Animal Happiness

This is a meaty little book that needs to be savored and digested slowly. Hearne tosses out philosophical questions and possible answers, along with wonderful anecdotes of the horses, dogs, and other animals in her life to illustrate her point.

I just re-read this book after many years and it holds up. This book gives one side of an important debate that is going on, a side that isn't heard from as often as it should be. People who work with domestic animals have a different language to discuss and a different philosophy about what they are doing than people who talk about them in the fields of philosophy and the behavioral sciences. Vicki Hearne was a member of both communities. In this book, she articulates the views of those who work with animals and makes their case. She does so strongly and beautifully and she does not kowtow to the authority of academia. It is probably very important to read Adam's Task, by the same author, to fully appreciate this book. I am re-reading it at the moment and will review it soon.

Vicki was a trainer and a philospher, so I expect rants from her about the nature of lagnuage, etc. As a writer, I actually enjoy them. In this book, however, she spends a bit too much time riding her favorite hobbyhorses, among them the defense of pit bulls and pit bull-type dogs and a sort of militant faux-feminism. "You have to understand, Annie [her pit bull] is a matriarchal sort of dog." Sorry, but to me this translates as "the kind of dog someone has taught to dislike men." There's also a reference to a dog who was perfectly within its rights for "escorting to the door" a man who bored its owner, "a lady." I guess (?) Vicki meant the man was inappropriately coming on to the "lady," in which case, if she were a woman and a true feminist, she would have been damned well capable of showing him the door herself. The Josephine Trainer columns, while sometimes amusing and sad, are occasionally so angry and cynical that I can't tell what point Vicki meant to make by them. When she isn't being cute, Hearne shows us some amazing portraits of wonderful animals and the humans they talk to in this book. There is much joy here. Her knowledge of respect for animals shine through, particularly in pieces like "The Case of the Disobedient Orangutans." There's a little anti-animal-rights bitterness here, but that's appropriate. Much of the piece is devoted to showing that orangs and people, if they are the right sort of people, can really communicate, enjoy each other's company, and be comedians together. (Disclaimer: I was a veterinary technician for ten years and a horse owner for five. I never trained animals professionally, but I have some experience with them.)

This is a fabulous book of essays on animal behavior and our humble, fumbling attempts to understand just what "animal happiness" entails. MS. Hearne is both an animal trainer and a philosopher and, in this book, as well as "Bandit" and "Adam's Task: Calling Animals by Name", she distinguishes herself as a quirky original thinker in both domains.