This book is a detailed view of animal ethics based on two intellectual sources: pragmatism (primarily John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce, but also Jane Addams and Alaine Locke) and ecofeminism (also ecowomanism, which emphasizes the insights of women of color). One of the chief virtues of the book is the emphasis placed on negotiating provisional responses to issues regarding animals in the midst of competing claims, in pragmatist fashion. The author highlights the fact that being human is wrapped up in living and dying with other animal beings. As a result, McKenna finds ethical issues regarding animals other than humans to be more complicated than either animal rightists or anthropocentrists imagine.McKenna does not shy away from some controversial conclusions, as in the claim that we should not necessarily eliminate all painful or lethal research on nonhuman animals or that vegetarianism/veganism are not nonnegotiable positions for those who are serious about animal ethics. The author is led to these views, in part, due to a commitment to inclusivity, especially to the effort to include Native American and other indigenous perspectives into animal ethics, perspectives that are not necessarily connected to vegetarian/vegan ideals. Native American thought is continuous with pragmatist thought, on McKenna's interpretation, which relies on the scholarship of Scott Pratt.The thesis that there are no unproblematic ways of living with nonhuman animals leads, on McKenna's reasoning, to the pragmatist method of inquiry where there are no moral absolutes. Both deontological rights and utilitarian “rights” are indications, she thinks, of the sort of absolutist reasoning that she wishes to avoid. In this regard, both Tom Regan and Peter Singer are seen to be problematic because any sort of rights approach, she thinks, reinforces human exceptionalism. It may be the case that even the moral absolute that slavery is wrong is decentered by McKenna. She praises the Haida people, an indigenous tribe from Alaska and Canada, due to their approach to species, but she does not mention their practice of slavery. Deontologists, by contrast, are likely to agree with Abraham Lincoln that slavery is wrong if anything is wrong.Even if one does not agree with McKenna's pragmatist methodology, there is much to be learned from her detailed and insightful treatment of particular sorts of nonhuman animals. Chapter 2 deals with chimpanzees and other primates. However, her favorable treatment of these animals is not based on a common extensionist model that in turn is based on human exceptionalism. McKenna relies on her own personal experience working for an extended period at the Chimpanzee-Human Communication Institute. That is, she speaks from deep familiarity. Like Val Plumwood, however, McKenna tries to avoid putting too much emphasis on (human-like) autonomy in her defense of apes and monkeys.Chapter 3 deals with horses and cattle, with whom McKenna again has significant practical familiarity. One of the distinctive features of the book is the way she uses works from popular fiction and film to help us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of everyday beliefs about nonhuman animals. The Curious George stories were examined in the previous chapter; here, regarding horses, McKenna considers Black Beauty to great effect, especially regarding women's voices that are heard quite clearly in that book. Ecofeminist themes are especially prominent in what McKenna has to say about the factory farm uses of cows. Here she relies on Mary Wollstonecraft, Carol Adams, and Karen Warren. Further, the controversial analogy between abuse of nonhuman animals and human slavery is explored through the ecowomanist writer Alice Walker. Common to both terms in the analogy is the logic of domination.In Chapter 4, McKenna moves to a treatment of pigs and poultry through a consideration of the book and film Babe and the film Chicken Run. Here she emphasizes how an attack on one sort of domination often leads to the reinforcement of another. In any event, the move to vegetarianism or veganism is an important step in the dismantling of the logic of domination, even if it is not sufficient to bring this logic to a halt. If I understand correctly, Christine Korsgaard's deontological approach to animal rights continues this logic in that “extensionism” presupposes anthropocentrism. Once again, Val Plumwood is seen as a better conceptual guide for us than any deontologist or utilitarian.McKenna moves to whales and fishes in Chapter 5 by making use of Moby-Dick, which, once again, McKenna mines for insights not only regarding species, but also regarding race and gender. The critical thought of the Black pragmatist Alain Locke is defended, who emphasizes that value judgments regarding other cultures, races, and species should be held tentatively and subject to revision. Indigenous “salmon boy” stories and the indigenous approach toward species found in the writings of Vine Deloria also play prominent roles in this chapter. The nonhierarchical approach to knowledge and ethics that McKenna defends extends not only to animals, but also (perhaps problematically) to plants.Because of her opposition to deontological ethics and rights language, McKenna has an easier time with her pragmatic approach than many other animal ethicists in dealing with “pests,” the topic of Chapter 6. In this regard, she examines both Charlotte's Web and the well-known work regarding pesticides by Rachel Carson. The theme of ecological relatedness, however, leads McKenna to be suspicious of knee-jerk designations of insects and other animals as “pests” in that many of these play crucial roles in ecological harmony.Chapter 7 deals with cats and canines through familiar works like Born Free, The Lion King, and The Call of the Wild. McKenna is particularly effective in dealing with complex issues surrounding the reintroduction of wolves into the American West. As with the rest of the book, these issues are tackled with the tools made available by pragmatism, ecofeminism, ecowomanism, and postcolonial theory. The strengths and possible weaknesses of these approaches are in evidence throughout McKenna's very clear and carefully argued book.