Andy Warner

Inventively organized into three sections (Creatures We Find Cute, Creatures WE Find Useful, and Creatures That Find Us Useful), this is a lively, quick trip through the animal kingdom with a focus on animals most closely entwined - for better or worse - with humans. From the domestication of dogs, cats, horses, and sheep to the purposeful introduction of invasive species to the unintended introduction and spread of creatures like rats and cockroaches, Pests and Pets is a swift and fascinating read. A visual table of contents allows readers to skip directly to specific animals if they wish; there's also a timeline of domestication (from 30,000 years ago to present day), a map of (likely) wild origins, and an index. A series of running jokes ("oh, shiny!") emphasize the themes and patterns.

See also: Yummy by Victoria Grace Elliott; The Real Poop on Pigeons by Kevin McCloskey

Quotes/notes

In 1847, the Kennel Club was founded in London and dogs got weird. (14)

Humans are astonishingly good at hunting things....Almost every appearance of humans was followed by a mass extinction of large mammals. (26)

"I bet nobody expected Nazi zoologists!" (43)

"Hmm, causing ecological collapse with animals intended to remind us of home does seem like poor planning." (re: introducing rabbits to Australia, 69)

"Well, have you ever tried to get a Visigoth to eat an omelet?" (re: popularity of chickens in the Roman Empire; fall of the Roman empire, 117)

In the Han dynasty, mouse breeders created the "waltzing mouse," which stumbled around because of an inner-ear defect. (128)

Sparrows arrived in the Americas via deliberate introductions in the 1850s, often by various weirdos nostalgic for the sparrows of the Old World. (152)

...the ability to not annoy humans enough to provoke destruction or interest them enough to be domesticated has made sparrows the wild bird with the most widespread range on earth. (153)… (més)

A fun and informative history of humanity's interaction with animals we find cute, animals we find useful, and animals that find us useful (pests). It's interesting how over time some animals have moved from one category to another.

Dogs, cats, and horses of course get big chapters, but plenty of other animals get their spotlight: sparrows, pigs, pigeons, raccoons, hamsters, rabbits, bees, etc.

Each page is packed with cool facts and trivia, but Andy Warner keeps the history lively so it reads quickly, and I never felt like I was getting bogged down or overwhelmed with too much detail.… (més)