Greensburg Salem Students Read Books, Too!!!

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

Posted by Alyssa Baker, senior, Greensburg Salem High School

Animal Liberation is an extremely well written account of animal practices in the laboratory and factory farms. The real life encounters Singer discusses are enough to wake up a reader and become aware of what is truly happening to animals all over the world for meaningless reasons. Whether one is an activist or just a civilized person this should at least change the viewpoint on the treatment of animals. The first chapter titled ‘All Animals are Equal’ would be considered common sense to some, but yet many people do not realize or fully understand the rights and capabilities of different animals. The next chapter, ‘Tools for Research’ are just some accounts of animals such as monkeys, cats, dogs, rabbits that are tested inhumanely for research that is not helpful or relevant to anything. An example is shocking a dog so many times that they acquire ‘learned helplessness’. The experiment holds a dog on one side of a fence and shocks them on that side. They then jump to the other side where they are also shocked. Eventually, the dog learns that he will be shocked regardless of which side of the fence he is on so he just waits for the shock to be over. Most animals, as well as people, would give up trying to get from one side of the fence to the other if they were going to be shocked either way. This to me either way is common sense. The third chapter titled, “Down on the Factory Farm” includes the inhumane treatment to all sorts of animals including cows, pigs, and chickens. This is a very difficult chapter: readers beware. If one can make it past this graphic paragraph it is all downhill from there. The next chapter introduces vegetarianism and the benefits to the animals, environment, and other people. Finally, the last chapter discusses how the views of animals were brought about and the history behind it. I think everyone should read it just to get a glimpse of what is really happening behind where our food comes from and what truly happens to the animals. Even if one is not interested in becoming a vegetarian at least they can be informed and given the knowledge to make decisions before using products tested on animals and eating different kinds of food. “Animal Liberation” is a very beneficial book to read and one of the best I’ve ever read.