This is a bit like preaching to the choir for me. I've advocated the rights of animals as individuals since I was a kid. The information in this book is really, really important, but sadly it's not that well written.

This is a series of mostly short essays written to support animal rights. It was very repetitive and eventually dull. The author reports over and over "research" on traits animals have which are the same as humans. Yes animals, birds, even fish think and feel pain but to equate them with humans is a stretch. He often relies on Darwin to back up his claims and some of Darwin's theory is currently suspect, especially his claim that one species morphs into another species. Also the Cambrian life ex...

I will read anything Marc Bekoff publishes since he is an advocate for a way of being in the world I hope our species eventually adopts. These mini, super-brief essays were culled from a microblogging series he did for an online journal. So they might not be his prose gussied-up in its best threads. But they contain so much interesting information about animal consciousness, animal survival strategies, and animal complexity that they were well worth reading. Bekoff is all about showing us the st...

Having read, and enjoyed, many of Marc Bekoff's books and essays, I looked forward to re-reading pieces I had read before, and discovering new pieces. Being able to access so many pieces in one book is great and I imagine that I will refer to specific essays in conversation and as I continue to study animals and advocate for animal rights.

I wish I could've enjoyed this book or found it informative, but there were just too many problems. Several of the points made by other reviewers are accurate: the author uses his own works as reference points, the science often lacks logic, and the tone is often unbearably smug, like being lectured by that one vegan acquaintance who tells you, every time you see him, what's wrong with your outlook. I wanted to like this, as someone dedicated to animal welfare, but the combination of preciousnes...

Marc Bekoff can be a difficult writer to read. This isn't a bad thing, but rather a rather good one. He doesn't shy away from asking the most difficult questions and often demands the reader answers them, or at least thinks about them more deeply than perhaps they would ever wish to. We need writers like Bekoff to keep us honest with ourselves, and to challenge us to truly embody the morals that we keep and to hold others to a higher standard. This text tackles the realities of compassionate co

Terrible book, couldn’t stomach it, the author laid on his ideology so thick you could barely move. Don’t read it.

I liked the format (separate articles) you could jump from one to another and browse through until something caught your interest.

This book was a huge disappointment. It's really an illustration of why blog posts should not become books, generally. I have a degree in zoology, and one of my favorite topics is animal behavior. From the title and the flyleaf, I had the impression that I would have the opportunity to read fascinating science. What I got instead was the intro to the fascinating science and then Bekoff's conclusions regarding the fascinating science. But no fascinating science. So disappointing.Just a couple of

Compassion begets compassion.The main message in this book is a powerful one. One that I have believed in for quite some time, that how a person treats their fellow humans is reflected in how they treat their fellow animals.Many crimes against humans may well have been prevented had any animal cruelty incidents that preceded them been taken seriously.While I expected Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed to explore more about animal intelligence, emotions and friendship, it was a collection of bl...

One of my most disappointing reads. I'm too fed up with it to even write a proper review. It's so repetitive. It's like being lectured by someone who only has 3 arguments, keeps referring to their own work/things they've said, and never gives you any info about the science. Who is this book even for? - It's definitely not for people looking for science (despite the title), and probably not for people who already care deeply about animals (why would they need Bekoff to tell them the same thing ov...

I love this book! It is a collection of short essays that stimulate deep thoughts and conversations about our moral interactions with nonhuman animals. It is a great book for a plane ride or for times when you just want to relax and read a couple of short essays (every single essay invokes new ideas and thoughts). Since it is a collection of essays, I like that readers don't feel obligated to read the book from front to cover in just one sitting. You can put it down and come back to it weeks or

Some interesting essays, can't agree with everything Bekoff has written but certainly gave me some things to think about.

This book was frustrating and I ended up skimming most of it. I thought it would be about animal behavior. And it is, but the author has an annoying bias. He says that anthromorphosizing animals is not anti-science, and then says that humans are in no way superior to any other animal species. This is contradictory. If humans are the same as any other animal then why are we anthromorphosizing and imposing our behaviors onto them? He writes about animals feeling grief. Of course they feel grief I

A collection of Bekoff's essays from Psychology Today make for essential reading for anyone who calls themselves an animal lover and/or environmentalist, vegans and omnivores alike.

Really fascinating read--this book is a collection of essays from Bekoff's contributions to Psychology Today, so there is a wide variety of topics covered from sentience to speciesism. The writing style is very engaging and personal, he grounds recent scientific research in personal stories and anecdotes from his career and his life in Colorado. Because the essays are all very brief, the reading goes very quickly. I will be assigning some of these pieces in my social psychology class. Bekoff's w...

These are a collation of short essays written for Psychology Today. Because they are so brief,usually one or two pages, the subject of the essay is more an introduction of thoughts rather than fully explored. Also the viewpoint of the author is anthropomorphic and despite the disclaimers, comes off as a bit stridently pro non-human. Did not finish

Greatly enjoyed this collection of essays. Read the whole review at: Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed

This book talks about whether or not animals have emotions, are intelligent, have a theory of self, etc. It doesn't contain any research of its own, which I would have liked, but rather summarizes a lot of different research in a series of short essays. It's a great introduction into the ethics of speciesiam.