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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
'A must read for anyone interested in the emerging ethics of
robotics' Irene M. Pepperberg A bold, optimistic exploration of the
relationship between robots and humans based on our history with
animals, from a renowned MIT researcher The robots are here. They
make our cars, they deliver fast food, they mine the sea floor. And
in the near-future their presence will increasingly enter our homes
and workplaces - making human-robot interaction a frequent,
everyday occurrence. What will this future look like? What will
define the relationship between humans and robots? Here Kate
Darling, a world-renowned expert in robot ethics, shows that in
order to understand the new robot world, we must first move beyond
the idea that this technology will be something like us. Instead,
she argues, we should look to our relationship with animals. Just
as we have harnessed the power of animals to aid us in war and
work, so too will robots supplement - rather than replace - our own
skills and abilities. A deeply original analysis of our
technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The
New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new
understanding of our own history, our own systems and how we relate
- not just to non-humans, but also to each other.
Puppies nubile, tender, and pure have become endeared to U.S.
society, and to some extent, the world. Puppies are the holy grail
of animal companions to Americans. They are glorified above other
animals and protected by numerous laws, yet they are
systematically, lawfully, and illegally abused, tortured, and
killed. A vast array of opinions, policies, protocols, rules,
regulations, and laws govern treatment or mistreatment of puppies
demonstrating that appreciation for puppies is neither ubiquitous,
nor superseding. Puppies may be subjected to painful product
testing in the U.S., but not in Europe, despite their glorified
status above other animals. This book details the myriad of laws,
policies, attitudes, misfortunes, and processes shaping puppies'
lives in America. Specialized topics such as Bestiality, Child
Grooming, Pornography, Film, Mythology, and Art are addressed to
build an argument that overall, treatment of puppies in the U.S.
reflects priorities, needs, values, and morals which are
contextually based on human desires, capabilities, survival
mechanisms, altruism, American family life, and the economy. The
randomized yet selective treatment of puppies typifies American
culture, and to some extent other cultures, at least in the
American purview. The author analyzes physiological comparisons
between humans and dogs to discover why Americans may be so
interested in puppies. The foundations of this research are law,
social and behavioral science, policies, history, politics, animal
studies, animal welfare, criminal justice, sociology, anthropology,
and current events.
Puppies nubile, tender, and pure have become endeared to U.S.
society, and to some extent, the world. Puppies are the holy grail
of animal companions to Americans. They are glorified above other
animals and protected by numerous laws, yet they are
systematically, lawfully, and illegally abused, tortured, and
killed. A vast array of opinions, policies, protocols, rules,
regulations, and laws govern treatment or mistreatment of puppies
demonstrating that appreciation for puppies is neither ubiquitous,
nor superseding. Puppies may be subjected to painful product
testing in the U.S., but not in Europe, despite their glorified
status above other animals. This book details the myriad of laws,
policies, attitudes, misfortunes, and processes shaping puppies'
lives in America. Specialized topics such as Bestiality, Child
Grooming, Pornography, Film, Mythology, and Art are addressed to
build an argument that overall, treatment of puppies in the U.S.
reflects priorities, needs, values, and morals which are
contextually based on human desires, capabilities, survival
mechanisms, altruism, American family life, and the economy. The
randomized yet selective treatment of puppies typifies American
culture, and to some extent other cultures, at least in the
American purview. The author analyzes physiological comparisons
between humans and dogs to discover why Americans may be so
interested in puppies. The foundations of this research are law,
social and behavioral science, policies, history, politics, animal
studies, animal welfare, criminal justice, sociology, anthropology,
and current events.
Listen as Nikki retells her piglets' favorite bedtime story. It is
the story of how she escaped a factory farm, give birth to piglets
on a "mound of dry ground" and how they came to live in peace at
Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, NY. In the end, Nikki does not know
if her piglets believe that the story she tells is true. She
doesn't mind. She knows they will live long and happy at Farm
Sanctuary. More of us are becoming aware of from where our food
comes and how the animals involved are treated. This story can open
discussions for older children or can be read as a simpler story
for younger children.
