EKU Reads Project

The EKU Reads program is designed to provide new students with a common introduction to academic life at EKU. Each fall EKU engages in a campus-wide discussion of a book through a variety of first year classes. Freshmen will receive a free copy of the book if it is used in any of their classes.

The 2013 book selection is Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat by Dr. Hal Herzog.

What's It About?

Dr. Hal Herzog, AuthorSome We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat, starting in the very first chapter, takes students on a highly entertaining and illuminating journey through the full spectrum of people and animal interactions. Dr. Hal Herzog, professor of psychology at Western Carolina University and a leading expert on human-animal relations, blends his own groundbreaking research on animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog show handlers, veterinary students, and biomedical researchers with the latest knowledge in anthropology, history, brain science, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy to carefully craft a seamless narrative that poses provocative questions such as:

  • Does living with a pet really make people happier and healthier?
  • What can we learn from biomedical research with mice?
  • Who enjoys a better quality of life—the chicken on a dinner plate or a rooster who dies in a Saturday night cockfight?
  • Is it wrong to eat the family dog?

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat offers surprising answers to these and other questions related to the moral conundrums students face day in and day out regarding the creatures with whom we share our world. Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny, Hal Herzog’s enlightening and provocative book will change the way students look at their relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how they see themselves.

Hal Herzog, recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on human-animal relations, has had his research published in prestigious academic journals, including Science, the Proceedings of the Royal Society, American Psychologist, American Scholar, the Journal of Social Issues, and the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. He is a frequent contributor to Psychology Today, maintaining a blog called “Animals and Us.” In addition, there are teaching materials available for Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat. He is a professor of psychology at Western Carolina University and lives in the Great Smoky Mountains with his wife and their cat, Tilly.