 | Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity Subjects: Elephants -- Behavior; Elephants -- Psychology; Elephants -- Effects of human beings on; Social behavior in animals; Captive wild animals; Psychology Comparative; This thoughtful book by animal trauma specialist Bradshaw draws analogies between human and animal culture to illustrate the profound "breakdown" occurring in elephant societies. Extraordinarily sensitive and social, elephants' survival has long depended on their matriarchal lineage-now sundered by culling the herds, which disrupts the hierarchy-and their psyches have been broken by prolonged isolation and separation, painful hooks used as training tools and general cruelty. Captured elephants meet the criteria of the psychiatirc handbook DSM for suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Drawing on research on animal trauma, concentration camp survivors and Konrad Lorenz-type ethology, Bradshaw makes a multidisciplinary condemnation of elephant abuse and celebrates those working on rehabilitating and healing the animals-including an elephant massage therapist and the owners of an elephant sanctuary in the Tennessee hills. In the end, anthropomorphizing isn't the issue; Bradshaw says that instead of giving animals human feelings, we should observe that they have feelings that correlate with what we may feel in similar circumstances. With its heartbreaking findings and irrefutable conclusions, this book bears careful reading and consideration. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved G. A. Bradshaw, who holds doctorates in ecology and psychology, is director of the Kerulos Center. Her work on elephants, chimpanzees, parrots, and other animals is frequently featured in the national media, including the New York Times , NPR, 20/20, Time magazine, the London Times , National Geographic television, and National Geographic magazine. She lives in Jacksonville, OR. |