Companion Animal Ethics explores the important ethical questions
and problems that arise as a result of humans keeping animals as
companions. * The first comprehensive book dedicated to ethical and
welfare concerns surrounding companion animals * Scholarly but
still written in an accessible and engaging style * Considers the
idea of animal companionship and why it should matter ethically *
Explores problems associated with animals sharing human lifestyles
and homes, such as obesity, behavior issues, selective breeding,
over-treatment, abandonment, euthanasia and environmental impacts *
Offers insights into practical ways of improving ethical standards
relating to animal companions
As the title suggests, this book deals with the subject of cows.
Normally we see cows as docile, dumb creatures, grazing
nonchalantly in some far distance. But there is a whole lot more
going on in their lives. Numerous stories from around the World are
presented herein to substantiate this point. Where does all the
war, racism, terrorism, violence, and cruelty that's so endemic to
human civilization come from? Why do humans exploit and massacre
each other so regularly? Why is our species so violence-prone? To
answer these questions we would do well to think about our
exploitation and slaughter of animals and its effect on human
civilization.
Left in the wild, Billie the elephant would have spent her life
surrounded by her family, free to wander the jungles of Asia.
Instead, she was captured as a baby and shipped to America where
she arrived in the mid 1950s, long before circus and zoo-goers
worried about animal living conditions. Billie spent her first
years confined in a tiny zoo yard giving rides to children. At 19,
she was sold and groomed for life in the circus. Billie mastered
difficult stunts: she could balance on her hind legs, walk on her
front legs and perform one-foot handstands. For twenty-three years
she dazzled audiences, but she lived a life of neglect and abuse.
As years passed, Billie rebelled. When she attacked and injured her
trainer, a federal inspector ordered her taken off the road. For a
decade she languished in a dusty barn. Finally, fate intervened.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture removed Billie and fifteen other
elephants as part of the largest elephant rescue in American
history. Billie wound up at a sanctuary for performing elephants in
Tennessee at 45, but she thundered with anxiety in her new
environment and refused to let anyone remove a chain still clamped
around her leg. Last Chain on Billie charts the growing movement to
rescue performing elephants from lives of misery, and tells the
story of how one emotionally damaged elephant overcame her past and
learned to trust humans again.
The conventional history of animals could be more accurately
described as the history of human ideas about animals. Only in the
last few decades have scholars from a wide variety of disciplines
attempted to document the lives of historical animals in ways that
recognize their agency as sentient beings with complex
intelligence. This collection advances the field further, inviting
us to examine our recorded history through an animal-centric lens
to discover how animals have altered the course of our collective
past. The seventeen scholars gathered here present case studies
from the Pacific Ocean, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, involving
species ranging from gorillas and horses to salamanders and orcas.
Together they seek out new methodologies, questions, and stories
that challenge accepted historical assumptions and structures.
Drawing upon environmental, social, and political history, the
contributors employ research from such wide-ranging fields as
philosophy and veterinary medicine, embracing a radical
interdisciplinarity that is crucial to understanding our nonhuman
past. Grounded in the knowledge that there has never been a purely
human time in world history, this collection asks and answers an
incredibly urgent question for historians and others interested in
the nonhuman past: in an age of mass extinctions, mass animal
captivity, and climate change, when we know much of what animals
have done in the past, which of our activities will we want to
change in the future?
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1906 Edition.
This book deals with the internal lives of the cows and contains
true stories from around the world. Cow is a very sober animal and
does not wag its tail as often as a dog. This does not mean dog is
good and cow is food. All animals including the dog should be shown
love and care. But cow especially has a serious significance for
human existence. Talk about cows' feelings is often brushed off as
fluffy and sentimental but this book proves it otherwise.
Know the animals, respect the planet, love thy neighbor.
Rowan Blogg is an Australian veterinarian of the highest
distinction and I greatly admire his professionalism, which I
observed for years at close range.
In Any Kind of Danger he has extended his work into the
environment and moral philosophy by tackling the complex issue of
how we exploit animals. In the 19th Century William Wilberforce and
other pioneers argued that our treatment of animals is a measure of
our humanity. Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (1975) stimulated
international interest in the subject. Dr Blogg's book should do
the same.
