Tag Archives: book review

Rat Trap

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Another scientist speaks out against vivisection!

Rat Trap by Dr Pandora Pound

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We have been supporters of Safer Medicines for many years so as soon as we saw this book by their Research Director, Dr Pandora Pound, we snapped it up.

It is a very well-written, easy to read book, full of all the information we need to know in our fight against vivisection. It is clearly and eloquently laid out and comes complete with many many citations.

I love the excitement and optimism the book has inspired:

“Rat Trap ends the debate about animal research once and for all. She shows that, far from being a necessary evil, it is one of the most important and urgent scientific issues of our time.

“Animal research harms patients and holds back medical progress. Superior technologies based on human biology could transform medicine if not for the iron grip of animal research.

“Rat Trap is dynamite! It blows the lid off decades of dogma.”

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While we’re on the subject, the following video from 2019 is well worth half an hour of your time 🙂 (it is just a calm conversation, there are no disturbing images or descriptions).

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NB The pro-vivisection website Understanding Animal Research, criticised this video in an attempt to discredit Dr Greek (a board-certified anesthesiologist) by calling him a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and ‘science denialist’. So it’s very interesting that what Dr Pound tells us in Rat Trap about her personal experience as a scientist, and her research into this topic, corresponds with Dr Greek’s research and experience, and that of his wife and co-author, Jean Swingle Greek, who is a veterinary surgeon. Their findings were published over twenty years ago in their book Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals.

Rat Trap by Pandora Pound
Highly recommended.
Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: the human cost of experiments on animals by Ray Greek MD and Jean Swingle Greek DVM
Another brilliant book on the subject which we have read several times and can highly recommend.

A Hornby HART Review: Let the dogs out

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A great review of Let the dogs out at Hornby HART– check it out! 😀 

You can read the whole story here

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animals, dogs, beagles, anti-vivisection, vegan, books, vegan books, book review, anti-vivisection book, animal rights,

Steven the Vegan by Dan Bodenstein and Ron Robrahn

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Steven the Vegan – a picture book by Dan Bodenstein and Ron Robrahn about Steven’s school trip to a farm sanctuary and the questions it naturally inspires from his classmates 😀

Recommended Reading: Ladybird’s Remarkable Relaxation

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ladybird 1

Here is another lovely yoga book for children from Michael Chissick and Sarah Peacock.  This one is designed to be used by teachers and parents to help children use yoga relaxation to cope with stress, grief, bullying and lack of confidence.

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The book begins with guidance for teachers and parents, explaining the aims of the book, how children can benefit from and enjoy Ladybird Relaxation and giving advice on how to teach it to children.  Then the story begins.

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Ladybird’s friends are all stressed or unhappy about different things – stress from a heavy workload, bereavement, bullying and feeling they’re rubbish at something.  Ladybird sympathises and tells them she is going to give them a special gift that will help them all.

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Beautifully illustrated, it is a joy to read and makes you feel more relaxed as you turn the pages 🙂

The final part of the book explains how to teach Ladybird Relaxation including a script to read while using a ladybird puppet or little bell (outlined in the guidance at the beginning) to symbolise the ladybird landing on different children as they relax on their mats with eyes closed.

It sounds really therapeutic and I can’t wait to try it myself.

Available on Amazon here

Recommended Reading: Frog’s Breathtaking Speech

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frog 1

Frog’s Breathtaking Speech is a gorgeous book for children – and teachers, and parents – to help them cope with tension and stress.

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Michael Chissick is a children’s yoga teacher and Sarah Peacock is a primary school teacher and they have both found the frog’s story very useful when helping children to relax.

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This beautifully illustrated story is about a frog who is very sad because he is worried about a speech he has to give at school the next day.  When he explains this to his friends, they all tell him about their own special ways of breathing which release tension and anger and enable them to feel happy and relaxed.

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At the beginning of the book there is guidance for teachers on how best to use these techniques to help children and at the end there are simple instructions, accompanied by lovely illustrations, about the yoga postures which accompany each type of breathing.

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A lovely book.

You can buy it here 😀

Recommended Reading: Hellen Hen

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Hellen Hen

This is a truly beautiful little book for reading to small children by Maria Luisa Arenzana and Antonella Canavese.

Hellen Hen title page

It is full of surreal rhymes and stunning illustrations which convey a peaceful, loving message of compassion and empathy for animals, hens in particular.

Hellen Hen excerpt 1

Hellen Hen excerpt 2

I love the verse on the above page which reads

Our love

means something

which is nothing

in our hands

and it’s everything

in the world.

I took this to mean that it’s no good just to say we love animals and feel we love animals unless we put that love into practice in the world by living a compassionate life.

A truly beautiful, dreamy book which I’m sure would delight small children.  It’s available on Amazon and, if you want one, could be with you in a few short days 🙂

Vegan Children’s Book – Arktel: The Planet Only Children Could Save

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Find out more at http://www.planetarktel.com/About_the_book.html

Arktel: The planet only children could save is a beautifully illustrated book by Menkit Prince.

It’s about three planets: Tarjez, Arktel and Earth. On planet Tarjez, we fast forward to what could happen if we keep going the way we are on Earth i.e. total destruction.

Children from Arktel witnessed the destruction of Tarjez and decided to take action because they saw similar trends happening in their world that could lead to Arktel’s destruction.

The Arktel website is not only about the book but also about how children here can save our planet.  It’s honest and straight-forward as well as being a brilliant educational resource for children, their carers  and their teachers.  It’s a heavy subject but unless we look it straight in the eye and acknowledge the crisis we are facing, we will never overcome it.  This book and its associated website challenges us not to get depressed but to do something about it.

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We can you know 🙂