<DIV>From the pet that we live with and care for, to news items such as animal cloning, and the use of various creatures in film, television and advertising, animals are a constant presence in our lives.<BR><BR><i>Animal</i> is a timely overview of the many ways in which we live with animals, and assesses many of the paradoxes of our relationships with them: for example, why is the pet that sits by the dinner table never for eating? Examining novels such as <i>Charlotte’s Web</i>, films such as <i>Old Yeller</i> and <i>Babe</i>, science and advertising, fashion and philosophy, <i>Animal</i> also evaluates the ways in which we think about animals and challenges a number of the assumptions we hold. Why is it, for example, that animals are such a constant presence in children’s literature? And what does it mean to wear fake fur? Is fake fur an ethical avoidance of animal suffering, or merely a sanitized version of the unacceptable use of animals as clothing?<BR><BR>Neither evangelical nor proselytizing, <i>Animal</i> invites the reader to think beyond the boundaries of a subject that has a direct effect on our day-to-day lives.</div>