Anthropology Commons^™

The Question Of Animal Selves: Implications For Sociological Knowledge And Practice, Leslie Irvine

Leslie Irvine, PhD

The question of whether sociologists should investigate the subjective experience of non-human others arises regularly in discussions of research on animals. Recent criticism of this research agenda as speculative and therefore unproductive is examined and found wanting. Ample evidence indicates that animals have the capacity to see themselves as objects, which meets sociological criteria for selfhood. Resistance to this possibility highlights the discipline’s entrenched anthropocentrism rather than lack of evidence. Sociological study of the moral status of animals, based on the presence of the self, is warranted because our treatment of animals is connected with numerous “mainstream” sociological issues. As …

A Moral Argument For Veganism, Dan Hooley, Nathan Nobis

Human Health Collection

In this essay, we argue for dietary veganism. Our case has two steps. First, we argue that, in most circumstances, it is morally wrong to raise animals to produce meat, dairy products, most eggs (a possible exception we discuss is eggs from pet chickens) and most other animal food products. Turning animals into food, and using them for their byproducts, causes serious harms to animals that are morally unjustified: that is, the reasons given to justify causing these kinds of harms – goods or alleged goods that result from animal farming and slaughter – are inadequate to justify the bad …

After-Action Report Of Humane Society International's Emergency Response To The April 2015 Earthquake In Nepal, Nepal Earthquake Disaster Operations Team

HSI AFTER ACTION REPORTS

This report describes the timeline and extent of HSI response efforts, evaluates and assesses community (animal and human) health and medical response actions, and identifies issues and challenges faced by HSI responders during the days following the earthquake until their withdrawal, with the goal of providing HSI with practical recommendations to address those challenges.

Sociology And Anthrozoology: Symbolic Interactionist Contributions, Leslie Irvine

Leslie Irvine, PhD

This essay examines the sociological contributions to anthrozoology, focusing on research from the United States that employs a symbolic interactionist perspective. In particular, the work of Arluke and Sanders highlights the importance of understanding the meanings that animals hold for people. Using a selective review of their research, this essay outlines how a focus on understanding meaning can inform anthrozoological research. Arluke’s research on animal abuse reveals how harm must be defined in context. Sanders’s research on canine–human relationships documents how people come to understand companion dogs as persons. Both bodies of work rely on careful observation and listening to …

Annotated Bibliography: Interaction With Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner, MSLIS

No abstract provided.

Annotated Bibliography: Interaction With Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

No abstract provided.

Annotated Bibliography: Attitudes Toward Animal Research (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

No abstract provided.

Annotated Bibliography: Attitudes Toward Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

No abstract provided.

Sociology And Anthrozoology: Symbolic Interactionist Contributions, Leslie Irvine

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

This essay examines the sociological contributions to anthrozoology, focusing on research from the United States that employs a symbolic interactionist perspective. In particular, the work of Arluke and Sanders highlights the importance of understanding the meanings that animals hold for people. Using a selective review of their research, this essay outlines how a focus on understanding meaning can inform anthrozoological research. Arluke’s research on animal abuse reveals how harm must be defined in context. Sanders’s research on canine–human relationships documents how people come to understand companion dogs as persons. Both bodies of work rely on careful observation and listening to …

The Question Of Animal Selves: Implications For Sociological Knowledge And Practice, Leslie Irvine

Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism Collection

The question of whether sociologists should investigate the subjective experience of non-human others arises regularly in discussions of research on animals. Recent criticism of this research agenda as speculative and therefore unproductive is examined and found wanting. Ample evidence indicates that animals have the capacity to see themselves as objects, which meets sociological criteria for selfhood. Resistance to this possibility highlights the discipline’s entrenched anthropocentrism rather than lack of evidence. Sociological study of the moral status of animals, based on the presence of the self, is warranted because our treatment of animals is connected with numerous “mainstream” sociological issues. As …

Religion And Animals: A Changing Scene, Paul Waldau

State of the Animals 2003

For protections to evolve to include nonhuman species, religions— through their leaders, their institutions, and above all their believers— must take seriously the important role that they have played, and certainly will continue to play, in humans’ engagement with the lives beyond our species line. Religions have such a central role in the transmission of basic images and values regarding living beings that, without their help, the problem of the species line will not be solved in this century. A central question for this century is whether influential religious institutions will continue to convey images that radically and absolutely dismiss …