Rowan Blogg examines the role of wildlife on the planet,
millions of years before our species became dominant, but how much
habitat do we reserve for their natural life? How many species are
under threat?
The world's population will stabilise at about nine billion in
2050 - and this raises the fundamental issues of how much land,
water and energy we will devote to raising animals for food. Is
grazing an efficient or humane way of feeding our species?
Industrial farming - out of sight and out of mind - involves
inescapable cruelty. Chickens are raised on an A4 size of smaller
'scratching area', confined in multi-layered cages.
Do animals have a right of access to sunlight and paddock for at
least the great part of their lives? How does a cow giving birth
cope with a crowded cattle truck?
Do we turn our eyes away from the inevitable suffering involved
in animal transport, especially life sheep exports?
There are profound moral lessons to be learned from observing how
we treat animals - and yet the issue will not be on the agenda for
the next Federal or State elections.
We are in Dr Blogg's debt for this thoughtful, passionate
book.
-Barry Jones, AO, FAA, FAHA. FTSE, FASSA
Australian Minister for Science 1983-90
Dogs are getting lawyers. Cats are getting kidney transplants.
Could they one day be fellow citizens?Cats and dogs were once wild
animals. Today, they are family members and surrogate children. A
little over a century ago, pets didn't warrant the meager legal
status of property. Now, they have more rights and protections than
any other animal in the country. Some say they're even on the verge
of becoming legal persons.How did we get here,and what happens
next?In this fascinating exploration of the changing status of dogs
and cats in society, pet lover and award-winning journalist David
Grimm explores the rich and surprising history of our favourite
companion animals. He treks the long and often torturous path from
their wild origins to their dark days in the middle ages to their
current standing as the most valued animals on Earth. As he travels
across the country,riding along with Los Angeles detectives as they
investigate animal cruelty cases, touring the devastation of New
Orleans in search of the orphaned pets of Hurricane Katrina, and
coming face-to-face with wolves and feral cats,Grimm reveals the
changing social attitudes that have turned pets into family
members, and the remarkable laws and court cases that have elevated
them to quasi citizens.The journey to citizenship isn't a smooth
one, however. As Grimm finds, there's plenty of opposition to the
rising status of cats and dogs. From scientists and farmers worried
that our affection for pets could spill over to livestock and lab
rats to philosophers who say the only way to save society is to
wipe cats and dogs from the face of the earth, the battle lines are
being drawn. We are entering a new age of pets,one that is
fundamentally transforming our relationship with these animals and
reshaping the very fabric of society.For pet lovers or anyone
interested in how we decide who gets to be a person" in today's
world, Citizen Canine is a must read. It is a pet book like no
other.
A collaboration between an attorney and an animal protection
advocate, this work utilises the extremely controversial and
high-profile "crush video" case, US v. Stevens, to explore how
American society attempts to balance the protection of free speech
and the prevention of animal cruelty. Starting from the detailed
case study of a single prominent ruling, the authors provide a
masterful survey of important issues facing society in the area of
animal welfare. The Stevens case included various "hot topic"
elements connected to the role of government as arbiter of public
morality, including judicial attitudes to sexual deviance and
dogfighting.
Most approaches to animal ethics ground the moral standing of
nonhumans in some appeal to their capacities for intelligent
autonomy or mental sentience. "Corporal Compassion "emphasizes the
phenomenal and somatic commonality of living beings; a philosophy
of body that seeks to displace any notion of anthropomorphic
empathy in viewing the moral experiences of nonhuman living beings.
Ralph R. Acampora employs phenomenology, hermeneutics,
existentialism and deconstruction to connect and contest analytic
treatments of animal rights and liberation theory. In doing so, he
focuses on issues of being and value, and posits a felt nexus of
bodily being, termed symphysis, to devise an interspecies ethos.
Acampora uses this broad-based bioethic to engage in dialogue with
other strains of environmental ethics and ecophilosophy.
"Corporal Compassion" examines the practical applications of the
somatic ethos in contexts such as laboratory experimentation and
zoological exhibition and challenges practitioners to move past
recent reforms and look to a future beyond exploitation or total
noninterference--a posthumanist culture that advocates caring in a
participatory approach.
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