'A vital, thorough and accessible history that everyone who cares about the past or the future should read.' Rosamund Young, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Cows ______________________________________ The story of the relationship between humankind and cattle, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Counting Sheep. To tell the story of the relationship between humankind and cattle is to tell the story of civilisation itself. Since the beginning, cattle have tilled our soils, borne our burdens, fed and clothed us and been our loyal and uncomplaining servants in the work of taming the wilderness and wresting a living from the land. There has never been a time when we have not depended on cattle. As human societies have migrated from the country to the city, the things they have needed from their cattle may have changed, but the fundamental human dependence remains. Blending personal experience, recollection, interviews with farmers, butchers and cattle breeders and studding the narrative with little-known nuggets of technical detail, Philip Walling entertainingly reveals the central importance of cattle to all our lives.

This volume opens a door into the rich history of animals in China. As environmental historians turn their attention to expanded chronologies of natural change, something new can be said about human history through animals and about the globally diverse cultural and historical dynamics that have led to perceptions of animals as wild or cultures as civilized. This innovative collection of essays spanning Chinese history reveals how relations between past and present, lived and literary reality, have been central to how information about animals and the natural world has been processed and evaluated in China. Drawing on an extensive array of primary sources, ranging from ritual texts to poetry to veterinary science, this volume explores developments in the human-animal relationship through Chinese history and the ways in which the Chinese have thought about the world with and through animals. This title is also available as Open Access.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008 A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire explores the cultural position of animals in the period from 1800 to 1920. This was a time of extraordinary social, political and economic change as the Western world rapidly industrialised and modernised. The Enlightenment had attempted to define the human self; the Age of Empire pulled animals and humans further apart. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art. Volume 5 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl

As seen on Channel 4's Steph's Packed Lunch! No Life Too Small is the joyful and inspiring story of the world's first animal hospice, celebrating the power and beauty of nature, the strength of the human and animal spirit, and the importance of love, friendship and community. It will leave you with a tear in your eye, a smile on your face and a renewed belief in human kindness. A few years ago Alexis Fleming was bedridden with a chronic illness. Things became so bad that she wanted to end her life many times during this period - but her beloved dog, Maggie, kept her going, especially when doctors gave her just six weeks to live. Incredibly, Alexis fought her way back to health with Maggie by her side, only for Maggie to die of lung cancer two years later on a vet's operating table. Alexis was devastated that Maggie had died without her and decided to start an animal hospice in her name in the hope that she could ensure other animals nearing the end of their life would not have to die alone. Six months later, the Maggie Fleming Animal Hospice was launched. Alexis has turned a dilapidated farm in rural Scotland into a haven for animals to live out their last days in comfort and at peace. With the help of the local community, despite many challenges, the hospice came to life. Meanwhile , Alexis' own health was deteriorating again and she needed life-threatening surgery. Alexis came through the operation and the road to her recovery was paved with companionship from the animals in her care, particularly Bran, a dog who had been dumped with terminal cancer and given six weeks. He recovered alongside Alexis and went on to live for two more years. Dogs, however old and mangy, chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, cockerels and even turkeys : The Maggie Fleming Hospice is a place where all manner of terminally-ill, abandoned animals come to live out their last days in comfort and are treated with love. Looking after dying animals has taught Alexis what really matters in life - kindness, compassion and love.

Barby Keel is used to all manner of creatures arriving at the door of the Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary where she lives and works, deep within the Sussex countryside. Nothing can prepare her for the arrival of Teddy, however, a neglected, traumatised puppy who is dumped at the gates of the sanctuary in a filthy box, terrified and desperate for someone to love. Despite his scruffy appearance, Barby can't help but feel a spark of affection for the overgrown puppy. But with Barby living in a caravan along with her four other dogs, she knows in her heart of hearts that Teddy deserves a more stable forever home. Wiping away tears, she waves Teddy away to his new life with a young couple, knowing that she's done what's best for the animal. But barely a few days later, Teddy is returned to the sanctuary, his new family unable to cope with his boisterous behaviour and his ever-growing size. Barby tries desperately to re-home him, but Teddy is rejected over and over again by his new foster families. Anxious and terrified of being separated from her, Barby is now faced with the impossible task of working through the traumas of Teddy's past to help the young dog. But when she receives the devastating news that her beloved younger brother has received a shocking diagnosis, Barby's life as she knows it is thrown into disarray. Can the love of a gentle giant help Barby through the unimaginable? And will Barby's unwavering devotion set Teddy free from the suffering he has endured?