The Animal Research Controversy: Protest, Process & Public Policy, Andrew N. Rowan, Franklin M. Loew, Joan C. Weer

Experimentation Collection

The controversy today regarding the use of animals in research appears on the surface to be a strongly polarized struggle between the scientific community and the animal protection movement. However, there is a wide range of opinions and philosophies on both sides. Mistrust between the factions has blossomed while communication has withered. Through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the animal movement grew in numbers and financial resources, and developed much greater public recognition and political clout. The research community paid relatively little attention to the animal movement for much of this period but, alarmed by several public relations coups …

American Attitudes Toward And Knowledge Of Animals: An Update, Stephen R. Kellert

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

The distribution of a typology of basic attitudes toward animals in the American population is explored through personal interviews with 3,107 randomly selected persons in the 48 contiguous states and Alaska. Data is presented on the prevalence of these attitudes in the overall American population and among major social demographic and animal activity groups. In addition, results are presented on Americans' knowledge of animals as well as their species preferences. Finally, information is presented on perceptions of critical wildlife issues including endangered species, predator control, hunting, trapping, marine mammals and wildlife habitat protection.

Attitudes Toward Animals: Age-Related Development Among Children, Stephen R. Kellert

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

This paper reviews the results of a study of 267 children in the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th grades. A battery of tests was used to examine children's knowledge and attitudes towards animals, and behavioral contacts with animals. A typology of basic attitudes towards animals and appropriate scales was employed. Children's knowledge and attitudes towards animals were also compared to those of adults 18 years of age and over. Major differences occurred among children distinguished by age, sex, ethnicity, and urban/rural residence. Additionally, significant knowledge and attitude variations occurred among diverse animal-related activity groups (e.g., among children who hunted, birdwatched, …

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.

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 …

Attitudes Toward Animal Suffering: An Exploratory Study, John Braithwaite, Valerie Braithwaite

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

A total of 302 undergraduates in the social sciences and the humanities, at two Australian universities, were given a questionnaire designed to explore public attitudes toward animal suffering. The results, though preliminary, strongly suggest that attitudes may be in great part supportive of animal welfare and animal rights. However, as reflected in the answers to the questionnaire, actual behavior does not always follow suit. The recommendation is made that the animal welfare/animal rights movement should perhaps place more emphasis on raising people's awareness of the inconsistencies between their attitudes toward animals and their behavior concerning them.

Unnecessary Suffering: Definition And Evidence, Frank Hurnik, Hugh Lehman

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Although it is possible to formulate stronger moral principles than "animals should not be made to suffer unnecessarily," there are significant grounds for doubting these stronger principles. But the principle that underlies the dictum regarding unnecessary suffering is generally recognized as valid, since denial of it implies that we can do whatever we want with animals, a conclusion that is usually considered unacceptable. A determination of whether any particular instance of suffering is necessary or unnecessary must be based on an analysis of both the seriousness of the purpose of the act that involves pain in animals, and its relative …

The Changing Concept Of Animals As Property, Vincent P. Mccarthy

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Enforced and maintained by a legal superstructure that regulated every aspect of a black [slave's] social, political, economic, and religious life, his property status continued until the middle of the nineteenth century when Congress passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which overturned the Dred Scott decision and recognized that a black human being had legally protectible rights.

There are some signs in recent legal decisions that a similar evolution in the status of animals is taking place: judges are beginning to draw distinctions between animals and property.

But can we ever expect that the courts will …

The Limits Of Legislation In Achieving Social Change, Theodore S. Meth

Laws and Legislation Collection

This paper is about law, not laboratory animals or philosophical ethics. It proceeds from the premise that law is an appropriate, perhaps inevitable, instrument for dealing with ethical issues related to the use of research animals.

Use Of The Legislative Process In Protecting Animals, Hugh Mcnamee

Laws and Legislation Collection

The statements that I shall make in this address are based upon experience gained by me as a lawyer, and as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. That experience was applied to the successful pioneer attempt to enact the Ohio Rodeo Law of which I was the author and the pilot. Ohio is the first state in which a law has been passed to prohibit certain cruelty practices prevalent in rodeos and thus virtually eliminate them as a medium of public entertainment.

The origin of legislation is in some comprehension of a condition that needs correction by law. …