Voted one of the Top 10 Books of 2010 by VegNews magazine.
From Publishers Weekly:
Joy offers an absorbing examination of why humans feel affection and compassion for certain animals but are callous to the suffering of others… there is great value in her contention that all systems of oppression depend on our ability to dissociate or find elaborate rationalizations to keep from recognizing the suffering of a socially sanctioned inferior.
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of the best-selling When Elephants Weep, Dogs Never Lie about Love, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, and The Face on Your Plate:
Why We Love Dogs… is an altogether remarkable book that could transform the way society feels about eating animals. You cannot read this book without learning something new and without pondering your relation to the animal world. This is a profound and deeply satisfying book that is destined to become a classic.
Heather Mills:
One of the most thought-provoking books in decades. The realization that we’ve been conditioned throughout our entire lives to think and act a certain way toward animals, and that we’ve been so disconnected from ourselves and our fellow beings, gives us a chance to make our choices freely.
Kathy Freston, author of Veganist and the best-selling Quantam Wellness:
A thoughtful book full of substance and style. It should be required reading.
Rita Agrawal, PhD, co-author, Applied Social Psychology: A Global Perspective:
Through the use of narrative, often bordering on biography, the arguments being put forth by Joy are very well exemplified. The images conjured are ever so vivid that it would be difficult to stop once one starts reading it. The reader is immediately and often unknowingly drawn on. The volume is extremely readable, theory and jargon free as it is. However, that is not to say that the analysis is nonscientific or arbitrary. Rather, the arguments are firmly anchored to sound psychological theorization. People from all walks of life, across age and educational backgrounds would find this book immensely interesting. People advocating vegetarianism, professors and students of psychology, scholars from other areas of social science, and even public administrators in food departments would gain considerably from this extremely well written book.
John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, The Food Revolution, and Healthy at 100:
This eye-opening book makes us question what we really mean when we say we love animals.
Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary and author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food:
Institutionalized, socially sanctioned violence on an unprecedented scale causes the needless suffering of billions of animals every year. In her groundbreaking book, Melanie Joy shakes up the completely arbitrary thinking that enables people to, at the same time, treat some animals as friends and look the other way while others are ruthlessly exploited as commodities.
Select Reviews of “Why We Love Dogs…”
Spring 2010: Light of Consciousness Magazine
March/April 2010: Vegan Voice Magazine (Australia)
March 31, 2010: SuperVegan book review
March 30, 2010: Start an Animal Sanctuary book review
March 28, 2010: Hungry Vegan book review
March 22, 2010: Review in Curled up with a Good Book
March 15, 2010: Review in Humane Connection
February 2010: American Vegan Magazine
February 28, 2010: Spirituality and Practice book review
Jan/Feb 2010: AURA magazine book review
Jan 2010: Vegetarian Times
Nov 2009: VegSource
Nov 2009: VegNews
