A review by ela_lee_
On Animals by Susan Orlean
3.0
3 stars, tempted to round down to 2.5. This book seems to be written by someone who doesn’t, in fact, truly love animals. It should be titled “How Humans Interact With Animals” as it’s not at all about the beauty of animals or learning much about them as a species. These essays range in discussions on show dogs, breeding tigers as pets, carrier pigeons, animal rights in film, encapsulated whales, farm oxen, taxidermy, baby lion breeding, rabbit RHD outbreaks, pandas, missing dogs, and Moroccan donkeys.
Orlean comes across as someone who looks at animals as material possessions of humans. She seems so distant from actually understanding animals; I found many comments in this book to be ignorant and disheartening. This lady has purchased pure breds over shelter dogs her entire life, wanted all of her pets to have red hair for the aesthetic, thought it was endearing to have a lion cub rented for her birthday, and seems to base her “love” of animals off whatever is being marketed at the time (ie: impulsively purchasing chickens and guinea fowl because Martha Stewart or an article suggested them.) Her descriptions of animals were unprofessional and unscientific. She also brags several times about still eating poultry, but of course not her OWN. (Actually, eating your own would make way more sense than supporting mass chicken/turkey manufacturing that prevent animals from living the free range life you provide yours.)
Towards the end, I was so happy for it to be over. I’m assuming this book was supposed to be positive and interesting, but I only learned a couple things and pretty much hated it. Plus her voice on the audiobook completely irked me. Definitely would not recommend this book to an animal lover.
Orlean comes across as someone who looks at animals as material possessions of humans. She seems so distant from actually understanding animals; I found many comments in this book to be ignorant and disheartening. This lady has purchased pure breds over shelter dogs her entire life, wanted all of her pets to have red hair for the aesthetic, thought it was endearing to have a lion cub rented for her birthday, and seems to base her “love” of animals off whatever is being marketed at the time (ie: impulsively purchasing chickens and guinea fowl because Martha Stewart or an article suggested them.) Her descriptions of animals were unprofessional and unscientific. She also brags several times about still eating poultry, but of course not her OWN. (Actually, eating your own would make way more sense than supporting mass chicken/turkey manufacturing that prevent animals from living the free range life you provide yours.)
Towards the end, I was so happy for it to be over. I’m assuming this book was supposed to be positive and interesting, but I only learned a couple things and pretty much hated it. Plus her voice on the audiobook completely irked me. Definitely would not recommend this book to an animal lover.