Throughout history and in all places, animals have been an essential part of human culture. They have been hunted and domesticated, studied and mythologized, feared and loved. Our complicated relationships with other animals have repeatedly found expression in art, literature, religion and science. In 1995, the New School for Social Research sponsored a conference to explore human/animal interactions. Published as a special issue of the journal Social Research (under the title In the Company of Animals), this collection is here presented in one volume.

This book, written by leading academics and activists, examines the development of animal rights over the past two decades and asks where the issue goes from here. The contributions cover animal rights philosophy, strategies of the animal rights movement, the treatment of animals in specific contexts and the political arena within which animal advocates must operate. The unifying theme is provided by an emerging debate about the future direction of the animal protection movement, and, in particular, about the utility of using rights language as a means of achieving further progress.

"Animals and Why They Matter" examines the barriers that our philosophical traditions have erected between human beings and animals and reveals that the too-often ridiculed subject of animal rights is an issue crucially related to such problems within the human community as racism, sexism, and age discrimination. Mary Midgley's profound and clearly written narrative is a thought-provoking study of the way in which the opposition between reason and emotion has shaped our moral and political ideas and the problems it has raised. Whether considering vegetarianism, women's rights, or the "humanity" of pets, this book goes to the heart of the question of why all animals matter.

Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship and unconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be with their pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists have started to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to "own" other sentient beings in this way.

Are animals there to be cuddled and protected? Slaughtered and eaten? Sacrificed to the gods? In After Noah, Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Andrew Linzey show how Jews and Christians have often failed to take account of the power of their traditions to promote a more compassionate and sensitive regard for animals. It argues that the way we treat animals is a benchmark for the kind of society we are, and that in recognising the true -- and biblically based -- value of animals, we liberate ourselves from the idolatry which is to be found at the heart of much contemporary spirituality. After Noah is a pioneering work, defined to become essential reading, not just for students of Jewish and Christian ethics but for all people of faith who believe that, in devaluing animals, we ultimately devalue ourselves and out own souls.

Paul Shepard has been one of the most brilliant and original thinkers in the field of human evolution and ecology for more than forty years. His thought-provoking ideas on the role of animals in human thought, dreams, personal identity, and other psychological and religious contexts have been presented in a series of seminal writings, including "Thinking Animals," "The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game," and now "The Others," his most eloquent book to date."The Others" is a fascinating and wide-ranging examination of how diverse cultures have thought about, reacted to, and interacted with animals. Shepard argues that humans evolved watching other animal species, participating in their world, suffering them as parasites, wearing their feathers and skins, and making tools of their bones and antlers. For millennia, we have communicated their significance by dancing, sculpting, performing, imaging, narrating, and thinking them. The human species cannot be fully itself without these others.Shepard considers animals as others in a world where otherness of all kinds is in danger, and in which otherness is essential to the discovery of the true self. We must understand what to make of our encounters with animals, because as we prosper they vanish, and ultimately our prosperity may amount to nothing without them.

Contents: We Want the Best; More Nutriment; Less Disease; More Natural to Man; Greater Strength; Less Animal Passion; Economy; The Degradation of the Slaughterman; Occult Reasons; Impure Vehicles; Man's Duty Toward Nature; Ghastly Unseen Results; The Better Time to Come.

A compelling and revolutionary work that calls for the immediate extension of our human rights to the great apes.
"The Great Ape Project "looks forward to a new stage in the development of the community of equals, whereby the great apes-chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans-will actually receive many of the same protections and rights that are already accorded to humans.
This profound collection of thirty-one essays by the world's most distinguished observers of free-living apes make up a uniquely satisfying whole, blending observation and interpretation in a highly persuasive case for a complete reassessment of the moral status of our closest kin.

Examining the rights of animals under three headings, the physical, the psychical and the ethical kinship between human and subhuman, the author argues from the scientific premise that the physical basis of the humane philosophy rests on the biological fact that kinship is universal.

This book describes the opinions and feelings of a group of people who were once members of the Animal Liberation Front.Liberators believe that a human has a no greater claim to life than a mole or a sea bass. They feel that humans are the lowest form of life, and that the world would be a much better, more peaceful place without them. If you agree with this position, then you will love this book.

