IN Animal Rights & Human Values (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 334 pages, $34.95 cloth), Rod Preece and Lorna Chamberlain make an impressive attempt to present the history andphilosophy behind our contemporary treatment of animals, and to examine the keyissues - experimentation, the use of fur, hunting, farms and factory farming,pets, the use of animals for entertainment from all sides. In a text remarkablefor its wide scope and range of references (from Aristotle to the animalrightsguru Peter Singer, Disraeli to Dian Fossey), the authors manage (mostly) toavoid sentimentality on the one hand and bloodless documentary andphilosophizing on the other. Although they stoutly declare themselves on theside of the animals, they areas quick to point Out the questionable"facts" and contradictory arguments of the animal liberationists asthey are to criticize experimenters and a scientific approach that too oftenhas sacrificed animals on the altar of medical research. The authors are long-time leaders inHumane Society organizations, organizations that are themselves divided onniany of these issues. Their main point, greatly simplified, is that allsentient beings, including humans, differ from one another not essentially, butby degrees; and it is also by degrees that rights should be accorded our fellowcreatures. This position is not unassailable, but like most things in this bookis well reasoned and eminently fair.