A thought-provoking and surprising book that explores the
ever-evolving relationship between humans and domesticated animals.
The domestication of animals changed the course of human history. But
what about the animals who abandoned their wild existence in exchange
for our care and protection? Domestication has proven to be a wildly
successful survival strategy. But this success has not been without its
drawbacks. A modern dairy cow's daily energy output equals that of a
Tour de France rider. Feral cats overpopulate urban areas. And our
methods of breeding horses and dogs have resulted in debilitating and
sometimes lethal genetic diseases. But these problems and more can be
addressed, if we have the will and the compassion.
Human values and choices determine an animal's lot in life even before
he or she is born. Just as a sculptor's hands shape clay, so human
values shape our animals--for good and or ill. The little-examined, yet
omnipresent act of breeding lies at the core of Gavin Ehringer's
eye-opening book. You'll meet cows cloned from steaks, a Quarter horse
stallion valued at $7.5 million, Chinese dogs that glow in the dark, and
visit a Denver cat show featuring naked cats and other cuddly mutants.
Is this what the animals bargained for all those millennia ago, when
they first joined us by the fire?
