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| When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals | 
| Authors: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Susan Mccarthy
Publisher: Delta
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $15.99 (100%)
New (49) Collectible (6) from $3.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 31510
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0385314280
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.51
UPC: 400307296869
EAN: 9780385314282
ASIN: 0385314280
Publication Date: May 2, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Amazing August 27, 2005
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
Gave me a whole new perspective on animals. Makes you wonder why anyone could be intentionally cruel to them. Animal testing is so terrible for research...such an eye opener. Easy to read and understand.
 beautiful book that will bring a smile, and a tear May 28, 2005
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I have to say this is my favorite book. Masson discuses the emotional lives of animals and goes through "evidence" of several emotions. I put evidence in quotations as the majority of the scientific community will discount this book. Masson uses anecdotal stories to say that animals do have emotions. However, as far as I know, there is really no way to prove emotions in other humans besides observations. Masson sticks it to the scientific community in much of this book and is highly critical of many current scientific viewpoints on animals and thier research.
That said, Masson uses beautiful stories that may bring a smile to your face and at times a tear. Brilliant use of storytelling.
Fauna Polemic May 9, 2005
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
Jeffrey Masson states early in this book that he has been a vegetarian ever since an unfortunate incident during his childhood involving a pet duck. In a nutshell this incident defines both what is worst about this book, and why is it so compelling.
The author's personal biases are never far from the surface, although he manages to keep them from being too intrusive. Each chapter takes a different emotion -- fear, anger, compassion, shame, love, etc. -- and presents some evidence, usually anecdotal and apocryphal, about non-human animals that have displayed this emotion. There is no attempt to be comprehensive or authoritative; rather he picks and chooses examples which support his overriding proposition. Like Kristen von Kreisler (for whom he wrote the forward to her last book), the accumulated weight of a bunch of apocryphal stories will only convince the already-converted, but for those of us who share his bias the stories are heart-warming.
Where he falls down is in putting this evidence in context. He automatically assumes -- as a vegetarian -- that anyone who appreciates the emotions and intellect of animals would be unable to eat them or perform scientific experiments on them. Despite recounting tales of lions purring over a recent kill and cheetahs tenderly cleaning the face of their dinner, Masson sticks to his uniquely-human conviction that eating meat is morally reprehensible. He does not admit to the possibility that animal researchers could own pets, could separate their love for INDIVIDUAL animals from their careers investigating intentionally-anonymous lab animals.
In short, his is a very single-minded morality.
Without the undercurrent of ethical superiority this book would have rated five stars.
 Interesting Even If Only Anecdotally December 3, 2004
13 out of 22 found this review helpful
Despite its flaws this book is an interesting look at a largely unexplored subject. While yes, like most lay people to the field I don't have a problem with giving animals some basic emotions like excitement but am more reluctant to surrender man's supreme uniqueness in matters of the heart.
First and foremost it is important it is important to understand that this book is by no means an objective scientific look at the subject. While at times being willing to give up a point as being unproven or unprovable mostly the authors just provide evidence to support the points that they have obviously already come to. Keeping this bias in mind though much of the anecdotal evidence presented in the book is fascinating.
As strange as it sounds I think the story that I was most struck by involved a gorilla, Koko, who play house with her dolls when no one was looking. I don't know why but this playful action full of imagination and self awareness seems so human to me. (Also, I think the only Shakespeare has more people/animals dropping dead of grief than this book does.)
In the end though I don't think we will ever really be able to pierce the vail between man and beats-but after reading this book I now believe that divide to be far smaller than I once thought.
a thoughtful book on a difficult subject July 16, 2003
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
In the scientific community, "anthropomorphism" (assigning human qualities to inanimate ojects or animals) is villified to an astonishing degree. Masson has bravely written a book which contains stories of animals interacting with members of their own species and also with humans, stories that definitely would indicate emotion to any sensible person. Unfortunately, emotion in animals cannot be proven, because they cannot talk (with the notable exception of Koko the signing gorilla and Alex the parrot). And because animals-as-objects are important to research and industry, this is a subject that no one wants to touch. Although at times the writing in the book is somewhat bland, I recommend it and am grateful to people like Masson, Jane Goodall, and Marc Bekoff who are not afraid to bring this issue to the forefront.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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