The Covenant of the Wild: Why Animals Chose Domestication Paperback – 2 June 1997

Okay, let's get one thing straight: Domestic animals did not *choose* domestication; they had no choice, one way or the other. So the author's subtitle is inaccurate and anthropomorphic. Point conceded. But on reading the book you will understand the point he is trying to get across, despite his clumsy diction: Animal rights extremists, however well-meaning, have no idea what they are talking about, and are doing animals a huge disservice, even as they claim to be attempting to protect them.Example: Without domestication, it is virtually a certainty that cows would by now be extinct. Big, slow, stupid and tasty, had they not been amenable to domestication and entered into a covenant with their domesticators, cattle would have been hunted to extinction long, long ago. But they did make the covenant and so exist by the tens of millions today. It was a phenomenal deal for cattle as a species, but not a particularly good one for the individual cow when the time comes to pay up at slaughter.By contrast the American bison was not amenable to such a covenant; at the time they roamed the Great Plains in countless millions, and it didn't seem necessary. (I know I'm anthropomorphizing this for simplicity, as does the author, but you get the idea.) Without the current compromise - a few wild herds in Yellowstone and other national parks, the rest in cow-like captivity - they would be gone by now too.The animal rights cults argue that domesticity is too high a price to pay for survival. Really? Wolves (the ancestors of all domesticated dogs) survive in the wild by the skins of their teeth, and would already be extinct if Sarah Palin and her ilk had their way. Do dogs have such a horrible life as house pets that extinction would be a better alternative? I think not; and neither do the PETA hypocrites, who all have pets -- but insist on calling them "animal companions", as if that somehow releases them from their domestic "bonds".Domestication of animals is not exploitation; it is a brilliantly-successful evolutionary strategy that has benefitted humans and animals alike; and that's the point this book makes. PETA cultists will disagree (without bothering to read it), but intelligent people with open minds will find Budiansky's arguments quite interesting, I think.

I reviewed this book long ago after I first read it. That review has disappeared but, given the partisan reviewing still here, I thought I should weigh in again with my opinion.The reviews (and their star ratings) show that you will either love or hate this book. This accurately reflects the unpublicized cultural war that is being waged in the legislative arena between "animal rights" extremists and those of us who raise, love and care for our animals.As Budiansky so aptly points out, unless you have been shivering at midnight in a field in zero degree weather with your arm inside a sheep trying to save her life and the life of her lamb, you have no right to claim that those of us who do that do not have the best interests of our animals at heart.Some of the negative reviewers here admit that this is an important book. Read it and decide for yourself.

I've previously read a number of Stephen Budiansky's books (The Nature of Horses and If a Lion Could Talk) and The Covenant of the Wild certainly lived up to expectations. I found it a good-humoured (as all of Budiansky's books seem to be!) and thought-provoking book, and in this particular edition Budiansky addresses some earlier criticisms made of some of his arguments. Budiansky challenges many commonly held beliefs in a good-natured manner and with evidence to support his claims. It certainly got me thinking and I couldn't put the book down...I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in evolution and the process of domestication, or even animal-lovers with inquiring and scientific minds!

I found it to be a fascinating read.I have always wondered about domestication and how it happens. This book covers the Russian Silver Fox project and a lot of other intriguing tidbits related to the process of domestication. If you are interested in how animals became our companions, and how domestication has benefited them then this is the book for you!

An interesting take on domestication and evolutionary processes. Budiansky looks at the animals' role in domestication, rather than the part played by humans