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This book explores how humans in the Renaissance lived with, attended to, and considered the minds, feelings, and sociality of other creatures. It examines how Renaissance literature and natural history display an unequal creaturely world: all creatures were categorized hierarchically. However, post-Cartesian readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance literature have misunderstood Renaissance hierarchical creaturely relations, including human relations. Using critical animal studies work and new materialist theory, Bach argues that attending closely to creatures and objects in texts by Shakespeare and other writers exposes this unequal world and the use and abuse of creatures, including people. The book also adds significantly to animal studies by showing how central bird sociality and voices were to Renaissance human culture, with many believing that birds were superior to some humans in song, caregiving, and companionship. Bach shows how Descartes, a central figure in the transition to modern ideas about creatures, lived isolated from humans and other creatures and denied ancient knowledge about other creatures' minds, especially bird minds. As significantly, Bach shows how and why Descartes' ideas appealed to human grandiosity. Asking how Renaissance categorizations of creatures differ so much from modern classifications, and why those modern classifications have shaped so much animal studies work, this book offers significant new readings of Shakespeare's and other Renaissance texts. It will contribute to a range of fields, including Renaissance literature, history, animal studies, new materialism, and the environmental humanities.

Twenty years ago, people thought only cranks or sentimentalists could be seriously concerned about the treatment of non-human animals. However, since then philosophers, scientists and welfarists have raised public awareness of the issue; and they have begun to lay the foundations for an enormous change in human practice. This book is a record of the development of 'animal rights' through the eyes of one highly-respected and well-known thinker.
This book brings together for the first time Stephen R.L. Clark's major essays in one volume. Written with characteristic clarity and persuasion, Animals and Their Moral Standing will be essential reading for both philosophers and scientists, as well as the general reader concerned by the debates over animal rights and treatment.

Twenty years ago, people thought only cranks or sentimentalists could be seriously concerned about the treatment of non-human animals. However, since then philosophers, scientists and welfarists have raised public awareness of the issue; and they have begun to lay the foundations for an enormous change in human practice. This book is a record of the development of 'animal rights' through the eyes of one highly-respected and well-known thinker.
This book brings together for the first time Stephen R.L. Clark's major essays in one volume. Written with characteristic clarity and persuasion, Animals and Their Moral Standing will be essential reading for both philosophers and scientists, as well as the general reader concerned by the debates over animal rights and treatment.

Animal experimentation is one of the most controversial areas of debate on animal rights. Biomedical research is at the hard edge of these debates: it throws up fundamental questions of moral value - of whether human life is more important than that of animals. Much experimentation is defended by its apparent success in terms of increasing medical knowledge. This study investigates whether biomedical research using animals is, in fact, scientifically justified. The authors show that in scientific terms - using the models that scientists themselves use - these claims are exaggerated, or even false. They argue that we need to reassess our use of animals and, indeed, rethink the standard positions in the debate. Their analysis reveals why research using animals might be a source of hypotheses about human biomedical phenomena, yet would never prove or establish anything about this phenomena.

This book is one of a series of volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986 which addressed world archaeology in its widest sense, investigating how people lived in the past and how and why changes took place to result in the forms of society and culture which exist now. The series brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who could lend their own expertise to the discussions. This book is an exploration of the way in which the animal world features in the works of art of a variety of cultures of different times and places. Contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives for looking at the complex ways in which past and present humans have interrelated with beings they classify as animals. Some of the approaches are predominantly economic and ecological, some are symbolic and others philosophical or theological. All these different views are included in the interpretation of the artworks of the past, revealing some of the foci and inspirations of cultural attitudes to animals. Originally published 1989.

"Signifying Animals" examines what animals mean to human beings around the world, offering a fresh assessment of the workings of animal symbolism in diverse cultures. The essays in the book are based on first-hand field research with peoples as dissimilar as the Mongolian nomads of Soviet Central Asia, Aboriginal Australians, Inuit hunters of the Canadian Arctic and cultivators of Africa and Papua New Guinea.
The essays look at accounts of mythical beasts among the Amerindian peoples of Andean South America, alleged sightings of an extinct giant bird in New Zealand as well as the complex symbolism of the American rodeo. Others discuss animal symbolism in the Middle East, India and the ancient picts of Scotland. The book advances a powerful argument against some prevalent fallacies in symbolic interpretation.

