Every day we learn new and surprising things about the intelligence and emotional capacity of animals, something that we often overlook too often. And so we find that rats play and laugh - and therefore show empathy - or that we can know what cows feel if we pay attention to their ears and nose. Sometimes we humans transform this kind of knowledge into compassion for other animals, as we have seen recently in the cases of the Cecil lion or the Harambe gorilla. But, as a whole, the growing understanding of what animals feel is not resulting in us treating them with greater respect.

A renowned animal behavior expert such as Marc Bekoff and a leading professional in the field of bioethics such as Jessica Pierce explore the real world of what five categories of animals experience, starting with those who suffer the greatest degrees of lack of freedom and choice - gallinas, pigs or cows in the industrial food production system - as well as by the animals that are used in the fields of experimentation and research, such as mice, rats, cats, dogs and chimpanzees. Next, the authors deal with animals in which the notion of loss of freedom is more ambiguous and controversial, mainly the specimens that are kept in zoos and aquariums, or companion animals. Finally, they reveal to the reader the unexpected ways in which human activity limits the freedom of animals that live in freedom in nature, and advocate a more compassionate point of view when addressing the issue of conservation.

In each case they combine scientific studies with stories of specific animals, in order to face the reader to the wonder of our life partners, as well as show the suffering they suffer and the need for a profound paradigm shift that really I assure you not a simple well-being as a true good-being.

A fundamental book to educate and encourage people to rethink how our behaviors and ways of life affect other animals, and how we can - and should - develop more peaceful and less violent ways of interacting with them.