Reviews

 

 

A new book about numerous aspects of animal welfare merits worldwide attention. – Psychology Today, 2022.

Globally, nonhuman animals — aka animals — need all the help they can get in an increasingly human-dominated world. The Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare comprehensively reviews the welfare of animals in the wide array of settings in which they are used including emerging issues such as the impacts of intensive farming and the wildlife trade on climate change, biodiversity loss, and antimicrobial resistance and pandemics. A most valuable source of up-to-date information for a global audience.
Marc Bekoff, PhD

University of Colorado

Human activity is responsible for serious welfare problems for billions of non-human animals. Identifying the action required to address these issues and securing public support for it demands good evidence, wise reflection, and clear argumentation. This book provides all three and is an essential resource for anyone concerned about animal welfare
Prof. David L. Clough MA (Cantab.), MSt (Oxon), PhD (Yale), FHEA

University of Aberdeen, UK

A defining text in the field of animal welfare. Challenging, insightful and current, this book covers a diversity of subject areas in the rapidly evolving arena of animal welfare. Both informative and balanced, the chapters explore and test our moral perceptions towards animals from a legal, cultural and ethical perspective. In a time of changing attitudes with so many global issues at the forefront of society, this book provides a welcome and much needed contribution to conceptualisation of animal welfare in the modern day.
Prof. Luke Gamble BVSc DVM&S FRCVS

Chief Executive - Worldwide Veterinary Service

The Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare is the most comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of animal welfare issues in all settings in which they are used – or misused. It provides compelling scientific evidence as to why the welfare of animals is important for the sake of millions of sentient beings, and also for our own health. Everyone concerned with the well-being of animals – students and professors, NGO staffers and legislators – should read and own this book.
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE

Founder - The Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

This textbook combines both classical and new topics in the rapidly-growing discipline of animal welfare. It integrates important neighboring fields, such as animal ethics and animal law. It considers changes in human-animal interaction, and is an invaluable guide for navigating this rapidly changing terrain. The book demonstrates animal welfare science’s growing importance for social decision-making, and pushes the field forward in a number of important fronts.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Herwig Grimm

Ethics and Human-Animal Studies, Messerli Research Institute, Veterinary University Vienna, Medical University Vienna, University Vienna

Finally, there is a comprehensive, evidence-based animal welfare text that doesn’t shy away from examining the hard questions about how humans use animals, and how the Anthropocene impacts animals. Edited by luminaries, and with a range of expert contributing authors, this text is essential reading for anyone whose study or work relates to animal welfare.
Dr Jennifer Hood, BSc Hons BVMS PhD

Veterinary Director Animals Australia and Adjunct Senior Lecturer Murdoch Veterinary School, Australia

We are at a critical point in human history. Central to the health, climate and ecological crises is the way we treat other animals and their habitats. This book brings to the forefront the true impact of animal exploitation in all its forms. I hope the book will persuade many that we can live a kinder more compassionate life on this planet in harmony with all life forms.
Prof. Shireen Kassam MD, PhD

Visiting Professor of Plant-Based Nutrition. University of Winchester, UK

This book on animal welfare is unique in challenging the notion that animals are resources for humans. Kudos to the editors for such an ambitious and ethically oriented book. This book is essential reading for students, and anyone interested in animal welfare and innovative means to improve it. Highly recommended!

Barry Kipperman DVM, DACVIM, MSc, DACAW

Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare and Instructor of Veterinary Ethics at the University of California at Davis, USA

Animal welfare law and policy constitute a field of growing importance in society, and in the teaching of law, public ethics, politics and veterinary science. The Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare distils the knowledge and experience of 50 authors, into a comprehensive and rigorous summary of key animal law and welfare issues around the globe. It is a magisterial exposition of the neglectful past; the contemporary awakening; and the future enlightenment concerning our relationship to other animals. This book makes a signal contribution to the fields of animal law and welfare.
The Hon Michael Kirby AC, CMG

Former Justice of the High Court of Australia. Editor-In-Chief of The Laws of Australia

This impressive book folds science with vision on the ethics of animal use and how things need to change. Covering animal welfare and its interdependencies with human health and environmental impact in an accessible way, it is a handbook in the true sense of the word: an authoritative volume that I’ll certainly be keeping close to hand.
Prof. Philip Lymbery

Global CEO, Compassion in World Farming International

A uniquely broad collection that describes the varied (and generally harmful) impacts that humans have on other animals, whether by farming them for food or simply encroaching into their wild habitats. Readers will welcome the truly international perspective. A tour de force by a stellar group of animal welfare scientists, experts in animal law and ethics, veterinarians and animal advocates.  Anyone who cares about animals will find this book comprehensive resource and will be encouraged and inspired by the final section showing how change can be achieved.
Christine Nicol MA, DPhil

Professor of Animal Welfare, Royal Veterinary College, UK

We are witnessing a revolution in how humans view and treat other animals, necessitating a fresh look at the human/nonhuman animal relationship. The editors of the Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare have assembled experts from various fields, bringing scientific and historical perspectives that are helpful to deepen our understanding of animal protection in the 21st Century. This book is a welcome and important contribution to animal welfare literature.
Joyce Tischler

Professor of Practice, Animal Law, Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School

Provides the scientific case for the multiple (human and nonhuman) co-benefits of abolishing the economic exploitation of other animals. 
Dr Richard Twine PhD

Co-Director of, Centre for Human-Animal Studies, Edge Hill University, UK

A comprehensive book covering a wide range of important animal welfare issues by fantastic contributors. The inclusion of one welfare topics as well as chapters on animal ethics and law and also social change makes this a brilliant resource. I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone that has an interest in animal welfare and thank all of the wonderful people that made this happen.
Dr Arnja Dale BSc., GDipNFPL, GDipHE, MSc., MSc.(Hons), PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, SPCA NZ

This information-dense book, edited by two academics and an expert in law, was designed as a “comprehensive exploration of the rapidly growing fields of animal welfare and law”. It packs a huge amount of information and a wide range of topics into its 507 pages written by 50 authors, many of whom are established authorities. – Animals 2023.
Professor Emeritus David Fraser

University of British Columbia