Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals

“Everybody who is interested in the ethics of our relationship between humans and animals should read this book.” —Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human

Hal Herzog, a maverick scientist and leader in the field of anthrozoology offers a controversial, thought-provoking, and unprecedented exploration of the psychology behind the inconsistent and often paradoxical ways we think, feel, and behave towards animals

Does living with a pet really make people happier and healthier? What can we learn from biomedical research with mice? Who enjoyed a better quality of life—the chicken on a dinner plate or the rooster who died in a Saturday-night cockfight? Why is it wrong to eat the family dog? Drawing on more than two decades of research in the emerging field of anthrozoology, the science of human-animal relations, Hal Herzog offers surprising answers to these and other questions related to the moral conundrums we face day in and day out regarding the creatures with whom we share our world. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat is a highly entertaining and illuminating journey through the full spectrum of human-animal relations, based on Dr. Herzog’s groundbreaking research on animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog-show handlers, veterinary students, and biomedical researchers. Blending anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, Herzog crafts a seamless narrative—alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny—that will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.

Hal Herzog is recognized as one of the world’s leading anthrozoologists. He is a professor of psychology at Western Carolina University and lives in the Great Smoky Mountains with his wife Mary Jean.