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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
At present, human beings worldwide are using an estimated 115.3
million animals in experiments-a normalization of the unthinkable
on an immense scale. In terms of harm, pain, suffering, and death,
animal experiments constitute one of the major moral issues of our
time. Given today's deeper understanding of animal sentience, the
contributors to this volume argue that we must afford animals a
special moral consideration that precludes their use in
experiments. The Ethical Case against Animal Experiments begins
with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics's groundbreaking and
comprehensive ethical critique of the practice of animal
experiments. A second section offers original writings that engage
with, and elaborate on, aspects of the Oxford Centre report. The
essayists explore historical, philosophical, and personal
perspectives that range from animal experiments in classical times
to the place of necessity in animal research to one researcher's
painful journey from researcher to opponent. A devastating look at
a contemporary moral crisis, The Ethical Case against Animal
Experiments melds logic and compassion to mount a powerful
challenge to human cruelty.
The true story of a loveable rescue donkey who becomes a hero,
perfect for animal lovers everywhere. Tracy Garton had run the
Radcliffe Donkey Sanctuary for twenty years, creating a safe haven
for more than sixty sick, unwanted and mistreated donkeys. But
after a devastatingly difficult winter, with sky high bills, she
didn't know if she could afford to carry on - or if she had the
physical strength to keep going. Then, in the first week of
January, the phone rang. A donkey had been abandoned 130 miles
away. Rushing to his rescue Tracy found Alan - forlorn, balding and
shivering - tethered up tightly in a supermarket car park. Barely
able to walk on his painfully overgrown hooves, he had been left to
die. Tracy ran her hands gently over Alan's protruding ribs, and
whispered in his ear: 'Don't worry boy, I won't give up on you.'
Over the next twelve months, as Tracy grappled with attacks from
vandals and perilous flash floods and desperately tried to raise
money, Alan gradually recovered - turning into a loveable rogue. As
Christmas rolled around, Tracy was too worried about the future to
enjoy the festive season. She had no idea that the shy skinny
animal she'd rescued was going to give her the greatest gift of all
. . . Alan The Christmas Donkey is a funny, warm and inspiring
read.
HISTORIES OF HUMAN CONSTRUCTIONS OF NATURE Wild Things: Nature and
the Social Imagination assembles eleven substantive and original
essays on the cultural and social dimensions of environmental
history. They address a global cornucopia of social and ecological
systems, from Africa to Europe, North America and the Caribbean,
and their temporal range extends from the 1830s into the
twenty-first century. The imaginative (and actual) construction of
landscapes and the appropriation of Nature - through
image-fashioning, curating museum and zoo collections, making
'friends', 'enemies' and mythical symbols from animals - are
recurring subjects. Among the volume's thought-provoking essays are
a group enmeshing nature and the visual culture of photography and
film. Canonical environmental history themes, from colonialism to
conservation, are re-inflected by discourses including gender
studies, Romanticism, politics and technology. The loci of the
studies included here represent both the microcosmic - underwater
laboratory, zoo, film studio; and broad canvases - the German
forest, the Rocky Mountains, the islands of Haiti and Madagascar.
Their casts too are richly varied - from Britain's otters and
Africa's Nile crocodiles to Hollywood film-makers and South African
cattle. The volume represents an excitingly diverse collection of
studies of how humans, in imagination and deed, act on and are
acted on by 'wild things'.
A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS PLACING THE HUMAN-WOLF RELATIONSHIP IN
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEInternational in range and chronological in
organisation, this volume aims to grasp the maincurrents of thought
about interactions with the wolf in modern history. It focuses on
perceptions, interactions and dependencies, and includes cultural
and social analyses as well as biological aspects. Wolves have been
feared and admired, hunted and cared for. At the same historical
moment, different cultural and social groups have upheld widely
diverging ideas about the wolf. Fundamental dichotomies in modern
history, between nature and culture, wilderness and civilisation
and danger and security, have been portrayed in terms of wolf-human
relationships. The wolf has been part of aesthetic, economic,
political, psychological and cultural reasoning albeit it is
nowadays mainly addressed as an object of wildlife management.
There has been a major shift in perception from dangerous predator
to endangered species, but the big bad fairytale wolf remains a
cultural icon. This volume roots study of human-wolf relationships
coherently within the disciplines of environmental and animal
history for the first time.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1906 Edition.
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