10/23/06 Animals in Education in Croatia
Regarding the inclusion of the book Look for Me Under the Rainbow into the optional reading by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Animal Friends would like to draw attention to five books with animalistic themes.
Look for Me Under the Rainbow by Bernard Jan, Genesis, Zagreb
In this beautiful and affecting story, placed in the pure and untouched landscape of Newfoundland, from a professionally and intelligently unusual angle of writing, Bernard Jan speaks about the eternal theme of human conflict with nature. Look for Me Under the Rainbow is a story with many poetic details and deep engagement into the mechanisms of thinking and behaviour of his characters Danny and his mother. With a touching tone he describes the reality of human impact on the world we are living in.
On the recommendation of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, this book has become an optional reading for the seventh grades in elementary schools with beginning of this school year.
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, IBIS Grafika, Zagreb
The bible for the animal rights movement, as this book is sometimes also called, represents the philosophical defense of animal rights and vegetarianism. It shows how impossible it is to find a moral justification for ignoring the interests of other species, but it also shows us how people, in spite of that, systematically exploit other beings capable of suffering for indulgence of their trivial interests. Many ugly details, unknown to the general public, which scientists and the meat industry are carefully hiding, are revealed in this book.
This writing is generally considered to be a groundbreaking text for the animal emancipation movement, and it could be one of the most important guidebooks for bio-ethic classes in Croatian high schools.
Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson, Genesis and Animal Friends, Zagreb
The title of the book is from "The Letter Writer," a short story by the Yiddish writer and Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-91), to whom the book is dedicated: 'In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an Eternal Treblinka.' The book examines the origins of human supremacy, describes the emergence of industrialized slaughter of both animals and people in modern times to the detail, and presents for the first time with extensive evidence of the profoundly troubling connections between animal exploitation in the United States and Hitler's Final Solution. This book breaks all taboos and fires up controversies all over the world. Besides original English, so far it is published in German, Italian, Polish, Croatian, and Czech, whilst translations in Slovenian, Serbian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese are expected in 2007.
Undoubtedly, this book is yet to leave its influence on Croatian literary market and among Croatian intellectual circles.
Doctors Against Animal Experimentation, Vegan and Animal Friends, Zagreb
More than 300 years of history filled with immeasurable attempts of animal experimentation, during which cures to save (or at least help) mankind were sought after, turned into a history of quackery and quasi-science which proved just the opposite: not only that animal experiments do not help people, but are rather dangerous to humans and bars progress of modern medicine and science! This booklet speaks about vivisection through a collection of statements from physicians and scientists, some of whom used animals for experiments, in order to realistically present why animal experiments are dangerous for humans.
So far the only reading in Croatian thematically bound solely to animal experimentation for scientific purposes!
Vegan – The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus, Biovega, Zagreb
Conceptualized in three parts, the book Vegan outlines the health reasons for adopting a vegan lifestyle, our treatment of animals in factory farming and inhumane conditions in slaughterhouses, both for humans and animals. It discusses the issue of world hunger and the future of (ecological) resources, emphasizing the importance of education, public awareness campaigning, and choosing what we eat as a prerequisite of our way of life. The work of experts, from medical field to activists, is introduced in it, as well as real life stories about people and animals.
Providing detailed information, this book is a significant contribution to education about the connection between our diet habits and environment protection.
Animal Friends organization accentuates the importance of existence of literature in regard to the growing vegetarianism and animal rights movement in Croatia. These valuable publications offer answers to the critical questions of our coexistence with other animal species on this planet and are becoming a part of the historical development of ethical society in Croatia.
