The Silent Ark: A Chilling Expose of Meat - The Global Killer

It is impeccably researched and written.

Millions of animals are unnecessarily slaughtered for food in the UK every year; worldwide it is billions. We'd all like to believe that this is done with concern for their welfare during their lives, and humane methods used when it is time to slaughter. The meat industry would LOVE us to keep thinking that. Sadly, though, it could not be further from the truth.

Few people would carry on eating meat if they had to spend just one day in a factory farm or a slaughterhouse. People should know the pain, misery and suffering that goes into their meals, and THEN decide if they want to economically support it by continuing to consume meat.

This book, however, goes MUCH further than the animal welfare issue and demonstrates that we benefit both our health and the environment when we stop eating meat.

Most compelling of all, she catalogues how meat production contributes DIRECTLY to humans dying of starvation. Many poor countries are economically incentivised to export their crops as livestock feed so that rich foreigners can eat steak, while the local populations starve.

The only thing one can possibly say in favour of meat (and even this is a matter of opinion) is that it 'tastes' good. Is that really enough to justify the third world children and babies dying of starvation, the animal cruelty, the first world heart attacks, and the wholesale destruction of the environment?


A must for people who claim to care about animals.   April 16, 2001
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Although some of the content of this book is hard to read, and even harder to comprehend, we owe it to the animals to read it, and to feel shame as we close the final cover.

This book is a must for everyone who claims to be an animal lover whilst tucking into their dinner of roast lamb.


Possibly the most informative book ever written.   January 21, 2000
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book sets out to do the impossible - to challenge nearly all the beliefs held by compassionate people all over the world - and, somehow, it manages it.

From the personal stories to the devastating statistics, every page brings a new shock about the hidden world of animal cruelty, and the pure evils of a dishonest meat industry.

If everyone read this book, we would have far fewer meat eaters. I decided when I picked this book up that it was not going to convert me. It didn't, but it gave me, literally, food for thought, and now I am a definite and strict vegetarian.

This book isn't about emotional blackmail, it isn't about horriffic pictures and over dramtised writing style. It is about simple facts, which should not, and indeed cannot, be ignored.