This novel truly shares the same profound depth of compassion and hope that made 'Watership Down' an unforgettable masterpiece.

Here, we follow the harrowing journey of two laboratory dogs as they embark on a bold and daring escape from the facility that has held them captive. There's Rowf, filled with anger and bitterness, yet fiercely protective of the smaller Snitter. Snitter's brain has been damaged, but his heroic spirit remains unbroken.

Despite all the hardships and atrocities they have endured, both dogs still retain the dog's inherent capacity for love and loyalty.

I usually approach animal stories with a certain degree of caution, as they have the power to touch my soul in a very visceral way. And this book is no exception. It will stay with me forever.

But it's well worth taking the plunge into this darkness that is all too real, just to experience the palpable way in which the author, and the dogs themselves, stubbornly insist on pursuing the light.

It's a story that will make you think, feel, and perhaps even change the way you view the world and the creatures that inhabit it.

EDIT: Changed from four to five stars. The book has obviously left an indelible impression on me, since I still think of it and remember it very vividly five years after first reading it. I feel that warrants an upgrade in rating.

The story of Plague Dogs revolves around two dogs, Rowf and Snitter. They escape from an animal testing facility. The duo attempts to survive in rural Britain to the best of their ability, facing fear and hunger. All the while, humans from scientists to farmers and military officials try to hunt them down. Many of these humans are fueled by fear mongering magazine articles and anger.

The story is almost entirely about these dogs' seemingly despondent escape journey. The atmosphere remains glum for the vast majority of the book. The novel provides heartwrenching details of the cruelty of animal testing. The very foreword of the book informs the reader that every test described in Plague Dogs has been done to some animal, somewhere. Reading the book with this knowledge makes the details even more gruesome. Hence, I can't say I'd recommend this to people particularly faint of heart, especially when it comes to animal cruelty.

The animal characters made me feel a little conflicted. This is mostly because this is an old book, written during a time when the public had only begun to wake up to the idea of animals being sentient enough beings to not deserve the cruelty of being subjected to tests of such nature. The dogs view people as "masters", which I found a little weird. Maybe "pack leaders", if the human has so asserted. But "masters"? That word choice (especially considering it is coming from the dogs themselves) and the whole fact that Rowf and Snitter try to understand the cruelty of the actions of human scientists by saying things like "They must have a good reason" definitely feels weird to me now, nearly 40 years after the book was published in my mother tongue (Finnish). However, it was no doubt the widely accepted view at the time. I mean, this was a time when it was still alright to think of animals in terms of some sort of robotics - put a stimuli in, a reaction comes out. As though that was any different from humans.

If you've seen the animation and are wondering if there are some marked differences to the book, I would say the biggest differences are that the dogs seem more intelligent and anthropomorphized than in the animation (hence making for much, much more psychologically interesting scenarios) and that there is actually light to be seen at the end of the tunnel when reading the book.

I'm happy to say the book, though showing its age in many ways, is still very much capable of making the reader think of animal sentience and animal abuse. I can definitely see how this book would have been of great importance in its time, in terms of advocating animal rights. It's almost a shame it's somewhat overshadowed by Adams' more popular work, Watership Down.

Two dogs, Snitter and Rowf, manage to escape the horror and mistreatment that they endured in a research center.

However, their pursuit of freedom is far from easy. A newspaper wrongly reports that the dogs are infected with the bubonic plague, which leads to them being hunted.

This book is not heartwarming due to the mistreatment and hatred that the dogs face. Nevertheless, the friendship between the two dogs and a Scottish fox is wonderful to read about.

Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending, which greatly saddens me. It is a very good book, but I'm not certain if I would want to experience the story again.

The vivid descriptions of the dogs' experiences and their interactions with each other and the fox make the book engaging. However, the constant threat and danger that they face throughout the story can be quite distressing.

Overall, it is a thought-provoking book that makes the reader reflect on the treatment of animals and the consequences of misinformation.

Another traumatic tale that I would not give to a young person.

This is a horror story and very painful to read. It delves into the darkest recesses of the human psyche, uncovering fears and nightmares that most people would rather keep buried.

The narrative is filled with vivid descriptions and spine-chilling details that will make your blood run cold. You can almost feel the terror and helplessness of the characters as they face the unknown.

