Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Narrative Justice: Somebody Delivers The Answers That Police Will Not, Neroli Price

RadioDoc Review

By investigating Courtney Copeland’s 2016 murder, the podcast series Somebody (2020) does the work that should be done by police. Narrated by Courtney’s mom, Shapearl Wells, the series not only decentres the official police narrative, but also opens up alternative paths towards seeking justice. Situated within the Black Lives Matter movement, calls to defund the police and questions about the usefulness of “objectivity” in journalism, Somebody attempts to put systemic violence on trial and hold those in power to account. Challenging extractive forms of journalism, Somebody moves towards a model of shared authority between producers and their sources ...

Animals In Drama And Theatrical Performance: Anthropocentric Emotionalism, Peta Tait

Animal Studies Journal

This article outlines how nonhuman animals are framed by the emotions of drama, theatre and contemporary performance and considers a distinctive tradition in western culture of enacting animal characters who function as surrogate humans. It argues that, contradictorily, while animal characters confirm anthropocentric emotionalism, drama also contains pro-animal values and concern for animal welfare. Animals embodying emotions in theatrical languages are part of the way animals are used in the traditions of western culture and to think and philosophize with, but they also indicate thinking about the emotions in theatrical performance. The article considers if, however, staging living animals can ...

[Review] Hope Ferdowsian, Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born And Resilience Lives, Chicago University Press, 2018. 212 Pp., Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Hope Ferdowsian, Phoenix Zones: Where Strength is Born and Resilience Lives, Chicago University Press, 2018. 212 pp. It was a Sunday morning in mid-September. I was woken up by the sound of rain. Thick, steady, there to stay, at least for the day. For a moment I wondered whether I should skip my morning run but decided against it. I wanted to honour the rain at a time when parts of the world were so desperate for it. The streets were empty of humans, the rest of nature relishing the much- needed soak. I thought of resilience.

In Memoriam: Dr Deidre Wicks (1949-2020), Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

In Memoriam: Dr Deidre Wicks (1949-2020)

Should New Zealand Do More To Uphold Animal Welfare?, Andrew Knight

Animal Studies Journal

Governmental and industry representatives have repeatedly claimed that Aotearoa New Zealand leads the world on animal welfare, largely based on an assessment by global animal protection charity World Animal Protection (WAP). New Zealand’s leading ranking rested primarily on favourable comparisons of its animal welfare legislation with that of 50 other nations, within WAP’s 2014 Animal Protection Index. Unfortunately, however, review of welfare problems extant within the farming of meat chickens and laying hens, pigs, cows and sheep, reveals the persistence of systemic welfare compromises within most New Zealand animal farming systems. These are contrary to good ethics, to ...

‘It's The Outline Of A Pig And Then It Has The Words Underneath, “Vegan For Life”‘: Vegans And Their Tattoos, Peter John Chen

Animal Studies Journal

This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While tattooing has become an increasingly popular part of mainstream consumer culture, vegans often identify their tattoos in terms of major life events (of which catalysts to become vegan and vegan transition are but one), marks of remembrance or aides-mémoire, and tools to signal to other vegans and begin conversations with non-vegans. Defying simple classification, many of the tattoos sported by vegans are overlaid with multiple meanings. While some aspects of tattoo culture are found within this subset of tattooed people, practice behaviours such as ingredient ...

[Review] Susan Mchugh. Love In A Time Of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide And Extinction. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019. 228 Pp, Fiona Probyn-Rapsey

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Susan McHugh. Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide and Extinction. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019. 228 pp.

Should Animals Have A Right To Work? Promises And Pitfalls, Charlotte Blattner

Animal Studies Journal

The view that non-human animals are ‘co-workers’ is a common trope used by researchers and the farming community, and increasingly forms the centre of inquiry in sociology, philosophy, and political economy. Scholars like Barbara Noske, Jocelyne Porcher, and Diane Stuart claim that animals are alienated from their labour, and that their contributions to our society are not recognized by it. Building on these findings, moral and political philosophers have recently argued that animals should have rights at work, like the right to remuneration or retirement. The much more pressing question, however, is whether animals should have a right to work ...

