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Doctor Rat
William Kotzwinkle
World Fantasy 1977

Beware animal researchers, butchers, and factory farmers - this book will profoundly insult you (but hopefully change your life for the better).

Though everyone who reads this may not immediately become a vegetarian, I don't think many people could finish it and continue any kind of cruelty to animals without at least an extra second thought or two.

"It cannot go on this way. The law has been violated. We are all one creature, except for man, who refuses to recognize himself in our eyes. I the Lord of Animals, protest!"

Many empathetic insights into animal feelings: describing an eagle in a zoo, "my suffering seems like nothing, for the wilder the creature, the greater his anxiety when he comes here"; a sloth's appreciation of doing nothing, "Other animals fall asleep quickly and miss all the delicious fringes of sleep"; a whale's song "profoundly sad, like the passing away of the universe, like the dying of a star."

Grizzly entertainment with a strong message. I hope many more people read this book and develop greater animal compassion.

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