'A must read for anyone interested in the emerging ethics of robotics' Irene M. Pepperberg A bold, optimistic exploration of the relationship between robots and humans based on our history with animals, from a renowned MIT researcher The robots are here. They make our cars, they deliver fast food, they mine the sea floor. And in the near-future their presence will increasingly enter our homes and workplaces - making human-robot interaction a frequent, everyday occurrence. What will this future look like? What will define the relationship between humans and robots? Here Kate Darling, a world-renowned expert in robot ethics, shows that in order to understand the new robot world, we must first move beyond the idea that this technology will be something like us. Instead, she argues, we should look to our relationship with animals. Just as we have harnessed the power of animals to aid us in war and work, so too will robots supplement - rather than replace - our own skills and abilities. A deeply original analysis of our technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new understanding of our own history, our own systems and how we relate - not just to non-humans, but also to each other.

"Pet Loss and Human Bereavement" deals with the human/companion animal relationship and what happens when that bond is broken. The contributors to the book acknowledge the significance o the relationship and the grief involved when a pet dies or is terminally ill. The contributors' approach covers multidisciplinary care that can be given by veterinarians, psychiatrists, social workers, philosopher-ethicists, and others.

Topics include guidance for dealing with owners of terminally ill or recently deceased animals; the rights of animals to humane treatment; and the right of owners to find acceptance of their bereavement, respect for their emotional ties to their pets, and positive resolution of their grief.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Animals are increasingly recognized as fit and proper subjects for historians, yet their place in conventional historical narratives remains contested. This volume argues for a history of animals based on the centrality of liminality - the state of being on the threshold, not quite one thing yet not quite another. Since animals stand between nature and culture, wildness and domestication, the countryside and the city, and tradition and modernity, the concept of liminality has a special resonance for historical animal studies. Assembling an impressive cast of contributors, this volume employs liminality as a lens through which to study the social and cultural history of animals in the modern city. It includes a variety of case studies, such as the horse-human relationship in the towns of New Spain, hunting practices in 17th-century France, the birth of the zoo in Germany and the role of the stray dog in the Victorian city, demonstrating the interrelated nature of animal and human histories. Animal History in the Modern City is a vital resource for scholars and students interested in animal studies, urban history and historical geography.

Learning Love from a Tiger explores the vibrancy and variety of humans' sacred encounters with the natural world, gathering a range of stories culled from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Mayan, Himalayan, Buddhist, and Chinese shamanic traditions. Readers will delight in tales of house cats who teach monks how to meditate, shamans who shape-shift into jaguars, crickets who perform Catholic mass, rivers that grant salvation, and many others. In addition to being a collection of wonderful stories, this book introduces important concepts and approaches that underlie much recent work in environmental ethics, religion, and ecology. Daniel Capper's light touch prompts readers to engage their own views of humanity's place in the natural world and question longstanding assumptions of human superiority.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Colonialism, Culture, Whales: The Cetacean Quartet explores how our attitudes to whales, whale hunting, and whale watching expose colonial attitudes to the natural world in modern Western culture. Foraging across the disciplines and moving between ideas and methods drawn from postcolonial criticism, animal studies, and environmental humanities, the book critically examines the colonial histories of whaling, their legacies in contemporary tourism from whale-watching excursions to the performing orcas at SeaWorld, and cultural representations of anxieties about extinction in recent literature, television, and film. Extensively researched and engagingly written, the four essays that comprise The Cetacean Quartet should appeal to scholars in a number of different fields as well as to general readers interested in finding out more about our enduring, guilt-ridden fascination with one of the world's most iconic living creatures, the whale.

Follow Rabbit as she learns how important it is to say sorry. At Rainbow Island Harbour, some new visitors have arrived, including Little Peacock. The other animals are excited to meet him but Rabbit is worried that her friends will be more interested in the newcomer than in their old friend Rabbit. Rabbit tells Little Peacock he's not welcome to play with the other animals but when Peacock disappears, will Rabbit admit what she's done? And will she be able to find Peacock and apologise for her mistake? Children will love the myriad of animal characters and learning and understanding the different ways we can be kind to one another. There are lots of extra learning opportunities, from questions about the story to activities showing you how to make your own Kindness Badge to notes for parents and carers to extend learning and reinforce positive behaviour. In the words of Badger, who runs the Kindness Club, "When you show kindness, it makes you and your friends feel good."

Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London tells the remarkable story of Obaysch the hippopotamus, the first 'star' animal to be exhibited in the London Zoo. In 1850, a baby hippopotamus arrived in England, thought to be the first in Europe since the Roman Empire, and almost certainly the first in Britain since prehistoric times. Captured near an island in the White Nile, Obaysch was donated by the viceroy of Egypt in exchange for greyhounds and deerhounds. His arrival in London was greeted with a wave of 'hippomania', doubling the number of visitors to the Zoological Gardens almost overnight. Delving into the circumstances of Obaysch's capture and exhibition, John Simons investigates the phenomenon of 'star' animals in Victorian Britain against the backdrop of an expanding British Empire. He shows how the entangled aims of scientific exploration, commercial ambition, and imperial expansion shaped the treatment of exotic animals throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Along the way, he uncovers the strange and moving stories of Obaysch and the other hippos who joined him in Europe as the trade in zoo animals grew. 'A fascinating microscopic and telescopic look at the life of Victorian England's most famous animal. John Simons' richly exhaustive account of nineteenth-century hippomania engages with imperialism, Orientalism, progress, and the cultural history of Europe where Obaysch, captured from an island in the Nile River, had the misfortune to spend his life as a blockbuster attraction at the London Zoo. Poignant and empathetic, this account of an animal's appropriation and exploitation is one of those books that unfurls more about its moment in time than you could have imagined when you picked it up.' Professor Randy Malamud, Georgia State University

The only hope for successful conservation of America's threatened, endangered, and at-risk wildlife is through voluntary, cooperative partnerships that focus on private land, where over 75% of at-risk species can be found. Private landowners form the bedrock of these partnerships, and they have a long history of rising to meet the challenge of conservation. But they can't do it alone. This book is a guide for private landowners who want to conserve wildlife. Whether engaged in farming, ranching, forestry, mining, energy development, or another business, private working lands all have value as wildlife habitat, with the proper management and financial support. This book provides landowners and their partners with a roadmap to achieve conservation compatible with their financial and personal goals. This book introduces the art and language of land management planning as well as regulatory compliance with laws such as the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It categorizes and explains the tools used by wildlife professionals to implement conservation on private lands. Moreover it documents the multitude of federal, state, local, and private opportunities for landowners to find financial and technical assistance in managing wildlife, from working with a local NGO to accessing the $6 billion per year available through the federal Farm Bill.

Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals: A Philosophy is an original and ambitious treatment of the "animal question". While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. Timofeeva shows the way towards the full acceptance of our animality; an acceptance which does not mean the return to our animal roots, or anything similar. The freedom generated by this acceptance operates through negativity; is an effect of the rejection of the very core of metaphysical philosophy and Christian culture, traditionally opposed to our 'animal' nature and seemingly detached from it. With a foreword by Slavoj Zizek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.

For such simple garments, hats have had a devastating impact on wildlife throughout their long history. Made of wild-caught mammal furs, decorated with feathers or whole stuffed birds, historically they have driven many species to near extinction. By the turn of the twentieth century, egrets, shot for their exuberant white neck plumes, had been decimated; the wild ostrich, killed for its feathers until the early 1900s, was all but extirpated; and vast numbers of birds of paradise from New Guinea and hummingbirds from the Americas were just some of the other birds killed to decorate ladies' hats. At its peak, the hat trade was estimated to be killing 200 million birds a year. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was a trade valued at GBP20 million (over $25 million) a year at the London feather auctions. Weight for weight, exotic feathers were more valuable than gold. Today, while no wild birds are captured for feather decoration, some wild animals are still trapped and killed for hatmaking. A fascinating read, Hats will have you questioning the history of your headwear.

In this compelling volume in the What Everyone Needs to Know(r) series, Paul Waldau expertly navigates the many heated debates surrounding the complex and controversial animal rights movement.
Organized around a series of probing questions, this timely resource offers the most complete, even-handed survey of the animal rights movement available. The book covers the full spectrum of issues, beginning with a clear, highly instructive definition of animal rights. Waldau looks at the different concerns surrounding companion animals, wild animals, research animals, work animals, and animals used for food, provides a no-nonsense assessment of the treatment of animals, and addresses the philosophical and legal arguments that form the basis of animal rights. Along the way, readers will gain insight into the history of animal protection-as well as the political and social realities facing animals today-and become familiar with a range of hot-button topics, from animal cognition and autonomy, to attempts to balance animal cruelty versus utility. Chronicled here are many key figures and organizations responsible for moving the animal rights movement forward, as well as legislation and public policy that have been carried out around the world in the name of animal rights and animal protection. The final chapter of this indispensable volume looks ahead to the future of animal rights, and delivers an animal protection mandate for citizens, scientists, governments, and other stakeholders.
With its multidisciplinary, non-ideological focus and all-inclusive coverage, Animal Rights represents the definitive survey of the animal rights movement-one that will engage every reader and student of animal rights, animal law, and environmental ethics.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

'An unbelievably inspiring book' Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees Did you know that pigs frequently throw tantrums? That chickens are capable of complex communication? That sheep know their own names? That cows grieve when their calves are taken away from them? Jeffrey Masson delves deep into the mysterious world of farm animals and reveals just how sophisticated these creatures truly are - capable of joy, sadness, love and friendship - just like us.