BEACH READING

'Rescue Ink'
By Rescue Ink, with Denise Flaim (Viking, $25.95)

If your idea of an animal lover is a sweater-clad grandma crocheting doilies for her cats, get ready to have your mind blown. These animal advocates are steak-chomping, dirty-joketelling, tattoo-covered bikers who look like they could crush a windpipe... with the same hands they use to gently stroke the tiniest kitten.

Rescue Ink is a New-Yorkcentered animal rescue group with a personality like none other. These 10 brawny guys might look like thugs, but they're heroes to abused and neglected animals of all sorts, from feral cats to marooned ducks to mistreated horses. When directly confronting cruelty and ignorance, often in dicey situations that other rescue teams won't touch, the Rescue Ink team is perfectly aware that their appearance can be a powerful tool, and they don't hesitate to use it.

Sometimes all that is needed is a little intimidation, a strategy in which the guys excel. But they also perform quieter tasks — educating the public about puppy mills and sterilization programs, buying sacks of dog food and kitty litter with money from their own pockets, and traveling around the country speaking to groups of all ages about respect and kindness.

Each chapter in this "multibiography" tells the life story of a different member of

the crew, and

the reader can quickly see that these guys have much in common: They've seen hard times, but found a way through them with the help of a special pet, or from an overarching compassion for and link with animals in general.

Perhaps because of their backgrounds, many of them have a soft spot for misrepresented breeds, such as the pit bull and Rottweiler, and are eager to spread the word that these oft-maligned dogs have hearts just as big as any of their canine cousins. Likewise, anyone who looks beyond Rescue Ink's own fierce exteriors can clearly see that this is a truly noble and admirable group of men.