Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves

The events of 2020, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Australian bushfires, made it hard to ignore how closely the lives of people and other animals are tied together. Jeff Sebo begins with the observation that our treatment of animals feeds pandemics, a shifting climate, and other worldwide dangers. Those dangers, in turn, drive the loss of species, the breakdown of ecosystems, and immense suffering among animals.

Sebo's central claim is that we owe it to animals to bring them into the planning of public health and environmental policy. He proposes cutting back on animal use as part of efforts to curb pandemics and slow climate change, while putting more resources into helping animals adapt to a warming world. Building on One Health and the Green New Deal, he urges reducing support for factory farming, deforestation, and the wildlife trade, and turning instead toward humane, healthy, and sustainable options, with human and animal needs weighed together.

The discussion reaches well beyond those policy areas. Sebo looks at schooling, jobs, social services, and infrastructure, along with questions about well-being, moral standing, political standing, and how to think about large populations. Throughout, he argues that these matters are weighty and intricate, and that we should avoid both downplaying our obligations because we are limited and downplaying our limits because we have obligations.

The book works as a call to act and as a guide to what ethical, effective action demands. It is aimed at researchers, campaigners, policymakers, and any reader who wants to think about what kind of world we should try to build and how to get there.