The Pig Who Sang to the Moon

Biased toward humanizing animals and demonizing meat eaters, but with reason. An interesting, but unscientific read. ( )

The Pig Who Sang to the Moon is a beautiful testament to the lives of the voiceless millions of farmed animals who are cruelly hurt and killed every day. I think it is the most important book I have ever read. Someone should speak up for the animals, and I admire Jeffery Moussaieff Masson for being the one to do it.

"Why is it generally considered ridiculous to point out that every one of those animals had a mother, almost all had siblings, and surely some were mourned by a parent or missed by a friend? Even though they were bred to be killed, their emotional capacities were not altered by such breeding. They had memories, they suffered, and they grieved. There is little justification for making a comparative scale of suffering where 'human' is weighted and animal is given little weight. To be concerned about one kind of suffering does not mean that you must have no interest in another, or that you think that one is somehow more important or more terrible than another." ( )

This book discusses each farm animal in depth (pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and goats) with anecdotes about actual animals proof of emotions, such and pain, grief and happiness. Interesting and sweet! (I want a pet pig!) ( )

All in all a good book, if I wasn't already a vegan I could see this book being the tipping point since it does such a good job of pointing out the cruelty to dairy cows, sheep raised for wool, geese used for their down feathers..etc. What prevented me from giving it 4 stars was that the author, at least at the time it was written states he is "mostly" vegan while at the same time advocating others go vegan. ( )

Wonderful, interesting book that will make you think, if you're open to it, about things as varied as our place in the whole scheme of things, the benefits & drawbacks of the ways we eat and live, and especially, about the probable lives, loves and thoughts of other creatures we humans so often take for granted, knowing them mainly simply by how we eat them, and nothing more.Masson is a bit strong in his views on vegetarianism, I think, and I don't always agree with him, but you can easily read around this as long as you're somewhat confident and aware of your own feelings about that. I think many people are not so confident & aware, though -- I wasn't as much as I thought I was before reading this -- so the book is one that offers something for everyone... everyone, that is, who cares to rediscover how compassion, happiness and a consciousness o the world around them are not traits shared by humans alone. Anyone who has and loves any kind of pet will understand this. Why should it be any different for farm animals, who give to us so we can live.Those who criticize the book for being "pompous" or "unscientific, unbalanced, and anthropomorphic" are missing the point. In fact, without sounding "pompous" myself, I'm not sure they get one of the basic messages underlying the entire book, which is that farm creatures have lives that can be equally as fulfilling as ours, and that it's perhaps time we stop and ponder how we treat them in our gusto to feed ourselves. Any of the various labels thrown at the book, like being "anthropomorphic" I feel are just excuses to avoid thinking deeply about these things, of course while maintaining humans as some kind of ideal creature above all others. We are human, not any other creature, so how else can we -- as humans -- observe, interact and hopefully understand pigs, chickens, sheep, goats, cows and ducks (all the animals explored in the book) except anthropomorphically? Sure, it's a limitation not because the animals can't talk like us and perhaps think like us, but rather because we can't talk like them or perhaps think like them. The book offers us a chance to change our human-centered perspective for a spell, and at least try to see things from the animals' perspectives. Difficult, for sure, and likely not entirely accurate, yet, but certainly worth the effort (and it's really not that much effort).Taking time to better understand other creatures, like farm animals, whom we share our lives with not only will likely help them, but surely can help us better understand ourselves as well. Originally written on Feb 10, 2010 at 03:25AM ( )