It is not a story for the faint of heart. It requires a strong stomach and a willingness to confront the uncomfortable. But for those who are brave enough to read it, it offers a unique and unforgettable experience.

However, I would caution against sharing this story with young people. Their minds are still developing, and such a disturbing tale could have a lasting impact on their mental health.

It is important to protect the innocence and well-being of our youth and to choose our reading material carefully.

Please provide the article that needs to be rewritten and expanded so that I can help you.

If you have known me for any period of time, you probably know that Watership Down is my all-time favorite novel.

So, you may be surprised to learn that I have just now read The Plague Dogs. That's odd, right? You would think I would be practically falling over myself to read this, and I did try to, years ago. I think I was in high school when I bought my first copy, and I couldn't even finish the first chapter. This may have been one of my earliest DNFs.

Before I read Watership Down, I saw the film as a young child. Years later, I learned that the film was based on a book, and I immediately read it. I loved it so much that I was overjoyed to discover that Adams had other novels, and that those books had very good reviews as well. I took my allowance to my favorite independent bookstore and bought my first copy of The Plague Dogs (which I still own).

I pretty much knew most of what was going to happen when I read Watership Down, since the film follows the book rather closely. However, I knew almost nothing about The Plague Dogs, and as a teen, I was completely unprepared for the subject matter.

Even more so than Watership Down, The Plague Dogs is Adams' opus against animal cruelty. The book starts at a horrendous facility in the Lake District in England called Animal Research (Scientific and Experimental), or aptly, ARSE, for short. In the first few pages, the scientists are testing a dog to see how long it takes him to drown in a pool of water before they resuscitate him and do it all over again the next day. I couldn't read past these pages the first time I picked up the novel, and I've heard quite a few other people say the same thing. Now that I have finished the novel, I can finally say that I am so glad I gave it another chance.

As an animal lover, this book is incredibly hard to read, but it is so worth it. Adams' writing is poetic and brilliant, and his message strong and deeply important. Two of the dogs in the research facility manage to escape, and the remainder of the novel involves their fight for survival in the Lake District as one misfortune after another befalls them, and ultimately leaves them hunted by every man in the area, including the government. The story switches between dog and human POVs, and Adams even breaks the fourth wall in the last few pages to address the horrors of animal cruelty.

I didn't know if I would be able to make it through the entire book, but I'm so happy that I did. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Once again, Richard Adams has left me astonished and amazed. This story will stay with me forever.

One of the saddest books I have ever read is truly a heart-wrenching experience.

As an animal lover, and especially someone who has a deep affection for dogs, it was extremely difficult to get through this book. The story is so touching and emotional that it tugs at your heartstrings from the very beginning.

However, the ending was appropriate and in line with the overall tone of the book. Adams's gift for storytelling is remarkable, as he manages to soften the blow at the end of this journey.

Despite the beautiful writing, this book did make me hate scientists for a while. The actions and experiments described in the story made me question the ethics and morality of some scientific practices.

Overall, it is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it, making you think about the relationship between humans and animals and the importance of treating them with kindness and respect.

This is one of my all-time favourite animal stories.

It was heart-rending but had a happy ending. It had a big message about animal cruelty and experimentation on animals. But it was mainly also an excellent story that casts a spell on the reader.

You really feel you are inside the heads of these animals. Their heads have been deranged by human interference, yet they are innocent and pure in a way that seems somehow right for animal characters. As with Watership Down, Adams draws the story setting beautifully also.

It is a very long time ago that I read this book, so my memory is not good enough to go into any greater detail. But as I recall, both of the two main characters were trying to survive in spite of handicaps caused by human experimentation.

I found it so unusual and original. I've never read anything like it before or since, and actually preferred it to W.D. This story stands out for its unique perspective on animal lives and the challenges they face due to human actions. It makes the reader think deeply about the ethics of treating animals in certain ways. The vivid descriptions of the animals' emotions and the well-crafted setting add to the overall charm and impact of the story.

The journey of the two dogs was incredibly well-written and unflinching in its portrayal of survival in the wild.

Was the Tod's dialogue hard to read? Yes, very much so. However, I still connected with him deeply and was traumatized by the fox hunt.

