A Plea for the Animals - Matthieu Ricard

The author comprehensively examines all areas of animal abuse as well their negative environmental effects, and he argues in favor of vegetarianism and its nutritional viability; but he equally targets the abhorrent aspects of experiments on animals by science and the many ways animals are reduced and abused as objects of amusement, from captivity in zoos to enslavement as pets. A section exposes the unimaginable abominations practiced as part of the international trade in exotic fauna and animal products (e.g., bear bile, rhinoceros horns, elephant tusks). And he devotes an entire chapter to the cruelties and absurdities of bullfighting. Matthieu's book differentiates itself from others in this field by being a complete and general indictment of the execrable treatment of animals by humans in our world today, of the moral bankruptcy that allows it, and its deleterious environmental effects.