Free To Be Dog Haven: Dogs Who May Never Be Pets?, René J. Marquez

Animal Studies Journal

I am an artist who runs a sanctuary for dogs. I did not start the sanctuary as a studio project, but, as it turns out, it is very much an extension of my studio work. The sanctuary focuses on acknowledging canine subjectivity and agency in the context of colonialist, Western, modernist human fictions, a context explored throughout my work, in general. Our sanctuary is a site of ongoing investigation: we seek to map the territory between ‘free’ and ‘pet’. This paper examines the thinking behind and the practical life of my dog sanctuary: exigencies of doghuman collaboration and what it ...

How To Help When It Hurts: Act Individually (And In Groups), Cheryl E. Abbate

Animal Studies Journal

In a recent article, Corey Wrenn argues that in order to adequately address injustices done to animals, we ought to think systemically. Her argument stems from a critique of the individualist approach I employ to resolve a moral dilemma faced by animal sanctuaries, who sometimes must harm some animals to help others. But must systemic critiques of injustice be at odds with individualist approaches? In this paper, I respond to Wrenn by showing how individualist approaches that take seriously the notion of group responsibility can be deployed to solve complicated dilemmas that are products of injustice. Contra Wrenn, I argue ...

[Review] John Simons. Obaysch: A Hippopotamus In Victorian London. Animal Publics Series, Edited By Fiona Probyn-Rapsey And Melissa Boyde, Sydney University Press, 2019. 226 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] John Simons. Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London. Animal Publics Series, edited by Fiona Probyn-Rapsey and Melissa Boyde, Sydney University Press, 2019. 226 pp. John Simons’ riveting biography of a hippo invites the reader into the experience of Obaysch who was captured on the Nile in 1849 then became a ‘star’ animal in the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens in London. Obaysch is not just figured symbolically, politically and culturally, as so many historical animals are; Simons entices him from the archives to inhabit his own embodied narrative – a process which springs him from entrapment as a spectacle behind ...

[Review] The Routledge Companion To Animal-Human History. Edited By Hilda Kean And Philip Howell, Routledge, 2019. 560 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History. Edited by Hilda Kean and Philip Howell, Routledge, 2019. 560 pp.

The Influences Of Buddhism And Development On The Well-Being Of Bhutan's Street Dogs, Marion C. Willetts, Frank D. Beck

Animal Studies Journal

Bhutan is the only country that has implemented a nationwide capture-neuter- vaccinate-release (CNVR) program to manage its street dog population. To explore motivations for the implementation of the program and the extent to which it is successful, face-to-face interviews were conducted with representatives of all three animal sanctuaries in Bhutan that focus on the well-being of street dogs. Results suggest that Bhutan’s transition to democracy, coinciding with increases in socioeconomic development and tourism from the West, and incorporation of Buddhist teachings in its consideration of street dog management strategies guided the implementation of a nationwide CNVR program. A lack ...

The Illegal Wildlife Trade: Through The Eyes Of A One-Year-Old Pangolin (Manis Javanica), Lelia Bridgeland-Stephens

Animal Studies Journal

This paper explores the literature on the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by following the journey of a single imagined Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) through the entire trading process. Literature on IWT frequently refers to non-human animals in terms of collectives, species, or body parts, for example ‘tons of pangolin scales’, rather than as subjective individuals. In contrast, this paper centralizes the experiences of an individual pangolin by using a cross- disciplinary methodology, combining fact with a fictional narrative of subjective pangolin experience, in an empathetic and egomorphic process. The paper draws together known legislation, trade practices, and pangolin biology, structured ...

On The Origins Of The Anthropological Machine: Sacrificial Dispositif And Equality, Chiara Stefanoni

Animal Studies Journal

This article takes a genealogical approach to the material origin of what Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called the ‘anthropological machine’, analyzing the dispositif by which the ontological and axiological dualism between the ‘human’ and the ‘animal’ first took place in archaic societies. Using some key concepts of René Girard’s anthropology, it is possible to argue that this dualism is rooted in the violent practice of victimage sacrifice. In other words, I claim that the anthropological machine is originally performed by a sacrificial dispositif. Though in modern society the human/animal dichotomy is performed by other dispositifs, the trace ...

[Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense Of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration Of The Persistence Of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 Pp., Alex Lockwood

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration of the Persistence of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 pp. There are many audiences for Paula Acari’s new book on the persistence of meat as edible matter, Making Sense of Food Animals, and not all of them academic. One of the striking facets of this well-researched, clearly argued and empirical analysis, drawing on 41 interviews with Australian meat eaters and meat producers, is the lessons for animal advocacy organisations for rethinking their messaging strategies. Central to the book’s argument is Acari’s challenge to narratives of transparency ...

[Review] Natalie Porter And Ilana Gershon, Editors. Living With Animals: Bonds Across Species. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 266 Pp., Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Natalie Porter and Ilana Gershon, editors. Living with Animals: Bonds across Species. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 266 pp. Living with Animals, as the dust jacket avers, ‘is a collection of imagined animal guides – a playful look at different human-animal relationships’. The collection has an international range from dogs in Australia, to sacrificial cattle in Madagascar, chimpanzees in West Africa, tamed hyenas in Harar, and returning birds in Buenos Aires. At the same time the reader learns more about animals in processes and places we might take for granted – training service dogs, marketing rescue dogs, introducing a gorilla into ...

Provocation From The Field: A Multispecies Doula Approach To Death And Dying, Kathryn Gillespie

Animal Studies Journal

Death doulas can help to make meaning in the dying process, to be present for what arises at the end of life, and to move alongside those who are dying and their loved ones. At the end of life, doulas can offer help reflecting on what this life has meant, planning for the coming death, holding space during the active dying process, and grieving the loss of the one who has died. This paper extends a doula approach – typically work done with humans – to death and dying in multispecies contexts. Many other species are routinely rendered killable, disposable, and ungrievable ...

[Review] Animal Experimentation: Working Towards A Paradigm Change. Edited By Kathrin Hermann And Kimberley Jayne. Brill, 2019. 714 Pp, John Hadley

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Animal Experimentation: Working Towards a Paradigm Change. Edited by Kathrin Hermann and Kimberley Jayne. Brill, 2019. 714 pp. This is a very large volume. In almost 700 pages, no less than 51 authors contribute to 28 chapters (there is also a Foreword, by Peter Singer, and an Afterword, by John P. Gluck). The majority of chapters focus upon ethical or political matters and are readily accessible to scientists. Likewise, non-scientists ought to be able to follow the more technical or science heavy chapters.

Shifting The Anthropocentric Paradigms Embedded In Film And Classification (Ratings) Systems That Impact Apex Species, Akkadia Ford, Zan Hammerton

Animal Studies Journal

Human interactions with nature reveal contradictions and misunderstandings based upon anthropocentric colonising behaviours. Cultural forms such as film and media have played a key role in creating and perpetuating negative affect towards nonhuman species, particularly apex species, shark, crocodile, bear, and snake. From early Hollywood films through to contemporary online series, these majestic species have been subjected to vilification and denigration onscreen, resulting in speciesism, subjugation and colonisation of animals, whilst simultaneously extending human ‘authority’ over nature and perpetuating fear – particularly of apex species. A range of hybrid genre textual examples from screen and media, from fictional (feature) and factual ...

A Novel Argument For Vegetarianism? Zoopolitics And Respect For Animal Corpses, Josh Milburn

Animal Studies Journal

This paper offers a novel argument against the eating of meat: the zoopolitical case for vegetarianism. The argument is, in brief, that eating meat involves the disrespect of an animal’s corpse, and this is respect that the animal is owed because they are a member of our political community. At least three features of this case are worthy of note. First, it draws upon political philosophy, rather than moral philosophy. Second, it is a case for vegetarianism, and not a case for veganism. Third, while it is animal-focussed, it does not rely upon a claim about the wrong of ...

[Review] Laura Jean Mckay, The Animals In That Country. Scribe 2020. 288 Pp., Philip Armstrong

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country. Scribe 2020. 288 pp. How do animals experience their lives and their worlds? How can we know? How can we represent their interests if we can’t know? Should we be trying to speak on their behalf at all?

