Autobiography of a Revolutionary: Essays on Animal and Human Rights

Kalechofsky ( Bodmin, 1349 ) voices deeply felt sentiments in these 14 essays. However, she sacrifices the immediacy of her animal rights argument by directing many of her discussions toward subjects from whom readers can distance themselves--such as Nazi scientists who claimed experimentation on humans was only a step away from experiments on animals and historically remote 19th-century antivivisectionists. ``The Animal Rights Movement and Religion'' argues that ``homocentrism'' is not an immutable aspect of Western religion, which can find common ground with animal rights. In ``Animals: An Historical Perspective,'' she states that concern for animal welfare dates back millennia, while denial of such concern is ``a post-Cartesian creation.'' ``Mod Science'' is a brief but effective piece describing the Wholeratsp ok Catalogue, which offers laboratory equipment such as the rodent emulsifier and small-animal decapitator. ``A Political History of Animal Research'' derides claims by the medical research community that antivivisectionism is ``anti-intellectual'' and ``antiscientific,'' arguing that animal research has precluded the development of other alternatives. (Dec.)