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.

Immerse yourself in the world of animal rights protests, campaigns, demonstrations, outreach, rescue, and so much more. In today's world, voices of the marginalized are in the spotlight and people across the globe are recognizing animal rights as a social justice movement. During a time of historic actions and victorious campaigns, Voices for Animal Liberation depicts the full spectrum of animal rights activism that is currently at work to create change. This book offers the words of both new and highly influential voices in the movement today, with the intention of inspiring and educating those who are sparked by the vision of a more ethical world. Including a foreword by Ingrid Newkirk, founder and president of PETA and arguably one of the most prolific figures in the animal rights movement, other contributors include: Jasmine Afshar, army veteran Chase Avior, actor and filmmaker Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary Dotsie Bausch, Olympic medalist and founder of Switch4Good Alex Bez, founder and director of Amazing Vegan Outreach Matthew Braun, former investigator of farms and slaughterhouses Saengduean Lek Chailert, founder of Save Elephant Foundation Amy Jean Davis, founder of Los Angeles Animal Save Karen Davis, founder of United Poultry Concerns Sean Hill, award-winning multidisciplinary artist and humanitarian Wayne Hsiung, cofounder of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) Gwenna Hunter, event coordinator for Vegan Outreach and founder of Vegans of LA Anita Krajnc, founder of the Save Movement Cory Mac a'Ghobhainn, organizer with Progress for Science Jo-Anne McArthur, photographer and founder of We Animals Media Zafir Molina, truth seeker and movement artist Shaun Monson, documentary filmmaker Alexandra Paul, actress and cohost of Switch4Good Brittany Peet, Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement for PETA Jill Robinson, founder and CEO of Animals Asia Zoe Rosenberg, founder of Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary Dani Rukin, citizen journalist for JaneUnchained News Jasmin Singer, cofounder of Our Hen House and Senior Features Editor for VegNews Kathy Stevens, founder of Catskill Animal Sanctuary Natasha & Luca, "That Vegan Couple," social media influencers Will Tuttle, visionary author and speaker Gillian Meghan Walters, creator of MummyMOO project Connect with activists from different backgrounds as they reveal their perspectives on animal rights, their experiences taking action for animals, the challenges they've faced, and the meaning of activism in their lives.

Whales and dolphins are icons for the conservation movement. They are the most conspicuous ambassadors for entire marine ecosystems and possibly even for the biosphere as a whole. Concurrent with our realisation of impending threats to their environment is a growing scientific understanding of the social and cognitive complexity of many of these species. This book brings together experts in the relevant diverse fields of cetacean research, to provide authoritative descriptions of our current knowledge of the complex behaviour and social organization of whales and dolphins. The authors consider this new information in the context of how different human cultures from around the world view cetaceans and their protection, including attitudes to whaling. They show how new information on issues such as cetacean intelligence, culture and the ability to suffer, warrants a significant shift in global perceptions of this group of animals and how these changes might be facilitated to improve conservation and welfare approaches.

This moving memoir follows a journalist and filmmaker as she finds her purpose in advocacy for the Asian elephants in her hometown of Kerala, India. Foreword by Jane Goodall. 'I was shocked, saddened and angered by the cruelty towards the elephants who are forced to take part in religious ceremonies - cruelty that is described in this extraordinary book. I was amazed and moved by the courage shown by its author, Sangita Iyer.' Dr Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace Elephants are self-aware, conscious beings. They can forge strong bonds and grieve the loss of elephants and humans alike. But despite all the empathy that elephants shower on humans, we continue to inflict pain and suffering on these caring, sentient beings. In 2013 Sangita Iyer visited her childhood home of Kerala, India, where over 700 Asian elephants, owned by individuals and temples, were forced to perform in crowded, noisy festivals. These gentle creatures who people claimed to revere were chained, abused and exploited for the entertainment of tourists and for profit. When she found herself in the presence of these divine creatures and witnessed their suffering first hand, Sangita felt a deep connection to their pain. She too had been shackled and silenced by her patriarchal upbringing and by the many 'me too' moments in her work life that were swept under the rug. Now she speaks up for elephants, herself and anyone who has been suppressed, inspiring with her story of healing, perseverance and hope. Her work to save elephants has saved her.