There's a very interesting portrayal of what being wild or domesticated means. It makes one think about the nature and instincts of animals.

The whole politics angle was interesting and rather realistic again. It added another layer of depth to the story.

The animal testing bits at times seemed cartoonishly evil. I know people have done horrifying testing on animals, just look at the abuse done to humans today. But some of the experiments and reasons are a bit cartoony. I felt there could have been a more nuanced portrayal of ethical testing and what that would mean.

This book made me really sad. It made me give my heart out to the dogs. I truly didn't think there would be a happy ending. Needless to say, it did bring me to tears because I'm a sucker for animal stories. The author did a great job of evoking emotions and making the reader care about the characters.

I have a deep affection for the animated film version. It, similar to "Secret of NIMH", holds a special place among my all-time favorite animated films.

Although the book has some differences, they complement each other splendidly. The book offers significantly more detail and a greater number of characters, and it extends for a much longer length. It functions as a satire, targeting obsessed reporters, the inefficient bureaucracy of the government, the folks in small Scottish towns, and the procedures within an animal lab.

The movie, on the other hand, concentrates solely on the story of the two dogs and presents a straightforward adventure/survival narrative. Some of the dialogue in the book is written in difficult-to-understand Scottish slang, but the author acknowledges this in the prologue and states that one should be able to grasp the main idea of what is being said, which I found to be the case.

The only instance where the two versions diverge is in the endings, which are radically different. While I have a preference for the movie ending, the book ending is not bad either, and both work effectively as they align with the tone of the medium to which they belong. Both the movie and the book are truly excellent.

This book is by no means an easy read, regardless of how you approach it.

It chronicles the tale of two dogs, Snitter (who once had an owner) and Rowf (who never did and is thus known only by the sound he makes, a resounding "Rowf"). They manage to flee from an animal experiment research facility, rather amusingly named Animal Research, Surgical and Experimental - yes, which spells out A.R.S.E.

The accounts of their sufferings at the hands of the scientists and the torture endured by other animals are distressingly realistic, as they are based on actual experiments, many of which are entirely unnecessary and are conducted "just to see how the animal reacts." This is one aspect that makes it a challenging read. The other is the dialect used. I must admit, the dialect of the tod (a fox) was initially so difficult to penetrate that I came perilously close, on more than one occasion, to abandoning the book.

Thankfully, I persevered.

After a while, one gets accustomed to it, and it actually helps to firmly establish his voice in one's mind.

During their travels, these two dogs are first driven away and later hunted by farmers for killing sheep and hens and rummaging through dustbins. The press becomes involved, drawing the public's attention to these two dogs. After learning that there were experiments related to the plague being carried out at A.R.S.E., they fabricate a story suggesting that the dogs might or might not be carriers of the plague. Either way, the public outcry for the deaths of the two "plague dogs" is overwhelming.

What follows from this point on is a media circus and a manhunt of the most extreme kind.

I won't disclose the ending, as it left me both surprised and amazed. Despite the sometimes emotionally taxing nature of reading about the experiments conducted not only on dogs but also on numerous other animals, and despite the difficulties presented by the tod's dialect, I can assert that this book was extremely worthwhile. By the conclusion, I couldn't bear to put it down and found myself in tears.

Aside from the plot and its twists, I discovered that the book offers a rather revealing commentary on the media and the profound impact they can have on the public's perception. The way the media distorts the facts, creating a story simply to boost sales, is astonishingly accurate.

I have a complex feeling towards this story. On one hand, I loved it, while on the other hand, I hated it. It is indeed a difficult read at times.

The animals in the Research Station endure extremely poor treatment, and the experiments conducted on them are truly horrific. This makes the reading process rather hard.

The plight of Snitter and Rowf is something that the reader can truly empathize with and sincerely wishes them well. However, their journey is arduous, and their survival is far from guaranteed.

The story is narrated skillfully and keeps me completely riveted. I feel a deep sense of sympathy for these dogs and all the animals in the story. Their story holds great significance. I believe this is exactly what the author intended to convey: these animals deserve better treatment, and they matter.

In conclusion, although it is a difficult read, it is a good one, featuring wonderful animal characters. This story has the power to touch the heart.