My questions about animals

In War and Peace with the Beasts, I look at the range of ways we relate to animals and the stories we tell about them. I ask how we choose whether buddyhood, fearful respect, businesslike predation, or genocidal war is the most appropriate response to each species we meet. I watch how our treatment of “inferior beings” affects our treatment of “inferior people,” and trace some of the chain reactions we unleash when we try to weed out species we don’t like. Without much hope of making animals fit my personal preferences, I wonder how good our relations can get.