Roach, Mary. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. New York, W. W. Norton, 2021. ISBN:
9781324001935
Do you have a problem with bears rummaging in your garbage? Elephants tramping over your garden? Gulls dive bombing your noggin? Or mice infiltrating your domicile? If so, then you have had animals that broke the law! While modern society does not put animals on trial today (see The Advocate starring Colin Firth for when they did), animals are still punished for lawbreaking - not a law of Nature, but human law. Fuzz will help you understand what is going on and why.
Mary Roach delves into animal lawbreakers with glee and gusto. She attended WHART (Wildlife-Human Attack Response Training) to learn how to tell who or what killed the human lying on the ground. She patrols the back alleys of Aspen (CO) to see the bears feasting on garbage cans not properly bear-proofed. She visits India for the roaming elephants, the man-eating leopards and the breaking-and-entering monkeys. Back in the US of A, cougars, mountain lions, and panthers are on the agenda in regard to where they roam and what they eat. Then a trip to Canada for some killer trees and their crime and punishment. Mary takes a walk around our gardens filled with poisonous plants and visits farmers and other victims (which includes The Pope!) of pillaging and harassing birds. The last few chapters deal less with the animal offenders and more on how humans try to discourage animal "misbehavior" and keep houses, work places, and food stores pest free.
Mary Roach manages to find another off-beat topic to entertain and inform her readers in Fuzz. Even if you do not get her quirky sense of humor, you will enjoy this book.
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