Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Thanking the Monkey

Like Bill Maher, I'm a carnivore, and I don't make any real apologies about it. But this doesn't mean that I support cruel farm practices. There is a new book out, Thanking the Monkey by Karen Dawn which helps give some balance to the argument.

Despite the strident tones in the video on that site from pro-vegans, the book offers a cornucopia of tips for those who simply want to do right by animals without taking the Full Monty of going vegan. In fact, I think that is the book's greatest strength: While it offers some compelling reasons for a change in diet to eliminate animals from it, it isn't preachy and offers a wide range of options for those of us interested in making changes.

One of the failings of the animal rights movement has been to go extremist and lose a whole range of people who might otherwise be interested in the arguments for moderation (and, in the end, large numbers of people making small changes can bring about greater things than small numbers of people getting extreme and preachy).

Full disclosure: I worked on this book early on, clearing photo and text rights. I don't get anything from book sales, though!

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