that end up on our plates, or the cows used to make our shoes or belts. Why is this? The book ‘How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World’ by British writer Henry Mance explores this conundrum: Why do we love some animals but not others? The first chapter takes a hard look at one of the most obvious places for humanity\u2019s strained relationship with animals: factory farms.<\/p>\n

Mance, who converted from vegetarianism to veganism while writing the book, got a job at an abattoir to learn the true reality of what it takes for meat, milk and eggs to end up on our dinner tables. \u201c[O]ccasionally I would look up and see animals being killed, and I would just think, \u2018Why do we think this is necessary?\u2019\u201d Mance told Mongabay. \u201cIf this were essential for human culture to exist, then maybe there is a justification. But what I realized at the abattoir is \u2026 how much power we have over other animals\u2019 lives and how unthinkingly we wield it.\u201d Mance also briefly worked at a \u201cgood pig farm\u201d to see if the argument of only buying \u201cgood meat\u201d stands up to scrutiny. But after scooping up dead piglets from straw-filled sheds, he concluded that it really doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Despite the book\u2019s title, much of the text illustrates a very troubled, unloving relationship between humans and animals, not only in the livestock and fishing sectors, but in our treatment of captive animals in laboratories and zoos and our encroachment on the natural world. Other parts look at what might seem to be more positive aspects of the human-animal relationship, such as our love of dogs. But even here, there is a dark side in the way we overbreed our canine companions to have certain looks or personality traits.<\/p>\n

Mance grapples with some tough questions in his book. For instance, he questions whether hunting has any kind of conservation value. He describes a deer hunting expedition in England that he didn\u2019t enjoy, noting how \u201cpathetic it is to pull the trigger.\u201d Yet he concedes that hunting, at least in some cases, may be able to protect land and wild animal populations. \u201cIf anyone wants to stop wasteful killing for pleasure, they should focus on farming,\u201d he writes. He also delves into the argument that zoos can help sustain and regenerate populations of wild animals that cannot easily survive in the wild. While zoos have been able to successfully breed and reintroduce species such as the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), he suggests that zoos are likely doing more harm than good, and all in all, they\u2019re focused more on humans than on animals.<\/p>\n

Another part of the book challenges the reader to consider the way we objectify fish and other sea creatures, rather than seeing them as individual animals that feel pain and share many of the same genes as humans. \u201cSome animals are dehumanised; fish are de-animalised,\u201d Mance writes. This de-animalising process is epitomized in the way we kill them \u2014 often bluntly and without pain relief. Not only that, but the fishing industry only counts dead fish by weight, while an abattoir will at least count killed animals by number, he notes.<\/p>\n

Mance has a clear view that animals should be treated with more respect and kindness than we currently give them, but he doesn\u2019t come to this conclusion lightly. Besides throwing himself into abattoirs and hunting expeditions, he gathers as much information as he can from a rich array of sources and speaks to many experts to understand the full picture. At one point, he nibbles on a pork chop to see what it is he\u2019s missing out on as a vegetarian. But when the taste leaves his mouth after a few seconds, he realizes that eating meat isn\u2019t worth it. \u201cIs that what we do all this for?\u201d he writes. \u201cThat was the last time I ate meat, and I have never regretted leaving it behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embedded in the book\u2019s pages is the personal challenge to understand our own relationship with animals. Do we really love animals the way we say we do? Are we doing enough to protect the animals we profess to love? \u201cThis book is mostly about what we\u2019ve got wrong,\u201d Mance writes. \u201cBut I hope for a future where humans recognise what they share with animals \u2014 where we put less effort into owning animals, and more into accommodating them alongside us\u201d… Mongabay spoke to Mance the day before his book\u2019s U.S. launch. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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