Blood Relations takes us inside the little-known world of the Canadian animal rights movement. Ridiculed by angry industries, vilified by scientists, and largely ignored by the media and the left, this grassroots phenomenon has enlisted a new generation of activists dedicated to changing the most basic political arrangements on the planet. Meet the people involved and the issue they raise. Extremists trade time in jail to save animals' lives. Conservative welfarists struggle to hold their place in the established order. And dedicated, law-abiding advocates fight to make humans recognize that we are only one species among many with legitimate claims. Why does cruel and pointless animal research go on in near total secrecy, despite its public funding? Why does agriculture get a blanket exemption to routinely treat animals in ways that would bring criminal charges in a city setting? And aren't the outcomes predictable when a political movement with a small but skilful outlaw wing is deliberately excluded from the political agenda?
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"...the usual sources of human evil--greed, ignorance and plain, slothful indifference--provide the sorry impetus for enough animal abuse horror stories to make Blood Relations as disheartening a reading experience as it is revelatory. It nonetheless needs to be told, and Montgomery is to be commended for having both the crisp analytical skills and moral foresight to tell it."
--Ray Robertson, The Toronto Star
"A thorough, thoughtful, and very readable account of both the history and the present state of the animal rights movement(s)...the best thing about Blood Relations is Montgomery herself, whose sly humour and refreshing uncertainty poke through the convention of journalistic objectivity and make Blood Relations more of a philosophical memoir, a retelling of an intellectual and emotional journey, than simply another piece of radical tourism."
--R.M. Vaughan, THIS Magazine
"Of greatest value is Montgomery's publicizing of events, people, motives and issues that have so often been either ignored or misrepresented and ridiculed. I strongly recommend Blood Relations for its contribution to a Canadian examination of the issues it features."
--Barry Kent MacKay, The Toronto Star
"Montgomery is an engaging writer who asks logical questions about the issues, and then answers them in a detailed, accessible manner...It is refreshing to see a journalist bring a sense of moral outrage to a book but still value subtlety over sledgehammer. Clearly sympathetic to the radical strand of the movement, Montgomery nonetheless gives all sides a fair hearing, and leaves us with provocative questions about the way humans treat their fellow creatures."
--Matthew Bahrens, Quill and Quire
--Ray Robertson, The Toronto Star
"A thorough, thoughtful, and very readable account of both the history and the present state of the animal rights movement(s)...the best thing about Blood Relations is Montgomery herself, whose sly humour and refreshing uncertainty poke through the convention of journalistic objectivity and make Blood Relations more of a philosophical memoir, a retelling of an intellectual and emotional journey, than simply another piece of radical tourism."
--R.M. Vaughan, THIS Magazine
"Of greatest value is Montgomery's publicizing of events, people, motives and issues that have so often been either ignored or misrepresented and ridiculed. I strongly recommend Blood Relations for its contribution to a Canadian examination of the issues it features."
--Barry Kent MacKay, The Toronto Star
"Montgomery is an engaging writer who asks logical questions about the issues, and then answers them in a detailed, accessible manner...It is refreshing to see a journalist bring a sense of moral outrage to a book but still value subtlety over sledgehammer. Clearly sympathetic to the radical strand of the movement, Montgomery nonetheless gives all sides a fair hearing, and leaves us with provocative questions about the way humans treat their fellow creatures."
--Matthew Bahrens, Quill and Quire
From the Author
"Unfortunately, because it’s about animals, people see it as irrelevant. In fact, it's about humans, it’s not about animals. It’s about what humans are doing. There are ethics that underlie a lot of things we do and you have to deal with those questions before you can have policy."
Charlotte Montgomery
in conversation with Joanna Fine, June 2000
in conversation with Joanna Fine, June 2000
JOANNA FINE: Why did you feel it was necessary to write a book on animal rights in Canada?
CHARLOTTE MONTGOMERY: In terms of Canadian groups, people, and issues there are only a couple books out there. People tend to think of either the UK or the United States when they think of animal rights politics. But it is not true. It’s just that in Canada we don’t pay much attention to it, we treat it as kind of nutty. In that sense I don’t think people are even aware of what hundreds of people are working on in Canada and why. Blood Relations basically says “here’s an example of what’s out there, and what you don’t know about.” It’s quite strange for something of interest to so many people to have such a gap in attention and knowledge about it.
