Book excerpt: Literature, Science, and Animal Advocacy in Canada: Practical Zoocriticism is the first book-length study of animals in Canadian literature. Using a historical approach, it offers a much-needed alternative to existing models of animals as symbols of Canadian victimhood. Spanning more than a century, the scope of this book includes classic writers, Ernest Thompson Seton and Charles G. D. Roberts, as well as popular contemporary authors, such as Barbara Gowdy, Yann Martel, Margaret Atwood, and many others. By recontextualizing these works with closer attention to contemporary scientific and animal advocacy debates, this book offers a fresh new perspective on a wide range of texts.