A Plea for the Animals cover art

A Plea for the Animals

The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion

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A Plea for the Animals

By: Matthieu Ricard, Sherab Chodzin Kohn - translator
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
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About this listen

A powerful and wide-ranging indictment of the treatment of animals by humans - and an eloquent plea for animal rights

Every cow just wants to be happy. Every chicken just wants to be free. Every bear, dog, or mouse experiences sorrow and feels pain as intensely as any of us humans do. In a compelling appeal to reason and human kindness, Matthieu Ricard here takes the arguments from his best sellers Altruism and Happiness to their logical conclusion: Compassion toward all beings, including our fellow animals, is a moral obligation and the direction toward which any enlightened society must aspire.

He chronicles the appalling sufferings of the animals we eat, wear, and use for adornment or "entertainment" and submits every traditional justification for their exploitation to scientific evidence and moral scrutiny. What arises is an unambiguous and powerful ethical imperative for treating all of the animals with whom we share this planet with respect and compassion.

©2014 Matthieu Ricard; Translation Copyright 2016 by Shambhala Publications, Inc. (P)2018 Tantor Ecology Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Religious Studies Science Happiness Compassion

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The book is absolutely amazing but the narrator lets it down. He reads it like without any emotion but it’s a very compassionate book. He also repeatedly mispronounces eg he says ‘casual link’ when I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be ‘causal link’. I think this should be re recorded with someone with a warmer voice who can take more time to give this book the recording it deserves.

The narrator is quite bad

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This is a book that explains everything. I would not believe it possible to listen to it without seriously considering going vegan. But more than just a criticism of the meat industry, the books second half is devoted to the other ways in which humans make animals suffer without reason.
It does maintain itself as a book about ethics throughout. Beautifully written, and good narration.

Amazing plea for the animals

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Very important work. Well researched and well documented. Presents strong arguments. I swallowed the book.

Eye - opening.

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Thank you for putting the case for animal liberation so eloquently. A must read for all.

everybody should read this!

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Eloquent and poignant. I want to be around when the last slaughter house closes and the darkness over us lifts.

The nudge I need

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This is one of those books that would have been best read, rather than listened to.

For a book that is about compassion, the narrators voice comes across somewhat robotic and bland. There are certain sections of the book (mostly dialogue) which are hard to listen to and sound as through they were read by a computer. I specifically reference the dialogue between a mother and her child about realising where meat comes from.

The book itself is excellent and full of information. I just think it needs re-recording.

A hugely important book let down by the narration

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