Modern society is beginning to re-examine its whole relationship with animals and the natural world. Until recently issues such as animal welfare and environmental protection were considered the domain of small, idealistic minorities. Now, these issues attract vast numbers of articulate supporters who collectively exercise considerable political muscle. Animals, both wild and domestic, form the primary focus of concern in this often acrimonious debate. Yet why do animals evoke such strong and contradictory emotions in people - and do our western attitudes have anything in common with those of other societies and cultures? Bringing together a range of contributions from distinguished experts in the field, Animals and Society explores the importance of animals in society from social, historical and cross-cultural perspectives.

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For the Celts, a rural people whose survival depended solely upon their environment, natural phenomena, the elements, and animals, especially, merited their extreme respect. The Celts made both wild and domesticated species the focus of elaborate rituals as well as the basis of profound religious beliefs. "Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" examines the intimate relationship between humans and animals, in a society in which animals were special and central to all aspects of life.
Miranda Green draws on evidence from a variety of early Celtic documents, as well as archaeology and iconography, revealing that the Celts believed many animals to be sacred, either possessing divine status in their own right or acting as mediators between gods and humans. She covers the crucial role of animals in the Celtic economy; in hunting and welfare; in Celtic art and literature; in religion and ritual. The attitude of the Celts toward animals closely connected the Celtic with the everyday: warfare was bound up with religion; the killing of animals was a ritual act; in stories, heroes talk to animals in their own language and gods change at will from human to animal form. The book covers the important period between 8 B.C. and 1 A.D., during which much of Europe, ranging from Ireland to Czechoslovakia, was turning to Christianity.
"Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" is invaluable to students of archaeology, anthropology and history, as well as to the general reader with an interest in animals.

Human-animal co-existence is central to a politics of life, how we order societies, and to debates about who 'we' humans think 'we' are. In other words, our ways of understanding and ordering human-animal relations have economic and political implications and affect peoples' everyday lives. By bringing together historically-oriented approaches and contemporary ethnographies which engage with science and technology studies (STS), this book reflects the multi-sited, multi-species, multi-logic and multiple ways in which lives are and have been assembled, disassembled, practised and possibly policed and politicized. Instead of asking only how control and knowledge are and have been extended over life, the chapters in this book also look at what happens when control fails, at practices which defy orders, escape detection, fail to produce or only loosely hang together. In doing so the book problematises and extends the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics that has been such a central analytical concept in studies of human-animal relations and provides a unique resource of cases and theoretical refinements regarding the ways in which we live together with more than human others .

Where there are pigeons, there is resistance. Forget everything you think you know about nature. Fahim Amir's award-winning book takes pure delight in posing unexpected questions: Are animals victims of human domination, or heroes of resistance? Is nature pristine and defenceless, or sentient and devious? Is being human really a prerequisite for being political? In a world where birds on Viagra punch above their weight and termites hijack the heating systems of major cities, animals can be recast as vigilantes, agitators, and public enemies in their own right. Under Amir's magic spell, pigs transform from slaughterhouse innocents into rioting revolutionaries, pigeons from urban pests into unruly militants, honeybees from virtuous fuzzballs into shameless centrefold models for eco-capitalism. As paws, claws, talons, and hooves seize the means of production, Being and Swine spirals higher and higher into a heady thesis that becomes more convincing by the minute. At the heart of Amir's writing is a deep optimism and bracingly fresh reading of Marxist, post-colonial, and feminist theory, building upon the radical scholarship of Donna J. Haraway and others. Contrarian, whip-smart, and wildly innovative, no other book will laugh at your convictions quite like this one.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 'Bracing and enlightening' Science Culture is something exclusive to human beings, isn't it? Not so, says intrepid researcher Carl Safina. Becoming Wild reveals the rich cultures that survive in some of Earth's remaining wild places. By showing how sperm whales, scarlet macaws and chimpanzees teach and learn, Safina offers a fresh understanding of what is constantly going on beyond humanity, and how we're all connected. 'Becoming Wild demands that we wake up' Telegraph

This book is one of a series of volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986 which addressed world archaeology in its widest sense, investigating how people lived in the past and how and why changes took place to result in the forms of society and culture which exist now. The series brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who could lend their own expertise to the discussions. This book is an exploration of the way in which the animal world features in the works of art of a variety of cultures of different times and places. Contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives for looking at the complex ways in which past and present humans have interrelated with beings they classify as animals. Some of the approaches are predominantly economic and ecological, some are symbolic and others philosophical or theological. All these different views are included in the interpretation of the artworks of the past, revealing some of the foci and inspirations of cultural attitudes to animals. Originally published 1989.

