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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS PLACING THE HUMAN - WOLF RELATIONSHIP IN
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE International 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.
Exploring the environmental effects of animal agriculture, fishing,
and hunting, Eating Earth exposes critical common ground between
earth and animal advocacy. The first chapter (animal agriculture)
examines greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, manure and
dead zones, freshwater depletion, deforestation, predator control,
land and useincluding the ranching industries public lands
subsidies. Chapter two first examines whether or not the
consumption of fish is healthy and outlines morally relevant
aspects of fish physiology, then scrutinizes the fishing industry,
documenting the silent collapse of ocean ecosystems and calling
attention to the indiscriminate nature of hooks and nets, including
the problem of bycatch and what this means for endangered species
and fragile seascapes. Chapter three outlines the historic link
between the U. S. Government, wildlife management, and hunters,
then systematically unravels common beliefs about sport hunting,
such as the belief that hunters are essential to wildlife
conservation, that contemporary hunting qualifies as a tradition,
and that hunting is merciful, economical, or rooted in fair chase.
At the end of each chapter, Kemmerer examines possible solutions to
problems presented, such as sustainable meats, organic and local,
grass fed, aquaculture, new fishing technologies, and enhanced
regulations. Eating Earth offers a concise examination of the
environmental effects of dietary choice, clearly presenting the
many reasons why dietary choice ought to be front and center for
environmentalists. Kemmerers writing, supported by nearly 80 graphs
and summary slides, is clear, straightforward, and punctuated with
wry humor.
Humans encounter and use animals in a stunning number of ways. The
nature of these animals and the justifiability or unjustifiabilitly
of human uses of them are the subject matter of this volume.
Philosophers have long been intrigued by animal minds and
vegetarianism, but only around the last quarter of the twentieth
century did a significant philosophical literature begin to be
developed on both the scientific study of animals and the ethics of
human uses of animals. This literature had a primary focus on
discussion of animal psychology, the moral status of animals, the
nature and significance of species, and a number of practical
problems. This Oxford Handbook is designed to capture the nature of
the questions as they stand today and to propose solutions to many
of the major problems. Several chapters in this volume explore
matters that have never previously been examined by philosophers.
The authors of the thirty-five chapters come from a diverse set of
philosophical interests in the History of Philosophy, the
Philosophy of Mind, the Philosophy of Biology, the Philosophy of
Cognitive Science, the Philosophy of Language, Ethical Theory, and
Practical Ethics. They explore many theoretical issues about animal
minds and an array of practical concerns about animal products,
farm animals, hunting, circuses, zoos, the entertainment industry,
safety-testing on animals, the status and moral significance of
species, environmental ethics, the nature and significance of the
minds of animals, and so on. They also investigate what the future
may be expected to bring in the way of new scientific developments
and new moral problems.
This book of original essays is the most comprehensive single
volume ever published on animal minds and the ethics of our use of
animals.
There may be a town called Santa Catalina, but the one in this book
is creation of the author. What is real and happens all over the
world is the problem of dogs living on the street. They, like human
beings, suffer and their life is a bit similar to the homeless
people. This is not a beautiful picture and many turn to look the
other way as if not looking would avoid feelings of remorse for not
trying to help them. The truth is that many problems could be
prevented if we all worked together to help those beings that, for
various reasons, end up living without a roof over their heads. We
all try to live a life without hardship, however there are many
reasons that lead us to failure and we use all necessary means to
not fall too low. But dogs, after being domesticated and living for
many years with human beings, have learned to depend on them for
survival and deserve to live with respect.
This is the first full-length biography of Frances Power Cobbe
(1822-1904), Anglo-Irish reformer, feminist, and
anti-vivisectionist Lori Williamson builds on original research,
Cobbe's autobiography, and the work of later historians to analyze
Cobbe's life as well as her ideological outlook.
A workhouse visitor, Cobbe campaigned strenuously against those
in power for rights of women, the poor and of animals. A prominent
critic of the Poor Law, she was also the first person to draw up a
petition to control cruelty to animals. Using Cobbe's thoughts and
activities as a catalyst, Power and Protest explores the issues of
protest, reform, hierarchy, power, and gender, the relationship
between men and women, humans and animals, and includes important
work on pressure-group dynamics.
Given its wide-ranging scope, depiction of nineteenth-century
British society and culture, and its exploration of the symbiotic
relationships between ideology and the dynamics of protest, Power
and Protest will attract students of history, social policy, and
gender. Its emphasis on anti-vivisection activity provides a
powerful basis for understanding power relations and the historical
concept of rights.