The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. Costello's son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mother's lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. His colleagues resist her argument that human reason is overrated and that the inability to reason does not diminish the value of life; his wife denounces his mother's vegetarianism as a form of moral superiority. At the dinner that follows her first lecture, the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic and skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights, touching on broad philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives. Painfully for her son, Elizabeth Costello seems offensive and flaky, but--dare he admit it?--strangely on target. In this landmark book, Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity. He draws us into Elizabeth Costello's own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. In his fable, presented as a Tanner Lecture sponsored by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, Coetzee immerses us in a drama reflecting the real-life situation at hand: a writer delivering a lecture on an emotionally charged issue at a prestigious university. Literature, philosophy, performance, and deep human conviction--Coetzee brings all these elements into play. As in the story of Elizabeth Costello, the Tanner Lecture is followed by responses treating the reader to a variety of perspectives, delivered by leading thinkers in different fields. Coetzee's text is accompanied by an introduction by political philosopher Amy Gutmann and responsive essays by religion scholar Wendy Doniger, primatologist Barbara Smuts, literary theorist Marjorie Garber, and moral philosopher Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation. Together the lecture-fable and the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict and confrontation.

Tranimacies is a neologism that pushes and pulls together transness and animality so as to better germinate unruly, wily, perverse relationships between them, and their spawn. Through tranimacies the book aims at rethinking the linking of liberation struggles amongst former colonized peoples and lands, minoritized genders and sexualities, racially marked persons and non-human animals, and does so in a variety of geopolitical and temporal sites. This rich compendium includes original scholarship and dialogues as well as poetry, comix, bioart, and performance documentation. The composite term of tranimacies enmeshes several everyday and scholarly concepts: transgender, animal, animacy, intimacies. This edited volume's bundle of theoretical and artistic works insists on the beating heart of embodied experiences and political pulses at the core of these concepts. The authors show that tranimacies are spread throughout what Mel Y. Chen describes as the "animacy hierarchies" that delimit zones of possibility and agency, confounding the vertical order with transversal movements. As an intervention into the burgeoning debates within and across trans, animal, critical race, and posthuman studies this publication seeks to destabilize the logic of "turns" in critical theory, and through sticky intimacies uncover how animality, race, and gender underscore the humanist production of meanings. By taking a decolonial approach (in the main, but not exclusively) the authors hope to shift debates in animal studies towards accounting for and delinking from colonial mentalities. Three poems interweave our selection of chapters, which together forge three lines of inquiry defined by a certain ethos: transhistories of the present, lessons from the bestiary, and #animatingephemera. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.

’I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to best catch them, down there by the stream. Actually, I can’t remember us speaking at all. Maybe because we never did.’

The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is one of the strangest creatures nature ever created. Remarkably little is known about the eel, even today. What we do know is that it’s born as a tiny willow-leaf shaped larva in the Sargasso Sea, travels on the ocean currents toward the coasts of Europe – a journey of about four thousand miles that takes at least two years. Upon arrival, it transforms itself into a glass eel and then into a yellow eel before it wanders up into fresh water. It lives a solitary life, hiding from both light and science, for ten, twenty, fifty years, before migrating back to the sea in the autumn, morphing into a silver eel and swimming all the way back to the Sargasso Sea, where it breeds and dies.

And yet . . . There is still so much we don’t know about eels. No human has ever seen eels reproduce; no one can give a complete account of the eel’s metamorphoses or say why they are born and die in the Sargasso Sea; no human has even seen a mature eel in the Sargasso Sea. Ever. And now the eel is disappearing, and we don’t know exactly why.

What we do know is that eels and their mysterious lives captivate us.

This is the basis for The Gospel of the Eels, Patrik Svensson’s quite unique natural science memoir; his ongoing fascination with this secretive fish, but also the equally perplexing and often murky relationship he shared with his father, whose only passion in life was fishing for this obscure creature.

Through the exploration of eels in literature (Günter Grass and Graham Swift feature, amongst others) and the history of science (we learn about Aristotle’s and Sigmund Freud’s complicated relationships with eels) as well as modern marine biology (Rachel Carson and others) we get to know this peculiar animal. In this exploration, we also learn about the human condition, life and death, through natural science and nature writing at its very best.

As Patrik Svensson concludes: 'by writing about eels, I have in some ways found my way home again.'