Despite their centrality to the operation of contemporary accredited zoo and aquarium institutions, the work of zoo veterinarians has rarely been the focus of a critical analysis in the social science and humanities. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations of zoo and aquarium veterinarians, mainly in Europe and North America, this book highlights the recent transformation that has occurred in the zoo veterinarian profession during a time of ecological crisis, and what these changes can teach us about our rapidly changing planet. Zoo vets, Braverman instructs us with a wink, have "gone wild." Originally an individual welfare-centered profession, these experts are increasingly concerned with the sustainability of wild animal populations and with ecological health. The story of zoo vets going wild-in their subjects of care, their motivations, and their ethical standards, as well as in their professional practices and scientific techniques-is also a story about zoo animals gone wild, wild animals encroaching the zoo, and, more generally, a wild world that is becoming "zoo-ified." Such transformations have challenged existing veterinary standards and practices. Exploring the regulatory landscape that governs the work of zoo and aquarium veterinarians, Braverman traverses the gap between the hard and soft sciences and between humans and nonhumans. At the intersection of animal studies, socio-legal studies, and science and technology studies, this book will appeal not only to those interested in zoos and in animal welfare, but also to scholars in the posthumanities.

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

To date, philosophical discussions of animal ethics and Critical Animal Studies have been dominated by Western perspectives and Western thinkers. This book makes a novel contribution to animal ethics in showing the range and richness of ideas offered to these fields by diverse Asian traditions. Asian Perspectives on Animal Ethics is the first of its kind to include the intersection of Asian and European traditions with respect to human and nonhuman relations. Presenting a series of studies focusing on specific Asian traditions, as well as studies that put those traditions in dialogue with Western thinkers, this book looks at Asian philosophical doctrines concerning compassion and nonviolence as these apply to nonhuman animals, as well as the moral rights and status of nonhuman animals in Asian traditions. Using Asian perspectives to explore ontological, ethical and political questions, contributors analyze humanism and post-humanism in Asian and comparative traditions and offer insight into the special ethical relations between humans and other particular species of animals. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian religion and philosophy, as well as to those interested in animal ethics and Critical Animal Studies.

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.

Birds have inspired people since the dawn of time. They are the notes behind Mozart's genius, the colours behind Audubon's art and ballet's swansong. In The Birds They Sang, Stanislaw Lubienski sheds light on some of history's most meaningful bird and human interactions, from historical bird watchers in a German POW camp, to Billy and Kes in A Kestrel for a Knave. He muses on what exactly Hitchcock's birds had in mind, and reveals the true story behind the real James Bond. Undiscouraged by damp, discomfort and a reed bunting's curse, Lubienski bears witness to the difficulties birds face today as people fail to accommodate them in rapidly changing times. A soaring exploration of our fascination with birds, The Birds They Sang opens a vast realm of astonishing sounds, colours and meanings - a complete world in which we humans are never alone.

According to the latest figures, the number of vegans in the UK has more than quadrupled since 2014, now representing over 1 per cent of the total population. With the rise in plant-based foods and cruelty-free products showing no sign of stopping, Think Like a Vegan explores how vegan ethics can be applied to every area of our daily lives. We all want to live more healthily and ethically, and this book is certainly not just for vegans. It's for anyone interested in veganism, its ideals and what even non-vegans can learn from its practice. Through a personal and often irreverent lens, the authors explore a variety of contemporary topics related to animal use: from the basics of vegan logic to politics, economics, love and other aspects of being human, each chapter draws you into a thought-provoking conversation about your daily ethical decisions. Why should we adopt animals? What's the problem with organic meat? What are the economics of plant-based foods? What about honey? What is the relationship between veganism and feminism? What is vegansexualism?

