The analysis of meat and its place in Western culture has been central to Human-Animal Studies as a field. It is even more urgent now as global meat and dairy production are projected to rise dramatically by 2050. While the term 'carnism' denotes the invisible belief system (or ideology) that naturalizes and normalizes meat consumption, in this volume we focus on 'meat culture', which refers to all the tangible and practical forms through which carnist ideology is expressed and lived. Featuring new work from leading Australasian, European and North American scholars, Meat Culture, edited by Annie Potts, interrogates the representations and discourses, practices and behaviours, diets and tastes that generate shared beliefs about, perspectives on and experiences of meat in the 21st century.

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?

A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of British wildlife. With a foreword by the BBC TV presenter Chris Packham. 'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic.' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN Dominic Dyer explores the science and electioneering behind Britain's most controversial wildlife policy: the badger cull. He exposes the catastrophic handling of bovine TB by the British government, the political manoeuvring that engineered the badger cull in 2010, and the ongoing close relationship in perpetuating the cull between the National Farmers Union and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). He shines an unflattering spotlight on Cabinet ministers, the veterinary profession, environmental NGOs and the BBC. Reviews 'I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. 'This is a powerful and stimulating read and it's bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday afternoon and I had read it completely by early yesterday [Saturday] morning.' - MARK AVERY, WRITER, BLOGGER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER 'A vital must-read for anyone concerned about the badger's enduring place in the British countryside. 'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic, this is the inside story of the badger cull.' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN 'It should be read by all those battling against government policies that put money ahead of science and the environment. 'The book's conclusion is that the culls will be stopped, not by science or validity, but by cost. Yet Dyer remains optimistic: 'Despite all the incompetence, negligence and deceit, it's the caring compassionate British public who have made a stand for wildlife that gives me the most hope for the future.' 'His book pays tribute to the 'Badger Army', those many individuals from all walks of life who turned out to protest and importantly, once culling started, to protect the badgers out in the field. 'Those people will be patrolling the countryside, day and night, in every area where badger killing is taking place this autumn. While determined to protect their badgers, many also want to see the government help and support farmers to beat the TB in their cattle - but with proper cattle-based measures, not by senselessly killing wildlife.' - LESLEY DOCKSEY, THE ECOLOGIST, 'Why are our badgers 'Badgered to Death'?' Introduction by Chris Packham How viciously fickle we are. We arbitrarily pick and choose which species we like or dislike, normally and sadly based on purely anthropomorphic criteria, and then either laud or loathe them paying scant attention to the realities of their lives, or ours. And once cursed and demonised that tag is almost impossible to redress. Think rat, think fox... damned for historical crimes, firmly fixed as malevolent vermin, even in our supposedly enlightened age. But as this book displays we can also be quick to destroy the reputation of our animal heroes and blight their status with bigotry and ignorance. For many reasons we had come to love the badger, to cherish and admire it, to protect and celebrate it and of course many still do. But the reputation of this essential member of the UK's ecology has been targeted by a smear campaign which has been swallowed by the gullible and fuelled by those with vested interests. You see, in spite of all the science and all the truths that it outlines, the badger has become a scapegoat. Its been branded a 'bad guy' and is being persecuted as such. It's a terrible shame, but like I said, how fickle, how vicious, how predictably human. Buy the book and carry on reading Chris Packham's introduction

Afternoons with Puppy is a heartwarming account of dynamic relationships and outcomes involving a therapist, his therapy animals, and his patients, gathered from almost two decades of ongoing practice. It is a narrative of Dr. Aubrey H. Fine's experiences and his growing respect for the power of the animals' effects on his patients and himself. Fine observes that healing is rarely, if ever, accomplished in isolation. There is always a reaching out and a connection at the heart of the therapeutic enterprise. Afternoons with Puppy reveals the ways in which our bond with animals centers our being. Interacting with an animal, as simple as having a puppy in your lap gnawing on your thumb, strips away the unimportant and provides the neutral, primal ground on which healing and new growth can take place. Afternoons with Puppy is an emotional journey that will continue long after the last page.

Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is a comprehensive analysis of knowledge of animals among the Nage people of central Flores in Indonesia. Gregory Forth sheds light on the ongoing anthropological debate surrounding the categorization of animals in small-scale non-Western societies. Forth's detailed discussion of how the Nage people conceptualize their relationship to the animal world covers the naming and classification of animals, their symbolic and practical use, and the ecology of central Flores and its change over the years. His study reveals the empirical basis of Nage classifications, which align surprisingly well with the taxonomies of modern biologists. It also shows how the Nage employ systems of symbolic and utilitarian classification distinct from their general taxonomy. A tremendous source of ethnographic detail, Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is an important contribution to the fields of ethnobiology and cognitive anthropology.

Although scholars in the disciplines of law, psychology, philosophy, and sociology have published a considerable number of prescriptive, normative, and theoretical studies of animals in society, Pet Politics presents the first study of the development of companion animal or pet law and policy in Canada and the United States by political scientists. The authors examine how people and governments classify three species of pets or companion animals-cats, dogs, and horses-for various degrees of legal protection. They then detail how interest groups shape the agenda for companion animal legislation and regulation, and the legislative and administrative formulation of anticruelty, kennel licensing, horse slaughter, feral and roaming cat, and breed ban policies. Finally, they examine the enforcement of these laws and policies by agencies and the courts. Using an eclectic mix of original empirical data, original case studies, and interviews-and relying on general theories and research about the policy process and the sociopolitical function of legality-the authors illustrate that pet policy is a unique field of political struggle, a conflict that originates from differing perspectives about whether pets are property or autonomous beings, and clashing norms about the care of animals. The result of the political struggle, the authors argue, is difficulty in the enactment of policies and especially in the implementation and enforcement of laws that might improve the welfare of companion animals.

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.

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.

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.