Neuroendocrine Regulation of Animal Vocalization: Mechanisms and
Anthropogenic Factors in Animal Communication examines the
underpinning neuroendocrine (NE) mechanisms that drive animal
communication across taxa. Written by international subject
experts, the book focuses on the importance of animal communication
in survival and reproduction at an individual and species level,
and the impact that increased production and accumulation of
endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can have on these regulatory
processes. This book discusses sound production, perception,
processing, and response across a range of animals. This includes
insects, fish, bats, birds, nonhuman primates, infant humans, and
many others. Some chapters analyze how neuroactive substances,
endocrine control, and chemical pollution affect the physiology of
the animal's perceptive and sound-producing organs, as well as
their auditory and vocal receptors and pathways. Other chapters
address the recent approaches governments have taken to protect
against the endocrine disruption of animal (vocal) behaviors. The
book is a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students
seeking first-rate material on neuroendocrinological effects on
animal behavior and communication.
Issues to do with animal ethics remain at the heart of public
debate. In Beyond Animal Rights, Tony Milligan goes beyond standard
discussions of animal ethics to explore the ways in which we
personally relate to other creatures through our diet, as pet
owners and as beneficiaries of experimentation. The book connects
with our duty to act and considers why previous discussions have
failed to result in a change in the way that we live our lives. The
author asks a crucial question: what sort of people do we have to
become if we are to sufficiently improve the ways in which we
relate to the non-human? Appealing to both consequences and
character, he argues that no improvement will be sufficient if it
fails to set humans on a path towards a tolerable and sustainable
future. Focussing on our direct relations to the animals we connect
with the book offers guidance on all the relevant issues, including
veganism and vegetarianism, the organic movement, pet ownership,
and animal experimentation.
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Skinz
(Hardcover)
Michael D. Stevens
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R745
Discovery Miles 7 450
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The Fourth Seal ...and when I had opened the fourth seal, I heard
the voice of the fourth beast say "Come and see," And I looked and
behold a running pale dead animal. And the name of he who sat on
the animal ...was Death, and Hell followed ...them. And power was
given unto them over the four parts of the earth, to kill with the
beasts of the earth ...-From the Book of Revelation Animals that
have been skinned for their furs are coming back to life and
skinning the people wearing their furs! Animals have been hunted
and killed for thousands of years. They were part of God's food
chain and kept everyone alive. For the last one hundred years, furs
have become charmingly fashionable; and now animals are skinned for
just their furs. Their bloody remains and bodies are left to rot.
Skinz follows the lives and family stories of furry animals that
ultimately end up being skinned for their pelts to create coats for
undeserving humans. Integrating real facts with their stories,
Stevens paints a realistic picture of the torture that the animals
experience in the creation of these garments. Now it's the animals'
turn to repay mankind ...and they're pissed!
R.M. Hare was one of the most important ethical theorists of the
20th century, and one of his graduate students, Peter Singer,
became famous for his writings on animals and personhood. Singer
now says that he endorses Hare's "two-level utilitarianism," and he
has invoked the theory's distinction between "critical thinking"
and thinking in terms of "intuitive level rules" in response to
certain objections to his conclusions on several issues. Hare,
however, never published a systematic treatment of how his theory
applies to issues in animal ethics, and he avoided the concept of
"personhood." Gary Varner here fills this gap by defending the
moral legitimacy of distinguishing among "persons," "near-persons,"
and "the merely sentient" within Harean two-level utilitarianism.
He explores the implications of this distinction by applying the
resulting ethical system to our treatment of animals, and shows how
the results contrast with the more abolitionist conclusions reached
by Singer on the same issues. In the process, he presents a new
philosophical defense of two-level utilitarianism and its
metaethical foundation (universal prescriptivism), and he
significantly expands Hare's account of how "intuitive level rules"
function in moral thinking, based on recent empirical research. The
book also draws heavily on empirical research on consciousness and
cognition in non-human animals as a way of approaching the question
of which animals, if any, are "persons," or at least "near-persons.
Philosophers, including those interested in utilitarianism in
general or Hare in particular, as well as others interested in
animal ethics or the debate over personhood, will find Varner's
argument of great interest. "Professor Varner's earlier work, In
Nature's Interests, is a very fine book. It has achieved a high
level of respect from those working in the field, and is often seen
as having set a new standard of debate in environmental ethics.
That means that a new book by Professor Varner will be received
with considerable interest. Varner draws on extensive recent
empirical research regarding the degree to which animals are
self-conscious and uses this information as the basis for the most
serious discussion I have yet seen of whether any nonhuman animals
can be considered 'persons'. There is, to my knowledge, no other
book that goes into these issues anywhere near as deeply, in the
context of assessing their significance for the normative issues of
the wrongness of taking life, or other issues relating to ethical
decision-making regarding our treatment of animals and some humans.
I have no doubt that this book will, like In Nature's Interests, be
seen as making an important contribution to the topics it covers."
