Specialized Print Reference Books

Bekoff, Marc (1998). Encyclopedias of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. (Meaney, Carron A., ed.). Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

This reference book umbrellas a variety of animal rights and welfare issues. Jane Goodall well known for her chimpanzee studies and advocacy wrote the forward and gives an overview of animal behavior, along with human and animal differences. She uses her life examples and compliments this book. A timeline is provided of different events around the world, mostly in the United States, that affected animal rights and welfare. This is a very resourceful list because it looks at the animal rights as a whole movement and gives insight in understanding how far it has come. This book does not discuss horse slaughter in specifics, but does discuss other kinds of livestock slaughter and horse related issues about cruelty and welfare. The Humane Slaughter Act is discussed and how the slaughterhouses need to act humanely towards the animals. It provides specific guidelines and regulations on the process. They discuss previous cruelty cases, horse communication, animal intelligence and thinking, along with many other issues. This book provides a viewer with an overview of animal welfare and rights that can be used in researching horse slaughter.

Carroll, Jamuna (Ed.). (2005). Do Animals Have Rights? California: Thomas Gale.

This book uses different points of view to show both sides of certain debates, like Modern Slaughtering Methods Are Humane, while the following chapter is Modern Slaughtering Methods are Inhumane. This book also covers topics about animal rights and other controversial issues that may help someone in looking at animal welfare overall. Chapter eleven and twelve are the ones a person would focus on if they were researching horse and other animal slaughter. It provides both sides of how the slaughter is looked at as a humane or inhumane act with reasons and facts to back each side individually. This gives a person a well-rounded view on the animal slaughter and provides other resources they could use. The chapter about humane slaughter is written by the American Meat Institute and discusses how the industry has evolved with research. They also discuss government oversight, the science of livestock welfare, regulations, and the handling and stunning improvements. They include statistics that support their opinions. Joby Warrick, an investigative staff writer for the Washington Post, wrote the chapter about the inhumane animal slaughter. It discusses how certain regulations are not followed, like correctly stunning an animal before being butchered. It also includes experts, like veterinaries responses to this, how violations go unpunished, the meat industry’s response, evidence of inhumane practices, Temple Grandin’s industry-wide audit, improper stunning, and the obstacles in preventing inhumane slaughter. This whole book provides a lot of information and shows both sides of issues that would help a reporter write an unbiased article that show different perspectives.

Masters Evan, Kim (2008). Animal Rights (2007 edition). (Edgar, Kathleen J. & Williams, Jhanay, eds.). Michigan: Thomas Gale.

This book covers a variety of animal rights and welfare issues like human-animal interaction, wildlife, farm animals, research animals, animals in sports, entertainment animals, service animals, and pets. These are chapters, with many subheadings, that provide more specific information on the animals affected by those issues, along with more overview information. The horsemeat issue is discussed briefly, along with other horse issues, like carriage horses, horses used for different services, racehorses, wild horses, and horses in rodeos. The subheading of horses and horsemeat discuss the 2006 American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, along with other information and events that led to it. It also discusses animal slaughter overall and how farm animals are treated. It would help a reporter to provide accurate information on the horse slaughter, along with horse rights and welfare. It provides expert opinions and statistics about it.


Sherry, Clifford J. (1994). Animal Rights, A Reference Handbook. California: ABC-CLIO.

Being 14 years old, this book is outdated on some issues, but provides a lot of history and interesting points in the animal rights debates. This book provides very broad information, but would be a good place to start research for someone doing a report on anything that involves animals and their rights. It discusses federal legislation, animal pain and theories of pain perception, and provides a wide variety of other sources that could be helpful, including U.S. government publications and non-print resources. They do use experts in the fields and statistics that support their information.