Book and Film Resources

The media resources on this page were submitted by members of the UUAM community for UUs and friends to use to deepen their engagement with justice and compassion for animals.

Although these materials were suggested by UUAM supporters for both individual and group exploration, inclusion of a resource on this list does not imply UUAM’s endorsement in general or for any specific purpose.

Before using a resource with a group, please evaluate it in the context of your own and your community’s values, needs, cultures, and sensibilities.

We welcome resources you might suggest adding to this list; please just drop an email to info@uuam.org. 

Films and videos 

Hawaii is ground zero in the global struggle to save marine wildlife. The Dark Hobby is an exposé on Native Hawaiian Elders, conservationists, and scientists who struggle to ensure the survival of these stunning, tiny creatures who are targets of a trade worth billions. Some species have been driven to extinction by collectors, and others are severely diminished.

Eating For Tomorrow is here to open our eyes to the true impact of our food choices on the planet. Narrated by Kate Winslet, this powerful documentary delves deep into how our diets affect the environment, from deforestation to ocean pollution.

Set in the Mudumalai National Park on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states of India, The Elephant Whisperers tells the story of an indigenous couple named Bomman and Bellie who are entrusted with an orphaned baby Indian elephant named Raghu. They take great pains to ensure that the fragile, injured infant survives and grows to be a healthy juvenile.

The Love Stories of Luvin Arms chronicles six complex, loving relationships between individuals at Luvin Arms. The film demonstrates that animals experience the vast spectrum of love, just like humans. Love Stories is punctuated with words from various languages illuminating the wonderful nuances of loving relationships.

My Octopus Teacher is a 2020 Netflix Original documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. It documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest. Universally acclaimed.

Peaceable Kingdom, produced in 2004 by Tribe of Heart, is a documentary about several farmers who refuse to kill animals, and how they convert to plant-based diets and veganism as a way of life. The film tells the story of how the farmers create an animal sanctuary called "Farm Sanctuary" where they rescue injured animals, half-dead, abandoned, and rejected by the farm industry for not being productive.

Seeing Through the Fence is a documentary that explores the intersection of food, ethics, sustainability, and our views on animals. The film delves into the questions of what hinders the advancement of ethical principles into action, particularly in our relationship with animals and the food system. It also raises questions about veganism, the ethics of eating meat, and the environmental impact of different food systems.

Filmmaker Kip Andersen uncovers a secret to preventing and even reversing chronic diseases, and investigates the claim that the nation's leading health organizations don't want people to know about that secret. This film examines the link between diet and disease, and the billions of dollars at stake in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and food industries.

Books

  • Bekoff, Marc (2024). The Emotional Lives of Animals, (revised): A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, Empathy - And Why They Matter. New World Library.

Dr. Bekoff skillfully blends extraordinary stories of animal joy, empathy, grief, embarrassment, anger, and love with the latest scientific research confirming the existence of emotions that common sense and experience have long implied. Filled with light humor and compassion, The Emotional Lives of Animals is a clarion call for reassessing how we view and treat animals.

  • Bohanec, Hope (2023). The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs. Lantern Publishing Media.

As consumers become increasingly aware of the animal agriculture industry’s cruelty and environmental devastation, clever industry marketers are adapting with alternative “humane” and “sustainable” labeling and marketing campaigns. In the absence of accurate information, it has never been more important to educate people on the realities behind the industry lies, and people are hungry for the truth.

  • Carman, Judy McCoy (2020). Homo Ahimsa: Who We Really Are and How We Are Going to Save the World. Circle of Compassion Publishing.

Homo Sapiens has ravaged the earth. Warnings of species extinction and ecosystem collapse are escalating. But while we tremble to see the damage our species has done, we are, at the same time, heading for a massive paradigm shift in human consciousness that can bring us and all earthlings out of these dark times and into a new way of living that works. We are becoming aware of our true heart, which sees all life as sacred and interconnected.

  • Dunayer, Joan (2001). Animal Equality: Language and Liberation. Ryce Publishing.

Animal Equality shows that deceptive, biased words sustain injustice toward nonhuman animals. Speciesism (prejudice against nonhuman animals) survives through lies. The book's compelling evidence of nonhuman thought and emotion debunks language that characterizes other animals as unreasoning or insensitive.

  • Joshipura, Poorva (2023). Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals is Key to Human Existence. HarperCollins.

With science now recognizing animal consciousness, intelligence, emotion, and even morality, there must come an awareness of our own moral responsibilities toward other beings. But there's another reason to consider animals' well-being—because it is intertwined with our own.

  • Joy, Melanie (2020). Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism. Red Wheel.

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows offers an absorbing look at what social psychologist Dr. Melanie Joy calls carnism, the belief system that conditions us to eat certain animals when we would never dream of eating others. Carnism causes extensive animal suffering and global injustice, and it drives us to act against our own interests and the interests of others without fully realizing what we are doing. 

  • Kowalski, Gary (1991). The Souls of Animals. Stillpoint.

In this revised second edition of his celebrated book, Rev. Gary Kowalski combines heartwarming stories with solid science to show that other creatures are not insensitive objects devoid of feeling and intellect but thinking, sentient beings with an inward, spiritual life.

  • Phelps, Norm (2007). The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. Lantern Books.

From the first hominids who hunted woolly mammoths to today's factory farms and bioengineering labs, The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA tells the story of animal exploitation and the battle for animal justice. After describing the roots of animal rights in the ancient world, the author follows the development of animal protection through the Enlightenment, the anti-vivisection battles of the Victorian Era, and the birth of the modern animal rights movement with the publication of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation. 

  • Scully, Matthew (2002). Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy. St. Martin's Press.

Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing rebuttal of those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully, a celebrated GOP speechwriter,  has created a groundbreaking work from a surprising perspective, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.

  • Tuttle, Dr. Will (2005). The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony. Lantern Books.

Incorporating systems theory, teachings from mythology and religions, and the human sciences, The World Peace Diet presents the outlines of a more empowering understanding of our world, based on a comprehension of the far-reaching implications of our food choices and the worldview those choices reflect and mandate. The author offers a set of universal principles for all people of conscience, from any religious tradition, that they can follow to reconnect with what we are eating, what was required to get it on our plates, and much more.

  • Weil, Zoe (2009). Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life. Beyond Words/Atria.

With a world steeped in materialism, environmental destruction, and injustice, what can one individual possibly do to change it? While we face obstacles that may seem overwhelming, author and humane educator Zoe Weil shows us that change doesn't have to start with an army. It starts with you.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far. Now it’s your turn. Please suggest resources you recommend for individual and congregational exploration. Thanks!