The Pig Who Sang to the Moon
By Jeffrey Masson,
Rupa, £ 10.95

Does man?s dominance over the planet mean that he should prevail over other living beings? If ?no?, then he should radically alter his lifestyle. That, indeed, is an extraordinarily difficult proposition, because criticizing ?anthropocentrism? can hardly be synonymous with suggesting alternatives to it. James Lovelock, an ecologist, postulated the ?Gaia hypothesis? which presumes that ?the stable state of our planet includes man as a part of, or partner in, a very democratic entity.?

It is this ?democratic? spirit which Jeffrey Masson so passionately highlights in The Pig Who Sang to the Moon. Masson seems to be on a mission to demolish ?anthropocentrism? of all types, ranging from brutalities on animals to using them for selfish human interests. Masson, a former Sanskrit scholar and projects director of the Sigmund Freud Archives, is not an animal rights? activist by vocation, and this unique and compelling book is proof that he is not. Were he one, he would have been prone to analyse animal behaviour from a human standpoint. But it is just the other way round in this book.

Masson here takes stock of farm animals like pigs, cows, sheep, chicken and ducks, which have been domesticated not out of love or sympathy but to make them meet diverse human needs. Masson shows that domestication is a form of tyranny that nearly equates animals with inert objects, seeing them as incapable of complex emotions. As in his other best-sellers, When Elephants Weep or The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats, here too, Masson resorts to anecdotes to portray the emotional structure of farm animals. He dismisses the oxymoron implied in the term, ?animal personality?.

Masson turns a psychologist?s acumen to zoological observation, dabbling with theories of neuroscience. He does not even mind being called an ?anecdotist? or an ?anthropomorphist? because he finds the standard biological method of case study rather ?boring?. Instead, he advocates the Darwinian legacy of ?searching for the bigger picture in the smallest details?.

Masson knows that he is in for an uphill task, which is tantamount to, or maybe even more challenging than, removing poverty from the world. But he does not allow that knowledge to affect his zeal or the lucidity of his prose. He is as charming in his anecdotes as he is thorough-going in prescribing a vegetarian/ vegan diet for animal-lovers. He campaigns for human empathy for livestock. Among his votaries is Stanley Minasian, the noted filmmaker, who has made a film about the making of this book called, The Emotional World of Farm Animals with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.