Essays, Animal Rights 

Not since the last spasm of mass extinctions swept this planet some 65 million years ago--the result of natural forces--have so many species, dinvidual animals and plants been threatened and obliterated. Michael Tobias' "Voices from the Underground" speaks directly from the trenches of that heart-breaking and preventable assault, painting a riveting picture of the crisis of human abuse, exploitation and cruelty towards animals. While documenting that human trespass, and the many legal loopholes and cultural blinders which have perpetuated it, Tobias' primary focus is the profiling of several heroic people who have devoted most of their lives to stopping cruelty and working with great courage and tenacity to persuade others of their ethical convictions. We follow the incredible exploits of such people as Gene and Lorri Bauston, the deeply sensitive and tenacious founders of Farm Animal Sanctuary; of Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco, ecolical and ethical visionaries ! who founded and currently run the organization known as PETA--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Christine Stevens, a maverick on Capitol Hill whose Animal Welfare Institute has worked untiringly to improve the status of animals; and Rod Coronado, a Native American jailed for his animal liberation activities. This lean, eloquent volume chronicles a vast, but as yet woefully incomplete, wake-up call to all human beings, asking only for kindness, empathy and restraint. Tobias assesses the consumer trends and behavioral choices which have devastated billions of other lives, destroyed habitat and biodiversity throughout the world and thoughtlessly consigned one animal after another--whether mountain gorillas or the rural family cows and chickens--to mass, unmarked graves. In revealing some of the key figures who have helped slow down or halt society's crimes against nature, Tobias has laid the groundwork for a tenable path of truce and reconciliation. - from Amzon