This Book is Cruelty Free by Linda Newbery is published 8th July 2021 by Pavilion (https://www.pavilionbooks.com/book/this-book-is-cruelty-free/) - guest review by Hannah Hudson
This book is a comprehensive guide to being cruelty free in your lifestyle. It works its way through categories like animal rights, spending habits, food, fashion, waste, circuses and zoos, pets, and animals in the wild.
The section about the philosophy of animal rights is a hard debate to start the book with but important to understand and I found it fascinating because I haven’t read much about this aspect of a cruelty-free lifestyle. Questions like “should animals have rights” and “what is speciesism” appear which introduce new concepts and help set the reader up to consider their position within the debate.
I enjoyed the section about spending money kindly because I think consumers have a lot of power when it comes to being able to influence the products that are sold by big corporations. This topic easily overlaps with environmental and sustainable habits like shopping low waste or plastic-free as well as cruelty free.
One thing that was missing from the book was a mention about the fact that choice is important but it is only possible when one has the privilege to be able to make those choices: whether that is based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, or geography. This is important to make sure the debate around cruelty-free doesn’t exclude anyone or make people who are unable to make choices feel guilty. When talking about if a vegan diet is expensive, Newbery said that it didn’t have to be but didn’t explain how you could make the diet cheaper or mention that some vegan alternatives are not available to all people depending on their privilege.
“Not: why don’t you eat meat? But why do you eat it?”
Newbery gave a great review about her thoughts, feelings, and behaviours regarding eating habits throughout her life, leading to her becoming vegan. However, the data given in this chapter occasionally felt out of place because of the generic averages which are hard to apply to your own lifestyle and eating habits, especially when the most important factor is just reducing consumption.
I think the sections about factory farming and legal farming practices were explained well with enough shock factor and truth without scaring anyone away from reading the rest of the book. Reading about The Five Freedoms from 1979 by the Farm Animal Welfare Council reminded me that we do have guidelines about our treatment of animals, but these are hardly ever met in the food production processes. Learning about the consequences of killing animals for food which go further than that animal, like the effects on the other cows in milk production, deforestation on the other side of the world and waste contamination, is important to put the topic into context.
The book included some great information about labels on products including “cruelty-free”, “free-range” and “pasture-fed” alongside their definitions. However, some information was too vague and impractical so it could not be applied to your life: the section about changes you can make to your diet was especially disappointing. The sneaky meat section involved useful information about the small ingredients which are not vegan but appear in products that you wouldn’t suspect, like gelatine.
Some of Newbery’s arguments were contradictory and confusing for a younger audience. I think the arguments needed to be more clearly stated and explained for the audience to be able to make informed decisions. However, Newbery kept including biased language about some topics which meant that it was harder to understand how you felt about the topic. She seems to mix up the ideas of going vegan completely and slowly reducing animal product consumption, so that sometimes if you were not vegan you may feel cut out from the conversation, and sometimes if you were vegan you may feel that you are eating the wrong foods anyway (e.g., talking about her dislike for fake meat products).
This style was repeated in the section about cultured meat and eating insects. I wasn’t sure how relevant they were given that many cultures already eat insects and cultured meat is something that has only just been invented. I think vegans could end up eating cultured meat depending on their reasons for turning vegan, like environmentalism, because many of the animal products are detrimental to the environment but cultured meat would cut out these processes.
“The planet can’t support eating meat as the norm.”
In terms of fashion, what you already own is the best choice and second-hand items are the next best choice; then choosing cruelty-free and sustainable. The former choices should be personal preference for a vegan because they would not contribute to continued animal cruelty, although Newbery confuses this by stating that she still buys new some animal fabrics. Some great resources for information about cruelty-free and sustainable fashion are found on Fashion Revolution’s website (https://www.fashionrevolution.org/).
Earth Overshoot Day fell on 29th July this year (2021)
I found the chapter about circuses and zoos interesting as it described the different types that exist and how they work by contributing to animal cruelty or trying to carry out conservation work and prevent animal cruelty. This is a hard topic to talk about because it is difficult to know exactly how each zoo is being run but explaining the benefits of sanctuaries for the continuation of some endangered species was crucial. The information about endangered animals, conservation status and the red list was great.
I found the section on pets slightly odd. There were great questions about buying, for example, a dog and what you should consider before you make that commitment, however then Newbery moved on to exotic pets. I wasn’t sure how that was a helpful or relevant topic. I do not think that exotic pets should be mentioned or encouraged as pets because we never know if they have been stolen from the wild or illegally exported. Exotic animals also need a lot of extra care because of the specific climates that are adapted from so may suffer in the wrong environment. I felt that including this information was encouraging the children and teenagers reading the book to learn about the possibility of these animals as pets which felt contradictory.
“Nature is everywhere. You only need the habit of looking out for it.”
I loved the sections about finding your own wildlife around you in nature reserves or gardens and parks. I would always suggest visiting your local wildlife trusts, woodland trusts, and RSPB reserves for a good day out and some wildlife spotting. I recently was able to see a Black-Browed Albatross at an RSPB reserve in the UK. Tips on cultivating your garden or green space to encourage wildlife felt great for younger audiences to engage with and become excited about especially because of the benefits to everyone’s mental health when they can spend time with nature.
The book finished with a great practical section on how to reply to people’s questions about your food and lifestyle choices regarding animal welfare. The list of organisations and people to look up and learn more about has already been a useful resource to me to figure out books by other experts to read on specific related topics.
Overall, I did enjoy the book, however I think the writing and content style did miss the mark for the specific younger audience that it was aimed at. I think it is a good jumping off point for being able to work out what topics to do with animals and wildlife that you don’t know much about and can research more.
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