[Review] Kristen Guest And Monica Mattfield, Editors. Equestrian Cultures: Horse, Humans, Human Society, And The Discourse Of Modernity. Animal Lives Series, University Of Chicago Press, 2019. 276 Pp., Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Kristen Guest and Monica Mattfield, editors. Equestrian Cultures: Horse, Humans, Human Society, and the Discourse of Modernity. Animal Lives Series, University of Chicago Press, 2019. 276 pp. Differences in equestrian cultures have recently been brought home to me. My horse moved to a newly established yard which soon developed into one catering only for endurance racing horses. The horses were kept in small pens, only permitted into the stony field every second day. Human attitudes to the horses were functionalist with the horses always for sale to the highest bidder from the UAE. Galahad is back now at a ...

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(1): Cover Page, Table Of Contents, Editorial And Contributor Biographies, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(1): Cover Page, Table of Contents, Editorial and Contributor Biographies.

'From Here To Everywhere': Foucault, Fonterra And Richie Mccaw (A Cow’S Tale), Chevy Rendell

Animal Studies Journal

This research paper attempts to provide a Foucauldian analysis of Fonterra’s television commercial ‘From Here to Everywhere’. With the cooperation of former All Black captain, Richie McCaw, ‘From Here to Everywhere’ is a play of power to construct a certain truth, that the dairy industry is the beating heart (and deliberately not the bountiful udder) of Aotearoa New Zealand’s economic and physical wellbeing. However, the Fonterra-McCaw narrative mystifies the often-violent realities of dairy farming while masquerading as natural certain ideologies, such as carnism, that perpetuate species and gender inequality. The recent Mycoplasma bovis outbreak in New Zealand inserts ...

The Grieving Kangaroo Photograph Revisited, David Brooks

Animal Studies Journal

Early in 2016 a photograph circulated widely of a male kangaroo holding up a dying female in the presence of a joey. Although initially taken as a moving and powerful photograph of grief, ‘experts’ quickly determined that this male may have killed the female in the process of coition. The male was in effect accused and convicted of rape and murder. Was this judgement correct? Was the male innocent or guilty? What are the nature, strength and politics of the assumptions involved in this judgement? Might he be exonerated, and why should this matter? The photograph is read and contextualised ...

[Review] After Coetzee: An Anthology Of Animal Fictions. Edited By A. Marie Houser, Faunary Press, 2017. 189 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] After Coetzee: An Anthology of Animal Fictions. Edited by A. Marie Houser, Faunary Press, 2017. 189 pp.

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(2): Cover Page, Table Of Contents And Contributor Biographies, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(2): Cover Page, Table of Contents and Contributor Biographies.

Efficacy Of The Feline Temperament Profile In Evaluating Sheltered Cats For Adoption Into Families Of A Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Angélique Lamontagne, Rebecca A. Johnson, Gretchen K. Carlisle, Leslie A. Lyons, Jessica L. Bibbo, Colleen Koch, Steven J. Osterlind

Animal Studies Journal

This project was part of the Feline Friends Study, which matches shelter cats with families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to study children’s social behaviour and cats’ stress. Cats were screened for calm temperament using the Feline Temperament Profile (FTP). The FTP consists of ten phases, with a list of ‘acceptable’ and ‘questionable’ behaviours under each phase. Our aim was to answer the following research questions: What items of the FTP best predict temperament in shelter cats? What are similarities and differences in temperament between cats who qualified or did not qualify for placement? Forty-four shelter cats ...

Down But Not Out: Tara And George And The Boundaries Of Subjectivity., Hamish Sewell

RadioDoc Review

Set on the streets of London, amidst the snarl of traffic and the clip of passers by, this work is a biographical sound portrait of two homeless people, Tara and George. It is a testament to the parlous state of homelessness in the UK today and is masterful in its execution.

To this work, producer and host Audrey Gillan brings a quality of frank disclosure and decency. Relationships between producers and their subjects are contentious, due to an inherent power differential. Gillan neither portrays Tara and George as archetypes nor as helpless and needy. She knows she is the one ...