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Who Cares If They're Cute? This Zoologist Accepts Animals On Their Own Terms
Zoologist Lucy Cooke says humans aren't doing animals any favors when we moralize their behavior. Her book The Truth About Animals is organized around "fact and not sentimentality."
Zoologist Lucy Cooke says humans have got it all wrong about sloths. "People think that because the animal is slow that it's somehow useless and redundant," she says. But in fact, "they are incredibly successful creatures."
Cooke is the founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society and the author of a new book called The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife. The book aims to set the record straight on some long-held misconceptions about the animal world.
"The sloth is not the only animal that's being misunderstood in this way," she says. "I thought it was time that we rebranded the animal kingdom according to fact and not sentimentality – because we have a habit of
