Forget the Camel!

The Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say About Being Human

Forthcoming April 2025

What makes a human different than an animal?

My book Forget the Camel! seeks to answer this question by exploring animal festivals around the country as microcosms of our relationship to animals more broadly. Whether hunting snakes or jumping frogs, racing ostriches or praising groundhogs, humans use animals to say something about themselves, their community, and their history. In the end, my book questions whether our fascination with these spectacles is worth the price these animals pay, or if there exists a more compassionate way to celebrate our stories.

What others have said:

  • From Groundhog Day and the Jumping Frog Jubilee to the ostrich races in Nevada and the Maine Lobster Festival, Forget the Camel offers a funny, poignant, and compelling tour of the roles of animal festivals in the American cultural landscape. Elizabeth MeLampy uses these often wacky events to pose important questions—why do we adore some species and detest others, what is the connection between humor and cruelty, and what makes humans special? This is the rare book that can make you laugh, cry, and change the way you think.

    Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals

  • A fascinating and thought-provoking tour of animal-centered festivals around the United States. MeLampy thinks deeply and carefully about the animals she sees, revealing the gulf between our perceptions and the lived experiences of the creature at the center of our festivities. The result is a call for a different world, one where humans might see animals less as symbols, and more as organisms in their own right.

    Bethany Brookshire, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

  • Elizabeth MeLampy’s Forget the Camel is a riveting, much-needed account of animal festivals from the animals’ point of view and what such festivals say about us and our relationships with nonhuman beings. Using the latest science, a host of stories, and some down home commonsense, she makes it amply clear that what unites communities, lifts spirits, and offers food, drink, and entertainment is anything but festive for the animals themselves. I can only hope that McLampy’s detailed and compelling exposé of what goes on these human-centered events will force people to reassess what the animals feel and put an end to them once and for all. I learned a lot from reading this eye-opening book and I'm sure others also will.

    Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., author of The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter

  • In the spirit of the anthropologist Margaret Mead, Elizabeth MeLampy gets up close and personal with her subject. In the process she exposes human behavior that I found to be at times disturbing, at others incomprehensible, and constantly revealing.

    Jonathan Balcombe, author of What a Fish Knows

I have always loved words.

I have dreamed of writing a book my entire life, but I never knew how to start. I thought I wasn’t old enough, smart enough, or experienced enough. I let that dream stay dormant as I went to law school and started working.

In 2022, my New Year’s Resolution was to read 100 books. As I made my way through dozens of fiction and nonfiction works, my own desire to write a book was reignited. I realized that creativity, for me, was not a want, but a need, not just a hobby but part of the fabric of my being. After reading over a hundred books in a year, I began to understand that what matters is not just the message, but how the message is told. And I am the only one on the planet with my voice.

So I started taking some writing classes, mostly to have a community for accountability. Slowly, my book idea began to coalesce, and I took a risk on myself by starting the project in earnest. It was terrifying, and I wrote mostly in private for a year. But as I put more of myself into my book, I felt more alive and purposeful than I had in a long time. Writing is my calling, and I can’t wait to share more of my writing with you.

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My content focuses on human-animal relationships and how we can reduce our need for animal products. I've dedicated time to learn about these topics, so you can enjoy the insights without the homework. I also feature stories from my personal experiences and daily life, too. I invite you to join my community, where we can learn, share and grow together.