- Peter Singer, University Center for Human Values, Princeton
University
Equine Medicine and Popular Romance in Late Medieval England
explores a seldom-studied trove of English veterinary manuals,
illuminating how the daily care of horses they describe reshapes
our understanding of equine representation in the popular romance
of late medieval England. A saint removes a horse’s leg the more
easily to shoe him; a wild horse transforms spur wounds into the
self-healing practice of bleeding; a messenger calculates time
through his horse’s body. Such are the rich and conflicted
visions of horse/human connection in the period. Exploring this
imagined relation, Francine McGregor reveals a cultural
undercurrent in which medieval England is so reliant on equine
bodies that human anxieties, desires, and very orientation in daily
life are often figured through them. This book illuminates the
complex and contradictory yearnings shaping medieval perceptions of
the horse, the self, and the identities born of their affinity.
This is a collaborative volume on the concept of modern
vegetarianism and the relationships between people's beliefs and
food practices.What are the links between people's beliefs and the
foods they choose to eat? In the modern Western world, dietary
choices are a topic of ethical and political debate, but how can
centuries of Christian thought and practice also inform them? And
how do reasons for abstaining from particular foods in the modern
world compare with earlier ones? This book will shed new light on
modern vegetarianism and related forms of dietary choice by
situating them in the context of historic Christian practice. It
will show how the theological significance of embodied practice may
be retrieved and reconceived in the present day.Food and diet is a
neglected area of Christian theology, and Christianity is
conspicuous among the modern world's religions in having few
dietary rules or customs. Yet historically, food and the practices
surrounding it have significantly shaped Christian lives and
identities. This collection, prepared collaboratively, includes
contributions on the relationship between Christian beliefs and
food practices in specific historical contexts. It considers the
relationship between eating and believing from non-Christian
perspectives that have in turn shaped Christian attitudes and
practices. It also examines ethical arguments about vegetarianism
and their significance for emerging Christian theologies of food.
In this interdisciplinary work, philosophers from different
specialisms connect with the notion of the wild today and
interrogate how it is mediated through the culture of the
Anthropocene. They make use of empirical material like specific
artworks, films and other cultural works related to the term 'wild'
to consider the aesthetic experience of nature, focusing on the
untamed, the boundless, the unwieldy, or the unpredictable; in
other words, aspects of nature that are mediated by culture. This
book maps out the wide range of ways in which we experience the
wildness of nature aesthetically, relating both to immediate
experience as well as to experience mediated through cultural
expression. A variety of subjects are relevant in this context,
including aesthetics, art history, theology, human geography, film
studies, and architecture. A theme that is pursued throughout the
book is the wild in connection with ecology and its experience of
nature as both a constructive and destructive force.
Animal rights is one of the fastest growing social movements today.
Women greatly outnumber men as activists, yet surprisingly, little
has been written about the importance and impact of gender on the
movement. Women and the Animal Rights Movement combats stereotypes
of women activists as mere sentimentalists by exploring the
political and moral character of their advocacy on behalf of
animals. Emily Gaarder analyzes the politics of gender in the
movement, incorporating in-depth interviews with women and
participant observation of animal rights organizations,
conferences, and protests to describe struggles over divisions of
labor and leadership. Controversies over PETA advertising campaigns
that rely on women's sexuality to ""sell"" animal rights illustrate
how female crusaders are asked to prioritize the cause of animals
above all else. Gaarder underscores the importance of a paradigm
shift in the animal liberation movement, one that seeks a more
integrated vision of animal rights that connects universally to
other issues--gender, race, economics, and the
environment--highlighting that many women activists recognize and
are motivated by the connection between the oppression of animals
and other social injustices.
This book is written for researchers, students and professionals in
areas including animal welfare ethics, animal behaviourists,
veterinarians, veterinary nurses, animal welfare counsellors,
animal trainers, and professionals and volunteers with an interest
in animal welfare ethics. Several of the main areas of ethical
inquiry concerning animals are introduced, explained and analysed.
Inquiries also cover cultural traditions affecting the well being
of animals, and discussions concerning the role of aesthetics in
practices relevant to the welfare of animals. Unlike many books
which feature arguments about ethical theories this book includes
elements of personal experience with animals. Although the author
is an academic teaching within a university structure, he is also a
professional animal trainer.
Do animals have rights and, if so, what exactly are they?
Further, how do these rights relate to human rights? These
questions have long bedeviled scientists, philosophers, and animal
advocates and today remain as contested as ever.
Combining the writings of leading academics and activists such
as Peter Singer and Michael W. Fox, this anthology examines the
development of animal rights discourse over the past quarter
century to anticipate the future of the debate. Touching on every
aspect of human-animal relations, from agriculture and animal
experimentation to the animal rights movement in the United States
and abroad, the contributors both question and affirm the utility
of the concept of rights. Informing this volume is the belief that,
regardless of where one stands on the issues of animal rights, it
is simply indisputable that how we perceive and treat animals is
fundamentally and inextricably related to how we define
ourselves.
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