The domestication of animals changed the course of history. But what about the animals who abandoned their wild existence in exchange for our care and protection? Human values and choices determine an animal's lot in life even before he or she is born. Weighing some of the surprising pros and cons of domestication, Gavin Ehringer—a dog trainer and a former cowboy—considers such phenomena as cows cloned from steaks, Chinese dogs that glow in the dark, and a cat show featuring naked felines and other cuddly mutants. Is this what the animals bargained for all those millennia ago, when they first joined us by the fire?