Do depictions of crazy cat ladies obscure more sinister structural violence against animals hoarded in factory farms? Highlighting the frequent pathologization of animal lovers and animal rights activists, this book examines how the "madness" of our relationships with animals intersects with the "madness" of taking animals seriously. The essays collected in this volume argue that "animaladies" are expressive of political and psychological discontent, and the characterization of animal advocacy as mad or "crazy" distracts attention from broader social unease regarding human exploitation of animal life. While allusions to madness are both subtle and overt, they are also very often gendered, thought to be overly sentimental with an added sense that emotions are being directed at the wrong species. Animaladies are obstacles for the political uptake of interest in animal issues-as the intersections between this volume and established feminist scholarship show, the fear of being labeled unreasonable or mad still has political currency.

Respect for animals has always been a part of human consciousness. Poets, thinkers, philosophers, scientists and statesmen have long celebrated our compassion towards Earth's other beasts.
Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb compiles the most significant statements of sensibility to animals in the history of thought. From the myths of the ancient world to the Middle Ages to Darwin and beyond, Preece captures the most telling and fascinating accounts of humankind's relationship to the wild world, placing them in historical context.
Jung called it "an unconscious identity with animals," while Wordsworth saw it as the "primal sympathy which having been must ever be." Linking the diverse chords of human experience that are touched by the animal world, Preece shows that despite a historical thread of cruelty, there still remains in all humanity a constant underlying concern for other beings as an integral part of the moral community.
With musings and meditations from Lao Tse to Mohammed, from Plato to Jane Goodall, from classical religion to parliamentary proceedings, Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb is an original, superbly researched history that deepens our understanding of all living beings.

Animal rights sounds like a modern idea, but in fact -- for over three millennia -- philosophers, theologians, and political theorists have grappled with the question of our obligations toward animals. This comprehensive and diverse anthology, the only one of its kind, illuminates the complex evolution of moral thought regarding animals and includes writings from ancient Greece to the present. "Animal Rights" reveals the ways in which a variety of thinkers have addressed such issues as our ethical responsibilities for the welfare of animals, whether animals have rights, and what it means to be human.

The preface by Andrew Linzey dispels many of the misconceptions about the animal rights movement. In light of the growing interest in animal rights, this volume is an indispensable resource for scholars and activists alike.

"Animal Rights" includes writings from Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Hegel, Marx, Kant, Bertrand Russell, John Stuart Mill, Nietzsche, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Peter Singer.

From caged orangutans to roasted pig, from dog training to horse phobias, from communicating bees to ruminating cows, Derek Ryan explores how animals are encountered in theoretical discourse. Over the course of an introduction and four thematically organised chapters on 'Animals as Humans', 'Animal Ontology', 'Animal Life' and 'Animal Ethics', he critically engages with a diverse range of ancient, modern and contemporary thinkers including Aristotle, Plutarch, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Locke, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Lacan, Nagel, Levinas, Deleuze, Derrida, Singer, Regan, Diamond, Adams, Haraway, Nussbaum, Badiou and Braidotti. To supplement the theoretical material, each chapter contains lively close readings of contemporary literary texts by Carter, Coetzee, Auster and Foer. Intended as a resource for researchers, students, teachers and all those interested in human-animal relationships, Animal Theory: A Critical Introduction provides an accessible and authoritative account of the challenges and potential in thinking about and with animals.

A heartwarming true animal story, for fans of A Dog's Purpose, A Street Cat Named Bob and Marley & Me. In the 54 years she has run the Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary, deep in the Kent countryside, Barby has taken in all manner of animals in need of love, care and a second chance at life. She thinks she's seen it all until Gabby, a scruffy, golden-haired terrier, arrives on her doorstep. Trembling, her eyes wide with fear, Gabby is unable to play with other dogs and is completely mute. When Barby discovers that Gabby has been kept locked indoors her whole life, all becomes clear - Gabby has never learnt to be a dog. Soon Barby has fallen in love with this strange little mutt and is determined to help her connect with her true nature. But when tragedy befalls Barby, it is not only Gabby but the entire animal sanctuary that's at stake... A Street Cat Named Bob meets Marley & Me, this is an emotional, joyful true story of the deepest bond that exists between humans and animals.

