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Well. This was a shrewdly written book. Instead of arguing for animal rights he argues that humans have neglected to exercise care for animals in their use of them. In other words modern humans have forsaken a biblical and moral vision of dominion for a quite selfish and callous use of animals for profit. In this use we ourselves are disfigured and reduced.
Most of the first half of the book is an overview of the most egregious misuse of animals in our world, focusing on the trophy hunting of animals, especially elephants, the hunting of the great whales, and the industrial production of pork. What he finds in these three areas is tantamount to torture, a rejection of care/dominion for a vicious, economic approach to the higher mammals. The rest of the book is a more philosophical discussion of natural law as a basis of morality and a very discussion of whether or not animals have emotions and if they feel and experience pain in a way similar to the way we do.
Throughout the book the author deals extensively with the arguments of the other side, most of whom are fellow conservatives (he is a former speech writer foe Bush II). He seeks to ground his arguments for mercy for animals in universal human moral values. He is very convincing that higher mammals experience the world in much the same way that we do and is very convincing in his arguments for the need to abandon trophy hunting, whaling, and industrial food production. I don't think that he ever actually called for everyone to stop eating meat, he does call us to be mindful of what we are doing when we eat and when we interact with animals.
This book pushes us toward vegetarianism in a logical caring way. I would have liked to see some interaction with animal farming that is compassionate and humane. He was long on theory (and I am in no way denigrating this) and short on solutions except to ban trophy hunting and whaling (which I would support). His more journalistic sections, when he is describing the activities that he abhors are much more readable and passionate then his more theory driven chapters and this makes the book uneven. All in all this is an important book I think, because he makes the important distinction between what we can do and what we should do. We don't owe animals mercy because they have rights, we owe them mercy because we have dominion.