The world needs more heroes. Winograd is one. His award-winning, game-changing REDEMPTION: THE MYTH OF PET OVERPOPULATION AND THE RISE OF THE NO-KILL REVOLUTION IN AMERICA is condensed here into accessible, tightly focused essays that outrage and inspire. Winograd has dedicated his life to exposing the culture of despair that has turned "rescue" into a relentless cycle of killing, as well as the astonishing defenders of that culture: the ASPCA, Humane Society and--most nefariously and cynically--PETA. (PETA, having successfully created an identity for itself as THE animal-rights organization and attracting high donorship because of it, quietly sports an appalling record of killing close to 100% of the dogs and cats it "rescues" and opposing animal-advocacy legislation. It should have come as no surprise recently when PETA came out in support of the legalization of horse slaughter in this country.)

Winograd exposes such absurd "humane" practices as, in the chapter titled "Sit, Fetch, Stay or Die," the widespread practice of sparing no effort, no expense, to bring a dog back to health, only to subject him/her to behavioral testing that will stop all efforts on his behalf. If a dog that well may have come from a starvation situation, shows "food aggression" when an artificial hand takes his bowl away while he's eating--that's it. Suddenly there are no more funds for this dog's rehabilitation, no time for retraining, no option but a fatal injection.

There's plenty of blame to go around in the perpetuation of the myth of pet overpopulation. In "Good Homes Need Not Apply," he describes his own experience attempting to adopt a 7-year-old black lab mix--a dog with everything going against it: older, large and black (far and away the most common color of dogs and cats considered unadoptable, for reasons people continue to speculate about). Asked if he had a doggie door at home, Winograd said no and explained that he works from home and lets his dogs in or out whenever they ask. Not good enough. No doggy door, no adoption. The absurd restrictions in "good" adoption practices (formulated by the Humane Society), slavishly followed, apparently dictated that this older black dog was better off dead than sentenced to life without a doggy door! Such restrictions abound: kittens can only be adopted in pairs, cats must be kept indoors 24/7, no children can be in the home, animals can't be left alone for the hours of a working person's working life, etc. All these things and more, apparently, are "fates worse than death" for shelter animals.

MILLIONS of cats and dogs are put to death (not "to sleep"!) each year in this most nightmarish of bureaucracies. Winograd doesn't just point fingers; he offers solutions and outlines strategies. Must reading for animal lovers. ( )