In Enter the Animal, Teya Brooks Pribac examines academic and popular discourse on animals' experiences of grief and spirituality, which are rooted in our intrinsic capacity and propensity for connections and relations, and highlights important ethical implications of humans' treatment of other species.Praise for Enter the AnimalaThis path-breaking book engages a surprising range of sources to shed extraordinary clarity on aspects of animal subjectivity that make other species every bit our equal. I could not stop reading.'a Cynthia Willett, author of Interspecies EthicsaEnter the Animal is a fascinating journey into the hearts and minds of nonhuman animals and our shared capacities for experiencing a wide variety of deep and rich emotions. Employing an impressively broad scope of interdisciplinary research, this most important and forward-looking book offers a lucid, engrossing, and insightful exploration of the capacities for grief and spiritual engagement that humans share with other animals.' a Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, Rewilding Our Hearts and The Animals' AgendaaThis is a very impressive book which illuminates humananonhuman animal relations with its thorough research and sophisticated theoretical analysis. It is crucial reading for anyone interested in grief in animals.aa Peta Tait, author of Fighting Nature and Wild and Dangerous Performances aIt is clear, and easy to read, and easy, as well, to understand. Whether you are a scholar in the broad area of animal studies, a student embarking upon animal-related research or simply a reader interested in all matters animal, this is an essential book, which will help you understand three fundamental points: where we are currently, how we got here, and where to go next.a a Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep and Lost Companions'Enter the Animal offers a moving exploration of the ways in which grief is a cross-species phenomenon that manifests in a diversity of expressions and experiences. Reading this beautifully written book informs ways of thinking about the political work grief, and acknowledging grief, does for other species as well as our own. A wonderful contribution to scholarship on animal subjectivity, sociality, and grief specifically.' a Kathryn Gillespie, author of The Cow With Ear Tag #1389

It's the dream scenario for many of us after a long week: having the house completely to ourselves. No partners, no parents, no kids, no pets. But as we settle into the couch, something stirs: maybe a mouse darts out from under a cupboard, or a fly buzzes lazily past the window. We're not actually alone at all. Until quite recently, no one had taken the life that lives with us very seriously: until Rob Dunn and his team decided to take a closer look. Upon investigating the terra incognita of our homes, they discovered that there are nearly 200,000 species living in our bedrooms, kitchens, living areas, bathrooms, and basements. Some of these species can kill us. Some benefit us. And some seem simply benign. But almost all of them were completely unknown--and they've been living alongside us the whole time. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn takes us to the edge of biology's latest frontier: our own homes. Every house is a wilderness--from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards, to the camel crickets living in the basement, to the antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus waiting on the kitchen counter, thousands of species of insects, bacteria, fungi, and plants live literally under our noses. As we have become increasingly obsessed with cleaning and sterilizing our homes and separating our living spaces from nature, we have unwittingly cultivated an entirely new playground for evolution. Unfortunately, this means that we have created a range of new parasites, from antibiotic-resistant microbes to nearly impossible to kill cockroaches, to threaten ourselves with. At the same time, many of the more helpful organisms--such as microbes that can protect us from autoimmune diseases or promote healthy digestion, or the centipedes that can hunt down those pesky roaches--are caught in the crosshairs. If we're not careful, the "healthier" we try to make our homes, the more likely we'll be putting our own health at risk. A rich natural history and a thrilling scientific investigation, Rob Dunn's Never Home Alone shows us that if are to truly thrive in our homes, we must learn to welcome the unknown guests that have been there the whole time.

Human-animal studies is an academic field that has grown exponentially over the past decade. It explores the whys, hows, and whats of human-animal relations: why animals are represented and configured in different ways in human cultures and societies around the world; how they are imagined, experienced, and given significance; what these relationships might signify about being human; and what about these relationships might be improved for the sake of the individuals as well as the communities concerned. The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies presents a collection of original essays from artists and scholars who have established themselves internationally on the basis of specific and significant new contributions to human-animal studies. This international, interdisciplinary handbook will be of interest to students and scholars of human-animal studies, sociology, anthropology, biology, environmental studies, geography, cultural studies, history, philosophy, media studies, gender studies, literature, psychology, ethology, and visual studies.

