Linzey (Creatures of the Same God
), director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, is a soft-spoken hard-liner about animal rights. In this philosophically and theologically dense treatise, cobbled together and revised from essays and presentations prepared between 2002 and 2007, he rationalizes why no animal should ever be killed or even harmed by humans. Linzey dwells at abstruse length on efforts to ban foxhunting in Britain, while other countries are condemned, America included, for “causing suffering for pleasure.” A chapter devoted to fur farming slams the practice of raising animals for their pelts, subjecting them “to prolonged suffering for trivial ends, such as fur coats.” A chapter devoted to commercial sealing dwells on the clubbing of baby seals. Such animal abuse is a precursor to serial murder and violence to children, the author suggests, before calling for an end to killing animals even for food, given that humans can live healthy lives “without recourse to flesh products.” Linzey's proanimal extremism is admirable, but won't suit every reader.(Aug.)
