Choice 评论

This short work, which grew out of a symposium held at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, provides a collection of essays that deal loosely with human perceptions of animals, but there is no consistent theme or approach. Topics include surveys of US attitudes toward animals, anthropomorphism, the appeal of neotenic figures, use of animal imagery in advertising, animal companions, and ethics. Two chapters explicitly consider US perceptions of wolves and horses, respectively. None of the chapters really deals with the difficult ethical issues that surround the use of animals in research, teaching, and food production. Most of the essays are musings on a general theme rather than definitive and thought-provoking treatments of the topics. The survey of US attitudes toward animals at the beginning of the book provides only a confusing compendium of individual results rather than a synthesis of the material. May be of interest to readers who like animals, but it offers relatively little for research scientists. -P. E. Hertz, Barnard College