Ninety-Five

Book of large, beautiful photographs featuring animals that live in several sanctuaries in the US. They are all rescues. Some were pulled from neglectful situations, others were destined for slaughterhouses, or taken from factory farms that were getting shut down. They had lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions or been abused. Now living in wide open, clean spaces with others of their kind (or not, some chose to hang out with a different species- like the swan that is pictured alongside three cows in a field). The book tells their stories, with a real effort to show how individual the animals’ personalities are, and how much like us their wants and needs are. The ninety-five in the title is supposedly the number of animals whose lives would be spared if one person went vegan. (Not sure how accurate that is). Numerous authors, so the writing style and voice varies widely. Some were really straightforward, others so flowery and descriptive with the language I had difficulty with it. Difficulty wrapping my head around how much some particular authors imagined about the animals’ interior state of mind and motivations, too. There’s many pages just pictures, no text and then in the back, a list of thumbnail photos with brief description for each of those animals- where they came from, what they had suffered, etc. This really seemed just a place to point out more awful things that animals go through in order to feed us. It did start to feel a bit repetitive. And the whole book obviously has an agenda- to make readers feel bad about consuming animal protein, or things made from animals in any way (even going so far as to protest sheep being raised or kept to shear their wool). The book shows chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, ducks, geese and rabbits. The stories are all touching. Most of the animals seem to recover from their previous experiences, and settle in to live peacefully. A few are always afraid of humans (and given their space) or belligerant (note the goose named Goosifer). Quite a few make a close bond with another animal which makes a heartwarming story. A lot of their lives are very short after going to the sanctuary, whether due to health problems or just because of breeding, which caused their bodies to grow fast and then falter. This book is part of a series- there’s also a volume about shelter dogs, and another one about animals in zoos.