Political animals

Despite its increasing saliency, the issue of animal welfare has been virtually ignored by political scientists. Likewise, there is a tendency for animal rights advocates to reject all welfare reforms as unacceptable and unworkable. In this thorough yet accessible book, Robert Garner explores the character of animal protection decision making in Britain and the United States in order to plug the gap in the public literature and to examine the viability of a reformist strategy for the animal protection movement. It is argued that the intensification of public pressure on decision makers has lead to greater recognition and protection of animal interests in both Britain and the United States. The book also suggests, however, that the response of the political system to public pressure for reform has varied according to the nature of the separate policy networks within which animal welfare decisions are made.