With a new introduction by the author Some thousands of years ago, the world was home to an immense variety of large mammals. From wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers to giant ground sloths and armadillos the size of automobiles, these spectacular creatures roamed freely. Then human beings arrived. Devouring their way down the food chain as they spread across the planet, they began a process of voracious extinction that has continued to the present. Headlines today are made by the existential threat confronting remaining large animals such as rhinos and pandas. But the devastation summoned by humans extends to humbler realms of creatures including beetles, bats and butterflies. Researchers generally agree that the current extinction rate is nothing short of catastrophic. Currently the earth is losing about a hundred species every day. This relentless extinction, Ashley Dawson contends in a primer that combines vast scope with elegant precision, is the product of a global attack on the commons, the great trove of air, water, plants and creatures, as well as collectively created cultural forms such as language, that have been regarded traditionally as the inheritance of humanity as a whole. This attack has its genesis in the need for capital to expand relentlessly into all spheres of life. Extinction, Dawson argues, cannot be understood in isolation from a critique of our economic system. To achieve this we need to transgress the boundaries between science, environmentalism and radical politics. Extinction: A Radical History performs this task with both brio and brilliance.

Animal behaviour and, as a result, animal welfare are increasingly complex areas of study, with the diversity of the animal kingdom and new research findings ensuring there is no one, easy answer. Instead, we need to take a holistic approach, combining scientific principles with both philosophical and ethical considerations to develop all-inclusive policies and legislation that decide how society should interact with domestic, farm and native animals. With a focus on domestic animals, while also referring to wild species to reinforce the arguments, this book: * promotes direct observation for those who claim to be interested in animals, their behaviour, and their welfare. * considers the concept of consciousness, how it can be assessed, and how it relates to suffering and animal welfare more widely. * emphasizes the need to understand better how animals behave both with humans and outside of human influence, considering the diversity of behaviour and sensorial capacities across species. * includes author knowledge and expertise across a wide range of animal species, from primates to farm animals, and across animal living situations from intensive to free ranging. We are far from having all the answers, so this book also raises questions that require further research and focus, such as the way animals are likely to act based on their recent and whole-of-life experiences. Still, this review of the topic, an updated translation of the French language work Vivre parmi les animaux, mieux les comprendre, is an invaluable resource for everyone with an interest in animal behaviour and welfare.

"Speaking Up for Animals" highlights eighteen courageous members of a vibrant and growing international animal advocacy movement that is overwhelmingly powered by women. These remarkable activists take us with them as they lift factory farmed chickens and cows from quagmires of unconscionable filth, free gigantic sea lions caught in the death-grip of fishing gear, and secure undercover footage of dogs crying for mercy on stainless steel vivisection tables. In the process, these dedicated women expose the many ways that most of us are complicit in the suffering and exploitation of nonhuman animals, and creatively suggest a variety of ways that we might help bring change.

"Speaking Up for Animals" highlights eighteen courageous members of a vibrant and growing international animal advocacy movement that is overwhelmingly powered by women. These remarkable activists take us with them as they lift factory farmed chickens and cows from quagmires of unconscionable filth, free gigantic sea lions caught in the death-grip of fishing gear, and secure undercover footage of dogs crying for mercy on stainless steel vivisection tables. In the process, these dedicated women expose the many ways that most of us are complicit in the suffering and exploitation of nonhuman animals, and creatively suggest a variety of ways that we might help bring change.

There has been a lot written about animal welfare in intensive farming systems, but very little about animals reared in extensive agricultural systems. Yet these animals make up a significant proportion of the world's farm animal population, covering a significant portion of the globe. Animals kept in extensive conditions face their own unique set of challenges that are vital for anyone with an interest in farm animal welfare to understand. Animal Welfare in Extensive Production Systems presents those challenges in a practical way, backed up with thoroughly referenced research. Topics covered include heat stress, water quality and availability, nutrition, predation, poisonous plants, transport, human-animal interactions, and neonatal mortality. This book is ideal for animal welfare academics, students and researchers. It can also be beneficial to students in animal science, veterinary science and agriculture and to farm industry producers and personnel. The Farm Animal Welfare Education Centre (FAWEC) is based at the School of Veterinary Science of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). FAWEC works with farmers, veterinarians and the livestock sector in general to improve farm animal welfare. Its main activity is to provide practical, science-based training and education on the welfare of farm animals. Further information on FAWEC can be found at www.fawec.org.