This pioneering study introduces readers to key themes from animal studies, as a frame within which it examines the representation of animals and animality in the work of a range of authors. In this new approach to animal studies, the concept of a relational universe that has emerged in recent natural and physical science is argued as being central. With fresh readings of Welsh literary and non-literary publications, including the Welsh press and Welsh-language manuals, the book explores relationships among animals and between humans and animals, to approach subjects such as intelligence, sensibility and knowledge from an animal perspective. The possibility of redrawing and reclaiming a history of rural and industrial Wales is suggested according to an animal history and agenda. This innovative contribution to Welsh and animal studies illuminates fascinating and controversial subjects, including animal domestication, captivity, communication, biopsychology, human exceptionalism, zoos and farming.

'Clever, compelling, canine and utterly mesmerising' - Helen Lederer Stupendo the dog has died. But that's just the beginning of his story. To love and protect. The code of the good dog is clear. When single mother Tuesday took on mongrel pup Stupendo, she made a friend for life. Through the best and the worst of times, Stupendo has been there for her. Ever faithful, ever loyal, ever true. Nothing could break their bond. Until last week. Stupendo doesn't know why Tuesday is suddenly ignoring him or why his doggy antics no longer seem to soothe Baby William. It takes his worst enemy - the cat next door - to break the news that Stupendo has become a ghost. Somehow left behind on Earth, Stupendo knows he has unfinished business. Enlisting the help of the community of animals in the neighbourhood, Stupendo must get to the bottom of the very human sadness that hangs over his old home and keeps him from saying goodbye to Tuesday. Praise for SAYING GOODBYE TO TUESDAY: 'An emotional, lovely read, just perfect for animal lovers. It was a joy to read, although have tissues handy' - Rachel Wells, bestselling author of Alfie the Doorstep Cat 'Pawfection. It's emotional and joyful and utterly compelling' - Alex Brown 'A gorgeous, ingenious story' - Amanda Brookfield 'This isn't just a story about a dog, it's a story about the very meaning of life, told from a unique and bold perspective. Filled with joyful bittersweetness and clear-eyed wisdom it made me both laugh and cry and its message of hope will stay with me for a long time to come' - Alexandra Potter

This book examines trade and trafficking in endangered animal species and how the trade increasingly puts large numbers of nonhuman species at risk. Focusing on illegal trafficking, the book also discusses the harmful aspects of the trade and trafficking which is taking place in concordance with laws and regulations. Drawing on the findings of empirical research from Norway and Colombia, the study discusses how this global, transnational trend is addressed, and features of the trade and the ways in which it is controlled in the two case study locations. It also explores the motives driving the trade, and the consequences in terms of animal abuse and environmental harm. The book discusses whether internationally agreed measures, such as international conventions, actually help prevent the trade. Possible ways to address the harms of wildlife trade are considered, including a total ban. The work draws on a green criminology and eco feminist theoretical framework to provide a broad perspective on concepts such as harm, animal rights, species justice and speciesism.

This book examines trades in animals and animal products in the history of the Indian Ocean World (IOW). An international array of established and emerging scholars investigate how the roles of equines, ungulates, sub-ungulates, mollusks, and avians expand our understandings of commerce, human societies, and world systems. Focusing primarily on the period 1500-1900, they explore how animals and their products shaped the relationships between populations in the IOW and Europeans arriving by maritime routes. By elucidating this fundamental yet under-explored aspect of encounters and exchanges in the IOW, these interdisciplinary essays further our understanding of the region, the environment, and the material, political and economic history of the world.

A heart-breaking and moving story of love and sacrifice, set against the backdrop of the Blitz. Inspired by true events, and perfect for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Dear Mrs Bird *** Is love strong enough to survive a war? September 1940. As enemy fighter planes blacken the sky, Susan Shepherd finds comfort at her home in Epping Forest, where she and her grandfather raise homing pigeons. Of all Susan's birds, it's Duchess who is the most extraordinary, and the two share a special bond. Thousands of miles away, Ollie Evans, a young American pilot decides to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. But Ollie doesn't expect his quest to bring him instead to the National Pigeon Service - a covert new operation involving homing pigeons - and to Susan. The National Pigeon Service has a dangerous mission to air-drop hundreds of pigeons into German-occupied France. Despite their growing friendship Ollie and Susan must soon be parted - but will Duchess's devotion and sense of duty prove to be an unexpected lifeline between them? Based on true events, The Long Flight Home is an uplifting and timeless wartime novel, that reminds us how, in times of hardship, hope is never truly lost.

Mahlangeni, the Tsonga word for "meeting place", is one of the most remote ranger stations in the Kruger National Park. Far from everywhere, this isolated corner of the wilderness was home for eleven years to Kobie Kruger, wife of the ranger in charge of the station, and their their three daughters.