Intersectionality of Critical Animal Studies: A Historical Collection represents the very best that the internationally scholarly Journal for Critical Animal Studies (JCAS) has published in terms of articles that are written by public critical scholar-activists-organizers for public critical scholar-activists-organizers. This move toward publishing pieces about engaging social change, rather than high-theoretical detached analysis of nonhuman animals in society, is to regain focus for liberation at all costs. The essays in this collection focus on intersectionality scholarship within the realm of Critical Animal Studies, and discuss issues related to race, gender, disability, class, and queerness. Not only are these articles historically significant within the field of Critical Animal Studies, but they are integral to the overall social justice movement. Intersectionality of Critical Animal Studies: A Historical Collection should be read by anyone interested in the Critical Animal Studies field, as we consider them to be classic writings that should be respected as foundational texts. There are many interesting and innovative texts, but these are historical, not only because they were published in JCAS, but because they were among the first to publish on a particular intersectional issue.

The tragedies of World War II are well known. But at least one has been forgotten: in September 1939, four hundred thousand cats and dogs were massacred in Britain. The government, vets, and animal charities all advised against this killing. So why would thousands of British citizens line up to voluntarily euthanize household pets? In The Great Cat and Dog Massacre, Hilda Kean unearths the history, piecing together the compelling story of the life-and death-of Britain's wartime animal companions. She explains that fear of imminent Nazi bombing and the desire to do something to prepare for war led Britons to sew blackout curtains, dig up flower beds for vegetable patches, send their children away to the countryside-and kill the family pet, in theory sparing them the suffering of a bombing raid. Kean's narrative is gripping, unfolding through stories of shared experiences of bombing, food restrictions, sheltering, and mutual support. Soon pets became key to the war effort, providing emotional assistance and helping people to survive-a contribution for which the animals gained government recognition. Drawing extensively on new research from animal charities, state archives, diaries, and family stories, Kean does more than tell a virtually forgotten story. She complicates our understanding of World War II as a "good war" fought by a nation of "good" people. Accessibly written and generously illustrated, Kean's account of this forgotten aspect of British history moves animals to center stage-forcing us to rethink our assumptions about ourselves and the animals with whom we share our homes.

'A moving true story that will pull at the heartstrings' - Woman & Home The first book in the Paws of Fame series, which follows movie animal trainer Julie Tottman as she rescues, nurtures and transforms animals in need of a second chance into film stars. Pickles the Yorkshire Terrier has just had her litter of puppies taken away from her - who knows how many litters she's delivered and watched the same thing happen to. She's been left behind in an overcrowded, noisy and dirty barn. She's very weak and her body is burning all over from a painful skin condition. This has been her life for six years and it will likely never change. Or will it? Julie is a young animal trainer for the movies and is looking for a Yorkshire Terrier for a new film she's working on with Colin Firth and Amanda Bynes. By chance, she hears of a puppy farm that has been raided by the authorities - the dogs were kept in appalling conditions and among them was a poor Yorkshire Terrier called Pickles. Julie doesn't know whether Pickles will be the right dog for the film, but she doesn't care: Pickles needs a safe home with love and care and Julie can give it. Will Pickles recover from the traumas of her past? Can she be the movie star Julie is looking for? And will Julie be able to make it in the world of movie animal trainers? Will You Take Me Home? is the moving true story of one woman and her dog. The second book in the Paws of Fame story - Rescue Me, about the abandoned Mastiff who went on to play Fang in Harry Potter - is available now

A heartwarming true animal story, for fans of A Dog's Purpose, A Street Cat Named Bob and Marley & Me. Michelle Clark has loved animals all her life, filling her home with a menagerie of stray cats and abandoned dogs. But when her outreach work with London's homeless community leads to a chance meeting with a desperate man, and a quest to find a missing Staffie named Poppy, she has no idea that her life will be transformed forever. Poppy is unlike any other dog that Michelle has ever met, with her unwavering loyalty, gentle nature and wise, kind eyes. Soon, Poppy finds her way not just into Michelle's heart, but into her home too. Inspired Poppy's extraordinary love and devotion, Michelle finds herself at the start of a journey to bring hope and help to the hundreds of other precious dogs who call the city streets their home. An inspiring, heartwarming true story about the incredible bond that exists between humans and animals, and how, in rescuing them, we can also rescue ourselves.

