Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ld50: A Cruel Waste Of Animals

Close Up Reports

Imagine a test in which up to 100 animals are forced to consume a toxic substance in an amount high enough to kill half of them. Then imagine that the explicit purpose of the test is to kill those animals. Incredibly, such a test not only exists but each year also claims the lives of from two to four million animals.

The test is the lethal dose 50, or LD50 as it's commonly called. Its purpose is to measure the toxicity of a substance by determining how much of that substance will kill half of a group of some 60-100 …

A Different Approach To Horse Handling, Based On The Jeffery Method, Judith K. Blackshaw, Des Kirk, Sharon E. Cregier

Equines Collection

A method of horse training is discussed which is based on an old technique known in Australia as the "Jeffery method." It makes use of several behavioral principles, including understanding of horse behavior, reinforcement for desired behavior, and use of flight distance principles.

Historical Trends In American Animal Use And Perception, Stephen R. Kellert, Miriam O. Westervelt

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Changes in American attitudes and behaviors toward animals from 1900-1976 will be examined. The data are derived from an empirical analysis of 4,873 animalrelated newspaper articles. Four newspapers were used in this analysis- the Los Angeles Times; Hartford Courant; Buffalo, Wyoming Bulletin; and the Dawson, Georgia News. A content analysis procedure was employed to record animal-related information in the articles, and these data were subjected to a variety of statistical analyses. A comparison of the results with a 1978 national survey of American attitudes and behaviors is briefly attempted. Finally, some policy implications of the data are considered.

Achieving A Concensus On Dog Control Strategies: A Brief Primer, D. B. Wilkins

Pets Collection

The welfare arguments surrounding dog ownership may not stimulate the same passionate fervor as those relating to the use of animals in experiments, factory farming, or the hunting of live animals with hounds, but nevertheless, they are matters of real concern to most welfare organizations. The most serious problems are caused through irresponsible ownership, which leads to overbreeding and the inevitable consequence of large numbers

Some Preliminary Thoughts On Permitting Animals To Sue In Contract And Tort, Henry Cohen

Laws and Legislation Collection

Animal protection statutes are of course extremely valuable, and they might be made even more so if they were formulated to give private rights of action to their beneficiaries--the animals themselves. But what I would like to explore here is the idea of extending common law rights of action to animals. Admittedly, permitting animals to sue in contract and tort now seems fanciful, but my hope is that this article will provide an initial step toward bringing it about.

Does Wildlife Have Legal Standing? - The Penguin Case In Patagonia, Pedro Tarak

Laws and Legislation Collection

The Magellan penguin populations in the Patagonian province of Argentina were recently threatened by a proposed joint Japanese-Argentine venture to exploit them on a massive scale. The firm, Hinode Penguin Argentina, wished to begin slaughtering what it termed "excess" penguins, and to process the dead birds into skins for the world market; the carcasses were to be converted to a protein extract for local consumption.

Upon learning about this venture, Argentine conservation groups mobilized their forces quickly- formulating and implementing media campaigns, soliciting scientific opinions from local and worldwide experts, and concocting legal strategies. The legal tactics alone, although initially …

The State Of The Economy And Animal Welfare, Michael W. Fox

Animal Welfare Collection

An economic depression inevitably means that the under-privileged are compelled to suffer, but the plight of animals during "hard times" is often overlooked. Further, the present administration's budget cuts, and the pro-industry policies expressed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, in conjunction with the attempted financial emasculation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act), all add insult to injury. Clearly, in such difficult economic times, the needs of people will inevitably take precedence over those of animals. But a society that unconditionally places …

The Care Of Pets Within Child Abusing Families, Elizabeth Deviney, Jeffery Dickert, Randall Lockwood

Animal Welfare Collection

The treatment of animals was surveyed in 53 families in which child abuse had occurred. Patterns of pet ownership, attitudes towards pets and quality of veterinary care did not differ greatly from comparable data from the general public. However, abuse of pets by a family member had taken place in 60 percent of the families. The families in which animal abuse was indicated tended to have younger pets, lower levels of veterinary care and more conflicts over care than non-abusive families in the study. There were several parallels between the treatment of pets and the treatment of animals within child-abusing …

The Question Of Atheism And Communism In The Animal Welfare/Rights Movement, Michael W. Fox

Animal Welfare Collection

Just as economics has increasingly been employed as a political weapon, so religion is now being used to further self-serving goals. Agribusiness spokespersons not only use fallacious economic arguments to justify the "factory" farming of animals; they have also stated that any questioning about man's Godgiven right to exploit animals is atheistic, and perhaps an actual affront to God's will. Furthermore, taking an egalitarian attitude toward animals, and proposing that they have rights or should be given equal and fair consideration, is regarded as the inspiration of some covert communist conspiracy that is constantly working to restructure and thereby destroy …

Sex Roles, Companion Animals--And Something More, D. H. Murphy

Pets Collection

As a case in point, several recent articles about how men and women relate to dogs and cats furnish us with some basic lessons about how we interact with our animal companions. But, in the process, they also shed some interesting light on the precariousness of our beliefs about differences in the sexes. Finally, they provide vital instruction concerning some of the classic foibles that are inherent in the use of some kinds of scientific methods.

Some Rights For Animal Therapists: Better Science And Better Welfare, Dana H. Murphy

Animal-Assisted Therapy Collection

"Animal-facilitated therapy." The phrase has a nice, solid ring to it, doesn't it? And it also sounds like an idea that nearly everyone could agree to endorse, like democracy and vacations. But a closer scrutiny of some of the available literature on the use of animals as adjuncts in situations like nursing homes and outpatient psychotherapy reveals a number of deficiencies. While there is probably nothing wrong with the fundamental concept- ideally, people and animals are helping each other to become more useful and independentthere are some real problems in two areas: the dubious level of scientific rigor in many …

The Ld50--The Beginning Of The End, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

Measurement is very important in science. Early lessons in the science classroom involve teaching students to measure lengths, volumes, weights, specific gravities and anything else within the mental and economic compass of the teacher. At the same time, the question of significance is drummed into the students' heads. Thus, if one has a meter-rule which is subdivided into centimeters (but not millimeters), one is taught that the measurement of its length to one decimal point (for example, 10.3 em) is acceptable, but that the addition of any more figures (for example, 10.325 em) is mere braggadocio. The eye can only …

Attitudes Toward Animals In Greco-Roman Antiquity, Liliane Bodson

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Both wild and domesticated animals had a direct and wide-ranging role in the life of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The bond between humans and animals which first originated in the economic needs went far beyond strictly practical matters. It did influence and enrich the Classical culture in its major aspects from literature and arts to philosophy and ethics. It also induced people to analyze the main implications of their relationship with "subhuman" creatures. The present paper aims to survey the range of the attitudes they developed about animals. It also examines to what extent they were concerned with the …

The Canadian Harp Seal Hunt: A Moral Assessment, L. W. Sumner

Hunting Collection

The population of the harp seal, Pagophilus groenlandicus, is divided into three distinct breeding groups, which are centered on the White Sea, the Greenland Sea, and the northwest Atlantic. The last of these three populations, by far the largest, summers in the Arctic waters of Canada and west Greenland. In the autumn the animals in this group begin to migrate southward ahead of the advancing ice pack. By late February or early March, the females reach the breeding grounds off the coast of Newfoundland-Labrador (the Front) and near the Magdalen Islands (the Gulf). They then haul themselves out onto the …