Running a household and raising a family in a place where leopards, elephants, snakes and the like are your only neighbours, where you have no telephone, and where a trip to town means first crossing a river full of hippos and crocodiles, is hardly a straightforward business. But Kobie Kruger tackled each problem with undaunted pragmatism and an energy that gives new meaning to word resourceful.

Lonely after their family moves to London, Ben and Hattie are delighted to find a new friend in the park: a talking lion wearing a top hat, dress suit and red cravat. But not only is Mr Dandy Paws an exceptionally well-dressed feline, he's a highway lion who robs from those who are cruel to animals and invests the proceeds in animal justice. But with a P.I. on his tail, Dandy's latest scheme - a daring break-out at Tower Zoo - could get Ben and Hattie into far more trouble than they bargained for ... A delightfully old-fashioned debut adventure for modern children aged 7 and up, full of friendship, daring and fun Set in an off-the-wall 1920s London complete with talking animals! Strong animal welfare and ecological themes with a funny and fantastical twist Inside illustrations with a classic nostalgic feel by Roxana de Rond

Food is routinely given attention in tourism research as a motivator of travel. Regardless of whether tourists travel with a primary motivation for experiencing local food, eating is required during their trip. This book encompasses an interdisciplinary discussion of animals as a source of food within the context of tourism. Themes include the raising, harvesting, and processing of farm animals for food; considerations in marketing animals as food; and the link between consuming animals and current environmental concerns. Ethical issues are addressed in social, economic, environmental, and political terms. The chapters are grounded in ethics-related theories and frameworks including critical theory, ecofeminism, gustatory ethics, environmental ethics, ethics within a political economy context, cultural relativism, market construction paradigm, ethical resistance, and the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. Several chapters explore contradicting and paradoxical ethical perspectives, whether those contradictions exist between government and private sector, between tourism and other industries, or whether they lie within ourselves. Like the authors in Tourism Experiences & Animal Consumption: Contested Values, Morality, & Ethics, the authors in this book wrestle with a range of issues such as animal sentience, the environmental consequences of animals as food, viewing animals solely as a extractive resource for human will, as well as the artificial cultural distortion of animals as food for tourism marketing purposes. This book will appeal to tourism academics and graduate students as a reference for their own research or as supplementary material for courses focused on ethics within tourism.

Responding to recent scholarship, this book examines animal domestication and offers a Soiot approach to animals and landscapes, which transcends the wild-tame dichotomy. Following herder-hunters of the Eastern Saian Mountains in southern Siberia, the author examines how Soiot and Tofa households embrace unpredictability, recognize sentience, and encourage autonomy in all their relations with animals, spirits, and land features. It is an ethnography intended to help us reinvent our relations with the earth in unpredictable times.

"Living Beings "examines the vital characteristics of social interactions between living beings, including humans, other animals and trees.Many discussions of such relationships highlight the exceptional qualities of the human members of the category, insisting for instance on their religious beliefs or creativity. In contrast, the international case studies in this volume dissect views based on hierarchical oppositions between human and other living beings. Although human practices may sometimes appear to exist in a realm beyond nature, they are nevertheless subject to the pull of natural forces. These forces may be brought into prominence through a consideration of the interactions between human beings and other inhabitants of the natural world.The interplay in this book between social anthropologists, philosophers and artists cuts across species divisions to examine the experiential dimensions of interspecies engagements. In ethnographically and/or historically contextualized chapters, contributors examine the juxtaposition of human and other living beings in the light of themes such as wildlife safaris, violence, difference, mimicry, simulation, spiritual renewal, dress and language.

The fields of settler colonial, decolonial, and postcolonial studies, as well as Critical Animal Studies are growing rapidly, but how do the implications of these endeavours intersect? Colonialism and Animality: Anti-Colonial Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies explores some of the ways that the oppression of Indigenous persons and more-than-human animals are interconnected. Composed of 12 chapters by an international team of specialists plus a Foreword by Dinesh Wadiwel, the book is divided into four themes: Tensions and Alliances between Animal and Decolonial Activisms Revisiting the Stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples' Relationships with Animals Cultural Perspectives Colonialism, Animals, and the Law This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, activists, as well as postdoctoral scholars, working in the areas of Critical Animal Studies, Native Studies, postcolonial and critical race studies, with particular chapters being of interest to scholars and students in other fields, such as Cultural Studies, Animal Law and Critical Criminology.