Bleating Hearts: The Hidden World of Animal Suffering

I have always felt the conflict between my deep love for biodiversity and my hypocritical actions as a consumer in a fast-paced world. It has never felt good, and after reading Bleating Hearts, I can no longer live as I have in the past - I am vowing to become a vegan and to develop antivivisection policies where I work as a scientist and academic administrator, as well as to develop courses in the curriculum that will allow student to explore these issues of human cruelty to animals for themselves and for a better society. Mark Hawthorne, by opening our eyes, hearts, and minds to the hidden world of animal suffering in so many aspects of our existence, has created an immensely important book. Deeply moving as it is disturbing, it is also as enlightening. It is a key contribution to the next great enlightened movement of humans - that of one toward vegetarian practice and cruelty-free living. The issues confronted so eloquently and powerfully by Hawthorne in Bleating Hearts are profoundly deep ones that will hopefully lead us to realize that we are ourselves animal creatures of earth and that the systems we have created are no less cruel to us as they are to our animal kin. The time has come for change. If you want to be informed and have the courage to confront animal suffering caused by humans, then read this book. It will motivate you to act. This is what the world needs now.

I first heard about this book through the Our Hen House podcast, I listened to an interview with Mark Hawthorne and felt compelled to read this book. I was lucky enough to come across this book for 99 cents for the Kindle edition but after reading it I would have been happy to have paid full price if not more!This book strays from traditional AR issues and examines more of the fringe types of animal exploitation around the world. The book is incredible well researched and will open any reader's eyes to the ways we (hopefully unknowingly) contribute to animal suffering through our tax dollars. It was heart breaking to read about all the ways humans exploit animals in addition to unnecessarily using them for food. The book was also empowering because after each chapter Mark provides you with ways you can get involved in reducing the types of animal suffering her describes.This book is a must read for everyone (even those not passionate about animal rights). I learned a lot of information that I wasn't even remotely aware of before and am a better person for it. So definitely buy this book, read it, learn from it and give it to someone else because everyone needs to know the truth.

I read this book about a month ago and I'm still reeling from its effects. Though I knew a lot about factory farming practices, I was shocked to learn that cruelty comes in many forms, including bear bile extraction, "snuff" animal films, and the suffering marine life suffer at the hands of practically everyone.The tough part about reading this book is that you feel like any change for animals is insurmountable, and for the most sensitive among us it feels like the weight of the world is now on you, knowing what you now know. But you have to do SOMETHING, even if it's ONE THING -- donate, volunteer, make different lifestyle changes with your diet or what you wear, or send this book to someone. I started volunteering for Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, to educate people about farming practices in the U.S.The only reason I give this book four stars is that it was so long, repetitive in some spots, and by the time I got to the end where there were philosophical discussions about cruelty, I was emotionally spent. However, it's an important book and it should be read.

"Bleating Hearts" is virtually an encyclopedia of human-caused animal suffering. It covers some of the more familiar forms, such as factory farming and vivisection, as well as a few I had never heard of, such as the Gadhimai Jatra Mela bloodbath, which happened to take place as I was reading this book.Since this book is encyclopedic in scope, it is also, by its very nature, somewhat superficial. Each chapter stands on its own. You don't necessarily have to read the chapters in order -- or read them all.The real payoff comes in the final chapter, when author Mark Hawthorne lets some of the deepest thinkers in the AR movement have their say. What I found particularly heartening is that such luminaries as Carol Adams, James McWilliams and Marc Bekoff seem to agree that the diversity of approaches in the vegan-advocacy movement is a good thing. That is an important message for the AR community to hear, and absorb.

Fabulous courageous unflinching book, filled with the incredible range of human inhumanity to animals (farmed, companion, wild) and the environmental and human rights abuses that go along with industrial/commercial uses of animals (and one has to say exploitation because if the leather shoe fits you have to wear it). This book is brutally hard to read because we have so successfully insulated ourselves from the cruelty of how we eat, dress, ornament ourselves, clean our homes, and rely on experimental/scientific/medical/pharmaceutical uses of animals. This doesn't even begin to address the deviant sexual and crush video subcultures that torture/kill animals for "entertainment". That we are such a species fills me with shame and revulsion. However, that we have the courage to witness these evils and respond however we are able--even by just reading this book and choosing to eat/dress etc differently in future is a cause for hope that we can be and do better toward the other animals with whom we share this planet.

This book shows why Paul McCartney has said "You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals".And George Bernard Shaw: "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity."And Mahatma Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

We owe it to ourselves to find out what is hidden from view, so we can do our best to give rescue. This is a comprehensively researched book, with many references for follow up.

Whether you turn away from this subject or want to gather more knowledge about the food we eat, and the cruelty involved in that steak on your plate, this is an excellent book. You may even go vegetarian after reading it.

A very good informative book, everyone should read it and understand what goes on in the world which should not. It should be compulsory reading for young adults. I recommend it.

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