Animalkind

BY INGRID NEWKIRK AND GENE STONE, SIMON & SCHUSTER, £18.99

Our relationship with animals is complicated. In this book, Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone seek not just to describe the remarkable abilities of our animal relatives, they seek to prove that exploitation is not an inevitable consequence of our interactions. This is what sets the book apart. Leather can be faked from wood fiber. Cruelty-free meat can be grown in the lab. Medicines can be tested on slivers of human skin left over from tummy tucks, and virtual animals can now be used in movies. Having read this book, I’m left in no doubt – animals deserve respect and compassion, and there’s no practical reason why they shouldn’t get it.

Helen Pilcher Science writer