JF: So, is the problem that animal rights is not being talked about?
CM: It's deliberately not being talked about. That's what I thought was interesting when I starting looking at it. It isn’t that everybody said I’ve never thought about it. Among those who have familiarity with animals, especially in a commercial way, they are deliberately not talking about it. The notion is that if you treat it with any dignity or respect, you give “those people” a huge opening. The real problem is that you can’t seem to have a conversation yet in Canadian terms and be treated seriously.
JF: Yet animal rights seems to be very timely considering issues such as the water crisis in Walkerton, Ontario. Why don’t we read about the animal rights side of issues such as Walkerton in the media?
CM: I think it’s a certain amount of laziness on the part of the media, as well as unfamiliarity. These issues may be interesting but they are not really day-to-day. What I found unforgivable on the part of media is that when people covered the water disaster in Walkerton, they talked all about what kind of systems should be in place, who should monitor them, and everything else in order to protect you from this poisonous stuff. But they don’t go and say “do you really think this poisonous stuff that we’re spending huge amounts of money keeping out of the water should have to be there in the first place?” Why didn’t they ask why is it there?
JF: Why do you think this is?
CM: Because it is agriculture, which has a reputation of being good solid citizens, people don’t stop and think about it because it’s just what is there. It’s there because it’s there, and we do things that way because that’s the way we do things. But in fact, most of us don’t know how those things are done. We don’t know that there are huge amounts of animals in one place. We sort of think that’s normal life so we should protect against things we can’t get around. That is an example of a shocking lapse on the part of the media.
JF: As an experienced journalist, why do you think the Canadian media fail to treat animal issues as a serious political issue?
CM: In order to have that type of conversation over animals, you have to get over the hump of ridicule. That there is something sappy, or nutty, or frivolous about you because until you solve the many human problems why would anyone in their right mind want to waste their time on animal issues. And yet there are a lot of people who are sympathetic. I don’t think a lot of people in the general population would find this at all extreme. Unfortunately, because it’s about animals, people see it as irrelevant. In fact, it's about humans, it’s not about animals. It’s about what humans are doing. There are ethics that underlie a lot of things we do and you have to deal with those questions before you can have policy.
JF: Is part of the problem the lack of an underlying ethic of human-non-human relations?
CM: I think the lack is perhaps people who are active in political issues, whether as politicians or as political activists, being willing to help raise these issues. You always need someone to champion an issue. At some point, you have to have some politi
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Canada has produced many writers such as Farley Mowat who write about animals from an ecological perspective. But it has produced surprisingly few who explicitly address animal rights. Prior to Charlotte Montgomery's Blood Relations: Animals, Humans and Politics, the only book-length treatments of animal rights by a Canadian I was aware of were Deep Vegetarianism and Animal Experiments, both by Michael Allen Fox. Yet even those books are the work of a philosophy professor, whereas Montgomery is a reporter. Her book is thus unique in that it is the only one to journalistically chronicle the debate over animal rights in Canada.
What's most impressive about Blood Relations is the reporting. Montgomery has done an enormous amount of legwork and conducted endless interviews, with people on all sides of the animal debate. It's clear where Montgomery herself stands: she's pro-animal rights. Yet as a writer her approach is descriptive, calmly recounting who said what, on issues from animal research to agriculture (she also gained the trust of some radicals who broke into an Ontario mink farm, and there's a dramatic reconstruction of their raid and subsequent arrest).
Ironically, I felt Montgomery was sometimes too descriptive: she never comes out and presents a philosophical case for why the animal rights perspective is superior to its rivals. But in fairness, perhaps she felt that ground had already been covered by Fox and other philosophers. Regardless, she more than succeeded in producing an in-depth, thoroughly documented look at the treatment of animals in Canada. A blurb on the back jacket from prominent journalist Linda McQuaig describes the book well:
"In this powerful book, Charlotte Montgomery brings clarity and insight to a subject that has too often been trivialized. While maintaining a reporter's objectivity, she forces us to consider a difficult question we'd rather avoid: by what moral right do we abuse another species for our own convenience?"
In short, Blood Relations is required reading for anyone who wants to be up to date on animal issues in Canada.
By kyle blande
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
For anyone interested in animal rights or animal welfare, this is a must read. Blood Relations is truthful and powerful.
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