Indeed there is a fascinating and deeply important new story developing. In his forthcoming book THE HUMANE ECONOMY: How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers Are Transforming the Lives of Animals (On sale: April 19, 2016 | William Morrow | $26.99), which Humane Society of the United States President and CEO and New York Times bestselling author Wayne Pacelle (The Bond) offers the first full accounting of a revolution sweeping global business, and changing forever how we value animals. As told from the frontlines, this is the surprising narrative of how entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 CEOs, world-class scientists, and a new class of political leaders, both inspired and pressured by conscious consumers and voters, are collectively remaking our relationship with other species and the natural world, leaving behind the remnants of the old economic order that features puppy mills and factory farms, trophy hunting safaris and circuses with wild animal acts, and laboratories confining chimpanzees and cosmetic testing facilities poisoning rabbits. This is the story of the burgeoning, unstoppable growth of the humane economy.

Technologies and expanding markets of the twentieth century enabled a new scale and intensity of animal exploitation: the mass confinement of farm animals, the global trafficking in wildlife, industrial whaling, and other practices more ruthless than rational. The story of the twenty-first century is shaping up very differently. Now technology is becoming a force for good in the treatment of animals, replacing the machinery of cruelty and removing any plausible reason to resist change and reform.

THE HUMANE ECONOMY introduces the pioneers leading this revolution: the two college buddies who founded a startup food company producing a plant-based egg substitute that has attracted the backing of 12 billionaires in their quest to “take the animal out of the equation;” the writers and directors of Planet of the Apes and Noah who realized that the future of film-making involves making animal-themed movies by using CGI technology in place of live animals; and the small group of committed advocates who joined forces with one of America’s wealthiest activist investors to convince 100 of the biggest brand names in food retail to upend their supply chains to improve the lives of pigs and hens. The book features corporations like Petco and PetSmart, having turned the conventional pet store model on its head by forswearing puppy mill suppliers in favor of shelter dogs; major food retailers like Whole Foods and Chipotle that are now embracing animal welfare policies aimed at reforming animal agriculture; and major cosmetics makers, such as Lush and The Body Shop now investing in non-animal testing methods.

THE HUMANE ECONOMY explores how our everyday economic decisions impact the survival and wellbeing of animals, and how we can make choices that better support them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: As president and CEO of the nation’s largest animal protection organization, Wayne Pacelle is at the helm of a massive mission to drive animal welfare changes across different sectors of the economy – inside boardrooms, newsroom studios, courtrooms and the halls of Congress and state legislatures across the country. The author of The New York Times best-seller, The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them, Pacelle appears frequently as a guest on national news shows and as a speaker at conferences and universities, and is the author of a powerful treatise published this year in Foreign Affairs called “The Long Road to Animal Welfare.” He lives and works in Washington, D.C.