This is the fourth book in the UFAW Animal Welfare Series. It is written by one of the pioneers of animal welfare science, David Fraser, who is professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of British Columbia in Canada. It has been promoted as a ‘delightful book, full of interesting aspects of animal welfare’ and ‘an excellent guide to the academic study of animal welfare science’. The primary readership will be animal scientists and especially animal welfare scientists. It will be particularly suited to animal welfare researchers and students wanting to broaden their views within the discipline.

The strengths of the book are as follows. It provides a scholarly historical analysis of attitudes towards animals and thinking within animal welfare science. It examines in a reflective way the role that animal welfare science has in modern society. It covers a wide body of literature on attitudes to animals, animal sentience and animal behaviour, and includes a large number of references for further reading. It discusses many forms of animal abuse that have been performed by different cultures in the past. There are interesting analyses of associations between productivity in livestock farming and animal welfare, and how standards can be formulated to satisfy animal welfare criteria. There are authoritative accounts on innate and abnormal behaviour patterns and behaviour responses in livestock and poultry.

In common with many other academic works that discuss ethical issues in animal welfare, it does not give a clear analysis of the distinctions between moral aspirations and moral duties. The moral aspirations that are described are those expressed by others, and the author avoids imposing his views on the reader.

This book is recommended as a library acquisition for any university or college that specializes in animal biology, and it will probably become recognized as a primary source on historical and cultural attitudes, behaviour and beliefs on animal welfare.