If you want to ruffle someone's feathers, Wayne Pacelle isn't your man.

As one of the foremost animal advocates in the country, you'd think that'd be a fairly easy task. Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), has made a career of staying calm, cool, and collected — whether he's turning dog fighting proponents into responsible citizens or leading an investigation into cockfighting in Texas.

For a guy whose job is often characterized by quite a few downers, Pacelle is eternally upbeat and unflappable.

"I'm incredibly immersed in animal protection issues," Pacelle told CultureMap. "I've been on the front lines of the cause for 25 years." Not to mention that 17 of those were spent with HSUS.

After a quarter of a century battling on behalf of the beats, Pacelle has compiled his experiences into a crucial account of one of the most central threads that weaves through his daily work: the bond humans and animals share.

The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them explores the biological, social, and political underpinnings of the human-animal bond, studies where and how the bond has been broken, and suggests a tangible vision of economic growth without animal exploitation.

"There is a bond with animals that's built into every one of us," Pacelle wrote in the preface of the book. "Every act of callousness toward an animal is a betrayal of that bond."

Pacelle said he has felt this bond for as long as he can remember.

You may be raising your eyebrows. You may be skeptical. Everything in your life has led you to believe that animals were raised for your consumption.

That's because the bond has been all but broken between humans and animals.

"The separation of the bond occurred with industrialization — when we were separated from the food supply," Pacelle told CultureMap. "Animals used to be treated well in the run up to slaughter before that time."

A swelling population — and, consequently, the growing demand for food — coupled with increasingly urban lifestyles led to our detachment from chickens, cows, pigs, rabbits, and even domestic animals like horses and dogs, effectively allowing us turn a blind eye to the entire process.

"We've separated from the actual rearing and killing of these animals," Pacelle said. "A small number of people now make the decisions for the suffering of a large number of animals."

Out of sight, out of mind, right?

"Especially within the last 200 years, we've come to apply an industrial mindset to the use of animals, too often viewing them as if they were nothing but articles of commerce, the raw material of science, or mere obstacles in the path of our own progress," he wrote in the book.

Have you ever thought about it that way? You probably haven't.

We know the situation sounds dire. But reinvigorating a healthy relationship with and toward animals isn't a losing game. "The bond we have gives us a head start," Pacelle said.

After all, it's what gave Pacelle the courage to reevaluate and reapproach the idea of working with Michael Vick, one of the most notorious violators of animal rights in recent history.

"My biggest problem was getting over the emotional response to his vicious cruelty," Pacelle said. "I had to ask myself, 'Can people change? Or do they run in place?' "

But Pacelle is a glass half-full kind of guy. "I was deeply moved by what went on, but it didn't paralyze me," he said.

And there was nothing that was going to get in the way of Pacelle flipping this situation for the greater good. "I turn pain and anger into action," he said. "Vick had the potential to be a new and important voice."

Yes, he's for real.

If a convicted dog fighting ring operator can make that mindset leap, then what are you waiting for? You're ripe for reworking, too.

But how? "There's no one single strategy or behavior that'll help turn the sentiment around, but it intersects with our daily lives in so many ways," said Pacelle.

Even though Pacelle is a 26-year vegan, he said you don't have to adopt an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to granting deference to the consummate bond between man and mammal.

"You can simply reduce your meat consumption by 10 percent and not buy products from factory farms," he said. "The power of dietary choices is enormous."

"As harsh as nature is for animals, cruelty comes only from human hands," Pacelle wrote. "We are the creature of conscience, aware of the wrongs we do and fully capable of making things right."

Maybe it's time to do something right, for a change.

To learn more about the remarkable bond we share with animals, Pacelle will be at the Barnes & Noble in River Oaks for a discussion of these concepts and a book signing at 5 p.m Sunday.