The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter

Before I began reading, I had done previous research about the author's topic—animal emotions—so I was familiar with his point of view. I knew I knew Marc Bekoff (the author) is considered a radical so I expected a strong point of view. However, I consider myself a champ

Before I began reading, I had done previous research about the author's topic—animal emotions—so I was familiar with his point of view. I knew I knew Marc Bekoff (the author) is considered a radical so I expected a strong point of view. However, I consider myself a champion for animal emotions and welfare, there in agreement with him, so I was not concerned. I thought his book, The Emotional Lives of Animals would be an interesting read that would probably reaffirm and further support my views. And it did—but it shocked me how much I was put off by the author. I knew he was radical but did not expect the sort of calm fury he would put in his writing. Or perhaps this is how persuasive writing is done today. Either way, I don’t like it.

This was how the book was for me: The foreword is interesting, maybe only so because it is written by Jane Goodall. The Preface comes next; in it Bekoff introduces himself, his ideas, his plan, and clarifies a few aspects. Next comes the Acknowledgements section, which I half skimmed/half skipped. Finally, :P the book begins. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on exactly as they are titled: “The Case for Animal Emotions and Why They Matter” and “Cognitive Ethology: Studying Animal Minds and Hearts.” Although these chapters seem a little long-winded, I understand their necessity and purpose. Bekoff defines his purpose, background, evidence, and hopes. After this, the next two chapters are perfect. They get to the meat of the matter as portrayed by the title: the emotions of animals. Bekoff describes many situations of his own and others’ experiences of animals emotions. These are written well, feel real, and are undoubtedly the strongest point of the book. The stories touched my heart and mind. Not only that, they referenced what I (and other readers) know, which Bekoff then uses to support his points. It's very clever, suddenly our own memories are support for Bekoff's ideas. After this, the book takes a very different turn for me. Bekoff uses the last two chapters to explain what he believes considering the evidence of animal emotions. But this is also where the writing goes downhill, accentuating the faults of the book as a whole. The rest of the review is about these faults that became so apparent by the end.

The most irritating part was how hard he was trying to convince us of his views. How undeniably right he portrays himself to be. My own question for him (he asks the readers many questions about themselves) is: who is his audience? Certainly his audience must be all the people who doubt his words, or at least are not completely in support of him. But I don’t believe he would ever attract that audience with the tone and writing style of this book. For me, the way he worded his thoughts sounded arrogant. Instead of writing “I will prove to you” at the beginning, he writes more like this: “this is completely true, and you will accept it.” He continues on like this for the rest of the book. This was offensive for me—I felt like I was a child he was chastising… and my views agree with his! I am not a doubter, I wholeheartedly agree! Instead, I found myself looking for faults in his arguments because I didn’t like him or his writing! This is very bad considering he is trying to garner support.

Also, this writing style instantly points to how he is considered a radical. Generally, people do not trust radicals to write the truth. Consequently, he is losing the trust of his audience. I am not saying that every radical is doomed to fail at persuasion because of the stigma of the name—I’m simply saying that he is proving his critics’ points. I think that by writing in this manner he is becoming the obtrusive radical they accuse him to be, someone who won’t accept anything but his own thoughts. He HAS to win the trust of his readers. He has to be calm, cool, and in control while reaching out to the audience. He is calm and cool. But he is not in control. He fails to remember the thoughts of his audience while he writes--in his calm cool (good, good) manner he demands the readers' attention and thoughts to mirror his own (not good!). This is forceful and condescending for the readers. He is offending readers, who will ultimately not trust him, making his hard work unheard. I certainly found that I did not trust him, especially what he had to say about his human to human encounters. While I was reading, I found myself wondering: was he really as calm as he said in that belligerent situation? Or he is covering up his true reaction?

I have experience with analyzing persuasion and argument and etc. In essence, I know logical fallacies. I don’t go looking for them (although I probably see them every day in advertisements), but I found them unavoidable in Bekoff’s book. Logical fallacies demean his point and make his argument seem to be built on air. Not good.

Unfortunately, the end made me smile. Some of Bekoff’s final words to the readers are: “all I ask is that you reflect on how you can make the world a better place.” First of all, this is a generalization about the world that would be super difficult to quantify. Thus, this is not necessarily as easy task like he implies. Second, I believe he is lying. In my opinion, Marc Bekoff wrote this book to wholeheartedly convince people to believe him and his views. I guess I could be misinterpreting him, but I doubt it. A book is a big task to complete to simply tell people to think. He wants actions, he wants change, and he wants people's support for his ideas. So that’s why I found it funny. Bekoff demands so much from the reader, yet at the end, he writes that he only wishes for us readers to think. Well I hope he is pleased... I, surely, have done quite a bit of thinking.