A fascinating study of animal consciousness by a scientist who has studied animals and birds of all kinds for many years. He intersperses first hand accounts of his own experiences and encounters with animals with observations of other experts in the field and explorations of various scientific theories.

As an animal lover, I've always believed their emotional lives are every bit as rich as ours, albeit in ways that are unique to each individual species. It astonishes me that there there should be any question around whether or not animals experience emotion, feel pain, are capable of suffering etc., but there are those who still seek to deny animals those capacities. As Bekoff reiterates many times in his book however, it is a mistake to over-anthropomorphise our conception of animals - their experiences are not ours but are none the less valid for that.

It was interesting reading this book straight after Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which addresses the question of animals in terms of how we use them for food, in which he remarks “whether our interest in eating animals outweighs their interest in not being eaten … ultimately turns on the vexed question of animal suffering". Pollan concludes that although there can be little doubt that animals experience suffering, it is impossible to ever know the extent or nature of it. He warns against projecting human characteristics onto non-human beings, and uses as an example the experience of watching a steer force marched up a ramp to the killing floor, suggesting we would be wrong to attribute any consciousness of impending doom to the animal, as we would if it was a man going to his execution. Animals however have a highly developed sensory nervous system as Bekoff points out and it seems to me too self-serving to conclude that they would remain oblivious to the scent of fear, blood and death that must pervade such a scene.

Bekoff's book doesn't offer any sweeping conclusions or revelations but it is a strong reminder that regardless of our views on whether or not animals have lives as meaningful to them as we do, we have a responsibility to treat them with compassion and respect. ( )