Human beings have long imagined their subjectivity, ethics, and ancestry with and through animals, yet not until the mid-twentieth century did contemporary thought reflect critically on animals' significance in human self-conception. Thinkers such as French philosopher Jacques Derrida, South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, and American theorist Donna Haraway have initiated rigorous inquiries into the question of the animal, now blossoming in a number of directions. It is no longer strange to say that if animals did not exist, we would have to invent them.

This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collection reflects the growth of animal studies as an independent field and the rise of "animality" as a critical lens through which to analyze society and culture, on a par with race and gender. Essays consider the role of animals in the human imagination and the imagination of the human; the worldviews of indigenous peoples; animal-human mythology in early modern China; and political uses of the animal in postcolonial India. They engage with the theoretical underpinnings of the animal protection movement, representations of animals in children's literature, depictions of animals in contemporary art, and the philosophical positioning of the animal from Aristotle to Derrida. The strength of this companion lies in its timeliness and contextual diversity, which makes it essential reading for students and researchers while further developing the parameters of the discipline.

As human beings, what is our true relation to the animals on earth? What is our responsibility to our fellow creatures? Douglas Sloan explores these and other questions in this important book on the human animal connection. His explorations are based on personal experience and wide-ranging research into the work of Rudolf Steiner and others, including scientist students of the inner life of animals and committed defenders of animal wellbeing. Rudolf Steiner describes how from the beginning of creation humans and animals have been united in deep kinship. A loss of the sense of this human animal connection has resulted in an immense animal suffering the world over. Many questions arise: are animals conscious? Do they have a spiritual reality, souls and selves? Do they have emotional empathy, language and memory? Are we justified in eating them, hunting them, experimenting on them? This book argues that we must start to relate to animals in a completely new way -- a relationship that understands and respects animals' inner spiritual being, and one that requires a deep grasp of our own spiritual being in relation to theirs and offers help to do so, both in concept and in everyday action.

The moral status of animals is a subject of controversy both within and beyond academic philosophy, especially regarding the question of whether and when it is ethical to eat meat. A commitment to animal rights and related notions of animal protection is often thought to entail a plant-based diet, but recent philosophical work challenges this view by arguing that, even if animals warrant a high degree of moral standing, we are permitted - or even obliged - to eat meat. Andy Lamey provides critical analysis of past and present dialogues surrounding animal rights, discussing topics including plant agriculture, animal cognition, and in vitro meat. He documents the trend toward a new kind of omnivorism that justifies meat-eating within a framework of animal protection, and evaluates for the first time which forms of this new omnivorism can be ethically justified, providing crucial guidance for philosophers as well as researchers in culture and agriculture.

Little Tiger is not like other tigers. She is curious about the world and always questions everything, not content to simply follow in her mother's footsteps and spend her days hunting around their home in the snow forests of Siberia. Instead, she embarks on a remarkable journey, intent on discovering the secrets of the Earth and eventually finding the creature she has heard most about: man. This captivating story of a brave young tiger who refuses to give up on her dreams is a celebration of the power of nature and the beauty of innocence, and is a testament to the courage it takes to be true to ourselves.

The power of stories to raise our concern for animals has been postulated throughout history by countless scholars, activists, and writers, including such greats as Thomas Hardy and Leo Tolstoy. This is the first book to investigate that power and explain the psychological and cultural mechanisms behind it. It does so by presenting the results of an experimental project that involved thousands of participants, texts representing various genres and national literatures, and the cooperation of an internationally-acclaimed bestselling author. Combining psychological research with insights from animal studies, ecocriticism and other fields in the environmental humanities, the book not only provides evidence that animal stories can make us care for other species, but also shows that their effects are more complex and fascinating than we have ever thought. In this way, the book makes a groundbreaking contribution to the study of relations between literature and the nonhuman world as well as to the study of how literature changes our minds and society. "As witnessed by novels like Black Beauty and Uncle Tom's Cabin, a good story can move public opinion on contentious social issues. In Human Minds and Animal Stories a team of specialists in psychology, biology, and literature tells how they discovered the power of narratives to shift our views about the treatment of other species. Beautifully written and based on dozens of experiments with thousands of subjects, this book will appeal to animal advocates, researchers, and general readers looking for a compelling real-life detective story." - Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat : Why It's So Hard To Think Straight About Animals

