"[2] Campbell Johnston Birch thought the book is "evocative and frequently poetic", and commended Dayan for blending memoir, legal analysis, and cultural critique.

Birch praised the exploration of these themes but noted what he thought its unsettling nature, especially in sections addressing uncomfortable topics like dog profiling and the comparison between racial and animal existence.

[3] American writer Maria Browning stressed Dayan's passionate and unconventional empathy for dogs, and how she examines legal and ethical issues surrounding their treatment.

Browning cautioned that some readers might be uncomfortable with Dayan's somewhat blunt style, especially when she critiques practices that are widely accepted as humane, stating, "Executing animals while ‘speaking the language of salvation’ is evil as well as absurd."

[4] Philosopher and theologian Beatrice Marovitch found the book a profound and unsettling work that pushes readers to rethink both spiritual and ethical assumptions.

She appreciated how Dayan challenges conventional certainties, especially around animal rights and the human-animal relationship, by questioning boundaries between the physical and spiritual, noting how the book "queries the strange combination of pain and beauty in the fact of being alive."