Cambridge Professors taught Jane Goodall that animals do not have personalities, minds, and emotions. Goodall knew this wasn’t true based on a childhood relationship with her dog, Rusty. Animals may not think as we do, but does being different delegate a species to a lower position of value and rights? The anthology gathers explorations of intellectual intimacies between animals and people that illuminate the animal species— including humans.

Value the Aged

JB Mackinnon makes a case for elderly animals in his essay Wisdom in the Wild. What happens to an elephant herd during a fifty-year drought when none of the elephants are over fifty? Could schools of fish rely on the large elders (sought after by fishing practices) to migrate? Does an old crow matter to any being? What if there is no elder Rhino group to check the aggressive adolescent’s penchant for violence? This call to see the need for elders implicitly smacks against the devaluation of all things old. Turns out—it’s really stupid to get rid of or ignore elders. If this volume contained only this essay—it would still be essential reading.

Wonder

Wonder connects us to the thing we may not name, though some call it God or Universe. And wonder goes beyond thinking; some find it a holy experience. Bryan Dole explores wonder with a focus on Sturgeon, fish that roam our Wisconsin waters and his Columbia River. This behemoth lives to over a hundred years (perhaps two hundred). The female releases rafts of three to four million eggs, bigger than a bear or a car, was swimming in waters that flowed alongside dinosaurs. And as Dole witnessed, the visage can evoke an awed silence or cussing. Consider the three year old, who reacts to the sight of a Sturgeon with the phrase “Holy Sh*t.”

Horses and Horsemeat

Lisa Couturier holds an uncomfortably bright spotlight on the horsemeat industry. Since we tend not to eat horses in the US, it’s easy to imagine that we honor our horses. As Couturier reports with difficult sensory detail, we come to understand the special relationship that many have with their horses lasts only as long as the living horse offers significant benefit to the owner. Once the horse has more benefits as a meat product to be sold overseas, an industry lies in wait. This important, though cringe-worthy, essay might also be considered alongside Orion's anthology To Eat With Grace. 

Perspectives

The writers in Animals and People don’t pretend to have answers as to how to consider relationships that include love, servitude, and consummation—yet it’s impossible to consider these beautiful and smart essays without chewing on enlighten perspectives and taking them in. When considering this book and my relationship with animals, end lines from Mary Oliver’s poem “The Fish” came to me “We are nourished by the mystery.” Yes, we are.

The Orion Society furnished copies for review. Contact Amy through www.AmyLouJenkins.com to forward books for possible review. A version of this review previously appeared in the Sierra Club's Muir View.