Societal views on animals are rapidly changing and have become more diversified: can we use them for our own pleasure, and how should we understand animal agency? These questions, asked both in theoretical discourses and different practices, are also relevant for our understanding of horses and the human-horse relation. Equine Cultures in Transition stands as the first volume to bring together ethical questions of the new field of human-horse studies. For instance: what sort of ethics should be developed in relation to the horse today: an egalitarian ethics or an ethics that builds upon asymmetrical relations? How can we understand the horse as a social actor and as someone who, just like the human being, becomes through interspecies relations? Through which methods can we give the horse a stronger voice and better understand its becoming? These questions are not addressed from a medical or ethological perspective focused on natural behaviour, but rather from human acknowledgement of the horse as a sensing, feeling, acting, and relational being; and as a part of interspecies societies and relations. Providing an introductory yet theoretically advanced and broad view of the field of post humanism and human animal studies, Equine Cultures in Transition will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as human-animal studies, political sociology, animals and ethics, animal behaviour, anthropology, and sociology of culture. It may also appeal to riders and other practitioners within different horse traditions.

"Elephants are not picked from trees" are the words of Swedish taxidermist and conservator David Sjolander, spoken while he was in Angola looking for a fine bull elephant specimen in the autumn of 1948. At the age of 62 Sjolander was to satisfy his life's dream of shooting the elephant he for so long had wished to prepare and exhibit. The African elephant was to be the main attraction in the Mammal Room of the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History. Liv Emma Thorsen, professor of cultural history, has reconstructed the collection history of four mammals exhibited in the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History that attracted much attention when they were displayed to the public for the first time: The elephant, gorilla, Tonkean macaque and walrus. The book examines how the museum acquired animals for its exhibits from 1906 to 1948, and how living animal bodies became museum exhibits. Using photographs and documents from the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History, the book shows that these museums are in possession of valuable material for writing the cultural history of animals, and that the museums of natural history display a nature that is historically, socially and culturally construed.

It is widely agreed that because animals feel pain we should not make them suffer gratuitously. Some ethical theories go even further: because of the capacities that they possess, animals have the right not to be harmed or killed. These views concern what not to do to animals, but we also face questions about when we should, and should not, assist animals that are hungry or distressed. Should we feed a starving stray kitten? And if so, does this commit us, if we are to be consistent, to feeding wild animals during a hard winter? In this controversial book, Clare Palmer advances a theory that claims, with respect to assisting animals, that what is owed to one is not necessarily owed to all, even if animals share similar psychological capacities. Context, history, and relation can be critical ethical factors. If animals live independently in the wild, their fate is not any of our moral business. Yet if humans create dependent animals, or destroy their habitats, we may have a responsibility to assist them. Such arguments are familiar in human cases-we think that parents have special obligations to their children, for example, or that some groups owe reparations to others. Palmer develops such relational concerns in the context of wild animals, domesticated animals, and urban scavengers, arguing that different contexts can create different moral relationships.

Donkeys carried Christ into Jerusalem while in Greek myth they transported Hephaistos up to Mount Olympos and Dionysos into battle against the Giants. They were probably the first animals that people ever rode, as well as the first used on a large-scale as beasts of burden. Associated with kingship and the gods in the ancient Near East, they have been (and in many places still are) a core technology for moving people and goods over both short and long distances, as well as a supplier of muscle power for threshing and grinding grain, pressing olives, raising water, ploughing fields, and pulling carts, to name just a few of the uses to which they have been put. Yet despite this, they remain one of the least studied, and most widely ignored, of all domestic animals, consigned to the margins of history like so many of those who still depend upon them. Spanning the globe and extending from the donkey's initial domestication up to the present, this book seeks to remedy this situation by using archaeological evidence, in combination with insights from history and anthropology, to resituate the donkey (and its hybrid offspring such as the mule) in the unfolding of human history, looking not just at what donkeys and mules did, but also at how people have thought about and understood them. Intended in part for university researchers and students working in the broad fields of world history, archaeology, animal history, and anthropology, but it should also interest anyone keen to learn more about one of the most widespread and important of the animals that people have domesticated.