Other Anthropology Commons^™

Trapping Agony Continues

Close Up Reports

The HSUS fights to end the anguish

The Case For Hunting On National Wildlife Refuges, Harvey K. Nelson

Hunting Collection

Public land management agencies are faced with greater challenges today than ever before in responding to the recreational needs of society. As Will Rogers so aptly stated, "Land, they make so little of it nowadays" (Steinhart 1986). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) also must face these challenges in management of national wildlife refuges (NWRs). There is a growing demand by the American people to utilize and enjoy NWRs in a variety of ways. Managers are faced with the dilemma of determining how much and what kind of management and utilization of natural resources is appropriate without compromising the …

Providing Humane Stewardship For Wildlife: The Case Against Sport Hunting, John W. Grandy

Hunting Collection

Sport hunting has no place on the National Wildlife Refuges of this nation. To even consider it is an affront to the concept of a Refuge, the right of wild animals to safe haven, and the wishes of society The question of sport hunting in society at large is slightly more complex because society, its thoughts and values, are evolving. Thankfully, we are moving more and more to a view that wildlife should be treated with the same dignity, respect, and freedom from avoidable cruelty that we would ask for ourselves. That process can be moved miles ahead if we …

The Case For Hunting, William L. Robinson

Hunting Collection

My purpose at this symposium is to present the case for hunting. I am a wildlife ecologist by training and profession, and I am also a hunter. As a hunter, I am sensitive to criticisms of this pursuit, as any hunter should be. Some people question how, with knowledge of the nature and functioning of ecological systems, I can go out with a gun and kill grouse, ducks, and deer. I respond that, indeed, my understanding of ecology and the nature of man enhances my enjoyment of hunting.

Human/Farm Animal Relationships, Jack L. Albright

Agribusiness Collection

There are various combinations of human beings and farm animals. This paper attempts to evaluate those few studies of humans handling farm animals within a prescribed environment. Personality traits of dairy farmers and livestock people as determined by the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck 1977) need further study (Seabrook 1974; Arave and Brown 1979). Seabrook's sample size was small (20 herds) and these herds were criticized for having low yields while Arave and Brown's questionnaire did not go far enough.

Humans And Other Animals: A Biological And Ethical Perspective, Ashley Montagu

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

What I have been hoping to do in this talk is to provide the scientific basis for the biological kinship of humans with other animals in particular and the whole of nature in general, and to show that the ethical perspective to which such a demonstration leads is inherent in the very nature of nature, that cooperation, love, not conflict and aggression, as we have long been led to believe, is the dominant principle by which living creatures are designed to live with each other. It was not Darwin, but the muscular Darwinists, like Herbert Spencer, who wasn't a biologist …

The Animal Slave Trade

Close Up Reports

Brutality on the road to research

"Cruel Cosmetic Testing Could Be Stopped Today If Consumers Demanded It!''

Close Up Reports

Time is running out for the millions of creatures that will suffer agonizing deaths in product-safety tests this year.

Human Perceptions Of Animals And Animal Awareness: The Cultural Dimension, Elizabeth A. Lawrence

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Culture is generally a powerful determinant of human perceptions of animals and the treatment animals receive in a given society. Fbr example, Plains Indians' views of the status of animals-their capacities, their awareness, and their place in the world relative to mankind-differ radically from those characteristic ofWestern thought. Many of the contemporary Crow Indians, a group of native Americans among which I have recently carried out anthropological field research, continue to look upon their horses according to traditional tribal belief. Their particular attitude toward horses conflicts with that of the dominant white society with which the Indians and their horses …

Is Man's Infliction Of Suffering On Animals Immoral?, Robert Welborn

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

If it is believed that man is properly in dominion over the earth and that he may do with it and all things on it as he will, then the first definition is sufficient. If generally accepted ideas in man's community are to the effect that man's infliction of suffering on animals is right, then such is not immoral.

If it is believed, however, that life, all life, as it has evolved in its beauty and complexity is the consideration upon which conduct should be judged, then the second definition must apply. Man being the dominant species that consciously and …

Hsus Exposes Livestock Transportation Cruelty

Close Up Reports

No abstract provided.

The Hsus Condemns Psychological Experimentation On Animals

Close Up Reports

No abstract provided.

New Jersey Outlaws Steel-Jaw, Leghold Trap

Close Up Reports

It took almost two decades of dedicated struggle and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but we finally did it! The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), with the help of our members, other organizations, and local humane groups, succeeded in getting New Jersey to outlaw the steel-jaw, leghold trap! By the fall of 1985, it will be illegal for anyone to manufacture, sell, possess, or use the trap in that state. New Jersey's wildlife will be able to roam the woodlands and bogs free from the threat of trap-caused mutilation or death.

As monumental as New Jersey's victory is, …

New Jersey Outlaws Steel-Jaw, Leghold Trap!

Close Up Reports

New Jersey's wildlife will soon roam the woods free from the threat of steel-jaw, leghold traps.

The Hsus Petitions U.S. Government To Protect Fur Seals

Close Up Reports

Since the 1960s, The Humane Society of the United States has vigorously protested this brutal clubbing of the North Pacific fur seals. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, HSUS investigator Frank McMahon repeatedly documented this slaughter and worked with government officials and others to stop it. In 1980, HSUS chief investigator Frantz Dantzler returned to continue the work. Unhappily, these constant efforts, though successful in calling this brutal activity to the attention of the American public, failed to achieve our goal of bringing the Pribilof "harvest" to an end.

Now, we have undertaken a different strategy: on Thursday, January …

The Hsus Petitions U.S. Government To Protect Fur Seals

Close Up Reports

Our battle to end U.S. seal clubbing continues

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.

Empathy, Humaneness And Animal Welfare, M. W. Fox

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

In relation to a person's emotional rapport with an animal, is empathy possible? Sympathetic concern for animals is often judged, sometimes correctly, as being a sentimental, anthropomorphic projection. Sheer subjective sympathy toward an animal, without objective understanding of its behavior and needs, can lead to erroneous assumptions as to its well-being, and to misjudgement of others' treatment of animals as being cruel. Empathy is possible when the "feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another" can be vicariously experienced: thus when there is objective knowledge about what an animal's overt behavior signifies, and what emotional states, intentions, and expectations such overt behavior …

Human/Animal Communication: Cetacean Roles In Human Therapeutic Situations, M. Patricia Hindley

Animal-Assisted Therapy Collection

A review of the literature on the relationship between animal and human indicates that whales and dolphins may have a mutually beneficial role to play in human therapeutic situations. Florida researchers have discovered that interaction with dolphins has favourably altered the behaviour of neurologically impaired people, and of autistic children who are usually withdrawn and uncommunicative.

Explorations with both wild and captive cetaceans may find suggestive direction from extensive research currently being done with pets and domestic animals. Growing scientific evidence suggests that animals can benefit not only the physically and mentally ill, the lonely and the incarcerated, but also …

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, …

Federal Government Assaults Animals On Wildlife Refuges

Close Up Reports

The HSUS fights for wildlife

Solving The Pet Overpopulation Problem

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The HSUS promotes its blueprint for success

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 …

Ld50: A Cruel Waste Of Animals

Close Up Reports

The HSUS leads fight to ban needless and inaccurate death test

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 …

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 …

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

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.

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 …