"... animals’ inability to testify to their desires, fears, and knowledge made it possible for many to put the question of their suffering entirely out of mind, given their seemingly preordained place in the natural order as mere possessions to be worked and consumed."

Our pets and the animals we live with and see in the community are sacred. We give them love and care as if they were our children. John Wick would kill for them. This wasn't always the case. Animals were viewed as work animals. Soulless, unfeeling, and only to be commanded.

The start of the American Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) had its roots in the anti-slavery movement. Humans should not be treated so cruelly, and neither should animals. We find the individuals lobbying to change the law and often restoring and enforcing it themselves. They also go toe to toe with Barnum and Bailey Circus (a fighter that stretched even into modern times( it was the book Black Beauty that changed so many hearts and minds.

The book does a thorough job of documenting the movement and its impacts. It is hard to imagine a time when we were not fascinated and enamored by our pets, but the book does an excellent job of showing the contrast. A society that treats even the smallest creatures kindles is a society that flourishes.


Favorite Passage:


Judeo-Christian tradition—the founding texts of which offer few prescriptions against cruelty to animals, even as they make ringing statements of human “dominion” over the natural world—could travel through their daily lives without giving much thought to how domestic animals in their overwhelmingly agrarian societies were treated. Few Europeans truly believed, as the French philosopher René Descartes theorized in the early seventeenth century, that animals should be classed as soulless machines—that, in the summation of one of Descartes’s disciples, Nicolas Malebranche, animals “eat without pleasure, cry without pain, grow without knowing it; they desire nothing, fear nothing, know nothing.” And yet animals’ inability to testify to their desires, fears, and knowledge made it possible for many to put the question of their suffering entirely out of mind, given their seemingly preordained place in the natural order as mere possessions to be worked and consumed.

I thought this book was super interesting. it was super crazy to see how a lot of animal rights movements and bills were passed relatively recently. i loved the inclusion of all of the female activists and figures that were hugely responsible for the work of their respective spcas! women are usually left out from older histories so it was nice to see them recognized!

This is just lovely. I am glad we are like this about animals but we can be better. The history was so interesting! I think I might want to buy this one to share with friends.

This book had a lot of information! It is a history book, a science book, an environmental book all in one. It is a book that should be read by everyone, but unfortunately it won't be. At times it is very hard to get through the page, I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the advance read.

Our Kindred Creatures is a non fiction about the history of the treatment of animals.
This was a very engaging book and kept me wanting to come back to the book.

Everyone knows I’m a crazy cat lady, so it’s nice to read about other people who are as compassionate towards animals as I am. I recommend this book for all animal lovers.


Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the advanced reader editions, in exchange for my honest opinions.

I really enjoyed the elephant chapter and found it very useful for my research. The whole book is written in a clear and evocative style.

Our Kindred Creatures is an in-depth study of animals and the humans that interact with them. It is clear that civilization has come a long way in the treatment of animals. There are many players in the game that made that change possible, which is detailed in the book. Also, the changes in science and technology which have enabled us to change our relationship with domestic and wild animals.

The writing flows well and is very engaging. There were some grotesque descriptions of vivisection, beatings, etc. that are difficult to read. But otherwise, it is incredibly informative and a fascinating study of the topic.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

I adored Our Kindred Creatures. It was eye opening on how we look at animals in this country and I appreciated the overview of the history of animal treatment and how it has changed, shaped, and morphed into a much more humane, compassionate view of how we should treat our creature friends.