a straightforward yet informative read, 16 Dec 2003
This book proved an essential aid to my MSc in animal behaviour and welfare. With comprehensive chapters on ethics, motivation, legislation and the various aspects of animal suffering, this book combines subjectivity and objectivity to provide a thoroughly integrative read.

Although primarily focussing on farm animals, this edition covers zoo and laboratory animals in basic detail. The separate chapters are written by different authors, all with different perspectives and styles of writing. With this in mind, this book provides a balanced, critical, up-to-date perspective of animal welfare.

All in all, this book provides the student with the ideal introductory read and the average non-acedemic with a very interesting piece of literature. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of animal welfare and also people involved with animals such as farmers, scientists and animal technitions.

a straightforward yet informative read, 16 Dec 2003
This book proved an essential aid to my MSc in animal behaviour and welfare. With comprehensive chapters on ethics, motivation, legislation and the various aspects of animal suffering, this book combines subjectivity and objectivity to provide a thoroughly integrative read.

Although primarily focussing on farm animals, this edition covers zoo and laboratory animals in basic detail. The separate chapters are written by different authors, all with different perspectives and styles of writing. With this in mind, this book provides a balanced, critical, up-to-date perspective of animal welfare.

All in all, this book provides the student with the ideal introductory read and the average non-acedemic with a very interesting piece of literature. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of animal welfare and also people involved with animals such as farmers, scientists and animal technitions.

Best book on subject by authoritative scholar, 12 Oct 2008
Keown is without doubt a leading scholar in this area and makes the topic accessible to his readers. He makes very difficult subject matter understandable and interesting. I highly recommend this book and this author.

a straightforward yet informative read, 16 Dec 2003
This book proved an essential aid to my MSc in animal behaviour and welfare. With comprehensive chapters on ethics, motivation, legislation and the various aspects of animal suffering, this book combines subjectivity and objectivity to provide a thoroughly integrative read.

Although primarily focussing on farm animals, this edition covers zoo and laboratory animals in basic detail. The separate chapters are written by different authors, all with different perspectives and styles of writing. With this in mind, this book provides a balanced, critical, up-to-date perspective of animal welfare.

All in all, this book provides the student with the ideal introductory read and the average non-acedemic with a very interesting piece of literature. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of animal welfare and also people involved with animals such as farmers, scientists and animal technitions.

Best book on subject by authoritative scholar, 12 Oct 2008
Keown is without doubt a leading scholar in this area and makes the topic accessible to his readers. He makes very difficult subject matter understandable and interesting. I highly recommend this book and this author.

legendary, 04 Oct 2007
absolutely well written! One of the best bio-medicine books i've ever read! It's all put into context and reads almost like an immersing narrative. Just amazing!

Thank you Dr. Sargent!

a straightforward yet informative read, 16 Dec 2003
This book proved an essential aid to my MSc in animal behaviour and welfare. With comprehensive chapters on ethics, motivation, legislation and the various aspects of animal suffering, this book combines subjectivity and objectivity to provide a thoroughly integrative read.

Although primarily focussing on farm animals, this edition covers zoo and laboratory animals in basic detail. The separate chapters are written by different authors, all with different perspectives and styles of writing. With this in mind, this book provides a balanced, critical, up-to-date perspective of animal welfare.

All in all, this book provides the student with the ideal introductory read and the average non-acedemic with a very interesting piece of literature. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of animal welfare and also people involved with animals such as farmers, scientists and animal technitions.

Best book on subject by authoritative scholar, 12 Oct 2008
Keown is without doubt a leading scholar in this area and makes the topic accessible to his readers. He makes very difficult subject matter understandable and interesting. I highly recommend this book and this author.

legendary, 04 Oct 2007
absolutely well written! One of the best bio-medicine books i've ever read! It's all put into context and reads almost like an immersing narrative. Just amazing!

Thank you Dr. Sargent!

Valuable, but a bit too dry, 11 May 2008
This book is based on a series of three lectures given by the author in Oxford in March 2006 at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation. I had the privilege to attend these lectures and I was spellbound by them at the time. So I was looking forward to reading this book.

However, somewhere in the process between the lectures and the book, the material has become, well, too dry. It sparkles on occasion, but the author allows himself to become bogged down too often in academic analysis, intellectual tennis, and other hair-splitting.

He's a great proponent of the merit, the morality, and even the necessity, of human enhancement. So far, so good. Some of his arguments strike home well. But in my view he gives too much time to listing various nooks and crannies of the views of various opponents of his writing. That's where the book becomes tedious. The author needs to become pithier.

The views of opponents of human enhancement (eg the people who say "Enough is enough" and that "Enhancement would destroy our core essential humanity, and must be opposed, despite all its manifest good results") do deserve attention. But I believe that a better book is waiting to be written, that will make a better job of highlighting the perversity and self-delusional destructive nature of these views.